Bakenranef
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| Bakenranef (Bocchoris) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pharaoh of Egypt | |||
| Reign | 725 720 BC, 24th Dynasty (Western Delta) | ||
| Predecessor | Tefnakht | ||
| Successor | None (Egypt united under Shabaka) | ||
Bakenranef (also known by the Greek form of his name, Bocchoris) was a king of the Twenty-fourth dynasty of Egypt. Based at Sais in the western Delta, he ruled Lower Egypt from c. 725 to 720 BC. While Manetho considers him the sole member of the Twenty-fourth dynasty (frags. 64, 65), modern scholars include his father Tefnakht in that dynasty. Also, while Sextus Julius Africanus quotes Manetho as stating that Bakenrenef ruled for six years, some modern scholars again differ and assign him a shorter reign of only five years based on evidence from an Apis Bull burial stela. It proves that Bakenranef's reign ended only at the start of his 6th regnal year which, under the Egyptian dating system, means he had a reign of 5 full years.
Manetho is the source for two events from Bakenranef's reign. The first is the story that a lamb uttered the prophecy that Egypt would be conquered by the Assyrians, a story later repeated by such classical authors as Claudius Aelianus (De Natura Animalis 12.3). The second was that Bakenranef was captured by Shabaka, a king of the Twenty-fifth dynasty, who executed Bakenrenef by having him burned alive. A Kushite king, Shabaka extended his rule over the whole of Egypt, which had been split since the Twenty-first dynasty.
Diodorus Siculus, writing about three centuries after Manetho, adds some different details. Diodorus states that although Bakenranef was "contemptible in appearance", he was wiser than his predecessors (1.65). The Egyptians attributed to him a law concerning contracts, which provided for a way to discharge debts where no bond was signed, and was observed down to Diodorus' time (1.79). For this, and other acts, Diodorus included Bakenranef as one of the six most important lawgivers of ancient Egypt.
The Roman historian Tacitus mentions that many writers thought he had a part in the origin of the Jewish nation:
- Most writers, however, agree in stating that once a disease, which horribly disfigured the body, broke out over Egypt; that king Bocchoris, seeking a remedy, consulted the oracle of Hammon, and was bidden to cleanse his realm, and to convey into some foreign land this race detested by the gods. The people, who had been collected after diligent search, finding themselves left in a desert, sat for the most part in a stupor of grief, till one of the exiles, Moses by name, warned them not to look for any relief from God or man, forsaken as they were of both, but to trust to themselves, taking for their heaven-sent leader that man who should first help them to be quit of their present misery. They agreed, and in utter ignorance began to advance at random. Nothing, however, distressed them so much as the scarcity of water, and they had sunk ready to perish in all directions over the plain, when a herd of wild asses was seen to retire from their pasture to a rock shaded by trees. Moyses followed them, and, guided by the appearance of a grassy spot, discovered an abundant spring of water. This furnished relief. After a continuous journey for six days, on the seventh they possessed themselves of a country, from which they expelled the inhabitants, and in which they founded a city and a temple (Histories, Book 5, Paragraph 3).
Despite the importance implied by these writers, few contemporary records of Bakenranef have survived. The chief inscription of his reign concerns the death and burial of an Apis bull during Years 5 and 6 of his reign; the remainder are a few stelae Auguste Mariette recovered while excavating the Serapeum in Saqqara. Shabaka deposed and executed Bakenranef by burning him alive at the stake and buried the Bull in his own Year 2 (720 BC) while campaigning in Lower Egypt. This effectively ended the short-lived 24th Dynasty of Egypt as a potential rival to the Nubian 25th Dynasty.
| Preceded by Tefnakht |
Pharaoh of Egypt Twenty-fourth Dynasty |
Succeeded by Shabaka |
