| Ahmose IV the Merciful | |
|---|---|
| |
| Pharaoh of Egypt | |
| Reign | 12 January 35 BC – 1 January 1 AD |
| Coronation | 12 January 35 BC (Waset) 24 June 28 BC (Alexandria) |
| Predecessor | Ptolemy XX Philometor II |
| Successor | Nakhthorheb II |
| Born | February 25, 64 BC Palace of the Lotus Per-Senusret, Egypt |
| Died | January 1, 1 AD (aged 64) |
| Spouse | Sitkamose III, Tiye IV, Ahmose VIII, Meresankh XI, Nefertiti III, Khenemetneferhedjet IX |
| Issue | Nakhthorheb II, Pharaoh of Egypt Amongst others |
| Full name | |
| Horus Name: Kanakht Tutmesut Nebty Name: Sematawy Golden Horus Name: Aakhepesh Praenomen: Userpehtyra Setepenra Nomen: Ahmose Meriese | |
| House | Kamose |
| Father | Lord Kamose V of Elephantine |
| Mother | Lady Hatshepsut of Mendes |
| Religion | Kemetism |
Ahmose IV (born Ahmose Sikamose 25 February 64 BC - 1 January 1 AD) was the leader of the Siatumid family and the founder of the Kamosid Dynasty in ancient Egypt. He was the son of Lord Kamose V and Lady Hatshepsut, and a direct descendant of notable Egyptian rulers, including Narmer I and Thutmose IV. His family, once sidelined due to a fateful succession crisis, spent centuries working to restore native rule in Egypt. After years of planning and strategic alliances, Ahmose led a rebellion against the foreign Ptolemaic dynasty in 35 BC, securing the throne and establishing his reign as Ahmose IV.
Ahmose's reign was marked by military conquest, political reforms, and economic prosperity. He strategically allied with Rome and managed to preserve Egypt's cultural identity while ensuring the survival of the Ptolemaic heirs, including Cleopatra VII's children. His rule saw the revival of Egypt's ancient institutions, the founding of the Seshat Library, and the restructuring of the nobility. Ahmose's legacy endures as a symbol of Egyptian resilience and revival in the face of foreign domination. He died on 1 January AD. He is remembered as Ahmose the Merciful for his benevolence both to the children of Cleopatra and his defeated foes in general
Early Life[]
Ahmose Sikamose was born on 25 February 64 BC to Lord Kamose V and Lady Hatshepsut. His father was the ruler of Elephantine and the heir to the prestigious House of Narmer, making Ahmose a direct descendant of some of Egypt’s most illustrious figures: Narmer I, Djoser I, Sneferu I, Senusret III, Amenemhat III, Ahmose II, Thutmose III, and Thutmose IV. At the time of Ahmose’s birth, Egypt was under foreign rule, a bitter reality that weighed heavily on his family. The Siatumid lineage, from which Ahmose descended, had long aspired to reclaim the throne that would have belonged to them, had it not been for a fateful succession crisis centuries earlier. Their ancestor, Siatum, the son of Thutmose IV the Peacemaker, was bypassed in the royal succession. Siatum’s descendants—his son Thutmose, grandson Amenhotep, and great-grandson Amenemhat—were excluded from the throne due to physical disabilities, intellectual shortcomings, or both. Despite these setbacks, the Siatumid line survived, enduring centuries of marginalization. Some historians speculate that their resilience was partly due to their avoidance of the royal practice of inbreeding, which may have restored their lineage to health over time. Siatum and his heirs were granted the governorship of Elephantine, a position they maintained for generations.
Persecution and Survival[]
During the reign of Amunirdisu III, the Siatumids faced a dire threat. The pharaoh, upon learning of their ancestral claim to the throne, viewed them as a potential danger. In an attempt to eliminate this perceived threat, Amunirdisu ordered a massacre of the nomarchial family, killing eight members before being stopped. This brutal act contributed to his growing unpopularity and eventual deposition. Later, during the Persian domination of Egypt, Artaxerxes III also saw the Siatumids as a challenge to his authority. He managed to kill six members of the family, forcing the survivors into hiding. They remained in the shadows until the expulsion of the Persians, re-emerging with renewed determination to reclaim their rightful place in Egypt.
Rise of the Siatumids[]
For centuries, the Siatumid dynasty worked diligently to accumulate wealth, understanding that financial power would be crucial to their ultimate goal of restoring native rule. By the time of Lord Kamose V, the family had become the wealthiest in Egypt, second only to the ruling Ptolemies. Kamose used this wealth strategically, educating his son Ahmose in governance and preparing him for leadership. Kamose’s death in 41 BC marked a turning point. Ahmose Sikamose assumed leadership of the house and inherited his father’s ambitions. Determined to realize the family’s dream, Ahmose spent years meticulously planning his rebellion. He gathered loyal strategists, secured alliances, and honed his plans for retaking the throne.
The Rebellion of Ahmose Sikamose[]
By 36 BC, Ahmose was ready to act. Recognizing the importance of religious legitimacy, he reached out to the High Priest of Amun, a prominent figure sympathetic to native Egyptian rule. The High Priest agreed to crown Ahmose on January 12th 35 BC, a symbolic act that officially launched the rebellion.
This decisive moment marked the beginning of Ahmose Sikamose’s campaign to restore the glory of the Narmerid line and liberate Egypt from foreign domination. Thus started the Kamosid Dynasty
Reign[]
Ahmose IV was crowned in the temple of Ipetisut by the high priest of Amun, Pasherienamun, on 12 January 35 BC, marking the official start of his reign. Early on, Ahmose secured an alliance with the kandake of Kush. The 28-year-old pharaoh, eager for military conquest, launched an aggressive campaign. On 9 September 35 BC, he captured Iunet, and his forces continued their advance. By January 34 BC, they had taken Abydos, and by 33 BC, they had captured Akhmim and Heikelopolis, meeting little resistance along the way. However, after leaving Heikelopolis, he encountered Cleopatra VII’s army and suffered a crushing defeat. The battle resulted in heavy casualties, including the death of his brother Thutmose.
Realizing that his recently conquered cities were insufficiently fortified, Ahmose made the difficult decision to retreat to Iunet. As he withdrew, a large number of civilians followed him. Ahmose ordered the high priests of Amun and Osiris to flee to Iunet for their safety. Setting up defensive lines at the borders of the 8th, 7th, and 6th Upper Egyptian nomes, which were practically impenetrable, he prepared for a second phase of resistance.
While waiting for a counterattack that never came, Ahmose kept recruiting men for a renewed campaign. Meanwhile, tensions between Cleopatra's government and Octavian’s Rome began to rise. Seeing an opportunity, Ahmose sent envoys to the Roman general in early 32 BC, negotiating a secret treaty. In exchange for allowing the Egyptians to govern Egypt again, Egypt would become a Roman province, pay taxes to Rome, and its army would be absorbed into the Roman military. Additionally, a Roman governor would be installed. Though the treaty heavily favored Rome, Ahmose felt he had no other choice. If the Romans took Egypt entirely, it would spell the end of Egyptian culture.
Octavian agreed to the deal, but Ahmose remained wary. He chose to resume his military campaign. By the end of 32 BC, Ahmose had advanced as far north as Akhmim. By mid-31 BC, he reached Memphis, which fell in July. By August, he had taken Sais. During these confrontations, many Egyptian troops who had served under Cleopatra defected to Ahmose’s side, including commanders Pasherienhor and Merimut. By the time Octavian's forces landed in Egypt, all of Egypt, except Alexandria, was under Ahmose’s control.
When Octavian and Agrippa landed, Ahmose greeted them with a goblet of wine. The personal meeting went well, and an alliance was formalized. While the siege of Alexandria continued, Ahmose received a letter, now believed to have been from Cleopatra herself, in which she begged him to take care of her children. Ahmose read it and burned the letter.
During this time, Ahmose's forces captured a Greek boy in Memphis, who was revealed to be the Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy Caesarion. His generals asked what should be done with him. In a surprising move, Ahmose decided to be merciful. He ordered that no harm be done to the boy and that he be transferred to his palace in Elephantine. He also commanded that no word of Caesarion's capture be passed to the Romans. Ahmose entrusted his son with overseeing this decision.
In a subsequent meeting with Octavian, after Cleopatra’s suicide, Ahmose asked for custody of Cleopatra’s surviving children. Octavian agreed, but with the exception of Caesarion, who was to be executed. However, this was part of Ahmose’s plan to protect Caesarion. Upon learning Caesarion's true identity, Ahmose ordered that the body of a recently deceased Greek boy be found, dressed in Caesarion’s clothes. A small barque was then sunk, and the body was dragged through the river to the shore. The remains were mummified and presented to Octavian, who was fooled into believing it was Caesarion's body.
Ahmose’s actions ensured that Caesarion’s life was preserved, and with Cleopatra dead, her absence from Octavian’s triumph spared Egypt from further Roman indignities. Ahmose suggested that Cleopatra receive traditional funerary rites, and that her coffin was paraded in place of her body, a suggestion that Octavian accepted. In autumn, Octavian left Egypt, and Ahmose began to govern. Waset was reinstated as the capital, and reconstruction efforts began.
Upon returning to the south, Ahmose dealt with Caesarion. He gave him a new identity, renaming him Apollo and instructing him to forget his past life and remain hidden. Ahmose also adopted Caesarion as his son, claiming he was the orphaned son of a cheesemaker from Sais. To avoid suspicion, Ahmose adopted 12 other orphan children, further obscuring Caesarion's true identity.
Ahmose's actions were not known to the public until centuries later, when a manuscript written in hieroglyphs was discovered in his second sarcophagus, alongside a granite copy hidden among his tomb's provisions. In his testament, Ahmose instructed that his tomb and documents be opened only after Egypt was no longer under Roman rule.
After the war, Ahmose focused on rebuilding Egypt’s former glory. He reformed the tax system, land distribution, and administration. Ahmose also pardoned several Ptolemaic officials and allowed most of them to retain their positions. On 24 June 28 BC, Ahmose was crowned again in Alexandria.
In 27 BC, Ahmose began his political reforms. He revived ancient state offices, restructured the royal bureaucracy, and reinstated Egyptian as the mandatory government language. All government decrees were now required to be published in Latin, Greek, Egyptian Demotic, and Hieroglyphs. In 26 BC, Ahmose initiated the construction of the Seshat Library. He ordered scribes to collect every known text—papyrus, temple records, government decrees, and other writings—and transcribe them into Latin, Greek, and Egyptian, preserving them in clay tablets. This monumental project, which took over 90 years to complete, began under Ahmose’s direction. Despite his efforts, by the end of his reign, only 6% of the work had been finished.
In 24 BC, the Roman government awarded Ahmose the former royal palace of Alexandria. In 23 BC, Ahmose IV created the Supreme Offices of State, reviving the influential positions from previous reigns. He also re-established the position of Governor of Egypt, which became the king’s second-in-command, appointed by royal decree.
Between 20 BC and 10 BC, Egypt enjoyed an era of prosperity under Ahmose’s economic reforms, leading to the doubling of Egypt’s wealth. In 15 BC, Ahmose IV visited Rome and delivered a speech in the Senate. By 10 BC, he recreated the Egyptian nobility with five distinct ranks: Royal lords (members of the royal families and leaders of past ruling dynasties), Foreign lords (heads of ruling families who reigned over other nations) High lords (leaders who began to rule the most important nomes), Border lords, (leaders of the border nomes) and Lesser lords (those who became the rulers of the remaining nomes)
In 9 BC, Ahmose IV made his heir effectively his co-ruler, though not a full co-regent. By 5 BC, Ahmose celebrated his 30th year on the throne by reintroducing the Sed Festival, a lavish event that contemporaneous writers described as spectacular. The second Sed Festival, held in 2 BC, marked the closing acts of Ahmose IV’s reign. Ahmose IV died on 1 January AD
Legacy[]
Ahmose Sikamose was an Egyptian nobleman and the first ruler of the Kamosid Dynasty, a lineage that restored native Egyptian rule after centuries of foreign domination. Born into the Siatumid family, Ahmose was the son of Lord Kamose V and Lady Hatshepsut. His family, descendants of the prestigious House of Narmer, had long aspired to reclaim the Egyptian throne, which had been denied to their ancestors due to a series of succession crises. The Siatumid dynasty had endured through periods of persecution, including massacres ordered by rulers like Amunirdisu III and Artaxerxes III, who feared their claim to power.
In 35 BC, Ahmose launched a rebellion to restore native Egyptian rule, drawing support from the High Priest of Amun and various military allies. His success led to his coronation as Pharaoh Ahmose IV. Despite initial military victories, including the capture of key cities such as Iunet and Abydos, his campaign encountered setbacks following a crushing defeat at the hands of Cleopatra VII’s forces in 33 BC. However, Ahmose, ever strategic, negotiated a treaty with Octavian, making Egypt a Roman province while preserving Egyptian governance and culture.
Under his reign, Ahmose oversaw substantial political, military, and economic reforms, aiming to restore Egypt’s former glory. He introduced measures that restructured the royal bureaucracy, revitalized the tax system, and even initiated the construction of the Seshat Library to preserve Egypt's knowledge. Ahmose's legacy also includes his protection of Caesarion, Cleopatra’s son, whom he secretly saved from execution by Rome.
Ahmose's reign marked the beginning of a period of prosperity for Egypt, with the country’s wealth doubling by the end of his rule. His efforts to maintain Egyptian identity amidst Roman influence and his preservation of Egyptian culture ensured that his dynasty endured. Ahmose IV died on 1 January AD, leaving behind a complex legacy of cultural resilience and strategic political maneuvering. His tomb, sealed with instructions to reveal his true deeds only after Egypt was free of Roman rule, further highlights his enduring vision for Egypt’s future.
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