RAMESES THE GREAT GOES FORTH FROM EGYPT.
Why, then the world’s mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.—SHAKSPEARE.
Rameses the Great was the Alexander of Egypt. His lot was cast in the
palmiest days of Egyptian history. He was the most magnificent of the
Pharaohs. None had such grand ideas, or gave them such grand embodiment.
He carried the arms of Egypt to the utmost limits they ever reached.
As one stands at Karnak, Thebes, and Abydos, before the sculptures he
set up, and reads in them the records of his achievements, and of the
thoughts that stirred within him, the mind is transported to a very
distant past—but though so distant, we still may, by the aids we now
possess, recover much of its form and features. Let us then endeavour to
construct for ourselves some conception of his great expedition from the
materials with which the monuments and history supply us.
Egypt is very flourishing. Pharaoh has an army of 700,000 men and great
resources, and so he becomes dissatisfied at remaining idle in his happy
valley. There is a wonderful world up in the north-east. He would like
to be to that world what we might describe as an Egyptian Columbus and
Cortez in one. He wishes to signalize the commencement of his reign with
some achievement that will be for ever famous. But these distant people
have never wronged him: they had never burnt his cities, or driven off
his cattle. If they have ever heard of the grandeur of Egypt, they can
hardly tell whether it belongs to this world of theirs, or to some other
world. Considerations, however, of this kind do not affect him.
But there are many difficulties in his way. The very first step of the
proposed expedition will carry his army into a desert of some days’
journey. How is this desert to be crossed? That is disposed of by the
answer that his father Sethos, and even some of the predecessors of
Sethos on the throne of Egypt, had crossed it.—But how is his army to
be supported in that unknown world beyond? How are provisions to be
procured, for they cannot be supplied from Egypt? The people they will
invade can support themselves; what they have must be taken from them,
and war must be made to support itself.—But supposing all goes well as
they advance, how shall they ever get back, with their arms worn out,
and their ranks thinned, and with a vengeful foe barring their return
with fortified places, and swarming upon them from every side? They must,
on their outward march, raze all these fortified places, and make as
clean a sweep as they can of the population of the countries they pass
through.—And how shall the Egyptians live when Nature shall assail them
with frost and snow? Will their linen robes be then sufficient? They
must do what they can. They will be able to take the woollen garments
of the enemies they destroy. The difficulties, then, could not deter
him. He must see this great and wonderful world outside. He must flaunt
his greatness in its face. He must collect the treasures and the slaves
that will be required for building the mighty temples and palaces he
contemplates. These monuments he must have; and he will record upon them
that he did not, in raising them, tax and use up Egyptians.
And so it becomes a settled thing that he and his armies shall go forth
from Egypt. It would not have been the East had not the host, with which
he was to go forth, been a mighty one—as God’s army, the locusts, for
multitude. Everything must be on a grand scale; and everything must be
foreseen and provided for, as is the custom of the wise Egyptians.
Then began a gathering of men, of horses, of chariots, of asses, such
as had never been seen on the earth before—as much greater than other
gatherings as the Pyramids were greater than other buildings. In those
mighty structures they had had an example, now for a thousand years,
of the style and fashion in which should be carried out whatever Egypt
undertook. Day and night were the messengers going to and fro on the
bank, and on the river. Many new forges were put in blast, many new
anvils set up. Never had the sound of the hammer been so much heard
before, never had been seen before so many buyers and lookers-on in the
armourers’ bazaars. There were canvas towns outside the gates of Thebes,
of This, of Memphis, and of other great cities. Never had so many horses
been seen picketed before; men wondered where they all had come from.
On the river there were boats full of men, and boats full of grain, to
people and to feed the canvas towns. Never had the landing-places been so
crowded before. Many a river trader, in those days, had to drop away from
his moorings against the bank, to make room for the grain-boats and the
troop-boats of the great king. Never had the temples been so full before:
never had there been so many processions, and so many offerings. The gods
must be propitiated for the great expedition: it must be undertaken
in their names. Mightier temples and richer offerings must be promised
for the return of the king and of the host, when they shall bring back
victory. Many said in those days of preparation, ‘The gods be with the
king and with his armies.’ Many said in their hearts, ‘Who can tell? The
gods had made Egypt great, but would they go forth from Egypt? The king
was as a god, but could he do all things?’ This was an issue that could
not be forecast.
Such was the talk of many in the mud-built villages, as well as in
hundred-gated Thebes, in old Abydos, in discrowned Memphis, and in all
the cities of all the gods—for every god had his own city. Nothing else
had much interest, either in the mansions of the rich, or in the hovels
of the poor. The wives and daughters of the people—while in the evening
they walked down to the river-side with their water-jars, or, when
the sun was down, clustered together at the street-corners and at the
village-gate, sitting on the ground—had never tarried before so long at
those watering-places, those gates, and those street-corners. And all
the while the musterings and the preparations went on like the work of a
machine, for the king had the whole people well in hand, and he bent all
Egypt to the work as if it had been one man.
And everything is now complete. The last processions and offerings have
been made. The aid of the gods has been promised. The priests had thought
that Egypt, at all events, would be secure, whatever might befall those
going forth; that no abiding evil consequences could ever ensue to the
country itself. In this they knew not the future. If all should not go
well, Egypt, they deemed, could spare some of her soldier caste, and that
her priests would in that take no hurt. As to the stranger, no matter
what his thirst for vengeance, it never would be slaked in Egypt.
And now the host has reached Pelusium, the place which, under the name
of Abaris, had been fortified so strongly on the expulsion of the
Hyksos. This was the great rendezvous. In that neighbourhood the several
army-corps had been assembling for the last two or three months. And now
it is near the end of winter. Water will still be found in the wadies
of Mount Cassius; and they will be in time to reap for themselves the
harvests of Syria; and, as the season goes on, of the countries further
to the north. At last they advance into the desert, and the host is
brought together for the first time. Never before had been seen such
a host. All the might and all the glory of Egypt are there; all the
discipline and all the forethought. These Egyptians, who are so fond
of colour and of flags at home, have not gone forth to show themselves
to the world without this bravery. The desert cannot be seen for the
myriads of men and animals that cover it. It has become as gay as a
flower-garden. The bright sun is glinting from untarnished arms.
And so they crossed the desert, and got among the cities which were
afterwards known as the cities of the Philistines, the cities of the
Plain of Sharon. And now commenced their cruel work. Their two great
objects were to provide themselves with supplies; and then to sweep away
everything, both fortified places, and men capable of bearing arms, that
might impede their return, they knew not when, or how. These people had
never troubled Egypt, but most of them were akin to the hated Hyksos. No
justification was needed, but that would justify anything. The Egyptian
host must take all it wanted, though those from whom they take it
perish; and they must leave neither foe, nor pretended friend, behind.
And so they went on, clearing off everything, man and beast, fenced city
and corn-field. It was done ruthlessly. Their swords and spears were
seldom dry. You see on the sculptures the king set up when he returned
home, how he treated the people whose countries he passed through, for
this was not an expedition against enemies, but against the tribes and
nations whose countries he chose to pass through and desolate.
And so they went on. They swept over the Plain of Esdraelon, and they
passed up by Lebanon and Damascus into Armenia. They then overran Persia
and Media. At last they reached Bactria, the district of which modern
Bokhara is now the capital. Here they effected a lodgment, which kept
this region in subjection and tributary to them for some generations. It
is curious that in this remote and almost inaccessible centre of Asia
the Greeks also in after times succeeded in establishing themselves, and
were able to maintain the position they had acquired in it for several
centuries. This was the Egyptians’ extremest point to the East. They
now turned their faces westward, and, having overrun Asia Minor, they
crossed into Thrace. From Thrace they appear to have endeavoured to
make the circuit of the Euxine. This brought them into collision with
the Scythians, whom they defeated. Among those peoples whose cities he
destroyed, and whose country he ravaged, Rameses had probably taken no
especial notice of the Persians. They, however, were the people who
were destined to retaliate the wanton and enormous cruelties of the
undertaking, in the success of which he saw only the establishment of the
glory and power of Egypt. In the days of their empire they will not only
repay Egypt for this expedition, but they will also follow the footsteps
of Rameses through Asia Minor, across the Bosphorus into Thrace, and
through Thrace, and across the Danube, into Scythia. But from the wide
inhospitable steppes they will not bring back the barren victories—no
others could be obtained there—which will enable the Egyptians to boast
that the achievements of Darius had not equalled those of Rameses.
At the eastern end of the Black Sea, in the district known to the
Greeks by the name of Colchis, Rameses left a detachment of his army
for the purpose of permanently occupying a position. Those thus left
behind established themselves on the spot; and long afterwards, by their
practice of the rite of circumcision, their language, complexion, and
hair, retained the evidence of their origin. As their hair was woolly
and their skin black, they must have been detached from the Ethiopian
contingent of the army.[4]
Everywhere throughout this great raid Rameses set up statues and tablets
with inscriptions upon them to commemorate his achievements, making many
of them insulting to the people he had conquered, and whose countries
he had devastated. One of these inscriptions remains to this day on the
living rock to the north-west of Damascus, near the mouth of the river
the Greeks called Lycus, and which is now known by the name of El Kelb.
Upon it are still legible the names of Rameses and of the gods Ra (the
sun), and Ammon, whom especially he served, as the gods of his great
capital, Thebes.
And so, after nine years of such warfare as we have been describing, he
returns to favoured and protected Egypt, to thank Ra and Ammon for the
favour and protection they had vouchsafed to him, and for all the mighty
deeds they had enabled him to do, and to preserve for ever the memory of
those deeds on the walls of their temples. He brings back with him much
treasure, the spoils of the nations, and multitudes of captives. Both
this treasure and these captives he uses up upon the temples, and upon
the monuments, palaces, and cities, he now builds.
Without any possible provocation, and without any advantage to himself,
if the wear and tear of his own kingdom be weighed in the balance against
the spoil and the slaves he brought home, he had, like a lava torrent,
passed over what were then some of the fairest portions of the world.
His swarthy, bloodthirsty, destroying host must have appeared to the
inhabitants of those countries like the legions of the lower world let
loose. This was too dreadful a work even for those times ever to be
forgotten.
And it was remembered some centuries afterwards, when the tables were
turned, and Egypt was invaded by Cambyses. In the Persian army were
contingents from many people who had treasured up the memory of what
Rameses the Great had on this expedition done to their forefathers, and
of what several of the successors of Rameses on the throne of Egypt had
in like manner done to many of the peoples of Asia. The day of reckoning
came, and the reckoning was fearfully exacted. We see the marks,
remaining on the temples to this day, of the retributive fury of the
Persians against the gods of Egypt.