The Battle of Pelusium, a dramatic story of betrayal, revenge, and cats, was a chain of bad luck that snowballed into a giant mess, resulting in many things going wrong and spiraling out of control. This struggle between the Persians and the Egyptians proved to be a decisive battle to cause the fall of an empire and the turn of power for the ancient world. Before we describe the great Battle of Pelusium in 525 BC, Cambyses II, the ruler of Persia, requested an Egyptian physician to serve in Persia from the current pharaoh, Amasis II, who complied to Cambyses’ request. Sent to Persia, the Egyptian physician, abused and forced into labor, wanted revenge on Amasis II, persuading Cambyses II to request the hand of Amasis’ daughter in marriage in order…show more content… Preparing battle plans, Phanes of Halicarnassus, as an ex-Egyptian, knew of Egypt’s worship of sacred animals, especially cats. Cats, an important symbol of the goddess Bastet, were seen as sacred and godly animals and to kill a cat in Egypt meant death. Using this knowledge as an advantage, Cambyses equipped each soldier with a cat to use as a shield and had symbols of cats painted on the soldier’s armor. Rushing down to destroy Egypt, Phanes’ strategy worked as the Persian army of cat-wielding warriors charged towards Pelusium where the confused and shocked Egyptians soldiers remained defenseless in fear of wounding the sacred cats. Unable to retaliate against the enemy, the defenders of Pelusium were decimated as 50,000 Egyptians fell, whereas the Persians only lost 7,000. Adding to the ridiculousness of the battle, some accounts tell of Persian soldiers flinging the helpless cats at the defeated Egyptians in an act of disrespect and total