Nico II was a pharaoh of the 26th Dynasty of the Late Ancient Egyptian Dynasty, who lived around the 6th century BC and reigned from about 609-593 BC.
Ancient Egypt in 658 BC
Nico II's father, Psammetik I, reunited Egypt and established the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty.
Niko II
When Nico II ascended the throne, he was anxious to restore the territory of Egypt under Thutmose III.
In 609 BC, Nico II sent an army against the Jewish kingdom. Killed Josiah, king of the Jewish kingdom, at the Battle of Megiddo.
In 608 B.C., he sent troops to invade Palestine and Syria, where he ruled for three or four years.
He also aided the dying Assyrian Empire and resisted the westward expansion of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom.
In 605 B.C., his army was defeated by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, at the Battle of Kakhimish, and his possessions in Asia were lost, and Assyria finally fell.
In 601 BC, Nico II defeated the invasion of the invading neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II on the Egyptian border.
During his reign, he actively developed commerce and foreign trade, digging a canal between the Nile and the Red Sea (completed during the Persian Empire), but later abandoned it for fear of changing water levels.
He also attached importance to the development of maritime power, the creation of a fleet with triremes.
Circumnavigation of Africa
In order to open up maritime trade, he also hired Phoenician sailors and completed the first voyage around Africa in history.