Cyrus conquers many places successfully, like Lydia and Babylon, but when he tries to attack the Massagetae things take a different turn. The Persians took many Massagetae prisoners and among …show more content…
Cambyses conquers Egypt and begins making plans to expand the empire to other African territories. Cambyses was insane and out of his mind. He had killed his own sister and then sent a trusted aide to kill his brother. He also had twelve Persians of high rank arrested and buried alive upside down for no reason. Some Persians told Cambyses that he was better than Cyrus, only because he had extended the empire. Croesus, who was Lydia’s king until Cyrus defeated it, told Cambyses that he was not equal to Cyrus because he did not have a son like his father did. While Cambyses was in Egypt, two Magi priests took over the Persian throne and one pretended to be Cambyses deceased brother, Smerdis. The priests were exposed as frauds and were killed by seven Persian nobles. One of these nobles was Darius, the next person to have the throne by winning a contest against the six other nobles. After Darius assumes the throne of Persia, he quickly begins to work and begins expanding his empire, which was all of the “known world, except for Greece, Scythia, and remotest Ethiopia” (Romm p.