Inarus

Ienheru or Inarus, also known as Inaros, (c.460 BC) was an Egyptian rebel ruler who was the son of a Libyan prince named Psametik, 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 Akheimenes. 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 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.

But the victory was short lived. Charitimides was killed and Inarus was wounded in the thigh by the Persian force and retreated to Byblus, his stronghold and the only Egyptian city that did not submit to Megabyzus. After fighting for a year and a half in the marshes, Inarus, together with the Greeks, were taken captive away to Susa after being defeated by Megabyzus.

Execution

Megabyzus promised Inaros and his rebel Greeks that they would not be executed once they arrive to Susa. The Queen wanted them punished and killed because they were responsible for the death of her son, satrap Achaemenes and asked for his death. Artaxerxes I kept this promise but after five years of pleading handed Inarus and fifty Greeks to Queen Mother Amestris. A fragment of Ctesias handed down to us by Photius tells us "Inarus was impaled on three stakes fifty of the Greeks, all that she could lay hands on, were decapitated." [ Photius' excerpt of Ctesias' Persica (§ 14.37-39) http://www.livius.org/ct-cz/ctesias/photius_persica2.html]

Thucydides tells us a slightly different story. He agrees that Inarus died by impalement, but records no truces and Professor JM Bigwood argues that Thucydides should be interpreted as saying that Inarus was both captured and executed in the same year, 454 BC. [ cite journal|title=Ctesias' Account of the Revolt of Inarus|journal=Phoenix (Classical Association of Canada)|date=Spring 1976|first=J.M.|last=Bigwood|coauthors=|volume=30|issue=1|pages=1–25|id= |url=|format=|accessdate=2008-05-23|doi=10.2307/1088018 ]

Legacy

His revolt, although unsuccessful in the end, had left a big fingerprint in the Egyptian history. Herodotus also tells us that Inaros had done the Persians more hurt than any man before him.

References