occupied two entirely distinct positions. In the Delta, the Fayoum, and
the northern Nile valley, they were completely reduced, and lived
intermixed with their conquerors, a despised class, suffering more or
less of oppression. In Upper Egypt the case was different. There the
people had submitted in a certain sense, acknowledged the Hyksôs
monarchs as their suzerains, and indicated their subjection by the
payment of an annual tribute; but they retained their own native
princes, their own administration and government, their own religion,
their own laws; they did not live intermixed with the new comers; they
were not subject to daily insult or ill-treatment; the fact that they
paid a tribute did not hinder their preserving their self-respect, and
consequently they suffered neither moral nor physical deterioration.
Further, it would seem to have been possible for them to engage in wars
on their own account with the races living further up the Nile, or with
the wild tribes of the desert, and thus to maintain warlike habits among
themselves, while the Hyksôs were becoming unaccustomed to them. The
Ra-Sekenens of Thebes, who called themselves "great" and "very great,"
had probably built up a considerable power in Upper Egypt during the
reigns of the later "Shepherd Kings;" had improved their military
system by the adoption of the horse and the chariot, which the Hyksôs
had introduced; had practised their people in arms, and acquired a
reputation as warriors.
More particularly must this have been the case with Ra-Sekenen III., the
contemporary of Apepi. Ra-Sekenen the Third called himself "the great
victorious Taa." He surrounded himself with a council of "mighty chiefs,
captains, and expert leaders." He acquired so much repute, that he
provoked Apepi's jealousy before he had in any way transgressed the
duties which he owed him as a feudatory. In the long negotiation between
the two, of which the "First Sallier Papyrus" gives an account, it is
evident that, while Ra-Sekenen has committed no act whereof Apepi has
any right to complain, he has awoke in him feelings of such hostility,
that Apepi will be content with nothing less than either unqualified
submission to every demand that he chooses to make, or war _à outrance_.
Never was a subject monarch more goaded and driven into rebellion
against his inclination by over-bearing conduct on the part of his
suzerain than was Ra-Sekenen by the last "Shepherd King." The
disinclination of himself and his court to fight is almost ludicrous:
they "are silent and in great dismay; they know not how to answer the
messenger sent to them, good of ill." Ra-Sekenen, powerful as he had
become, "victorious" as he may have been against Libyans and negroes,
and even Cushites, dreaded exceedingly to engage in a struggle with the
redoubted people which, two centuries previously, had shown itself so
irresistible.
It would seem, however, that he was forced to take up arms at last. We
have, unfortunately, no description of the war which followed, so far as
it was conducted by this monarch. But it is evident that Apepi was
completely disappointed in his hope of crushing the rising native power
before it had grown too strong. He had in fact delayed too late.
Ra-Sekenen, compelled to defend himself against his aggressive suzerain,
raised the standard of national independence, invited aid from all parts
of Egypt, and succeeded in bringing a large army into the field. At the
first he simply held his own against Apepi, but by degrees he was able
to do more. The Hyksôs, who marched against Thebes, found enemies rise
up against them in their rear, as first one and then another native
chief declared against them in this or that city; their difficulties
continually increased; they had to re-descend the Nile valley and to
concentrate their forces nearer home. But each year they lost ground.
First the Fayoum was yielded, then Memphis, then Tanis. At last nothing
remained to the invaders but their great fortified camp, Uar or Auaris,
which they had established at the time of their arrival upon the eastern
frontier, and had ever since kept up. In this district, which was
strongly fortified by walls and moats, and watered by canals derived
from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, they had concentrated themselves,
we are told, to the number of 240,000 men, determined to make there a
final stand against the Egyptians.
It was when affairs were in this position that Ra-Sekenen died, and was
succeeded by a king of a different family, the first monarch of the
"Eighteenth Dynasty," Aahmes. Aahmes was a prince of great force of
character, brave, active, energetic, liberal, beloved by his subjects.
He addressed himself at once to the task of completing the liberation of
his country by dislodging the Hyksôs from Auaris, and driving them
beyond his borders. With this object he collected a force, which is said
to have amounted to nearly half a million of men, and at the same time
placed a flotilla of ships upon the Nile, which was of the greatest
service in his later operations. Auaris was not only defended by broad
moats connected with the waters of the Nile, but also bordered upon a
lake, or perhaps rather a lagoon, of considerable dimensions. Hence it
was necessary that it should be attacked not only by land, but also by
water. Aahmes seems to have commanded the land forces in person, riding
in a war-chariot, the first of which we have distinct mention. A
favourite officer, who bore the same name as his master, accompanied
him, sometimes marching at his side as he rode in his chariot, sometimes
taking his place in one of the war-vessels, and directing the movements
of the fleet. After a time formal siege was laid to Auaris; the fleet
was ordered to attack the walls on the side of the lagoon, while the
land force was engaged in battering the defences elsewhere. Assaults
were made day after day with only partial success; but at last the
defenders were wearied out--a panic seized them, and, hastily evacuating
the place, they retired towards Syria, the quarter from which they had
originally come. Aahmes may have been willing that they should escape:
since, if they had been completely blocked in and driven to bay, they
might have made a desperate resistance, and caused the Egyptians an
enormous loss. He followed, however, upon their footsteps, to make sure
that they did not settle anywhere in his neighbourhood, and was not
content till they had crossed the desert and entered the hill country of
Palestine. Even then he still hung upon their rear, harassing them and
cutting off their stragglers; finally, when they made a stand at
Sharuhen in Southern Palestine, he laid siege to the town, took it, and
made a great slaughter of the hapless defenders.
The war did not terminate until the fifth year of Aahmes' reign. Its
result was the complete defeat of the invading hordes which had held
Lower and Middle Egypt for so long, and their expulsion from Egypt with
such ignominy and loss that they made no effort to retaliate or to
recover themselves. Vast numbers must have been slain in the battles, or
have perished amid the hardships of the retreat; and many thousands
were, no doubt, made prisoners and carried back into Egypt as slaves. It
is thought that these captives were so numerous as to become an
important element in the population of the eastern Delta, and even to
modify the character of the Egyptian race in that quarter. The lively
imagination of M. François Lenormant sees their descendants in the
"strange people, with robust limbs, an elongated face, and a severe
expression, which to this day inhabits the tract bordering on Lake
Menzaleh."[16]
It is probable that Aahmes had for allies in his war with the
"Shepherds" the great nation which adjoined Egypt on the south, and
which was continually growing in power--the Kashi, Cushites, or
Ethiopians. His wife appears by her features and complexion to have been
a Cushite princess, and the marriage is likely to have been less one of
inclination than of policy. The Egyptians admired fair women rather than
dark ones, as is plain from the unduly light complexions which the
artists, in their desire to flatter, ordinarily assign to women, as well
as from the attractiveness of Sarah, even in advanced age. When a Theban
king contracted marriage with an Ethiopian of ebon blackness, we are
entitled to assume a political motive; and the most probable political
motive under the circumstances of the time was the desire for military
assistance. Though in the early wars between the Kashi and the Egyptians
the prowess of the former is not represented as great, and the
designation of "miserable Cushites" is evidently used in depreciation of
their warlike qualities, yet the very use of the epithet implies a
feeling of hostility which could scarcely have been provoked by a weak
people. And the Cushites certainly advanced in prowess and in military
vigour as time went on. They formed the most important portion of the
Egyptian troops for some centuries; at a later period they conquered
Egypt, and were the dominant power for a hundred years; still further
on, they defied the might of Persia when Egypt succumbed to it. Aahmes,
in contracting his marriage with the Ethiopian princess, to whom he gave
the name of Nefertari-Aahmes--or "the good companion of Aahmes"--was,
we may be tolerably sure, bent on obtaining a contingent of those
stalwart troops whose modern representatives are either the Blacks of
the Soudan or the Gallas of the highlands of Abyssinia. The "Shepherds"
thus yielded to a combination of the North with the South, of the
Egyptians with the Ethiopians, such as in later times, on more than one
occasion, drove the Assyrians out of the country.
[Illustration: HEAD OF NEFERTARI-AAHMES.]
FOOTNOTES:
[16] "Manuel d'Histoire Ancienne de l'Orient," vol. i. p. 368.
X.
THOTHMES I., THE FIRST GREAT EGYPTIAN CONQUEROR.
Thothmes I. was the grandson of the Aahmes who drove out the Hyksôs. He
had thus hereditary claims to valour and military distinction. The
Ethiopian blood which flowed in his veins through his grandmother,
Nefertari-Aahmes, may have given him an additional touch of audacity,
and certainly showed itself in his countenance, where the short
depressed nose and the unduly thick lips are of the Cushite rather than
of the Egyptian type. His father, Amen-hotep I., was a somewhat
undistinguished prince; so that here, as so often, where superior talent
runs in a family, it seems to have skipped a generation, and to have
leapt from the grand-sire to the grandson. Thothmes began his military
career by an invasion of the countries upon the Upper Nile, which were
still in an unsettled state, notwithstanding the campaigns which had
been carried on, and the victories which had been gained in them, during
the two preceding reigns, by King Aahmes, and by the generals of
Amen-hotep. He placed a flotilla of ships upon the Nile above the Second
Cataract, and supporting it with his land forces on either side of the
river, advanced from Semneh, the boundary established by Usurtasen III.,
which is in lat. 21° 50' to Tombos, in lat. 19°, conquering the tribes,
Nubian and Cushite, as he proceeded, and from time to time
distinguishing himself in personal combats with his enemies. On one
occasion, we are told, "his majesty became more furious than a panther,"
and placing an arrow on his bowstring, directed it against the Nubian
chief so surely that it struck him, and remained fixed in his knee,
whereupon the chief "fell fainting down before the royal diadem." He was
at once seized and made a prisoner; his followers were defeated and
dispersed; and he himself, together with others, was carried off on
board the royal ship, hanging with his head downwards, to the royal
palace at the capital This victory was the precursor of others;
everywhere "the Petti of Nubia were hewed in pieces, and scattered all
over their lands," till "their stench filled the valleys." At last a
general submission was made, and a large-tract of territory was ceded.
The Egyptian terminus was pushed on from the twenty-second parallel to
the nineteenth, and at Tombos, beyond Dongola, an inscription was set
up, at once to mark the new frontier, and to hand down to posterity the
glory of the conquering monarch. The inscription still remains, and is
couched in inflated terms, which show a departure from the old official
style. Thothmes declares that "he has taken tribute from the nations of
the North, and from the nations of the South, as well as from _those of
the whole earth_; he has laid hold of the barbarians; he has not let a
single one of them escape his gripe upon their hair; the Petti of Nubia
have fallen beneath his blows; he has made their waters to flow
backwards; he has overflowed their valleys like a deluge, like waters
which mount and mount. He has resembled Horus, when he took possession
of his eternal kingdom; all the countries included within the
circumference of the entire earth are prostrate under his feet." Having
effected his conquest, Thothmes sought to secure it by the appointment
of a new officer, who was to govern the newly-annexed country under the
title of "Prince of Cush," and was to have his ordinary residence at
Semneh.
[Illustration: BUST OF THOTHMES I.]
Flushed with his victories in this quarter, and intoxicated with the
delight of conquest, Thothmes, on his return to Thebes, raised his
thoughts to a still grander and more adventurous enterprize. Egypt had
a great wrong to avenge, a huge disgrace to wipe out. She had been
Invaded, conquered, plundered, by an enemy whom she had not provoked by
any aggression; she had seen her cities laid in ashes, her temples torn
down and demolished, the images of her gods broken to pieces, her soil
dyed with her children's blood; she had been trampled under the iron
heel of the conqueror for centuries; she had been exhausted by the
payment of taxes and tribute; she had had to bow the knee, and lick the
dust under the conqueror's feet--was not retribution needed for all
this? True, she had at last risen up and expelled her enemy, she had
driven him beyond her borders, and he seemed content to acquiesce in his
defeat, and to trouble her no more; but was this enough? Did not the law
of eternal justice require something more:
"Nec lex justior ulla est,
Quàm necis artifices arte perire sua."
Was it not proper, fitting, requisite for the honour of Egypt, that
there should be retaliation, that the aggressor should suffer what he
had inflicted, should be attacked in his own country, should be made to
feel the grief, the despair, the rage, the shame, that he had forced
Egypt to feel for so many years; should expiate his guilt by a penalty,
not only proportioned to the offence, but Its exact counterpart? Such
thoughts, we may be sure, burned in the mind of the young warrior, when,
having secured Egypt on the south, he turned his attention to the north,
and asked himself the question how he should next employ the power that
he had inherited, and the talents with which nature had endowed him.
It is uncertain what amount of knowledge the Egyptians of the time
possessed concerning the internal condition, population, and resources,
of the continent which adjoined them on the north-east. We cannot say
whether Thothmes and his counsellors could, or could not, bring before
their mind's eye a fairly correct view of the general position of
Asiatic affairs, and form a reasonable estimate of the probabilities of
success or discomfiture, if a great expedition were led into the heart
of Asia. Whatever may have been their knowledge or ignorance, it will be
necessary for the historical student of the present day to have some
general ideas on the subject, if he is to form an adequate conception
either of the dangers which Thothmes affronted, or of the amount of
credit due to him for his victories. We propose, therefore, in the
present place, to glance our eye over the previous history of Western
Asia, and to describe, so far as is possible, its condition at the time
when Thothmes began to contemplate the invasion which it is his great
glory to have accomplished.
Western Asia is generally allowed to have been the cradle of the human
race. Its more fertile portions were thickly peopled at a very early
date. Monarchy, it is probable, first grew up in Babylonia, towards the
mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates. But it was not long ere a sister
kingdom established itself in Susiana, or Elam, the fertile tract
between the Lower Tigris and the Zagros mountains. The ambition of
conquest first showed itself in this latter country, whence
Kudur-Nakhunta, about B.C. 2300, made an attack on Erech, and
Chedor-laomer (about B.C. 2000) established an empire which extended
from the Zagros mountains on the one hand to the shores of the
Mediterranean on the other (Gen. xiv. 1-4) Shortly after this, a third
power, that of the Hittites, grew up towards the north, chiefly perhaps
in Asia Minor, but with a tendency to project itself southward into the
Mesopotamian region. Upper Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine, were at
this time inhabited by weak tribes, each under its own chief, with no
coherence, and no great military spirit. The chief of these tribes, at
the time when Thothmes I. ascended the Egyptian throne, were the Rutennu
in Syria, and the Nahari or Naïri in Upper Mesopotamia. The two
monarchies of the south, Elam and Babylon were not in a flourishing
condition, and exercised no suzerainty beyond their own natural limits.
They were, in fact, a check upon each other, constantly engaged in feuds
and quarrels, which prevented either from maintaining an extended sway
for more than a few years, Assyria had not yet acquired any great
distinction, though it was probably independent, and ruled by monarchs
who dwelt at Asshur (Kileh-Sherghat). The Hittites, about B.C. 1900, had
received a severe check from the Babylonian monarch, Sargon, and had
withdrawn themselves into their northern fortresses. Thus the
circumstances of the time were, on the whole, favourable to the
enterprize of Thothmes. No great organized monarchy was likely to take
the field against him, or to regard itself as concerned to interfere
with the execution of his projects, unless they assumed extraordinary
dimensions. So long as he did not proceed further north than Taurus, or
further east than the western Khabour, the great affluent of the
Euphrates, he would come into contact with none of the "great powers" of
the time; he would have, at the worst, to contend with loose
confederacies of tribes, distrustful of each other, unaccustomed to act
together, and, though brave, possessing no discipline or settled
military organization. At the same time, his adversaries must not be
regarded as altogether contemptible. The Philistines and Canaanites in
Palestine, the Arabs of the Sinaitic and Syrian deserts, the Rutennu of
the Lebanon and of Upper Syria, the Naïri of the western Mesopotamian
region, were individually brave men, were inured to warfare, had a
strong love of independence, and were likely to resist with energy any
attempt to bring them under subjection. They were also, most of them,
well acquainted with the value of the horse for military service, and
could bring into the field a number of war-chariots, with riders well
accustomed to their management Egypt had only recently added the horse
to the list of its domesticated animals, and followed the example of the
Asiatics by organizing a chariot force. It was open to doubt whether
this new and almost untried corps would be able to cope with the
experienced chariot-troops of Asia.
The country also in which military operations were to be carried on was
a difficult one. It consisted mainly of alternate mountain and desert.
First, the sandy waste called El Tij--the "Wilderness of the
Wanderings"--had to be passed, a tract almost wholly without water,
where an army must carry Its own supply. Next, the high upland of the
Negeb would present itself, a region wherein water may be procured from
wells, and which in some periods of the world's history has been highly
cultivated, but which in the time of Thothmes was probably almost as
unproductive as the desert itself. Then would come the green rounded
hills, the lofty ridges, and the deep gorges of Palestine, untraversed
by any road, in places thickly wooded, and offering continually greater
obstacles to the advance of an army, as it stretched further and further
towards the north. From Palestine the Lebanon region would have to be
entered on, where, though the Cœle-Syrian valley presents a
comparatively easy line of march to the latitude of Antioch, the country
on either side of the valley is almost untraversable, while the valley
itself contains many points where it can be easily blocked by a small
force. The Orontes, moreover, and the Litany, are difficult to cross,
and in the time of Thothmes I. would be unbridged, and form no
contemptible obstacles. From the lower valley of the Orontes, first
mountains and then a chalky desert had to be crossed in order to reach
the Euphrates, which could only be passed in boats, or else by swimming.
Beyond the Euphrates was another dreary and infertile region, the tract
about Haran, where Crassus lost his army and his life.
How far Thothmes and his counsellors were aware of these topographical
difficulties, or of the general condition of Western Asia, it is, as
already observed, impossible to determine. But, on the whole, there are
reasons for believing that intercourse between nation and nation was,
even in very early times, kept up, and that each important country had
its "intelligence department," which was not badly served. Merchants,
refugees, spies, adventurers desirous of bettering their condition, were
continually moving, singly or in bodies, from one land to another, and
through them a considerable acquaintance with mundane affairs generally
was spread abroad. The knowledge was, of course, very inexact. No
surveys were made, no plans of cities or fortresses, no maps; the
military force that could be brought into the field by the several
nations was very roughly estimated; but still, ancient conquerors did
not start off on their expeditions wholly in the dark as to the forces
which they might have to encounter, or the difficulties which were
likely to beset their march.