ABSTRACT
Trying to present a balanced assessment of the reign of Cambyses is a difficult task, because of the nature of the evidence at our disposal. It is dominated by Herodotus’ extremely biased account of the Persian conquest of Egypt, which has created an influential image of Cambyses as an ever more crazed despot.1 There is very little from elsewhere in the empire to set against this. In Iran, we can, with some likelihood, attribute the institution of a cult in honour of Cyrus at the site of his tomb to Cambyses (3, no.29; cf. 4, no.2). An incomplete structure near Persepolis (Takht-i Rustam), which was clearly intended to be a copy of Cyrus’ tomb at Pasargadae, has been attributed to Cambyses. The measurements are identical, the mason’s marks resemble those at Pasargadae, while other building features are only attested on the Persepolis Terrace begun by Darius I. This suggests (a) that it was intended to be a royal tomb, and (b) that, chronologically, its construction is later than the time of Cyrus and precedes the reign of Darius I. A logical candidate for the tomb’s builder, therefore, has been thought to be Cambyses (Stronach 1978: 302-4). But evidence from the Persepolis Fortification archive (11, no.68(ii)) indicates that Cambyses’ completed tomb was in the region of modern Niriz, some way to the south-east of Persepolis (see fig.16.5), where it received a royally supplied cult. Thus his brother, Bardiya, who succeeded him briefly before being murdered and was libelled as an impostor (5, nos.1-6), is more likely to have been the intended occupant, which could explain its unfinished state.
