Inaros II

Inaros (II), also known as Inarus, (fl. ca. 460 BC) was an Egyptian rebel ruler who was the son of a Libyan prince named Psamtik, presumably of the old Saite line. In 460 BC, he revolted against the Persians with the help of his Athenian allies, and defeated the Persian army commanded by satrap Achaemenes. The Persians retreated to Memphis, but the Athenians were finally defeated in 454 BC by the Persian army led by Megabyzus after a two-year siege. Inaros was captured and carried away to Susa where he was reportedly crucified in 454 BC.

Revolt and aftermath

He held a kingship over the Libyans from Mareia (above Pharos) and the part of the Nile Delta around Sais. With help from Amyrtaeus, also from Sais, who took the northern marshes, Inarus drove out the tax-collectors and collected mercenaries, thus starting a revolt in Egypt during the reign of King Artaxerxes I of Persia after the assassination of king Xerxes I. The Athenian allies from whom he was paid 100 triers, sent troops and an army of more than 200 ships led by Charitimides to aid him in 460 BC. The rebel army had confronted the Persian army of around 400,000 infantry and eighty ships led by the brother of Artaxerxes, the satrap Achaemenes. The satrap Achaemenes, together with 100,000 of his 400,000 men was defeated and killed at Pampremis and the Persians retreated to Memphis. The commanders of the Athenian fleet, Charitimides and Cimon fought a naval battle with the Persians, in which forty Greek ships engaged fifty Persians ships, of which twenty were captured with their crews, and the remaining thirty sunk. To show that their victory was complete, the rebels sent the dead body of satrap Achaemenes to the Persian king.