G. Maspero - History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12)

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[Illustration: Spines]

[Illustration: Cover]

HISTORY OF EGYPT CHALDEA, SYRIA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA

By G. MASPERO, Honorable Doctor of Civil Laws, and Fellow of Queen's
College, Oxford; Member of the Institute and Professor at the College of
France

Edited by A. H. SAYCE, Professor of Assyriology, Oxford

Translated by M. L. McCLURE, Member of the Committee of the Egypt
Exploration Fund

CONTAINING OVER TWELVE HUNDRED COLORED PLATES AND ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume V.

LONDON

THE GROLIER SOCIETY

PUBLISHERS

[Illustration: Frontispiece]

[Illustration: Titlepage]

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.

[Illustration: 006.jpg A PROCESSION OF NEGROES]

"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.

"IV.--I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the land of the
West, so that Kafiti and Cyprus shall be in fear of thee,--I grant that
they may see Thy Majesty like the young bull, stout of heart, armed with
horns which none may resist.

"V.--I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush those who are in
their marshes, so that the countries of Mitanni may tremble for fear of
thee,--I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like the crocodile, lord of
terrors, in the midst of the water, which none can approach.

"VI.--I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush those who are in
the isles, so that the people who live in the midst of the Very-Green
may be reached by thy roaring,--I grant that they may see Thy Majesty
like an avenger who stands on the back of his victim.

"VII.--I am come, to grant that thou mayest crush the Tihonu, so that
the isles of the Utanatiu may be in the power of thy souls,--I grant
that they may see Thy Majesty like a spell-weaving lion, and that thou
mayest make corpses of them in the midst of their own valleys.*

"VIII.--I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the ends of the
earth, so that the circle which surrounds the ocean may be grasped in
thy fist,--I grant that they may see Thy Majesty as the sparrow-hawk,
lord of the wing, who sees at a glance all that he desires.

"IX.--I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the peoples who
are in their "duars," so that thou mayest bring the Hiru-shaitu into
captivity,--I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like the jackal of the
south, lord of swiftness, the runner who prowls through the two lands.

"X.--I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the nomads, so that
the Nubians as far as the land of Pidit are in thy grasp,--I grant that
they may see Thy Majesty like unto thy two brothers Horus and Sit, whose
arms I have joined in order to establish thy power."

* The name of the people associated with the Tihonu was read
at first Tanau, and identified with the Danai of the Greeks.
Chabas was inclined to read Utena, and Brugsch, Uthent, more
correctly Utanatiu, utanati, the people of Uatanit. The
juxtaposition of this name with that of the Libyans compels
us to look towards the west for the site of this people: may
we assign to them the Ionian Islands, or even those in the
western Mediterranean.

The poem became celebrated. When Seti I., two centuries later, commanded
the Poet Laureates of his court to celebrate his victories in verse,
the latter, despairing of producing anything better, borrowed the finest
strophes from this hymn to Thutmosis IIL, merely changing the name of
the hero. The composition, unlike so many other triumphal inscriptions,
is not a mere piece of official rhetoric, in which the poverty of the
subject is concealed by a multitude of common-places whether historical
or mythological. Egypt indeed ruled the world, either directly or
through her vassals, and from the mountains of Abyssinia to those
of Cilicia her armies held the nations in awe with the threat of the
Pharaoh.

The conqueror, as a rule, did not retain any part of their territory. He
confined himself to the appropriation of the revenue of certain domains
for the benefit of his gods.* Amon of Karnak thus became possessor of
seven Syrian towns which he owed to the generosity of the victorious
Pharaohs.**

* The seven towns which Amon possessed in Syria are
mentioned, in the time of Ramses III., in the list of the
domains and revenues of the god.

** In the year XXIII., on his return from his first
campaign, Thutmosis III. provided offerings, guaranteed from
the three towns Anaugasa, Inuamu, and Hurnikaru, for his
father Amonra.

Certain cities, like Tunipa, even begged for statues of Thutmosis
for which they built a temple and instituted a cultus. Amon and his
fellow-gods too were adored there, side by side with the sovereign the
inhabitants had chosen to represent them here below.* These rites were
at once a sign of servitude, and a proof of gratitude for services
rendered, or privileges which had been confirmed. The princes of
neighbouring regions repaired annually to these temples to renew their
oaths of allegiance, and to bring their tributes "before the face of the
king." Taking everything into account, the condition of the Pharaoh's
subjects might have been a pleasant one, had they been able to accept
their lot without any mental reservation. They retained their own laws,
their dynasties, and their frontiers, and paid a tax only in proportion
to their resources, while the hostages given were answerable for their
obedience. These hostages were as a rule taken by Thutmosis from among
the sons or the brothers of the enemy's chief. They were carried to
Thebes, where a suitable establishment was assigned to them,** the
younger members receiving an education which practically made them
Egyptians.

* The statues of Thutmosis III. and of the gods of Egypt
erected at Tunipa are mentioned in a letter from the
inhabitants of that town to Amenothes III. Later, Ramses
II., speaking of the two towns in the country of the Khati
in which were two statues of His Majesty, mentions Tunipa as
one of them.

** The various titles of the lists of Thutmosis III. at
Thebes show us "the children of the Syrian chiefs conducted
as prisoners" into the town of Suhanu, which is elsewhere
mentioned as the depot, the prison of the temple of Anion.
W. Max Mullcr was the first to remark the historical value
of this indication, but without sufficiently insisting on
it; the name indicates, perhaps, as he says, a great prison,
but a prison like those where the princes of the family of
the Ottoman sultans were confined by the reigning monarch--
a palace usually provided with all the comforts of Oriental
life.

As soon as a vacancy occurred in the succession either in Syria or in
Ethiopia, the Pharaoh would choose from among the members of the family
whom he held in reserve, that prince on whose loyalty he could best
count, and placed him upon the throne.* The method of procedure was not
always successful, since these princes, whom one would have supposed
from their training to have been the least likely to have asserted
themselves against the man to whom they owed their elevation, often gave
more trouble than others. The sense of the supreme power of Egypt, which
had been inculcated in them during their exile, seemed to be weakened
after their return to their native country, and to give place to a
sense of their own importance. Their hearts misgave them as the time
approached for them to send their own children as pledges to their
suzerain, and also when called upon to transfer a considerable part of
their revenue to his treasury. They found, moreover, among their own
cities and kinsfolk, those who were adverse to the foreign yoke, and
secretly urged their countrymen to revolt, or else competitors for the
throne who took advantage of the popular discontent to pose as champions
of national independence, and it was difficult for the vassal prince to
counteract the intrigues of these adversaries without openly declaring
himself hostile to his foreign master.**

* Among the Tel el-Amarna tablets there is a letter of a
petty Syrian king, Adadnirari, whose father was enthroned
after a fashion in Nukhassi by Thutmosis III.

** Thus, in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence, Zimrida,
governor of Sidon, gives information to Amenothes III. on
the intrigues which the notables of the town were concocting
against Egyptian authority. Ribaddu relates in one of these
despatches that the notables of Byblos and the women of his
harem were urging him to revolt; later, a letter of Amunira
to the King of Egypt informs us that Ribaddu had been driven
from Byblos by his own brother.

A time quickly came when a vestige of fear alone constrained them to
conceal their wish for liberty; the most trivial incident then sufficed
to give them the necessary encouragement, and decided them to throw
off the mask, a repulse or the report of a repulse suffered by the
Egyptians, the news of a popular rising in some neighbouring state, the
passing visit of a Chaldaean emissary who left behind him the hope
of support and perhaps of subsidies from Babylon, and the unexpected
arrival of a troop of mercenaries whose services might be hired for
the occasion.* A rising of this sort usually brought about the most
disastrous results. The native prince or the town itself could keep back
the tribute and own allegiance to no one during the few months required
to convince Pharaoh of their defection and to allow him to prepare the
necessary means of vengeance; the advent of the Egyptians followed, and
the work of repression was systematically set in hand. They destroyed
the harvests, whether green or ready for the sickle, they cut down the
palms and olive trees, they tore up the vines, seized on the flocks,
dismantled the strongholds, and took the inhabitants prisoners.**

* Burnaburiash, King of Babylon, speaks of Syrian agents who
had come to ask for support from his father, Kurigalzu, and
adds that the latter had counselled submission. In one of
the letters preserved in the British Museum, Aziru defends
himself for having received an emissary of the King of the
Khati.

** Cf. the raiding, for instance, of the regions of Arvad
and of the Zahi by Thutmosis III., described in the Annals,
11. 4, 5. We are still in possession of the threats which
the messenger Khani made against the rebellious chief of a
province of the Zahi--possibly Aziru.

The rebellious prince had to deliver up his silver and gold, the
contents of his palace, even his children,* and when he had finally
obtained peace by means of endless sacrifices, he found himself a vassal
as before, but with an empty treasury, a wasted country, and a decimated
people.

* See, in the accounts of the campaigns of Thutmosis, the
record of the spoils, as well as the mention of the children
of the chiefs brought as prisoners into Egypt.

[Illustration: 015.jpg A SYRIAN TOWN AND ITS OUTSKIRTS AFTER AN EGYPTIAN
ARMY HAD PASSED THROUGH IT]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gayet.

In spite of all this, some head-strong native princes never relinquished
the hope of freedom, and no sooner had they made good the breaches in
their walls as far as they were able, than they entered once more
on this unequal contest, though at the risk of bringing irreparable
disaster on their country. The majority of them, after one such
struggle, resigned themselves to the inevitable, and fulfilled their
feudal obligations regularly. They paid their fixed contribution,
furnished rations and stores to the army when passing through their
territory, and informed the ministers at Thebes of any intrigues among
their neighbours.* Years elapsed before they could so far forget the
failure of their first attempt to regain independence, as to venture to
make a second, and expose themselves to fresh reverses.

The administration of so vast an empire entailed but a small
expenditure on the Egyptians, and required the offices of merely a few
functionaries.** The garrisons which they kept up in foreign provinces
lived on the country, and were composed mainly of light troops, archers,
a certain proportion of heavy infantry, and a few minor detachments of
chariotry dispersed among the principal fortresses.***

* We find in the _Annals_, in addition to the enumeration of
the tributes, the mention of the foraging arrangements which
the chiefs were compelled to make for the army on its
passage. We find among the tablets letters from Aziru
denouncing the intrigues of the Khati; letters also of
Ribaddu pointing out the misdeeds of Abdashirti, and other
communications of the same nature, which demonstrate the
supervision exercised by the petty Syrian princes over each
other.

** Under Thutmosis III. we have among others "Mir," or "Nasi
situ mihatitu," "governors of the northern countries," the
Thutii who became afterwards a hero of romance. The
individuals who bore this title held a middle rank in the
Egyptian hierarchy.

*** The archers--_pidatid, pidati, pidate_--and the
chariotry quartered in Syria are often mentioned in the Tel
el-Amarna correspondence. Steindorff has recognised the term
-ddu auitu, meaning infantry, in the word ueu, uiu, of the
Tel el-Amarna tablets.

The officers in command had orders to interfere as little as possible
in local affairs, and to leave the natives to dispute or even to fight
among themselves unhindered, so long as their quarrels did not threaten
the security of the Pharaoh.* It was never part of the policy of Egypt
to insist on her foreign subjects keeping an unbroken peace among
themselves. If, theoretically, she did not recognise the right of
private warfare, she at all events tolerated its practice. It mattered
little to her whether some particular province passed out of the
possession of a certain Eibaddu into that of a certain Aziru, or _vice
versa_, so long as both Eibaddu and Aziru remained her faithful slaves.
She never sought to repress their incessant quarrelling until such time
as it threatened to take the form of an insurrection against her own
power. Then alone did she throw off her neutrality; taking the side of
one or other of the dissentients, she would grant him, as a pledge of
help, ten, twenty, thirty, or even more archers.**

* A half at least of the Tel el-Amarna correspondence treats
of provincial wars between the kings of towns and countries
subject to Egypt--wars of Abdashirti and his son Aziru
against the cities of the Phoenician coast, wars of
Abdikhiba, or Abdi-Tabba, King of Jerusalem, against the
chiefs of the neighbouring cities.

** Abimilki (Abisharri) demands on one occasion from the
King of Egypt ten men to defend Tyre, on another occasion
twenty; the town of Gula requisitioned thirty or forty to
guard it. Delattre thinks that these are rhetorical
expressions answering to a general word, just as if we
should say "a handful of men"; the difference of value in
the figures is to me a proof of their reality.

No doubt the discipline and personal courage of these veterans exercised
a certain influence on the turn of events, but they were after all a
mere handful of men, and their individual action in the combat would
scarcely ever have been sufficient to decide the result; the actual
importance of their support, in spite of their numerical inferiority,
lay in the moral weight they brought to the side on which they fought,
since they represented the whole army of the Pharaoh which lay behind
them, and their presence in a camp always ensured final success. The
vanquished party had the right of appeal to the sovereign, through whom
he might obtain a mitigation of the lot which his successful adversary
had prepared for him; it was to the interest of Egypt to keep the
balance of power as evenly as possible between the various states which
looked to her, and when she prevented one or other of the princes from
completely crushing his rivals, she was minimising the danger which
might soon arise from the vassal whom she had allowed to extend his
territory at the expense of others.

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