Psammis is agreed to be the pharaoh Psamtick II (also known as Psammeticus II) of the twenty-sixth dynasty, based in Sais. He reigned over Egypt for only six years. He engaged in one campaign in Nubia (leaving evidence in the form of graffiti on a statue of Ramesses II), and died shortly after. He was succeeded by his son Apries (Wahibre).
Herodotus tells that an envoy from Elis (in southern Greece) visited the pharaoh and boasted that the Olympic Games were the fairest competition that it was possible to arrange, and that even the Egyptians could not do better. The Egyptians answered that since it was an advantage to "play at home" and it was impossible to prevent the expression of a natural bias towards their own citizens, the only way to be truly fair was to allow only strangers to compete!
