Nepherites II

Nepherites (Egyptian Nef'aurud): last pharaoh of the twenty-ninth, Mendesian dynasty, briefly ruling in 379/378 BCE.

Map of Lower Egypt (fifth-fourth centuries BCE)
Map of Lower Egypt (fifth-fourth centuries BCE)

Nepherites II was the son of Achoris, the pharaoh who had been able to defeat a Persian army that had tried to reconquer Egypt after it had become independent from the Achaemenid Empire in 404. When he died in 379, he left behind a peaceful and prosperous Egypt. His son Nepherites now started to rule.

However, there was another candidate for the throne: Nectanebo, a descendant of Nepherites I, the founder of the Twenty-Ninth Dynasty. Nectanebo ordered the assassination of the new king, who died after a reign of only four months.

Nepherites II is known only from literary sources. No monuments with his name have been discovered so far.

This page was created in 2002; last modified on 27 April 2019.