The sacrifices supplied them with daily meat and drink; the temple buildings provided them with their lodging, and its revenues furnished them with a salary proportionate to their position. They were exempted from the ordinary taxes, from military service, and from forced labour; it is not surprising, therefore, that those who were not actually members of the priestly families strove to have at least a share in their advantages. The servitors, the workmen and the employés who congregated about them and constituted the temple corporation, the scribes attached to the administration of the domains, and to the receipt of offerings, shared de facto if not de jure in the immunity of the priesthood; as a body they formed a separate religious society, side by side, but distinct from, the civil population, and freed from most of the burdens which weighed so heavily on the latter.
The soldiers were far from possessing the wealth and influence of the clergy. Military service in Egypt was not universally compulsory, but rather the profession and privilege of a special class of whose origin but little is known. Perhaps originally it comprised only the descendants of the conquering race, but in historic times it was not exclusively confined to the latter, and recruits were raised everywhere among the fellahs,* the Bedouin of the neighbourhood, the negroes,** the Nubians,*** and even from among the prisoners of war, or adventurers from beyond the sea.****
* This is shown, inter alia, by the real or supposititious
letters in which the master-scribe endeavours to deter his
pupil from adopting a military career, recommending that of
a scribe in preference.
** Uni, under Papi I., recruited his army from among the
inhabitants of the whole of Egypt, from Elephantine to
Letopolis at the mouth of the Delta, and as far as the
Mediterranean, from among the Bedouin of Libya and of the
Isthmus, and even from the six negro races of Nubia
(Inscription d’Ouni, 11. 14-19).
*** The Nubian tribe of the Mâzaiû, afterwards known as the
Libyan tribe of the Mâshaûasha, furnished troops to the
Egyptian kings and princes for centuries; indeed, the Mâzaiû
formed such an integral part of the Egyptian armies that
their name came to be used in Coptic as a synonym for
soldier, under the form “matoï.”
**** Later on we shall come across the Shardana of the Royal
Guard under Ramses II. (E. de Rougé, Extrait d’un mémoire
sur les attaques, p. 5); later still, the Ionians, Carians,
and Greek mercenaries will be found to play a decisive part
in the history of the Saïte dynasties.
This motley collection of foreign mercenaries composed ordinarily the body-guard of the king or of his barons, the permanent nucleus round which in times of war the levies of native recruits were rallied. Every Egyptian soldier received from the chief to whom he was attached, a holding of land for the maintenance of himself and his family. In the fifth century B.C. twelve aruræ of arable land was estimated as ample pay for each man,* and tradition attributes to the fabulous Sesostris the law which fixed the pay at this rate. The soldiers were not taxed, and were exempt from forced labour during the time that they were away from home on active service; with this exception they were liable to the same charges as the rest of the population. Many among them possessed no other income, and lived the precarious life of the fellah,—tilling, reaping, drawing water, and pasturing their cattle,—in the interval between two musters. Others possessed of private fortunes let their holdings out at a moderate rental, which formed an addition to their patrimonial income.**
* Herodotus, ii. 168. The arura being equal to 27.82 ares
[an are = 100 square metres], the military fief contained
27*82 x 12 = 333.84 ares. [The “arura,” according to F. L.
Griffith, was a square of 100 Egyptian cubits, making about
3/5 of an acre, or 2600 square metres.—Trs.] The chifliks created by Mohammed-Ali, with a view to bringing the
abandoned districts into cultivation, allotted to each
labourer who offered to reclaim it, a plot of land varying
from one to three feddans, i.e. from 4200.83 square metres
to 12602.49 square metres, according to the nature of the
soil and the necessities of each family. The military fiefs
of ancient Egypt were, therefore, nearly three times as
great in extent as these abadiyehs, which were considered,
in modern Egypt, sufficient to supply the wants of a whole
family of peasants; they must, therefore, have secured not
merely a bare subsistence, but ample provision for their
proprietors.
** Diodorus Siculus says in so many words (i. 74) that “the
farmers spent their life in cultivating lands which had been
let to them at a moderate rent by the king, by the priests,
and by the warriors.”
Lest they should forget the conditions upon which they possessed this military holding, and should regard themselves as absolute masters of it, they were seldom left long in possession of the same place: Herodotus asserts that their allotments were taken away-yearly and replaced by others of equal extent. It is difficult to say if this law of perpetual change was always in force; at any rate, it did not prevent the soldiers from forming themselves in time into a kind of aristocracy, which even kings and barons of highest rank could not ignore. They were enrolled in special registers, with the indication of the holding which was temporarily assigned to them. A military scribe kept this register in every royal nome or principality.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a scene in the tomb of Amoni-
Amenemhâît at Beni-Hasan.
He superintended the redistribution of the lands, the registration of privileges, and in addition to his administrative functions, he had in time of war the command of the troops furnished by his own district; in which case he was assisted by a “lieutenant,” who as opportunity offered acted as his substitute in the office or on the battle-field. Military service was not hereditary, but its advantages, however trifling they may appear to us, seemed in the eyes of the fellahs so great, that for the most part those who were engaged in it had their children also enrolled. While still young the latter were taken to the barracks, where they were taught not only the use of the bow, the battle-axe, the mace, the lance, and the shield, but were all instructed in such exercises as rendered the body supple, and prepared them for manoeuvring, regimental marching, running, jumping, and wrestling either with closed or open hand. They prepared themselves for battle by a regular war-dance, pirouetting, leaping, and brandishing their bows and quivers in the air. Their training being finished, they were incorporated into local companies, and invested with their privileges. When they were required for service, part or the whole of the class was mustered; arms kept in the arsenal were distributed among them, and they were conveyed in boats to the scene of action. The Egyptians were not martial by temperament; they became soldiers rather from interest than inclination.