Psamtik I

Wahibre Psamtik I took the throne of Egypt's Twenty-sixth Dynasty in 664 BCE, installed in the delta city of Sais by Ashurbanipal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire to challenge the Kushite pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. He ruled under Assyrian oversight at first, a local administrator with a royal title. But as Assyrian power frayed across its overextended empire, Psamtik maneuvered into autonomy — consolidating control, pushing out the Kushites, and reclaiming sovereignty without a direct break. By the time he died in 610 BCE, he had turned a borrowed throne into the foundation of the Saite p…