Nectanebo II (Egyptian: Nḫt-Ḥr-Ḥbt; Greek: Νεκτανεβώς Nectanebos) was the last native ruler of Ancient Egypt, as well as the third and final pharaoh from the Thirtieth Dynasty of Egypt. He reigned from 358 to 340 BC.
Under Nectanebo II, Egypt prospered. During his reign, the Egyptian artists developed a specific style that left a distinctive mark on the reliefs of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Like his indirect predecessor, Nectanebo I, Nectanebo II showed enthusiasm for many of the cults of the gods within ancient Egyptian religion, and more than a hundred Egyptian sites bear evidence of his attention. Nectanebo II undertook more constructions and restorations than Nectanebo I, commencing particularly with the enormous Egyptian temple of Isis (the Iseum).
Nectanebo II successfully kept Egypt safe from the Achaemenid Empire for several years. However, betrayed by his former servant, Mentor of Rhodes, Nectanebo II was ultimately defeated. The Persians occupied Memphis and then seized the rest of Egypt, incorporating the country into the Achaemenid Empire under Artaxerxes III. Nectanebo fled south and preserved his power for some time; his subsequent fate is unknown.
Name
Nectanebo is derived from the Greek form of his name, Nectanebos (Νεκτανεβώς, or Νεκτανεβός in later sources). His Egyptian name was Nḫt-Ḥr-Ḥbt, which means “victorious is Horus of Hebyt”. Although convention in English assigns identical names to him and his grandfather, Nectanebo I, the latter was called Nectanebis (Νεκτάνεβις).
Portraits of Nectanebo II
Except for the small-scale greywacke statue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which shows Nectanebo II standing before the image of Horus, no other annotated portraits of Nectanebo II are known. Nectanebo II is shown in a nemes and uraeus in the greywacke statue. His bent arm with the sword stands for the hieroglyph nakht, the falcon represents Horus, while the hieroglyph in Nectanebo’s right hand stands for heb. Other portraits attributed to Nectanebo II (all featuring the khepresh) include a quartzite head in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology museum, a basalt head in Alexandria, and a granite head acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and a damaged quartzite head.
Rise to power
In 525 BC, Egypt was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. Because of internal struggles for the Persian imperial succession, Egypt managed to regain independence in 404 BC. In 389 BC, Pharaoh Hakor negotiated a treaty with Athens and, for three years (from 385 to 383 BC), managed to withstand Persian aggression. However, following the conclusion of the Peace of Antalcidas in 387 BC between the Achaemenids and the Greek city-states, Egypt and Cyprus became the only obstacles to Persian hegemony in the Mediterranean.
At the beginning of 360 BC, Nectanebo’s predecessor, Teos, started preparations for war against intruders. The Egyptian army set off in the same year, travelling along the coast by land and sea. Nectanebo II accompanied his uncle Teos in that campaign and was in charge of the machimoi.
In an attempt to raise funds quickly for the war, Teos imposed taxes on Egyptians and seized temple property. Egyptians, particularly the priests, resented these measures but supported Nectanebo II. Teos asked Spartan military leader Agesilaus and Athenian general Chabrias to help him. Agesilaus said he was sent to aid Egypt and not to wage war against it. Chabrias returned home with his mercenaries. Teos decided to flee to the Achaemenid court, where he ultimately died of natural causes.
Nectanebo contended with an unnamed pretender to the throne from Mendes, who proclaimed himself pharaoh. The revolt was probably led by one of the descendants of Nepherites I, whose family had ruled the town before. The claimant sent messengers to Agesilaus to persuade Agesilaus to his side. Agesilaus remained loyal to Nectanebo, fearing to become a turncoat. At one of the Nile Delta towns, the Nectanebo and Agesilaus troops were besieged by the usurper, who had gained many sympathisers. Despite the enemy’s numerical superiority, Nectanebo and Agesilaus were victorious, and the revolt was put down in the fall of 360 BC. Acknowledging Agesilaus, Nectanebo sent him 220 talents of gold.
Reign
Religion played an essential part in Nectanebo’s domestic policy. He began his reign by officiating over the funeral of an Apis bull in Memphis. There, Nectanebo added a relief decoration to Apis’s eastern and western temples. Among notable sanctuaries erected under Nectanebo II are a temple of Khnum in Abu and a temple of Amun at Sekhtam. He also dedicated a diorite naos to Anhur-Shu (a fragment of it was found in the temples of Tjebnutjer). Nectanebo II was responsible for the increasing popularity of the Buchis cult. Under Nectanebo II, a decree forbidding stone quarrying in the so-called “Mysterious Mountains” in Abydos was issued.
Foreign affairs under Nectanebo II were thwarted by repeated Achaemenid attempts to reoccupy Egypt. Before Nectanebo II acceded to the throne, the Persians attempted to reclaim Egypt in 385, 383, and 373 BC. Nectanebo used the peace to build a new army and employed Greek mercenaries, a common practice at the time. In about 351 BC, the Achaemenid Empire embarked on a new attempt to reclaim Egypt. After a year of fighting, Nectanebo and his allied generals, Diophantus of Athens and Lamius of Sparta, managed to defeat the Achaemenids. Having scored a resounding victory, Nectanebo II was acclaimed “Nectanebo the divine falcon” by his people, and cults were set up in his name.
In 345/44 BC, Nectanebo supported the Phoenician rebellion against the Achaemenid Empire, led by the king of Sidon, Tennes, and dispatched military aid in the form of 4,000 Greek mercenaries, led by Mentor of Rhodes. However, having heard of the forces’ approach of Artaxerxes III, Mentor opened communication with the Persians in collusion with Tennes.
At the end of 344 BC, ambassadors of Artaxerxes III arrived in Greece, asking for the Greeks’ participation in a campaign against Egypt. Athens and Sparta treated the ambassadors kindly but refrained from committing to an alliance against Egypt. Other cities, however, decided to support the Persians: Thebes sent 1,000 hoplites and Argos 3,000.
In the winter of 343 BC, Artaxerxes set off for Egypt. The Egyptian army, headed by Nectanebo, consisted of 60,000 Egyptians, 20,000 Libu, and many Greek mercenaries. In addition, Nectanebo had several flat-bottomed boats intended to prevent an enemy from entering the Nile’s mouth. Strongholds, fortifications, and entrenched camps protected the vulnerable points along his Mediterranean Sea border and east boundary. Persian forces were strengthened by Mentor and his men, well acquainted with Egypt’s eastern border, and by 6,000 Ionians.
Nectanebo II was ultimately defeated, and in the summer of 342 BC, Artaxerxes entered Memphis and installed a satrap. Nectanebo fled to Upper Egypt and Nubia, where he was granted asylum. He, however, preserved a degree of power there for some time. With the help of Khabash, Nectanebo made a vain attempt to regain the throne.
Building campaigns
Though placed in an unfortunate period of Egyptian history, and with his legacy perhaps marred by being “the last pharaoh” to rule an autonomous Egypt, Nectanebo was an extensive builder, likely on a scale that would equal many kings of the glory days of the New Kingdom. References to either Nectanebo II or his grandfather have been found almost ubiquitously at the premier religious centres, and the purity of the two kings matched those of the great kings of the past, attested to by the numerous monuments across Egypt bearing their names.
Nectanebo II, specifically, built and improved temples across the country, and he donated extensively to the priesthoods of the plethora of sites to which he donated. Nectanebo’s name has been found at Heliopolis, Athribis, and Bubastis in the Nile Delta, among other places. Still, he built most extensively at Sebennytos, including the modern site of Behbeit El Hagar. The reliefs of the temples at Sebennytos would leave a distinct mark on the art of the later Ptolemaic Kingdom. However, the religious focus of his building campaigns may not be solely due to sheer piety; because Nectanebo was an usurper, he likely sought to legitimise his rule over Egypt religiously.
Nectanebo and the Alexander Romance
An apocryphal tale in the pseudo-historical Alexander romance details another end for the last native pharaoh. Soon after the Libyan Sibyl of Zeus Ammon confirmed Alexander the Great’s godhood at the Siwa Oasis, a rumour was begun that Nectanebo II, following defeat in his last battle, did not travel to Nubia but instead to the court of Philip II of Macedon in the guise of an Egyptian magician. While Philip was away on campaign, Nectanebo convinced Philip’s wife, Olympias, that Amun was to come to her and that they would father a son. Nectanebo, disguising himself as Amun, slept with Olympias, and Alexander came from this event.
This myth would appeal strongly to the Egyptians, who desired continuity and disliked foreign rule. In art depicting this event, Nectanebo is usually depicted as having dragon-like features, for example, in the Speculum Historiale.
In the early Ptolemaic tale of Nectanebo and Petesis, preserved only in a Greek fragment from the Serapeum of Saqqara, the pharaoh has a prophetic dream of Isis in which the god Onuris is angry with him because of his unfinished temple in Sebennytos. Nectanebo calls in the best sculptor of the realm, Petesis, to finish the job, but he bungles his assignment when he gets drunk and chases a beautiful girl instead. The narrative ends abruptly here, but this is probably the preface to the fall of Egypt. Al-Biruni’s A History of India reproduces the story.
The legend of Nectanebo (or Nectanebus, or Natanabo, as reported in some versions of the Alexander Romance) left a profound mark on European culture up to the Renaissance and beyond. It is no coincidence that this character is included in the Sola Busca tarot (with the name Natanabo) and other important “actors” of the same legend: Alexander, Philip of Macedon, Olympias and Ammon. The Italian scholar Sofia Di Vincenzo provided an alchemical interpretation of this character in a study on the Sola Busca Tarot, where she explains that Natanabo represents a celestial messenger who came to earth with a gift. This helmet is a symbol of invulnerability and both physical and mental potency.
