History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12)

Volume V.

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THE EIGHTEENTH THEBAN DYNASTY--(continued)

THUTMOSIS III.: THE ORGANISATION OF THE SYRIAN PROVINCES--AMENOTHES III.: THE WORSHIPPERS OF ATONU.

Thutmosis III.: the talcing of Qodsha in the 42nd year of his reign--The tribute of the south--The triumph-song of Amon.

The constitution of the Egyptian empire--The Grown vassals and their relations with the Pharaoh--The king's messengers--The allied states--Royal presents and marriages; the status of foreigners in the royal harem--Commerce with Asia, its resources and its risks; protection granted to the national industries, and treaties of extradition.

Amenothes II, his campaigns in Syria and Nubia--Thutmosis IV.; his dream under the shadow of the Sphinx and his marriage--Amenothes III. and his peaceful reign--The great building works--The temples of Nubia: Soleb and his sanctuary built by Amenothes III, Gebel Barkal, Elephantine--The beautifying of Thebes: the temple of Mat, the temples of Amon at Luxor and at Karnak, the tomb of Amenothes III, the chapel and the colossi of Memnon.

The increasing importance of Anion and his priests: preference shown by Amenothes III. for the Heliopolitan gods, his marriage with Tii--The influence of Tii over Amenothes IV.: the decadence of Amon and of Thebes, Atonu and Khuitniatonu--Change of physiognomy in Khuniaton, his character, his government, his relations with Asia: the tombs of Tel el-Amarna and the art of the period--Tutanlchamon, At: the return of the Pharaohs to Thebes and the close of the XVIIIth dynasty.

Chapter I--the Eighteenth Theban Dynasty--(continued)

Thutmosis III.: the organisation of the Syrian provinces--Amenothes III.: the royal worshippers of Atonu.

In the year XXXIV. the Egyptians reappeared in Zahi. The people of Anaugasa having revolted, two of their towns were taken, a third surrendered, while the chiefs of the Lotanu hastened to meet their lord with their usual tribute. Advantage was taken of the encampment being at the foot of the Lebanon to procure wood for building purposes, such as beams and planks, masts and yards for vessels, which were all shipped by the Kefatiu at Byblos for exportation to the Delta. This expedition was, indeed, little more than a military march through the country. It would appear that the Syrians soon accustomed themselves to the presence of the Egyptians in their midst, and their obedience henceforward could be fairly relied on. We are unable to ascertain what were the circumstances or the intrigues which, in the year XXXV., led to a sudden outbreak among the tribes settled on the Euphrates and the Orontes. The King of Mitanni rallied round him the princes of Naharaim, and awaited the attack of the Egyptians near Aruna. Thutmosis displayed great personal courage, and the victory was at once decisive. We find mention of only ten prisoners, one hundred and eighty mares, and sixty chariots in the lists of the spoil. Anaugasa again revolted, and was subdued afresh in the year XXXVIII.; the Shausu rebelled in the year XXXIX., and the Lotanu or some of the tribes connected with them two years later. The campaign of the year XLII. proved more serious. Troubles had arisen in the neighbourhood of Arvad. Thutmosis, instead of following the usual caravan route, marched along the coast-road by way of Phoenicia. He destroyed Arka in the Lebanon and the surrounding strongholds, which were the haunts of robbers who lurked in the mountains; then turning to the northeast, he took Tunipa and extorted the usual tribute from the inhabitants of Naharaim. On the other hand, the Prince of Qodshu, trusting to the strength of his walled city, refused to do homage to the Pharaoh, and a deadly struggle took place under the ramparts, in which each side availed themselves of all the artifices which the strategic warfare of the times allowed. On a day when the assailants and besieged were about to come to close quarters, the Amorites let loose a mare among the chariotry of Thutmosis. The Egyptian horses threatened to become unmanageable, and had begun to break through the ranks, when Amenemhabi, an officer of the guard, leaped to the ground, and, running up to the creature, disembowelled it with a thrust of his sword; this done, he cut off its tail and presented it to the king. The besieged were eventually obliged to shut themselves within their newly built walls, hoping by this means to tire out the patience of their assailants; but a picked body of men, led by the same brave Amenemhabi who had killed the mare, succeeded in making a breach and forcing an entrance into the town. Even the numerous successful campaigns we have mentioned, form but a part, though indeed an important part, of the wars undertaken by Thutmosis to "fix his frontiers in the ends of the earth." Scarcely a year elapsed without the viceroy of Ethiopia having a conflict with one or other of the tribes of the Upper Nile; little merit as he might gain in triumphing over such foes, the spoil taken from them formed a considerable adjunct to the treasure collected in Syria, while the tributes from the people of Kush and the Uauaiu were paid with as great regularity as the taxes levied on the Egyptians themselves. It comprised gold both from the mines and from the rivers, feathers, oxen with curiously trained horns, giraffes, lions, leopards, and slaves of all ages. The distant regions explored by Hatshopsitu continued to pay a tribute at intervals. A fleet went to Puanit to fetch large cargoes of incense, and from time to time some Ilim chief would feel himself honoured by having one of his daughters accepted as an inmate of the harem of the great king. After the year XLII. we have no further records of the reign, but there is no reason to suppose that its closing years were less eventful or less prosperous than the earlier. Thutmosis III., when conscious of failing powers, may have delegated the direction of his armies to his sons or to his generals, but it is also quite possible that he kept the supreme command in his own hands to the end of his days. Even when old age approached and threatened to abate his vigour, he was upheld by the belief that his father Amon was ever at hand to guide him with his counsel and assist him in battle. "I give to thee, declared the god, the rebels that they may fall beneath thy sandals, that thou mayest crush the rebellious, for I grant to thee by decree the earth in its length and breadth. The tribes of the West and those of the East are under the place of thy countenance, and when thou goest up into all the strange lands with a joyous heart, there is none who will withstand Thy Majesty, for I am thy guide when thou treadest them underfoot. Thou hast crossed the water of the great curve of Naharaim* in thy strength and in thy power, and I have commanded thee to let them hear thy roaring which shall enter their dens, I have deprived their nostrils of the breath of life, I have granted to thee that thy deeds shall sink into their hearts, that my uraeus which is upon thy head may burn them, that it may bring prisoners in long files from the peoples of Qodi, that it may consume with its flame those who are in the marshes,** that it may cut off the heads of the Asiatics without one of them being able to escape from its clutch. I grant to thee that thy conquests may embrace all lands, that the urseus which shines upon my forehead may be thy vassal, so that in all the compass of the heaven there may not be one to rise against thee, but that the people may come bearing their tribute on their backs and bending before Thy Majesty according to my behest; I ordain that all aggressors arising in thy time shall fail before thee, their heart burning within them, their limbs trembling!"

* The Euphrates, in the great curve described by it across Naharaim, after issuing from the mountains of Cilicia.

** The meaning is doubtful. The word signifies pools, marshes, the provinces situated beyond Egyptian territory, and consequently the distant parts of the world--those which are nearest the ocean which encircles the earth, and which was considered as fed by the stagnant waters of the celestial Nile, just as the extremities of Egypt were watered by those of the terrestrial Nile.

"I.--I am come that I may grant unto thee to crush the great ones of Zahi, I throw them under thy feet across their mountains,--I grant to thee that they shall see Thy Majesty as a lord of shining splendour when thou shinest before them in my likeness!

"II.--I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush those of the country of Asia, to break the heads of the people of Lotanu,--I grant thee that they may see Thy Majesty, clothed in thy panoply, when thou seizest thy arms, in thy war-chariot.

"III.--I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the land of the East, and invade those who dwell in the provinces of Tonutir,--I grant that they may see Thy Majesty as the comet which rains down the heat of its flame and sheds its dew.

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