[XVIIITH DYNASTY: _ca._ 1635-1365 B.C.]
Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, goodly races of horse,
chariots of war, elephants, ordnance, artillery, and the like--all
this is but a sheep in a lion’s skin, except the breed and
disposition of the people be stout and warlike.--BACON.
It has just been shown that the leading dynasties of the Theban
kingdom, before the invasion of the Hyksos, had essentially a pacific
character. Their epoch was a period of social, literary and artistic
activity, such as usually comes to a nation only at the apex of its
career, or as it is passing into its decline. It was so here. Egypt
as a nation was soon overthrown; an outside people invaded the sacred
precincts, so jealously guarded hitherto from even peaceful intrusion,
usurped the power, and for some centuries dominated the original
inhabitants. These invaders, as we have seen, were of a more primitive
type of civilisation than the Egyptians. Their reign was a time of
apparently retrograde evolution, marked to after generations by no
lasting monuments such as made earlier generations famous.
Yet it may be questioned whether, on the whole, the influence of these
semi-barbarians upon the cultured but somewhat degenerate stock of
the ancient civilisation, may not have been in the highest degree
beneficial.
Everywhere in history we shall see that the virile stock is the stock
which is not weakened by too many generations of that luxury which
seems to be the necessary associate of higher culture. We shall see
also that a mixed race is always at a premium. A nation which shuts
itself off from contact with other nations is in the condition of a
finely inbred race of domesticated animals. The racial peculiarities
may be greatly developed, certain finer traits of mind and body may be
highly intensified. But in the full rounding out of aggregate powers of
mind and body, there is a deviation that amounts to degeneration. And
when this weakened stock comes into competition with some cruder but
sturdier race, the issue is not in doubt; the fate awaits it that befel
the Egyptians at the hands of the “barbaric” Hyksos invaders.
But a degenerate or perverted stock often shows marvellous powers of
recuperation under influence of changed conditions, and an infusion
of fresh blood grafted on such a stock can work wonders. It is said
that the highly developed greyhound was useless as a hunting dog till
crossed with a strain of bulldog--an infusion of blood which, while
not marring the distinctive physical peculiarities of the hound, yet
quite sufficed to supply the lacking stamina and courage. It may be
questioned whether precisely such a vitalising influence as this may
not have come to the Egyptians through the Hyksos invasion. It is
hardly to be supposed that the invaders remained for centuries in Egypt
in sufficient numbers to maintain absolute political control without
having some ethnic influence; and if this be admitted, it is hardly in
doubt, physiologically speaking, that such influence, in this closely
inbred race, would be beneficial. It might graft the bulldog spirit of
the Hyksos upon the greyhound-spirited Egyptian nation. But whether
or not this be the explanation of the change that now came over the
national spirit, it was surely a bulldog nation that now emerged from
the Hyksos thraldom and started out upon a world-conquest. In tracing
the course of events in this new epoch we see Egypt approaching the
apex of its power.
THE HYKSOS EXPULSION: AAHMES AND HIS SUCCESSORS
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1635-1610 B.C.]]
Aahmes must have been between twenty-five and thirty years of age
when, as survivor of his elder brothers, he came to the throne. He had
married Nefert-ari, his sister or half-sister, as the case may be, who
may previously have been an inmate of his brothers’ harems as well; and
her own royal rights, joined to his own, established a legal claim for
Aahmes to the kingdom such as few Pharaohs have possessed.
His mummy shows him to have been of medium height, with well-developed
neck and chest. The head is small, the forehead low and narrow, the
cheek bones project, and the hair is thick and wavy. He was undoubtedly
a strong, active, warlike man, which qualities won him success in his
wars.
From what we know now of the condition of the struggle against the
Hyksos, at the time of the accession of Aahmes,--that their rule had
been limited to the district around Avaris,--no doubt the credit due
to this king for finally expelling them has been greatly exaggerated.
Yet, concentrated and strongly intrenched as they were in the fortress
of Ha-Uar, they were by no means insignificant adversaries. From their
position, made the more inaccessible by the marsh-lands and rivers of
the Delta, and by the neighbouring desert, there was always danger of
an attempt upon Memphis, and Aahmes is the one who removed this last
menace to the re-established kingdom, and made his dominion over the
whole country secure. Therefore the official chroniclers had every
reason to begin a new dynasty with the accession of this great king.
For the actual expulsion of the Hyksos we have two accounts: that of
Manetho transcribed by Josephus and quoted in the preceding chapter,
and that of the doughty namesake of the king, Aahmes-si-Abana (son of
Abana), as recorded on his tomb at El-Kab.
The Manetho version runs that Aahmes (Alisphragmuthosis) shut the
Shepherds up in Avaris, whence they were finally ejected and driven
into Syria by his grandson, Tehutimes I. This, however, is a mistake,
and the Egyptian historian has undoubtedly confused the taking of
Avaris with the Syrian wars of Tehutimes. Aahmes-si-Abana makes no
mention of Tehutimes taking Avaris.[a]
His account, therefore, is the more accurate and complete. This is the
tale on his tomb:
“The dead Admiral Aahmes, son of Abana. He speaks thus: ‘I say to you,
all men; and I make known to you the rewards and honours that have
fallen to my lot. I was presented with golden gifts eight times before
the whole land, and with many slaves, male and female; likewise I was
given much land. The title of “the Brave” which I gained shall never
perish in this land.’
“He speaks further: ‘I saw the light in the city of Nekheb [El-Kab].
My father was a captain of King Seqenen-Ra; Baba son of Roant was his
name. Then I took his place on the ship called _The Calf_, in the days
of King Neb-pehthet-Ra [Aahmes]. I was young and had no wife and I wore
the _semt_ cloth and the _shennu_ [garments of youth]. But as soon as I
had taken a house, I was placed on the ship _The North_ because of my
valour, and I had to attend the sovereign--life, health, strength be
his--on foot when he rode forth in his chariot.
“‘The town of Ha-Uar [Avaris] was besieged, and I showed my
worth in the presence of his Majesty. I was promoted to the ship
_Kha-em-men-nefer_ [Accession in Memphis]. They fought in the Pazekthu
canal, near Avaris. I fought hand to hand, and I carried off a hand.
The king’s herald saw this, and the golden collar of bravery was given
me. They fought a second time at this place and again I captured a
hand; a second golden gift was given me.
“‘They fought at Ta-kemt, south of the city. There I took a living
prisoner. I plunged into the water--I led him through the water so as
to keep away from the road to the town. This was made known to the
herald of the king; I received the golden gift once more.
“‘They took Ha-Uar; I carried away from thence one man and three women;
his Majesty gave them to me as slaves.’”[b]
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN INFANTRY]
In the time of the Ptolemies, tradition had it that King Aahmes
appeared before Avaris with an army of four hundred and eighty thousand
men, that there was a long siege, which was finally ended by the king
treating with the besieged and permitting them to depart peacefully,
with their wives, children, and possessions, into Syria. But the truth
is, that Aahmes had a well organised and equipped army of fifteen to
twenty thousand men, and that the town was taken on the second attack.
The enemy left their last strongholds in haste and retreated into the
bordering provinces of Syria. For some reason--they may have threatened
him from some new vantage point, or he may have wished to deal a final
crushing blow--Aahmes determined to cross the frontier, which he did in
the fifth year of his reign. It was the first time in centuries that
the king of Egypt had set foot in Asia, and even now he barely crossed
the threshold.[a]
Admiral Aahmes continues his narrative:
“They besieged the town of Sharhana [Sherohan], in the year V, and his
Majesty took it. I carried off from thence two women and one hand, and
the golden collar of valour was given me. And my captives were given me
for slaves.”
After the capture of Sherohan, Aahmes went on to the border provinces
of Zahi (Phœnicia) and then turned back. The fall of the Palestine town
crushed the Hyksos’ last hope of recovering their Egyptian domain. The
majority of their race had not fled with the army, but had remained
with other tribes that had followed them into Egypt--the Israelites
among them--to accept whatever lot was meted out by the new conquerors.
The yoke was not imposed equally throughout the land. Those living in
the Delta regions were reduced to slavery, and all that part of the
country was well fortified to resist the Bedouin.
Aahmes returned to Africa only to find his presence needed in the
South. The land of Nubia, tributary to the lords of Thebes, had been
somewhat neglected during the long struggle which the Pharaoh had just
successfully terminated. The southern races had failed to assimilate
the gift of culture and civilisation thrust upon them by the rulers of
the XIIth and XIIIth Dynasties, and kept to their own customs while the
temples erected by Usertsen and Amenemhat crumbled and vanished. From
out this disordered state developed a serious invasion from the Sudan.
Hostile tribes--which ones, we know not--descended the Nile, outraging
the people and desecrating the sanctuaries. Aahmes hastened to meet
them.
“His Majesty went south,” runs the record of Aahmes the admiral, “to
Khent-en-nefer to destroy the Anu Khenti, and his Majesty made great
havoc among them. I captured two live men and three hands; once more
I was given the gold of valour, and my two captives were given to me
for slaves. Then his Majesty came down the river; his heart swelled
with his brave and victorious deeds; he had conquered the people of the
South and of the North.”
The triumph of the return was dimmed by disquieting news from the
North. The remains of the Hyksos race had taken advantage of Aahmes’
absence in the South to break out in rebellion. There seem to have been
two outbursts. One by the Aata, probably a branch of the Hyksos, which
marched southward and was destroyed by Aahmes at Tentoa, the other by a
powerful faction under a certain Teta-an. Aahmes-si-Abana tells of his
fate:
“Then came that enemy named Teta-an; he had brought wicked rebels
together. But his Majesty slaughtered him and his slaves even to
extinction.”[b]
Thus was stamped out the last spark of Asiatic resistance. There are
no more records of expeditions undertaken in this Pharaoh’s reign--at
least none in which he took part.
From the crushing of Teta-an, about the sixth year, to the
twenty-second, the monuments are silent; and when again they speak
we find a peaceful and not a warlike monarch. It is a law of human
progress that an age of military success is followed by a revival of
art and building activity. At the end of Aahmes’ reign--he ruled about
twenty-five years--this condition prevailed throughout the kingdom.
The principal temples of the land were restored or rebuilt. The reward
of the gods for their divine aid in the deliverance of Egypt was thus
bestowed. A tenth of all the booty of victory was devoted to the needs
of the religious cult. Sculptors and painters, for whom there had been
centuries of little or no employment, recovered their skill in the
revived demand for their services, and, indeed, a new school, with
new ideas and methods, came into existence under the great impetus to
culture. In the twenty-second year the quarries of Turah were reopened
that building stone might be obtained for the temples of Ptah at
Memphis and Amen at Thebes, although nothing was done to the latter
until a later reign.
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1610-1590 B.C.]]
Aahmes died when he was between fifty and sixty. They buried the great
Pharaoh in a modest place he had prepared for himself in the necropolis
of Drah-abu’l-Neggah. His worship continued for nearly a thousand
years, and of him--and still more of Queen Nefert-ari--there exist more
instances of adoration than of any other ruler.
Aahmes left a numerous progeny, and six or seven of his children had
Nefert-ari for mother. The eldest seems to have been named Sapair, but
he died when young, and it is probable that a Se-Amen was the second
son and that he too never reached maturity. But whether Amenhotep I
was the second or third of Aahmes’ male issue, the kingship devolved
upon him. As he was still in his minority, the queen mother assumed
the reins of government. Nefert-ari had been no idle inmate of her
husband’s harem, and she now asserted her many titles to authority,
some of which had precedence over those of her husband and son.
There is nothing known of her joint rule with Amenhotep, but it was
undoubtedly a prosperous one. She was worshipped after death as a
divinity, on a plane, indeed, with the great Theban triad, Amen,
Khonsu, and Mut, for all the rights of the royal line descended
through her. Her sons, Sapair and Amenhotep, her daughters, Set-amen,
Set-kames, and Merit-amen, also shared in the worship.
[Illustration: WAR CHARIOT OF THE PHARAOH]
Amenhotep does not seem to have been ambitious for foreign conquest.
His campaigns were confined to Africa. The chief chronicle of his reign
is again that tomb at El-Kab whereon Aahmes, son of Abana, recorded his
exploits. The brave admiral was now nearly fifty years of age.
“It fell to me,” he relates, “to carry King Zeser-ka-Ra [Amenhotep I]
on his voyage to Cush, where he went to extend the frontiers of Egypt.
His majesty smote these Anu Khenti [Nubians] from the midst of his
troops.
“Behold, I led our soldiers and I fought with all my strength. The
king saw my bravery, as I captured two hands and brought them to his
Majesty. In two days I bore his Majesty back to Egypt from the upper
land. And I was given the golden gift and two female slaves, and I was
raised to the dignity of ‘Warrior of the King.’”
The Nubian campaign was a short and unimportant one. A more important
one was directed against the Amukehaka, who apparently were a portion
of the Libyan race of the Tuhennu. These people had for centuries been
restless and given trouble to the Pharaohs, but the strength of the New
Kingdom was now entirely able to cope with them. Notwithstanding these
few campaigns, the reign of Amenhotep I is to be characterised as one
of peace and internal prosperity. He merely attained in the South and
West that security his father had brought about in the North. Commerce,
agriculture, and town life flourished, and indeed he well deserved the
veneration which for centuries was accorded him in the Theban capital
and where he is represented as Osiris. The coffin and mummy of this
king were among Professor Maspero’s wonderful find at Deir-el-Bahari.
He thus tells of it: “Long garlands of faded flowers deck the mummy
from head to foot. A wasp attracted by their scent must have settled
upon them at the moment of burial, and become imprisoned by the lid;
the insect has been completely preserved from corruption by the balsams
of the embalmer, and its gauzy wings have passed uncrumpled through the
long centuries.”
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1590-1565 B.C.]]
Amenhotep married his own sister, Aah-hotep II, and among their
children was a princess, Aahmes. The Pharaoh had also, by a concubine,
Sensenb, a son, Tehutimes, who was married to his half-sister Aahmes.
Tehutimes was probably a little younger than his wife. Aahmes, from her
pure royal descent, had far more claim to the throne than her husband
and brother, but for some reason she yielded her rights, and Tehutimes
was crowned at Thebes the 21st of Phamenoth, the third month. If he
had been co-regent with his father, it must have been for a short
time only. The new king was a tall, broad-shouldered, well-knit man,
possessed of great powers of endurance. His full round face is marked
with a long nose and square chin, and his thick lips wear a smiling but
firm expression.
The beginnings of a new spirit, which was destined to break up the
isolation of the kingdoms of antiquity, were stirring in this monarch’s
soul. With his own country in practical subjection, there came that
inevitable desire to intrude into other lands. We have seen how the
Pharaohs had always shown a certain timidity about passing the Isthmus
of Suez, and how Aahmes, well equipped for foreign conquest as he was,
had hastened home after he had once driven the fleeing Hyksos across
the border. His was no spirit of world conquest; but with Tehutimes
the case was different, although certain domestic troubles kept him
for the time at home. The neighbouring land of Syria, with its large
and wealthy towns, growing richer every day through a well-organised
commerce on land and sea, had previously been invaded by the Chaldeans
and was now under their undisputed sway; and when this same spirit was
once aroused in the fresh and vigorous kingdom of the restoration,
what was more natural than that its cupidity should turn in this same
direction? But some difficulties at home for the time being prevented,
Tehutimes I had to repress outbreaks in the vicinity of the Second and
Third Cataracts.
The story of Aahmes, now nearly seventy years of age, relates:
“It fell to me to carry the king Aa-kheper-ka-Ra [Tehutimes I] on his
voyage to Khent-en-nefer for the purpose of punishing the rebels among
the tribes and of quelling the marauders from the hills. On his ships
I showed valour, and I was raised to be an admiral of the marines.
Their people were carried off alive and captives. His Majesty returned
down the river; all the lands were now under his rule. That vile king
of the Anu of Khenti was held head down when the king landed at Thebes.”
It would be valuable and interesting to know what impression the
strange land of Syria, with its wide, irregular plains, its high,
snow-topped mountains, its walled towns perched in difficult positions
in inaccessible places, its people different in customs and with a
civilisation not below their own, made upon the Theban legions when at
last they found themselves in Palestine. But of what they thought and
felt, they have left no word. The lines with which Aahmes of El-Kab
closes the record of this long life--he must have been over ninety when
he died--goes no more into detail than the rest of his account.
“After this, his Majesty--life, health, and strength be his--went to
Ruthen to take satisfaction upon the countries. His Majesty arrived at
Naharain [Upper Mesopotamia]; he found the enemy that conspired against
him. His Majesty made great destruction among them; an immense number
of live captives was carried off from the victories.
“Behold, I was at the head of our soldiers. His Majesty saw my bravery
as I captured a chariot, its horses and those who were in it. I took
them to his Majesty and was once more given the collar of gold for
valour. I have grown up and reached old age; my honours are many. I
shall rest in my tomb which I myself have made.”
Tehutimes in his first campaign went far beyond his grandfather, and
his route--Gaza to Megiddo, to Kadesh, to Carchemish--became in later
times that followed by the Egyptians whenever they descended upon the
Euphrates. Of the fortunes of his progress we have not the slightest
information, except as Aahmes tells us, he met the enemy in Naharain.
The opposing army was under the command of the king of Mitanni, or
perhaps one of the captains of the Kossæan king of Babylon, and all
the petty princes of the northern provinces served in it with their
troops to repel the new invader. But the victory was Tehutimes’. No
doubt his army was superior to that of his opponents. Its organisation
and training had steadily improved since the days of Aahmes, for it
was constantly called into service against the tribes of Ethiopia and
Libya. The Syrians were wanting neither in efficiency nor bravery, but
their country was much disorganised and their number of fighting men by
no means so great as their enemy’s. Therefore they could not command
such a force as the Egyptians mustered against them.
Tehutimes erected a stele on the Euphrates to mark the limits of his
dominion, and then turned back, richly laden, to Thebes. The later
Pharaohs, whenever they invaded Asia, pursued similar methods--a
sudden advance diagonally to the northeast, routing and dispersing
any opposing force, spreading destruction on every hand, then a quick
return to the fatherland, before the approaching winter would put an
end to all action.
But Tehutimes’ success in his first expedition was so decisive, so
overwhelming, that he never found it necessary again to cross the
Isthmus. Southern Syria made no murmur against the burden laid upon
it, although the North, it is true, soon slipped from the Pharaoh’s
grasp, if indeed he ever had his grip upon it. A strong garrison was
left at Gaza, and the king returned to his still rebellious subjects
in Ethiopia and Nubia. Two or three rebellions were easily silenced.
On these expeditions Tehutimes passed through the old canal built by
Usertsen III, and on the rocks that border it have been found many
interesting inscriptions relating to the trip. One at Assuan reads,
“Year III, Pakhons 20, his Majesty passed this canal in force and
power in his campaign to crush Ethiopia, the vile”; on another there
is cut, “His Majesty came to Cush to crush the vile”; and on a third,
“His Majesty commanded to clear this canal, after he found it filled
with stones so that no boat could pass up it. He passed up it, his
heart filled with joy.” The king now placed the affairs of his southern
lands in the hands of a viceroy, who is called “Royal Son of Cush,”
and must, therefore, have had the blood of Ra in his veins. Likewise
the king made extensive provisions for fortifications. He restored the
fortresses of Semneh and Kummeh to the efficiency they possessed in
the great days of the XIIth Dynasty, and he built a brickwork citadel
to command the Nile on the island of Tombos, near the Third Cataract.
All these precautions enabled Tehutimes I to live out the remainder
of a reign of about twenty-five years in complete peace. The strange
circumstance of his later years and the problems of his successor are
well recounted in Maspero’s monumental work on “The Struggle of the
Nations” and his history of the ancient oriental peoples.[a]
The position of Tehutimes I was, indeed, a curious one; although _de
facto_ absolute in power, his children by Queen Aahmes took precedence
of him, for by her mother’s descent she had a better right to the crown
than her husband, and legally the king should have retired in favour
of his sons as soon as they were old enough to reign. [According to
Petrie, these two were children of Amenhotep I by Queen Aah-hotep and
consequently brothers of Queen Aahmes.] The eldest of them, Uazmes,
died early. The second, Amenmes, lived at least to attain adolescence:
he was allowed to share the crown with his father from the fourth year
of the latter’s reign, and he also held a military command in the
Delta, but before long he also died, and Tehutimes I was left with
only one son--a Tehutimes like himself--to succeed him. The mother of
this prince was a certain Mut-nefert, half-sister to the king on his
father’s side, who enjoyed such a high rank in the royal family that
her husband allowed her to be portrayed in royal dress; her pedigree on
the mother’s side, however, was not so distinguished, and precluded her
son from being recognised as heir-apparent; hence the occupation of the
“seat of Horus” reverted once more to a woman, Hatshepsitu, the eldest
daughter of Aahmes.
TEHUTIMES II; QUEEN HATSHEPSU
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1565-1530 B.C.]]
Hatshepsitu herself was not, however, of purely divine descent. Her
paternal ancestor, Sensenb, had not been a scion of the royal house,
and this flaw in her pedigree threatened to mar, in her case, the
sanctity of the solar blood. According to Egyptian belief, this defect
of birth could be remedied only by a miracle, and the ancestral god,
becoming incarnate in the earthly father at the moment of conception
had to condescend to infuse fresh virtue into his race in this manner.
The inscriptions with which Hatshepsitu decorated her chapel relate
how, on that fateful night, Amen descended upon Aahmes in a flood of
perfume and light. The queen received him favourably, and the divine
spouse on leaving her announced to her the approaching birth of a
daughter, in whom his valour and strength should be manifested once
more here below.
The sequel of the story is displayed in a series of pictures. The
protecting divinities who preside over the birth of children conduct
the queen to her couch, and the sorrowful resignation depicted on her
face, together with the languid grace of her whole figure, display in
this portrait of her a finished work of art. The child enters the world
amid shouts of joy, and the propitious genii who nourish both her and
her double, constitute themselves her nurses. At the appointed time,
her earthly father summons the great nobles to a solemn festival, and
presents to them his daughter, who is to reign with him over Egypt and
the world.
From henceforth Hatshepsitu adopts every possible device to conceal
her sex. She changes the termination of her name, and calls herself
Hatshepsu, the “Chief of the Nobles,” in lieu of Hatshepsitu, the
“Chief of the Favourites.” She becomes the King Maat-ka-Ra, and on the
occasion of all public ceremonies she appears in male costume.
[Illustration: HEAD-DRESS OF AN EGYPTIAN QUEEN]
We see her represented on Theban monuments with uncovered shoulders,
devoid of breasts, wearing the short loin-cloth and the keffieh, while
the diadem rests on her closely cut hair, and the false beard depends
from her chin. She retained, however, the feminine pronoun in speaking
of herself, and also an epithet, inserted in her cartouche, which
declared her to be the betrothed of Amen--_Khnem Amen_. Her father
united her while still young to her brother Tehutimes, who appears
to have been her junior, and this fact doubtless explains the very
subordinate part which he plays beside the queen. When Tehutimes I
died, Egyptian etiquette demanded that a man should be at the head of
affairs, and this youth succeeded his father in office: but Hatshepsu,
while relinquishing the semblance of power and the externals of pomp
to her husband, kept the direction of the state entirely in her own
hands. The portraits of her which have been preserved represent her as
having refined features, with a proud and energetic expression. The
oval of the face is elongated, the cheeks a little hollow, and the
eyes deep set under the arch of the brow, while the lips are thin and
tightly closed. She governed with so firm a hand that neither Egypt
nor its foreign vassals dared to make any serious attempt to withdraw
themselves from her authority. One raid, in which several prisoners
were taken, punished a rising of the Shasu in central Syria, while
the usual expeditions maintained order among the peoples of Ethiopia,
and quenched any attempt which they might make to revolt. When in the
second year of his reign the news was brought to Tehutimes II that the
inhabitants of the Upper Nile had ceased to observe the conditions
which his father had imposed upon them, he “became furious as a
panther,” and assembling his troops, set out for war without further
delay. The presence of the king with the army filled the rebels with
dismay, and a campaign of a few weeks put an end to their attempt at
rebelling. Tehutimes II carried on the works begun by his father, but
did not long survive him. The mask on his coffin represents him with
a smiling and amiable countenance, and with the fine pathetic eyes
which show his descent from the Pharaohs of the XIIth Dynasty. By his
marriage with Hatshepsu, Tehutimes left daughters only, but he had
one son, also a Tehutimes,[3] by a woman of low birth, perhaps merely
a slave, whose name was Aset. Hatshepsu proclaimed this child her
successor, for his youth and humble parentage could not excite her
jealousy. She betrothed him to her one surviving daughter, Hatshepsitu
II, and having thus settled the succession in the main line, she
continued to rule alone in the name of her nephew who was still a
minor, as she had done formerly in the case of her half-brother.
Her reign was a prosperous one, but whether the flourishing condition
of things was owing to the ability of her political administration
or to her fortunate choice of ministers, we are unable to tell. She
pressed forward the work of building with great activity, under the
direction of her architect Senmut, not only at Deir-el-Bahari, but at
Karnak, and indeed everywhere in Thebes. The plans of the building had
been arranged under Tehutimes I, and their execution had been carried
out so quickly that in many cases the queen had merely to see to the
sculptural ornamentation on the all-but-completed walls. This work,
however, afforded her sufficient excuse, according to Egyptian custom,
to attribute the whole structure to herself, and the opinion she had
of her own powers is exhibited with great naïveté in her inscriptions.
[A famous incident of her reign was the sending out of an expedition
across the Red Sea in quest of incense.]
[Illustration: TEHUTIMES II]
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1530-1520 B.C.]]
When Tehutimes III approached manhood, his aunt, the queen, instead of
abdicating in his favour, associated him with herself more frequently
in the external acts of government. She was forced to yield him
precedence in those religious ceremonies which could be performed by
a man only, such as the dedication of one of the city gates of Ombos,
and the foundation and marking out of a temple at Medinet Habu; but
for the most part she obliged him to remain in the background and take
a secondary place beside her. We are unable to determine the precise
moment when this dual sovereignty came to an end. It was still existent
in the XVIth year of the reign, but it had ceased before the XXIInd
year. Death alone could take the sceptre from the hands that held it,
and Tehutimes had to curb his impatience for many a long day before
becoming the real master of Egypt. He was about twenty-five years of
age[4] when this event took place, and he immediately revenged himself
for the long repression he had undergone, by endeavouring to destroy
the very remembrance of her whom he regarded as a usurper. Every
portrait of her that he could deface without exposing himself to being
accused of sacrilege, was cut away, and he substituted for her name
either that of Tehutimes I or of Tehutimes II. A complete political
change was effected both at home and abroad from the first day of his
accession to power. Hatshepsu had been averse to war. During the whole
of her reign there had not been a single campaign undertaken beyond the
Isthmus of Suez, and by the end of her life she had lost nearly all
that her father had gained in Syria; the people of Kharu [Phœnicia] had
shaken off the yoke, probably at the instigation of the king of the
Amorites, and nothing remained to Egypt of the Asiatic province but
Gaza, Sharhana, and the neighbouring villages.[c]
One of the first acts of Tehutimes III as sole king, was to lead an
expedition against Syria, where the constant revolts had weakened the
power of Egypt. He arrived at Gaza on the 3rd (or 4th) of the month of
Pakhons. There he celebrated the anniversary of his coronation, and the
twenty-third year of his reign. He then proceeded by gentle marches
to Ihem, twenty miles to the north of Gaza, where he learned from his
envoys, that the king of Kadesh had intrenched himself at Megiddo, with
a contingent of the rebels.
TRIUMPHS OF TEHUTIMES III; HIS SUCCESSORS
Fear of the danger of the mountain defiles near Aluna made some of the
officers wish to turn back and go by the Ziftha road. But Tehutimes
indignantly rejected their counsel, saying:
“By my life, by the love that Ra has for me, by the favour bestowed on
me by my father Amen, my Majesty will take this road of Aluna, whether
it please you to take any of the other routes suggested, or whether it
please you to follow me. For would not these vile enemies, detested by
Ra, say: ‘If Pharaoh is going by another route, he is going for fear of
us’?”
Then the Pharaoh’s generals replied: “Thy father Amen protects thee; we
will follow whithersoever thou leadest, as servants follow their lord.”
Three days’ rapid march brought the army, without any mishap, to the
town of Aluna, close to a torrent called the Qina, a little to the
south of Megiddo, and there it encamped for the night in the face of
the enemy with the watchwords:
“Keep a good heart: courage! watch well! Be alert in the camp!”
Dawn found the Egyptian army ranged for battle; the right wing was
directed towards the River Qina, while the left extended into the plain
towards the northwest of Megiddo. After a sharp encounter, the Syrians
were seized by a panic, and abandoning their horses and chariots on the
battle-field, they fled back to Megiddo; but fear of the enemy kept the
gates closed, and among those drawn up to the ramparts, by ropes let
down by the townspeople, was the lord of Kadesh himself.
“If it had pleased God not to let the soldiers of his Majesty be
employed in carrying off the spoils of his vile enemies, they could
then have taken Megiddo,”--it says in the account of the campaign. The
cupidity of the conquerors saved the lives of the vanquished, for,
although they took possession on the field of battle of 2132 horses,
994 chariots, and all the booty left behind by the Asiatics, they took
only 140 prisoners and killed only 83.
In the evening, when the victorious army marched by Tehutimes III with
the spoils, the king exclaimed:
“Had you taken Megiddo, it would have been a very great favour granted
me by my father this day; for as all the chiefs of the country are
within the walls, it would be like taking a thousand cities to take
Megiddo.”
However, the place, being soon besieged, capitulated in a few days.
With its fall, the campaign ended; and the chiefs of Syria and
Mesopotamia hastened to take the oath of allegiance and to pay tribute
to Egypt.
Three successive campaigns, from the year XXIV to the year XXVIII of
this reign, completed the subjugation of Syria and southern Phœnicia.
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1520-1503 B.C.]]
In the year XXIX, Tehutimes proceeded to Naharain, the territory
between the rivers Orontes and Euphrates, and the districts on the west
of Khilibu were sacked to the glory of the god of Thebes, whose coffers
were soon filled with the gold, silver, and treasures of the Hittite
princes.
As the king was returning to Egypt with “a joyful heart,” he suddenly
bethought him that the Zahi, rich in wine, oil and corn, and beyond
the line of military routes, would be a wealthy and easy prey. So he
turned to the east, and made a raid on the district of Aradus, which
the Egyptians robbed of cattle and produce.
The following year the Thebans returned again, and the towns of Kadesh,
Semyra, Aradus, and Arathu, on the shores of Lake Nisrana, fell one
after the other. The sons of their chiefs were kept as hostages. The
campaign lasted till XXXI; and the king celebrated his victory by
putting up two steles near Carchemish, one on the east of the river,
and the other near the stele erected by his father, or grandfather,
Tehutimes I, nearly half a century before.
Then he conquered Ni[5] and received tribute from its prince. The
sojourn of Tehutimes III in this town was signalised by the performance
of the royal duty of killing wild beasts; and the king is reported to
have hunted and killed more than one hundred and twenty elephants.
All the tribes of Syria had to submit to the powerful yoke of the
Egyptians, and the chiefs of the Libanu, the Kheta [Hittites] and the
king of Singara took the oath of allegiance.
Nevertheless there was a revolt under the king of Naharain in XXXVII,
which was quelled by a great battle not far from Aluna. In XLI the
seat of war was in Cœle-Syria; and the king of Kadesh refusing to do
homage to Pharaoh, a deadly struggle took place under the ramparts of
the city. The besieged tried the ruse of letting a mare loose among the
chariots of Tehutimes; but Amenemheb, an officer of the guard, leaped
to the ground, disembowelled the animal with a thrust of his sword,
and cutting off its tail, presented it to the king; and the same brave
officer, at the head of a picked body of men, succeeded in making a
breach and forcing an entrance into the town.
Hardly a year passed without a skirmish with the Uauatu in Ethiopia.
But the tribes, having trembled so long before the Pharaohs, fled at
the first sign of attack. The Egyptians had only to take possession of
the flocks and herds, or any booty left in the deserted villages, and
the campaign of the commander was a series of easy victories, which
were celebrated with triumph on their return home.
The success of Tehutimes III in his campaigns increased the size and
wealth of the kingdom and gave ground for his being accorded the name
of “the Great”; and it is not surprising to see that his deeds formed
the subject of poetic panegyrics of the period, inscribed on the Temple
of Karnak:
“I am come,” said the god Amen to him, “to permit thee to crush the
princes of Zahi; I cast them at thy feet in their districts; I make
them see thy Majesty as a lord of light, when thou shinest before them
in my likeness.
“I am come to let thee crush the barbarians of Asia, to take captive
the chiefs of Ruthen. I will make them see thy Majesty decked with
warlike apparel, when thou wieldest thy arms upon the chariot.
“I am come to let thee crush the land of the East; Kefa (Phœnicia) and
Asebi (Cyprus) are in fear of thee; I make them see thy Majesty like a
young bull, firm of heart and irresistible with thy horns.
“I am come to let thee crush the people who reside in their ports. And
the regions of Mathen tremble before thee. I make them see thy Majesty
like the hippopotamus, lord of terror and unapproachable upon the
waters.
“I am come to let thee crush the people who reside in their islands.
Those who live on the bosom of the sea are within reach of thy roaring.
I make them see thy Majesty as an avenger on the back of his victim.
“I am come to let thee crush the Tuhennu. The isles of the Uthent are
at thy disposal. I make them see thy Majesty like that of a furious
lion, that strews the valley with corpses.
“I am come to let thee crush the maritime countries, so that the girdle
of the oceans is in thy hand. I make them see that thy Majesty, as the
king of birds, sees everything with one glance.
“I am come to let thee crush the lords of the sands who live in the
lagunes; to let thee lead the dwellers upon the sand into captivity.
I make them see thy Majesty like a jackal of the South, a king of
runners, a scourer of the two regions.
“I am come to let thee crush the barbarians of Nubia. As far as the
land of Shat, all is in thy hand. I make them see thy Majesty like unto
thy two brothers, Hor and Set, whose arms I have united to secure thy
power.”
So much success appealed to the imagination of the people, and
Tehutimes III was soon regarded as a hero of romance, as were Khufu and
Usertsen I. Only one of the legends circulated for centuries after his
death is still extant.
The prince of Joppa revolted and took the field against the Egyptians.
The Pharaoh, unable at that time to leave his country, sent Thutii, one
of his bravest generals, to quell the insurrection. The town was soon
taken.
Tehutimes died on the last day of Phamenoth in the year LIV of his
reign, and was buried at Thebes.
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1503-1455 B.C.]]
Amenhotep II succeeded his father Tehutimes III.
The Syrians thought that the coming of a new king of Egypt meant a
time for casting off the yoke of the Pharaohs. But they soon saw their
mistake. Amenhotep laid waste the districts of the upper Jordan, and
“like a terrible lion which puts a country to flight,” on Tybi 26th
he crossed the Arseth to reconnoitre the passes of Anato. When “some
Asiatics appeared on horseback to bar his approach, he seized their
weapons of war, and his prowess equalled the mysterious power of Set,
for the barbarians fled the glance.”
On the 10th Epiphi he took Ni without striking a blow. The inhabitants,
men and women, were on the walls to do honour to his Majesty. Other
places, like Akerith, underwent long siege, before surrendering. But
the insurrection was entirely quelled by the year III, and in the
course of the campaign the Pharaoh captured seven chiefs of the country
of Thakhis. Six of them were solemnly sacrificed to Amen, their hands
and heads being exposed on the walls of the temple of Karnak. The
seventh was treated in the same way at Napata, as an example to the
Ethiopian princes and to make them respect the authority of Pharaoh.
An insurrection of the tribes in the desert, and the oases on the
east of Egypt, was quelled by Amenemheb, who had the same post under
Amenhotep as he had under Tehutimes III.
Tehutimes IV, son of Amenhotep, was the next king of Egypt, and his
successful campaigns confirmed his power in Syria and Ethiopia.
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1455-1400 B.C.]]
Under Amenhotep III, who succeeded Tehutimes IV, the boundaries of
Egyptian domination were fixed at the Euphrates on the north, and on
the south by the land of the Gallas.
The Syrians were now completely under the Egyptian yoke, and willingly
sent their daughters to the royal harem; the old-time wars had
developed into occasional raids for the acquisition of slaves or
workmen for the building operations in the valley of the Nile.
The last kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty were distinguished by the name of
“heretic kings,” for as they resented the increasing sacerdotal power
of the cult of Amen they established opposition cults. Tehutimes IV
discarded the Great Sphinx and restored the old cult of Horemkhu (“The
Sun in the Two Horizons”). Amenhotep III brought to Thebes the religion
of Aten, the solar disk, and in the year X of his reign inaugurated a
festival at Karnak in honour of the new religion. And Amenhotep IV, to
free himself from the power of the high priest at Thebes, determined to
have a new capital for his kingdom, in which Aten should be the supreme
god. The religion of Aten was probably the most ancient form of the
religions of Ra. The disk, before which protestations were made, was
not only the shining and visible form of the divinity, it was the god
himself.
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1420-1365 B.C.]]
Amenhotep III married a wife of foreign origin and religion, Thi. He
had by her a son who succeeded him under the name of Amenhotep IV.
The figure of Amenhotep IV, as made known to us by the monuments,
exhibits those peculiar and strange characteristics which mutilation
impresses upon the face, chest, and abdomen of eunuchs. On the other
hand, we know that at an early age he married Queen Nefert-Thi and had
by her seven daughters. It is therefore probable that if he really
did experience the misfortune of which his features seem to bear the
evidence, it happened during the wars of Amenhotep III and among the
black people of the South. The custom of mutilating prisoners and
wounded is, among these people, as old as the world. Amenhotep IV
doubtless imbibed religious ideas from his mother, for he manifested
a great horror of the cult of Amen and gave his homage to the solar
divinities, chiefly to the disk itself.
But the fear of arousing his subjects to revolt restrained him at
first from too openly avowing his heresy. He contented himself with
changing his name, which contained that of Amen, for that of Khun-aten,
“Splendour of the Sun’s disk,” and continued to worship his father
Amenhotep and the god Amen himself. Later, his religious fanaticism
got the better of his prudence. The cult of Amen was forbidden and his
name erased wherever it could be reached. The pure-blooded Egyptians
came under suspicion on account of their religion and disappeared from
the king’s entourage, giving place to Asiatic personages who resembled
Pharaoh and were deprived like him of their virility.
Thebes, so full of monuments consecrated to the fallen god, lost its
rank of capital.
Khun-aten built a new capital at a place in Middle Egypt which to-day
bears the name of Tel-el-Amarna, and which he called Khut-aten, where
there was nothing to recall the old religion.
The sun was the principal god of the old religion; all the ancient
solar divinities, Ra-Horemkhu, Hor, were recognised and respected.
Monuments show us the god in the form of a disk whose rays descend
toward the earth, each ray terminating in a hand holding the ansated
cross--the emblem of life. The disk is called Aten. Wherever the king
goes, the solar disk accompanies him and sheds its benediction upon him.
But with all the attention he paid to religion, Khun-aten was, like his
ancestors, a great builder and conqueror. Ethiopia, Thebes, and Memphis
were fields of his activity, and he continued to exercise sovereign
authority in Syria as well as in Africa.
At his death the crown passed to Prince Ai, his foster-brother, and
husband of his eldest daughter Tai. The new king, without renouncing
the religion of sun-worship, suspended the persecutions which had
the cult of Amen for their object and restored the religion of the
ancient national divinities. For successors he had his brothers-in-law
Tut-ankh-Amen, and later Saa-nekht, whose reign, although short, seems
to have been prosperous. Tut-ankh-Amen, at least, is represented as an
all-powerful Pharaoh, to whom foreign peoples give trembling homage.
[According to Brugsch and Wiedemann and Petrie the order of these kings
is Saa-nekht, Tut-ankh-Amen, and Ai--the reverse of the order here
given.]
But after them civil and religious wars desolated Egypt; the throne was
occupied by ephemeral kings whose names even are unknown to us. [The
kings formerly reputed to belong to the end of this dynasty are now,
as Professor Petrie remarks, “not of historical substance, but only
linguistic questions.” It has been well established that the names in
question are either errors or “Ptolemaic bungles,” and they are now
assigned to monarchs of this and other dynasties.]
King Hor-em-heb re-established peace, suppressed the solar religion,
destroyed Khun-aten’s monuments, and everywhere restored the ancient
cult. Outside the country he reconquered Ethiopia, which for the
time being had been lost, and made the land of Punt tributary, but
risked no expeditions into Syria. The conquests of the Tehutimes and
the Amenhoteps, so dearly obtained in this direction, had been lost
during the religious wars. The petty local princes had ceased to pay
tribute: and to reduce them anew, a whole generation of conquerors was
necessary.[a]
FOOTNOTES
[3] [Whether Tehutimes I or Tehutimes II was the father of Tehutimes
III is still in doubt, but Maspero and Petrie incline to the belief
that it was Tehutimes II.]
[4] [Petrie says he was about thirty-one years old.]
[5] [A town in the land of Naharain that sometimes has been confounded
with Nineveh.]