or seventh year. He was accompanied by two officers, who had served his
father and his grandfather, known respectively as "Aahmes, son of
Abana," and "Aahmes Pennishem." Both of them had been engaged in the war
which he had conducted against the Petti of Nubia and their Ethiopian
allies, and both had greatly distinguished themselves. Aahmes, the son
of Abana, boasts that he seven times received the prize of valour--a
collar of gold--for his conduct in the field; and Aahmes Pennishem gives
a list of twenty-nine presents given to him as military rewards by three
kings. It does not appear that any resistance was offered to the
invading force as it passed through Palestine; but in Syria Thothmes
engaged the Rutennu, and "exacted satisfaction" from them, probably on
account of the part which they had taken in the Hyksôs struggle; after
which he crossed the Euphrates and fell upon the far more powerful
nation of the Naïri. The Naïri, when first attacked by the Assyrians,
had twenty-three cities, and as many kings; they were rich in horses and
mules, and had so large a chariot force that we hear of a hundred and
twenty chariots being taken from them in a single battle. At this time
the number of the chariots was probably much smaller, for each of the
two officers named Ahmes takes great credit to himself on account of the
capture of one such vehicle. It is uncertain whether more than a single
battle was fought. All that we are told is, that "His Majesty, having
arrived in Naharina" (_i.e._ the Naïri country), "encountered the enemy,
and organized an attack. His Majesty made a great slaughter of them; an
immense number of live captives was carried off by His Majesty." These
words would apply equally to a single battle and to a series of battles.
All that can be said is, that Thothmes returned victorious from his
Asiatic expedition, having defeated the Rutennu and the Naïri, and
brought with him into Egypt a goodly booty, and a vast number of Asiatic
prisoners.
The warlike ambition of Thothmes I. was satisfied by his Nubian and
Asiatic victories. On his return to Egypt at the close of his
Mesopotamian campaign, he engaged in the peaceful work of adorning and
beautifying his capital cities. At Thebes he greatly enlarged the temple
of Ammon, begun by Amenemhat I., and continued under his son, the first
Usurtasen, by adding to it the cloistered court in front of the central
cell--a court two hundred and forty feet long by sixty-two broad,
surrounded by a colonnade, of which the supports were Osirid pillars, or
square piers with a statue of Osiris in front. This is the first known
example of the cloistered court, which became afterwards so common;
though it is possible that constructions of a similar character may have
been made by the "Shepherd Kings" at Tanis, Thothmes also adorned this
temple with obelisks. In front of the main entrance to his court he
erected two vast monoliths of granite, each of them seventy-five feet in
height, and bearing dedicatory inscriptions, which indicated his piety
and his devotion to all the chief deities of Egypt.
Further, at Memphis he built a new royal palace, which he called "The
Abode of Aa-khepr-ka-ra," a grand building, afterwards converted into a
magazine for the storage of grain.
The greatness of Thothmes I. has scarcely been sufficiently recognized
by historians. It may be true that he did not effect much; but he broke
ground in a new direction; he set an example which led on to grand
results. To him it was due that Egypt ceased to be the isolated,
unaggressive power that she had remained for perhaps ten centuries, that
she came boldly to the front and aspired to bring Asia into subjection.
Henceforth she exercised a potent influence beyond her borders--an
influence which affected, more or less, all the western Asiatic powers.
She had forced her way into the comity of the great nations. Henceforth
whether it was for good or for evil, she had to take her place among
them, to reckon with them, as they reckoned with her, to be a factor in
the problem which the ages had to work out--What should be the general
march of events, and what states and nations should most affect the
destiny of the world.
XI.
QUEEN HATASU AND HER MERCHANT FLEET.
Hasheps, or Hatasu, was the daughter of the great warrior king, Thothmes
the First, and, according to some, was, during his later years,
associated with him in the government. An inscription is quoted in which
he assigns to her her throne-name of Ra-ma-ka, and calls her "Queen of
the South and of the North," But it was not till after the death of her
father that she came prominently forward, and assumed a position not
previously held by any female in Egypt, unless it were Net-akret
(Nitocris). Women in Egypt had been, it is true, from very early times
held in high estimation, were their husbands' companions, not their
playthings or their slaves, appeared freely in public, and enjoyed much
liberty of action. One of the ancient mythical monarchs, of the time
before Sneferu, is said to have passed a law permitting them to exercise
the sovereign authority. Nitocris of the sixth dynasty of Manetho ruled,
apparently, as sole queen; and Sabak-nefru-ra of the twelfth, the wife
of Amenemhat IV., reigned for some years conjointly with her husband.
Hatasu's position was intermediate between these. Her father had left
behind him two sons, as well as a daughter; and the elder of these,
according to Egyptian law, succeeded him. He reigned as
Thothmes-nefer-shau, and is known to moderns as Thothmes the Second. He
was, however, a mere youth, of a weak and amiable temper; while Hatasu,
his senior by some years, was a woman of great energy and of a masculine
mind, clever, enterprizing, vindictive, and unscrupulous. The contrast
of their portrait busts is remarkable, and gives a fair indication of
the character of each of them. Thothmes has the appearance of a soft and
yielding boy: he has a languishing eye, a short upper lip, a sensuous
mouth and chin. Hatasu looks the Amazon: she holds her head erect, has a
bold aquiline nose, a firmly-set mouth, and a chin that projects
considerably, giving her an indescribable air of vigour and resolution.
The effect is increased, no doubt, by her having attached to it the male
appendage of an artificial beard; but even apart from this, her face
would be a strong one, expressive of firmness, pride, and decision. It
is thought that she contracted a marriage with her brother, such unions
being admissible by the Egyptian marriage law, and not infrequent among
the Pharaohs, whether of the earlier or the later dynasties. In any
case, it is certain that she took the direction of affairs under his
reign, reducing him to a cipher, and making her influence paramount in
every department of the government.
[Illustration: HEAD OF THOTHMES II.]
[Illustration: HEAD OF HATASU.]
At this period of her life the ambition of Queen Hatasu was to hand her
name down to posterity as a constructor of buildings. She made many
additions to the old temple of Ammon at Karnak; and she also built at
Medinet Abou, in the vicinity of Thebes, a temple of a more elaborate
character than any that had preceded it, the remains of which are still
standing, and have attracted much attention from architects. Egyptian
temple-architecture is here seen tentatively making almost its first
advances from the simple cell of Usurtasen I. towards that richness of
complication and multiplicity of parts which it ultimately reached.
Pylons, courts, corridors supported by columns, pillared apartments,
meet us here in their earliest germ; while there are also indications of
constructive weakness, which show that the builders were aspiring to go
beyond previous models. The temple is cruciform in shape, but the two
arms of the cross are unequal. In front, two pylons of moderate
dimensions, not exceeding twenty-four feet in height, and built with the
usual sloping sides and strongly projecting cornice, guarded a doorway
which gave entrance into a court, sixty feet long by thirty broad. At
the further end of the court stood a porch, thirty feet long and nine
deep, supported by four square stone piers, emplaced at equal distances.
The porch led into the cell, a long, narrow chamber of extreme
plainness, about twenty-five feet long by nine wide, with a doorway at
either end. At either side of the cell were corridors, supported, like
the porch, by square piers, and roofed in by blocks of stone from nine
to ten feet long. These blocks have in some instances shown signs of
giving way; and, to counteract the tendency, octagonal pillars have been
introduced at the weak points, without regard to exact regularity or
correspondence. Behind the cell are chambers for the officiating
priests, which are six in number, and on either side of the porch are
also chambers, forming the arms of the cross, but of unequal
dimensions. That on the left is nearly square, about fifteen feet by
twelve; that on the right is oblong, twenty-seven feet by fifteen, and
has needed the support of two pillars internally, which seem, however,
to have been part of the original design. This chamber is open towards
the north-east, terminating in a porch of three square piers.
[Illustration: GROUND-PLAN OF TEMPLE AT MEDINET ABOU.]
The joint reign of Hatasu and Thothmes II. did not continue for more
than a few years. It is suspected that she engaged in a conspiracy
against him in order to rid herself of the small restraint which his
participation in the sovereignty exercised upon her, and was privy to
his murder. But there is no sufficient evidence to substantiate these
charges, which have been somewhat recklessly made. All that distinctly
appears is, that Thothmes II. died while he was still extremely young,
and when he had reigned only a short time, and that after his death
Hatasu showed her hostility to his memory by erasing his name wherever
it occurred on the monuments, and substituting for it either her own
name or that of her father. She appears also at the same time to have
taken full possession of the throne, and to have been accepted as actual
sovereign of the Egyptian people. She calls herself "The living Horus,
abounding in divine gifts, the mistress of diadems, rich in years, the
golden Horus, goddess of diadems, Queen of Upper and Lower Egypt,
daughter of the Sun, consort of Ammon, living for ever, and daughter of
Ammon, dwelling in his heart." Nor was she content with attributes which
made acknowledgment of her sex. She wished to be regarded as a man,
assumed male apparel and an artificial beard, and gave herself on many
of her monuments the style and title of a king. Her name of Hatasu she
changed into Hatasu-Khnum-Ammon, thus identifying herself with two of
the chief Egyptian gods. She often represented herself as crowned with
the tall plumes of Ammon. She took the titles of "_son_ of the sun,"
"the good _god_," "_lord_ of the two lands," "beloved of Ammon, the
protector of _kings_." A curious anomaly appears in some of her
inscriptions, where masculine and feminine forms are inextricably mixed
up; though spoken of consistently as "the king," and not "the queen,"
yet the personal and possessive pronouns which refer to her are feminine
for the most part, while sometimes such perplexing expressions occur as
"le roi qui est bien _aimée_ par Ammon," or "His Majesty herself."
[Illustration: EGYPTIAN SHIP IN THE TIME OF HATASU.]
The legal position which Hatasu occupied during the sixteen years that
followed the death of Thothmes II. was probably that of regent for
Thothmes III., his (and her) younger brother; but practically she was
full sovereign of Egypt. It was now that she formed her grand schemes of
foreign commerce, and had them carried out by her officers. First of
all, she caused to be built, in some harbour on the western coast of the
Red Sea, a fleet of ships, certainly not fewer than five, each
constructed so as to be propelled both by oars and sails, and each
capable of accommodating some sixty or seventy passengers. Of these
thirty were the rowers, whose long sweeps were to plough the waves, and
bring the vessels into port, whether the wind were favourable or no;
some ten or twelve formed the crew; and the remainder consisted of
men-at-arms, whose services, it was felt, might be required, if the
native tribes were not sufficiently impressed with the advantages of
commercial dealings. An expedition then started from Thebes under the
conduct of a royal ambassador, who was well furnished with gifts for
distribution among the barbarian chiefs, and instructed to proceed with
his fleet down the Red Sea to its mouth, or perhaps even further, and
open communications with the land of "Punt," which was in this quarter.
"Punt" has been generally identified with Southern Arabia, and it is
certainly in favour of this view that the chief object of the expedition
was to procure incense and spices, which Arabia is known to have
produced anciently in profusion. But among the other products of the
land mentioned in the inscriptions of Hatasu, there are several which
Arabia could not possibly have furnished; and the conjecture has
therefore been made that Punt, or at any rate the Punt of this
expedition, was not the Arabian peninsula, or any part of it, but the
African tract outside the Gulf, known to moderns as "the Somauli
country." However this may have been, it is certain that the fleet
weighed anchor, and sailed down the Red Sea, borne by favourable winds,
which were ascribed to the gracious majesty of Ammon, and reached their
destination, the Ta-neter, or "Holy Land"--the "abode of Athor," and
perhaps the original home of Ammon himself--without accident or serious
difficulty. The natives gave them a good reception. They were simple
folk, living in rounded huts or cabins, which were perched on floors
supported by piles, probably on account of the marshiness of the
ground, and which had to be entered by means of ladders. Cocoa-nut palms
overshadowed the huts, interspersed with incense trees, while near them
flowed a copious stream, in which were a great variety of fishes. The
principal chief of the country was a certain Parihu, who was married to
a wife of an extraordinary appearance. A dwarf, hunchbacked, with a
drawn face and short, deformed legs, she can scarcely, one would think,
have been a countrywoman of the Queen of Sheba. She belonged, more
probably, to one of the dwarfish tribes of which Africa has so many, as
Dokos, Bosjesmen, and others. The royal couple were delighted with their
visitors, and with the presents which they received from them; they made
a sort of acknowledgment of the suzerainty of the Pharaohs, but at the
same time stipulated that the peace and liberty of the land of Punt
should be respected by the Egyptians. Perfect freedom of trade was
established. The Egyptians had permission to enter the incense forests,
and either to cut down the trees for the sake of the resin which they
exuded, or to dig them up and convey them to the ships. We see the
trees, or rather bushes, dug up with as much earth as possible about
their roots, then slung on poles and carried to the sea-shore, and
finally placed upright upon the ships' decks, and screened from the heat
of the sun's rays by an awning. Thirty-one trees were thus embarked,
with the object of transplanting them to Egypt, where it was hoped that
they might grow and flourish. A large quantity of the resin was also
collected and packed in sacks, which were tied at the mouth and piled up
upon the decks. Various other products and commodities were likewise
brought to the beach by the natives, and exchanged for those which the
Egyptians had taken care to bring with them in their ships' holds. The
most prized were gold, silver, ivory, ebony and other woods, cassia,
kohl or stibium, apes, baboons, dogs, slaves, and leopard skins. The
utmost friendliness prevailed during the whole period of the Egyptians'
stay in the country; and at their departure, a number of the natives, of
their own free-will, accompanied them to Egypt. Among these would seem to
have been the deformed queen and several chiefs.
[ILLUSTRATION: HOME BUILT ON PILES IN THE LAND OF PUNT.]
[ILLUSTRATION: THE QUEEN OF PUNT, AS SHE APPEARED AT THE COURT OF
HATASU.]
The return journey to Thebes was effected partly by way of the Nile. No
doubt the sea-going ships sailed back to the harbour from which they had
started; while the incense trees and other commodities were disembarked,
and conveyed across the desert tract which borders the Nile valley
towards the east; but instead of being brought to Thebes by land they
were re-shipped on board a number of large Nile boats, and conveyed down
the river to the capital. The day of their arrival was made a grand
gala-day. All the city went out to meet the returning travellers. There
was a grand parade of the household troops, and also of those which had
accompanied the expedition; the incense trees, the strange animals, the
many products of the distant country, were exhibited; a tame leopard,
with his negro keeper, followed the soldiers; a band of natives, called
Tamahu, engaged in a sort of sham-fight or war-dance. The misshapen
queen and the chiefs of the land of Punt, together with a number of
Nubian hunters from the region of Chent-hen-nefer, which lay far up the
course of the Nile, were conducted to the presence of Hatasu, offered
their homage to her as she sat upon her throne, and presented her with
valuable gifts. "Homage to thy countenance," they said, "O Queen of
Egypt, Sun beaming like the sun-disk, Aten, Arabia's mistress." An
offering was then made by Hatasu to the god Ammon; a bull was
sacrificed, and two vases of the precious frankincense presented to him
by the queen herself. Sacrifice was likewise made and prayers offered to
Athor, "Queen of Punt" and "Mistress of Heaven." The incense trees were
finally planted in ground prepared for them, and the day concluded with
general festivity and rejoicing.
The complete success of so important and difficult an enterprize might
well please even a great queen. Hatasu, delighted with the result, did
her best to prevent it fading away from human remembrance by building a
new temple to Ammon, and representing the entire expedition upon its
walls. At Tel-el-Bahiri, in the valley of El-Assasif, near Thebes, she
found a convenient site for her new structure, which she imposed upon
four steps, and covered internally with a series of bas-reliefs, highly
coloured, depicting the chief scenes of the expedition. Here are to be
seen, even at the present day, the ships--the most ancient
representations of sea-going ships that the world contains--the crews,
the incense-trees, the chiefs and queen of Punt, the native dwellings,
the trees and fish of the land, the arrival of the expedition at Thebes
in twelve large boats, the prostration of the native chiefs before
Hatasu, the festival held on the occasion, and the offerings made to the
gods. It is seldom that any single event of ancient history is so
profusely illustrated as this expedition of Queen Hatasu, which is
placed before our eyes in all its various phases from the gathering of
the fleet on the Red Sea coast to the return of those engaged in it, in
gladness and triumph, to Thebes.
After exercising all the functions of sovereignty for fifteen years,
during which she kept her royal brother in a subjection that probably
became very galling to him, Hatasu found herself under the necessity of
admitting him to a share in the royal authority, and allowed his name to
appear on her monuments in a secondary and subordinate position. About
this time she was especially engaged in the ornamentation of the old
temple of Ammon at Thebes, begun by Usurtasen I., and much augmented by
her father, Thothmes I. The chief of all her works in this quarter were
two obelisks of red granite, or syenite, drawn from the quarries of
Elephantine, and set up before the entrance, which her father had made
in front of Usurtasen's construction. These great works are unexcelled,
in form, colour, and beauty of engraving, by any similar productions of
Egyptian art, either earlier or later. They measure nearly a hundred
feet in height, and are covered with the most delicately finished
hieroglyphics. On them Hatasu declares that she "has made two great
obelisks for her father, Ammon, from a heart that is full of love for
him." They are "of hard granite of the South, each of a single stone,
without any joining or division." The summit of each, or cap of the
pyramidion, is "of pure gold, taken from the chiefs of nations," so that
they "are seen from a distance of many leagues--Upper and Lower Egypt
are bathed in their splendour"(!).
Hatasu reigned conjointly with Thothmes III. for the space of seven
years. Their common monuments have been found at Thebes, in the Wady
Magharah, and elsewhere. It is not probable that the relations of the
brother and sister during this period were very cordial. Hatasu still
claimed the chief authority, and placed her name before that of her
brother on all public documents. She was, as she has been called, "a
bold, ambitious woman," and evidently admitted with reluctance any
partner of her greatness. Thothmes III., a man of great ambition and no
less ability, is not likely to have acquiesced very willingly in the
secondary position assigned to him. Whether he openly rebelled against
it, broke with Hatasu, and deprived her of the throne, or even put her
to death, is wholly uncertain. The monuments hitherto discovered are
absolutely silent as to what became of this great queen. She may have
died a natural death, opportunely for her brother, who must have wished
to find himself unshackled; or she may have been the victim of a
conspiracy within the palace walls. All that we know is that she
disappears from history in about her fortieth year, and that her brother
and successor, the third Thothmes, actuated by a strong and settled
animosity, caused her name to be erased, as far as possible, from all
her monuments. There is scarcely one on which it remains intact. The
greatest of Egyptian queens--one of the greatest of Egyptian
sovereigns--is indebted for the continuance of her memory among mankind
to the accident that the stonemasons employed by Thothmes to carry out
his plan of vengeance were too careless or too idle to effect the
actual obliteration of the name, which they everywhere marred with their
chisels. Hatred, for once, though united with absolute power, missed its
aim; and Hatasu's great constructions, together with her "Merchant
Fleet," are among the indisputable facts of history which can never be
forgotten.
XII.
THOTHMES THE THIRD AND AMENHOTEP THE SECOND.