Djedhor, better known as Teos (Ancient Greek: Τέως) or Tachos (Ancient Greek: Τάχως), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 30th Dynasty.
Biography of Teos
A son of his predecessor Nectanebo I, Teos was his co-regent for three years before ascending to the throne in 361–60 BCE.
Expedition against Persians
Nectanebo‘s success in the Nile Delta against the invading Persian armies in 374–73 BCE encouraged Teos to start planning a military expedition into Palestine and Phoenicia, territories controlled by the Persians. Taking advantage of a moment of weakness for the Achaemenid Empire due to riots in some satrapies in Asia Minor, Teos sought assistance from both the octogenarian king Agesilaus II of Sparta and the Athenian general Chabrias, including several mercenaries and 200 triremes, from Greece. However, to finance such an expedition, the king had to impose new taxes and confiscate the goods of the temples, destroying the delicate balance artfully established by his father, Nectanebo. This action ensured Teos both the required finances and great unpopularity.
The expedition made its way to Phoenicia without particular problems. The operation against the Persians started with Chabrias as the admiral of the fleet, Agesilaus as the commander of the Greek mercenaries and Teos’s nephew Nakhthorheb as the leader of the machimoi (Diodorus Siculus, certainly exaggerating, claimed that the machimoi were 80,000 in number). Teos placed himself in the supreme command of the expedition (the position asserted by Agesilaus), leaving his brother Tjahapimu, the father of Nakhthorheb, in Egypt as his regent.
Betrayal and end
Unfortunately for Teos, his brother Tjahapimu was plotting against him. Taking advantage of the king’s unpopularity and with the support of the priestly classes, Tjahapimu convinced his son Nakhthorheb to rebel against Teos and to make himself a pharaoh. Nakhthorheb persuaded Agesilaus to join his side by taking advantage of the disagreements between the Spartan king and the pharaoh. Nakhthorheb was an acclaimed pharaoh – better known today as Nectanebo II – and the betrayed pharaoh had no alternative but to flee to Susa, the court of his enemies.
Knowledge of the final fate of this pharaoh comes from the inscription by a noble called Wennefer, who also participated in his unfortunate expedition as a physician. Wennefer was sent by Nectanebo II in search of Teos and managed to have him held by the Persian king Artaxerxes II at Susa. Wennefer had Teos brought back with him in chains to the Egyptian pharaoh.
