According to ancient historians, Cambyses' rule of Egypt was marked by brutality, looting temples, ridiculing the local gods, and defilement of the royal tombs. Historians such as Herodotus put an emphasis on Cambyses' supposed killing of the Egyptian sacred bull Apis. However, no looting of temples has been reported by contemporary Egyptian sources. In addition, Cambyses is said to have ordered the burial of an Apis in a sarcophagus. The successor of the Apis died in 518 BC, four years after Cambyses had already died.