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[[File: Amenemhat_I.png|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Statue of King Amenemehat I (ruled ca. 1991-1962 BC)]]__NOTOC__

[[File: Papyrus_judicial_Turin.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|The Turin Judicial Papyrus]]During the approximately 2,000 year period from the inception of the Egyptian in 3100 BC ca. to the end of the New Kingdom in 1075 BC, there are only three <i>possible</i> documented occurrences of regicide. The reason for this has been debated among Egyptologists for decades, but it more than likely stems from the fact that the Egyptians had a deep belief in the divinity of their rulers. To the Egyptians, their kings were gods, which they first articulated in writing in the so-called <i>Pyramid Texts</i> of the Fifth and Sixth dynasties (ca. 2465-2300 BC). The texts, which were written on the walls and ceilings of the kings’ burial chambers within the pyramids, were meant to assert the king’s divinity and his connection to the gods Osiris, Re, and Atum among others. <ref> Kemp, Barry J. “Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and Second Intermediate Period.” In <i>Ancient Egypt: A Social History.</i> Edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor, and Alan B. Lloyd. (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pgs. 72</ref> The ancient Egyptians’ strong belief in the divinity of their kings may have mitigated the occurrences of regicide, but it did not stop the act from happening totally, as one king was killed in each of Egypt’s three kingdoms.

The texts, which were written on the walls and ceilings of the kings’ burial chambers within the pyramids, were meant to assert the king’s divinity and his connection to the gods Osiris, Re, and Atum among others. <ref> Kemp, Barry J. “Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and Second Intermediate Period.” In <i>Ancient Egypt: A Social History.</i> Edited by Bruce G. Trigger, Barry J. Kemp, David O’Connor, and Alan B. Lloyd. (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pgs. 72</ref> The ancient Egyptians’ strong belief in the divinity of their kings may have mitigated the occurrences of regicide, but it did not stop the act from happening totally, as one king was killed in each of Egypt’s three kingdoms. The first Egyptian king to die at the hands of assassins was Teti (ruled ca. 2345-2333 BC), or “Othoes” in Greek. According to the third century BC Hellenized Egyptian historian, Manetho, Teti “was murdered by his bodyguard.” <ref> Manetho. <i> Aegyptiaca.</i> Translated by W.G. Waddell. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2004), Fragments 19a, b; 20</ref> Less than 500 years later, another Egyptian king was struck down by his attendants. The second attested case of regicide in ancient Egypt was committed against Amenemhat I (reigned ca. 1985-1955 BC), who was the first king of the Thirteenth Dynasty in the Middle Kingdom. Manetho’s account states, “Ammanemês, for 38 years: his own eunuchs murdered him.” <ref> Manetho, Fragments 34-36</ref>  Unlike Teti’s assassination, though, there is another primary source that corroborates Manetho’s account. The corroborating text is the so-called “Papyrus Millingen,” which is a papyrus written in the hieroglyphic script dated to the Middle Kingdom, so it is more contemporary than Manetho’s account. Much like Manetho’s account, the papyrus describes the assassination as the result of a palace conspiracy. <ref> Lichtheim, Miriam. <i>Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings.</i> Volume 1, The Old and Middle Kingdoms (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006), p. 137</ref>

[[File: KarnakNectanebo.jpg|300px250px|thumbnail|left|Ram-headed Sphinxes Protecting Statues of King Nectanebo I (reigned 379-361 BC) in front of the First Pylon of the Karnak Temple, Luxor]][[File: Psamtik_III.jpg|300px|thumbnail|right|Statue of King Psamtek III (ruled 526-525 BC)]]The relative political stability that Egypt enjoyed for its first 2,000 plus years of history was replaced by a period of turmoil and dynastic conflict that began when the Nubians conquered Egypt in 728 BC. Just before the initial Nubian invasion, a Libyan descended dynasty came to power in the Delta city of Sais, who were not too keen to hold over their somewhat circumscribed power base to the Nubians. For their part, the Nubians were not fine with letting the rulers of Sais maintain any degree of autonomy, so the second king of the Nubian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, Shabaqa (ruled 712-702 BC), invaded the Delta shortly after coming to power and killed the sole king of the Sais based Twenty-Fourth Dynasty, Bakenrenef (reigned 717-712 BC).  According to Manetho, Shabaqa burned Bakenrenef alive, which would seem counter to Egyptian tradition because the body was needed to be intact to effectively transition into the afterlife. <ref> Manetho, Fragments 66-67</ref> But as modern scholars have pointed out, Shabaqa was a Nubian, and although Bakenrenef was from Egypt, his ancestry was Libyan, so the probability is that the rulers viewed each other as foreign and non-Egyptian. Also, fire would have been a perfectly acceptable means to kill a transgressor for treason in ancient Egypt. <ref> Leahy, Anthony. “Death by Fire in Ancient Egypt.” <i>Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient.</i> 22 (1984) p. 200</ref>

Psamtek III’s regicide brought an end to the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty and ushered in a period of instability and decline that would last until Alexander the Great arrived in Egypt in 332 BC. Before Alexander and the Macedonians came to Egypt, the Nile Valley would witness at least one more case of regicide. The primary source documentation of post-Saite Egypt is often sketchy at best because the dynasties were often too unstable to erect any monuments and Herodotus’ accounts, of course, ended with his death.  Other Greek historians and geographers such as Diodorus and Strabo are helpful, but their accounts take the Greek perspective, so important details concerning the Egyptian kings were often overlooked. In the midst of this chaotic period in Egypt, the particularly weak Twenty-Ninth Dynasty was overthrown by an able king named Nectanebo I (ruled 379-361 BC), who became the first king of the Thirtieth Dynasty. Nectanebo I’s usurpation of the throne was commemorated on the hieroglyphic text known as the “Hermopolis Stela,” which indicates that he may have also killed the last king of the previous dynasty.