The Nile, the chariot and the last queen.
-
1. Hold the Nile
Egypt vs Persia
Historical Briefing: For millennia the Nile and its surrounding deserts made Egypt a naturally defensible land, its annual flood sustaining one of history's longest-lived civilizations. Invaders had to force the river's channels and fortified approaches.
-
2. Pelusium: Egypt Under Pressure
Egypt vs Persia · Historical Battle (525 BC)
Historical Briefing: At Pelusium in 525 BC, Egypt made its stand at its eastern gate against the Persian army of Cambyses II. Its fall opened the Nile to Persia and ended the rule of the native pharaohs for a time.
-
3. Papremis: Inaros's Revolt
Egypt vs Persia · Historical Battle (460 BC)
Historical Briefing: At Papremis in 460 BC, the Libyan-Egyptian prince Inaros raised the Nile Delta in revolt against Persia and, backed by an Athenian fleet, defeated the army of the satrap Achaemenes — brother of the Great King — who fell in the battle. The rising blazed for years before Persia crushed it in 454 BC.
-
4. The Nile: Repel Perdiccas
Egypt vs Macedonia · Historical Battle (320 BC)
Historical Briefing: In 320 BC the regent Perdiccas led Alexander's royal Macedonian army against Ptolemy, who had seized Egypt and Alexander's body. Ptolemy held the Nile: Perdiccas's crossing attempts near Memphis ended in disaster — thousands swept away or taken by crocodiles — and his own officers murdered him in his tent.
-
5. Alexandria: The Last Stand
Egypt vs Rome · Historical Battle (30 BC)
Historical Briefing: In 30 BC, a year after the naval defeat at Actium, Octavian's legions took Alexandria. Antony fell on his sword and Cleopatra took her own life, ending the Ptolemaic dynasty and three millennia of an independent Egypt — which became a Roman province.