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Turncoat Generals – Commanders From History Who Switched Sides

Khalid Elhassan April 3, 2025 17 min

Turncoat - Benedict Arnold — Benedict Arnold. Smithsonian Magazine

3. An Angry Ophthalmologist

Turncoat - An electrum coin attributed to Phanes of Halicarnassus — An electrum coin attributed to Phanes of Halicarnassus. K-Pics

The disgruntled Egyptian physician advised Cambyses to ask for Amasis’ favorite daughter. He knew that a request from Cambyses for the hand of the pharaoh’s daughter would put the Egyptian ruler in a bind. Amasis could accept and grow wretched at the loss of his daughter, or refuse, and offend Cambyses. Amasis did not want to send his beloved daughter to Persia. Especially since he knew that Cambyses wanted her for a mere concubine, not a wife. However, he was also intimidated by Persia’s power. So he fudged, sent a former pharaoh’s daughter, and falsely claimed that she was his. That backfired. Soon as she reached Persia, the former princess told Cambyses that Amasis had tried to fob him off with somebody else’s daughter. That greatly upset Cambyses – who was itching for an excuse to conquer Egypt, anyhow.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.