Necho II

Necho II was the second pharaoh of the 26th Dynasty, who ruled from 489 to 474 B.C. He succeeded Psamtik I, and was succeeded by Psamtik II. Necho left very few monuments in Egypt, and only a little is known about him in either the traditional or the revised history.

Necho II was the son of Psamtik I, son of Necho I. This connects him to the very origins of his dynasty. He had several sons and daughters, but the most well-known is Psamtik II, who became pharaoh after him.

His rule began in 489 B.C., and he immediately began doing work for his Persian overlord, Darius I. A canal was built from the Nile to the Red Sea in Necho’s first two years, but to do so, Darius began to use the Egyptians like expendable slaves. Necho also circumnavigated the African continent, the first ever recorded to do so. However, after completing these tasks for Darius, Necho realized that his people should not be slaving away for a foreigner. He began to rebel against Persia.

In Necho II’s second year, 488 B.C., he stopped working on the canal as a sign of his displeasure with the Persians. He began an outright war against his Persian overlords in 487 B.C. with triremes and ships on the Red Sea, which lasted until 484 B.C. However, in 486 B.C. Xerxes I became emperor of Persia, and used his military prowess to crush the rebellion in its last two years. Necho was forced to finish the canal, and he lived out the rest of his rule without any more significant achievements.

The evidence for the revised history can be found at Displaced Dynasties. Evidence specifically concerning this pharaoh can be found here.