The Hyksos invasion left one lesson: Never again could Egypt adopt a
policy of isolation. The best defense is offense. As Asiatic Hyksos
rulers had marched upon Egypt, so Egypt would march her armies into
Asia. Thutmose I (1525-1494 B.C.) campaigned successfully in Asia, and
under Thutmose III (1490-1435 B.C.) western Asia was brought under the
control of Egyptian arms. During his seventeen campaigns in Palestine
and Syria, Thutmose III took Megiddo in the Valley of Esdraelon and
Carchemish on the Euphrates. Egyptian authority extended from the Sudan
to the Euphrates, and the reigning Pharaoh was suzerain of Syria and
Palestine. The king list at Karnak lists one hundred nineteen towns
taken by Thutmose III. Often the Egyptians were content to allow a
native prince to remain in power as long as he was willing to provide
tribute and manpower to the Egyptian commissioner. Important cities were
ruled directly by an Egyptian governor.
In theory the Pharaoh was a god with absolute power whose word was law.
The Egyptians have left us no law codes, and it may be that they sensed
no need of such codified law as we find in Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, and
among the Hittites (as well as the Biblical Hebrews). The presence of a
living god in the land might render such written codes unnecessary.
In practice, however, as Egypt extended her Empire the personal
involvement of the Pharaoh became progressively less. The priesthood of
Amon-Re, god of Thebes and chief god of the Egyptian pantheon, developed
enormous power. Before any important decision it was expected that the
Pharaoh would consult the oracle of Amon-Re. Hundreds of civil servants
were required to care for the needs of a great Empire, and most of these
were drawn from a few powerful families. The result was a bureaucracy
which, like the priesthood, could serve as a power block. The army, and
particularly its commander, was a third factor that could not be ignored
by Egyptian officialdom. While the Pharaoh was theoretically the head of
church and state--god and king in Egypt--in practice he might find
himself frustrated at every turn by religious, civil, and military
bureaucracies.
From the campaigns of Thutmose III until late in the reign of Amenhotep
III (_ca._ 1360 B.C.) the Egyptian Empire seems to have functioned with
maximum efficiency. The riches of Nubia, Crete, western Asia, and even
distant Mycenae poured into Thebes, the Egyptian capital. A Mitannian
princess graced the harem of Thutmose IV (1414-1406 B.C.). Amenhotep III
caused his name and that of his wife to be cut into a group of scarabs
with the inscription, "She is the wife of the victorious king whose
territory in the south reaches to Karei (=Napata, at the Fourth Cataract
of the Nile) and on the north to Naharin (=Mitanni)."[1]
[Illustration: Commemorative Scarab of Amenhotep III. Issued on the
occasion of the construction of a pleasure lake for Queen Tiy: (above)
side view, and (below) inscription.]
[Illustration: Amenhotep III. The brown quartzite head depicts the
Pharaoh with an enigmatic smile.]
Amenhotep III was responsible for the immense colonnades at Luxor and a
great funerary temple which has disappeared except for two immense
seated statues of the Pharaoh now known as the Colossi of Memmon
(supposedly representing an Ethiopian hero who fell on the battlefield
at Troy). Although the harem of Amenhotep III included daughters from
the kings of Mitanni, Assyria, Babylon, and the Hittites, he was devoted
to his wife Tiy for whom he built an artificial lake a mile long and
over a thousand feet wide south of the Medinet Habu temple.
The decline in Egyptian power may be traced to the latter half of the
reign of Amenhotep III. While the Pharaoh was sick, his wife Tiy seems
to have exercised considerable power. The balance of power in Asia was
upset by the rise of Suppiluliumas (1375-1340 B.C.), a Hittite ruler who
sought to carve out an empire for himself. Egypt avoided military
action, with the result that the loyal princes were left to defend
themselves or make their own terms with the enemy.