Having recounted the reigns of Croesus and Cyrus, in book 2 the narrator turns to the third of the five oriental rulers that form the chronological backbone of his Histories: Cambyses, the son of Cyrus and Cassandane. We hear two things about him: (i) Cambyses considers (μέν) the Ionians and Aeolians ‘slaves inherited from his father’, which reminds us of Herodotus’ central theme of the confrontation between barbarians and Greeks; cf. the introduction of Croesus as the man who was the first to subject the Ionians, Aeolians, and Dorians in Asia (1.6.2), and of Cyrus as the one who, by defeating Croesus, made the Persians masters of all Asia (1.95.1). Later the narrator will specify that Cambyses takes Ionians and Aeolians with him on his expedition against Egypt (3.1.1). (ii) Cambyses undertakes (δέ) an expedition against Egypt; a *structural imperfect (ἐποιέετο στρατηλασίην: 2.1.2) is used, since the narrator first inserts a massive geographic (5–34) and ethnographic (35–98) description and a history (99–182) of Egypt before starting his narrative of Cambyses’ expedition in 3.1.1.