Many were the difficulties that he had to encounter before he could restore to his country that peace and wealth which she had enjoyed under the long reign of Sesostris. It seems probable that his advancing years made him feel unequal to the task, or that he desired to guard against the possibility of disturbances in the event of his sudden death; at all events, he associated with himself on the throne his eldest son Ramses—not, however, as a Pharaoh who had full rights to the crown, like the coadjutors of the Amenemhâîts and Usirtasens, but as a prince invested with extraordinary powers, after the example of the sons of the Pharaohs Thûtmosis and Seti I. Ramses recalls with pride, towards the close of his life, how his father “had promoted him to the dignity of heir-presumptive to the throne of Sibû,” and how he had been acclaimed as “the supreme head of Qimît for the administration of the whole earth united together.” * This constituted the rise of a new dynasty on the ruins of the old—the last, however, which was able to retain the supremacy of Egypt over the Oriental world. We are unable to ascertain how long this double reign lasted.
* The only certain monument that we as yet possess of this
double reign is a large stele cut on the rock behind
Medinet-Habû.
Nakhtûsît, fully occupied by enemies within the country, had no leisure either to build or to restore any monuments;* on his death, as no tomb had been prepared for him, his mummy was buried in that of the usurper Siphtah and the Queen Tausirît.
* Wiedemann attributes to him the construction of one of the
doors of the temple of Mût at Karnak; it would appear that
there is a confusion in his notes between the prenomen of
this sovereign and that of Seti II., who actually did
decorate one of the doorways of that temple. Nakhûsît must
have also worked on the temple of Phtah at Memphis. His
cartouche is met with on a statue originally dedicated by a
Pharaoh of the XIIth dynasty, discovered at Tell-Nebêsheh.
He was soon forgotten, and but few traces of his services survived him; his name was subsequently removed from the official list of the kings, while others not so deserving as he—as, for instance, Siphtah-Minephtah and Amenmesis—were honourably inscribed in it. The memory of his son overshadowed his own, and the series of the legitimate kings who formed the XXth dynasty did not include him. Ramses III. took for his hero his namesake, Ramses the Great, and endeavoured to rival him in everything. This spirit of imitation was at times the means of leading him to commit somewhat puerile acts, as, for example, when he copied certain triumphal inscriptions word for word, merely changing the dates and the cartouches,* or when he assumed the prenomen of Usirmârî, and distributed among his male children the names and dignities of the sons of Sesostris. We see, moreover, at his court another high priest of Phtah at Memphis bearing the name of Khâmoîsît, and Marîtûmû, another supreme pontiff of Râ in Heliopolis. However, this ambition to resemble his ancestor at once instigated him to noble deeds, and gave him the necessary determination to accomplish them.
* Thus the great decree of Phtah-Totûnen, carved by Ramses
II. in the year XXXV. on the rocks of Abu Simbel, was copied
by Ramses III. at Medinet-Habû in the year XII.
He began by restoring order in the administration of affairs; “he established truth, crushed error, purified the temple from all crime,” and made his authority felt not only in the length and breadth of the Nile valley, but in what was still left of the Asiatic provinces. The disturbances of the preceding years had weakened the prestige of Amon-Râ, and the king’s supremacy would have been seriously endangered, had any one arisen in Syria of sufficient energy to take advantage of the existing state of affairs. But since the death of Khâtusaru, the power of the Khâti had considerably declined, and they retained their position merely through their former prestige; they were in as much need of peace, or even more so, than the Egyptians, for the same discords which had harassed the reigns of Seti II. and his successors had doubtless brought trouble to their own sovereigns. They had made no serious efforts to extend their dominion over any of those countries which had been the objects of the cupidity of their forefathers, while the peoples of Kharu and Phoenicia, thrown back on their own resources, had not ventured to take up arms against the Pharaoh. The yoke lay lightly upon them, and in no way hampered their internal liberty; they governed as they liked, they exchanged one prince or chief for another, they waged petty wars as of old, without, as a rule, exposing themselves to interference from the Egyptian troops occupying the country, or from the “royal messengers.” These vassal provinces had probably ceased to pay tribute, or had done so irregularly, during the years of anarchy following the death of Siphtah, but they had taken no concerted action, nor attempted any revolt, so that when Ramses III. ascended the throne he was spared the trouble of reconquering them. He had merely to claim allegiance to have it at once rendered him—an allegiance which included the populations in the neighbourhood of Qodshû and on the banks of the Nahr el-Kelb. The empire, which had threatened to fall to pieces amid the civil wars, and which would indeed have succumbed had they continued a few years longer, again revived now that an energetic prince had been found to resume the direction of affairs, and to weld together those elements which had been on the point of disintegration.
One state alone appeared to regret the revival of the Imperial power; this was the kingdom of Libya. It had continued to increase in size since the days of Mînephtah, and its population had been swelled by the annexation of several strange tribes inhabiting the vast area of the Sahara. One of these, the Mashaûasha, acquired the ascendency among these desert races owing to their numbers and valour, and together with the other tribes—the Sabati, the Kaiakasha, the Shaîû, the Hasa, the Bikana, and the Qahaka*—formed a confederacy, which now threatened Egypt on the west. This federation was conducted by Didi, Mashaknû, and Mâraîû, all children of that Mâraîû who had led the first Libyan invasion, and also by Zamarû and Zaûtmarû, two princes of less important tribes.** Their combined forces had attacked Egypt for the second time during the years of anarchy, and had gained possession one after another of all the towns in the west of the Delta, from the neighbourhood of Memphis to the town of Qarbîna: the Canopic branch of the Nile now formed the limit of their dominion, and they often crossed it to devastate the central provinces.***
* This enumeration is furnished by the summary of the
campaigns of Ramses III. in The Great Harris Papyrus. The
Sabati of this text are probably identical with the people
of the Sapudiu or Spudi (Asbytse), mentioned on one of the
pylons of Medinet-Habû.
** The relationship is nowhere stated, but it is thought to
be probable from the names of Didi and Mâraîû, repeated in
both series of inscriptions.
*** The town of Qarbîna has been identified with the Canopus
of the Greeks, and also with the modern Korbani; and the
district of Gautu, which adjoined it, with the territory of
the modern town of Edkô. Spiegel-berg throws doubt on the
identification of Qarbu or Qarbîna, with Canopus. Révillout
prefers to connect Qarbîna with Heracleopolis Parva in Lower
Egypt.
Nakhtûsîti had been unable to drive them out, and Ramses had not ventured on the task immediately after his accession. The military institutions of the country had become totally disorganised after the death of Mînephtah, and that part of the community responsible for furnishing the army with recruits had been so weakened by the late troubles, that they were in a worse condition than before the first Libyan invasion. The losses they had suffered since Egypt began its foreign conquests had not been repaired by the introduction of fresh elements, and the hope of spoil was now insufficient to induce members of the upper classes to enter the army. There was no difficulty in filling the ranks from the fellahîn, but the middle class and the aristocracy, accustomed to ease and wealth, no longer came forward in large numbers, and disdained the military profession. It was the fashion in the schools to contrast the calling of a scribe with that of a foot-soldier or a charioteer, and to make as merry over the discomforts of a military occupation as it had formerly been the fashion to extol its glory and profitableness. These scholastic exercises represented the future officer dragged as a child to the barracks, “the side-lock over his ear.—He is beaten and his sides are covered with scars,—he is beaten and his two eyebrows are marked with wounds,—he is beaten and his head is broken by a badly aimed blow; he is stretched on the ground” for the slightest fault, “and blows fall on him as on a papyrus,—and he is broken by the stick.” His education finished, he is sent away to a distance, to Syria or Ethiopia, and fresh troubles overtake him. “His victuals and his supply of water are about his neck like the burden of an ass,—and his neck and throat suffer like those of an ass,—so that the joints of his spine are broken.—He drinks putrid water, keeping perpetual guard the while.” His fatigues soon tell upon his health and vigour: “Should he reach the enemy,—he is like a bird which trembles.—Should he return to Egypt,—he is like a piece of old worm-eaten wood.—He is sick and must lie down, he is carried on an ass,—while thieves steal his linen,—and his slaves escape.” The charioteer is not spared either. He, doubtless, has a moment of vain-glory and of flattered vanity when he receives, according to regulations, a new chariot and two horses, with which he drives at a gallop before his parents and his fellow-villagers; but once having joined his regiment, he is perhaps worse off than the foot-soldier. “He is thrown to the ground among thorns:—a scorpion wounds him in the foot, and his heel is pierced by its sting.—When his kit is examined,—his misery is at its height.” No sooner has the fact been notified that his arms are in a bad condition, or that some article has disappeared, than “he is stretched on the ground—and overpowered with blows from a stick.” This decline of the warlike spirit in all classes of society had entailed serious modifications in the organisation of both army and navy. The native element no longer predominated in most battalions and on the majority of vessels, as it had done under the XVIIIth dynasty; it still furnished those formidable companies of archers—the terror of both Africans and Asiatics—and also the most important part, if not the whole, of the chariotry, but the main body of the infantry was composed almost exclusively of mercenaries, particularly of the Shardana and the Qahaka. Ramses began his reforms by rebuilding the fleet, which, in a country like Egypt, was always an artificial creation, liable to fall into decay, unless a strong and persistent effort were made to keep it in an efficient condition. Shipbuilding had made considerable progress in the last few centuries, perhaps from the impulse received through Phoenicia, and the vessels turned out of the dockyards were far superior to those constructed under Hâtshopsîtû. The general outlines of the hull remained the same, but the stem and stern were finer, and not so high out of the water; the bow ended, moreover, in a lion’s head of metal, which rose above the cut-water. A wooden structure running between the forecastle and quarter-deck protected the rowers during the fight, their heads alone being exposed. The mast had only one curved yard, to which the sail was fastened; this was run up from the deck by halyards when the sailors wanted to make sail, and thus differed from the Egyptian arrangement, where the sail was fastened to a fixed upper yard. At least half of the crews consisted of Libyan prisoners, who were branded with a hot iron like cattle, to prevent desertion; the remaining half was drawn from the Syrian or Asiatic coast, or else were natives of Egypt. In order to bring the army into better condition, Ramses revived the system of classes, which empowered him to compel all Egyptians of unmixed race to take personal service, while he hired mercenaries from Libya, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, and wherever he could get them, and divided them into regular regiments, according to their extraction and the arms that they bore. In the field, the archers always headed the column, to meet the advance of the foe with their arrows; they were followed by the Egyptian lancers—the Shardana and the Tyrseni with their short spears and heavy bronze swords—while a corps of veterans, armed with heavy maces, brought up the rear.* In an engagement, these various troops formed three lines of infantry disposed one behind the other—the light brigade in front to engage the adversary, the swordsmen and lancers who were to come into close quarters with the foe, and the mace-bearers in reserve, ready to advance on any threatened point, or to await the critical moment when their intervention would decide the victory: as in the times of Thûtmosis and Ramses II. the chariotry covered the two wings.