|
Who was this Sesostris, Senusret III (1878-1841 BCE) or Ramses II (1304-1237 BCE) ? According to Herodotus he followed Moiris, who is generally supposed to have been Amenemhet III (1841-1796 BCE). He may well be a compound of a number of conquering pharaohs and even then not all they are reported to have achieved, is true: The Red Sea region for instance was brought under Egyptian control only by the Ptolemies - two centuries after Herodotus.
Senusret II (1882-1878 BCE) conquered parts of northern Arabia. Senusret III fought the Libyans and invaded Syria. The empire of the Hyksos kings included Karkamesh (today southern Turkey), but many do not count them as proper Egyptian pharaohs, though they appear in the kings' lists. The Hyksos rule was ended by Ahmose I (1570-1546).
Thutmose III (1504-1450 BCE) extended Egyptian power into Canaan and Syria. Amenhotep II crossed the Euphrates but did not conquer further territories. His followers, among them Ramses II, did their best to defend these possessions. During the 20th Dynasty Egypt's influence in Retenu waned and its power declined sharply. In the Late Period Psammetic I undertook a campaign into Mesopotamia before the final collapse of Pharaonic Egypt.
Many pharaohs erected stelae (pillars) abroad.The stela of Seti I at Beit Shean (in modern Israel) is well known, as are the Buhen Stela in Nubia erected by Seti I in honour of his father Ramses I, and the Beit Shean Stela of Ramses II. But no sexual symbols have been found on any of them.
Therefore passing these by I will make mention of the king who came
after these, whose name is Sesostris. He (the priests said) first of
all set out with ships of war from the Arabian gulf and subdued those
who dwelt by the shores of the Erythraian Sea, until as he sailed he
came to a sea which could no further be navigated by reason of shoals:
then secondly, after he had returned to Egypt, according to the report
of the priests he took a great army and marched over the continent,
subduing every nation which stood in his way: and those of them whom
he found valiant and fighting desperately for their freedom, in their
lands he set up pillars which told by inscriptions his own name and
the name of his country, and how he had subdued them by his power; but
as to those of whose cities he obtained possession without fighting or
with ease, on their pillars he inscribed words after the same tenor as
he did for the nations which had shown themselves courageous, and in
addition he drew upon them the hidden parts of a woman, desiring to
signify by this that the people were cowards and effeminate.
Thus doing he traversed the continent, until at last he passed over to
Europe from Asia and subdued the Scythians and also the Thracians.
These, I am of opinion, were the furthest people to which the Egyptian
army came, for in their country the pillars are found to have been set
up, but in the land beyond this they are no longer found.
From this
point he turned and began to go back; and when he came to the river
Phasis, what happened then I cannot say for certain, whether the king
Sesostris himself divided off a certain portion of his army and left
the men there as settlers in the land, or whether some of his soldiers
were wearied by his distant marches and remained by the river Phasis.
For the people of Colchis are evidently Egyptian, and this I perceived
for myself before I heard it from others. So when I had come to
consider the matter I asked them both; and the Colchians had
remembrance of the Egyptians more than the Egyptians of the Colchians;
but the Egyptians said they believed that the Colchians were a portion
of the army of Sesostris. That this was so I conjectured myself not
only because they are dark-skinned and have curly hair (this of itself
amounts to nothing, for there are other races which are so), but also
still more because the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians alone of
all the races of men have practised circumcision from the first.
The
Phenicians and the Syrians who dwell in Palestine confess themselves
that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, and the Syrians about the
river Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and the Macronians, who are
their neighbors, say that they have learnt it lately from the
Colchians. These are the only races of men who practise circumcision,
and these evidently practise it in the same manner as the Egyptians.
Of the Egyptians themselves however and the Ethiopians, I am not able
to say which learnt from the other, for undoubtedly it is a most
ancient custom; but that the other nations learnt it by intercourse
with the Egyptians, this among others is to me a strong proof, namely
that those of the Phenicians who have intercourse with Hellas cease to
follow the example of the Egyptians in this matter, and do not
circumcise their children.
Now let me tell another thing about the
Colchians to show how they resemble the Egyptians:--they alone work
flax in the same fashion as the Egyptians, and the two nations are
like one another in their whole manner of living and also in their
language: now the linen of Colchis is called by the Hellenes Sardonic,
whereas that from Egypt is called Egyptian.
The pillars which
Sesostris king of Egypt set up in the various countries are for the
most part no longer to be seen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself
saw them existing with the inscription upon them which I have
mentioned and the emblem.
Moreover in Ionia there are two figures of
this man carved upon rocks, one on the road by which one goes from the
land of Ephesos to Phocaia, and the other on the road from Sardis to
Smyrna. In each place there is a figure of a man cut in the rock, of
four cubits and a span in height, holding in his right hand a spear
and in his left a bow and arrows, and the other equipment which he has
is similar to this, for it is both Egyptian and Ethiopian: and from
the one shoulder to the other across the breast runs an inscription
carved in sacred Egyptian characters, saying thus, "This land with my
shoulders I won for myself." But who he is and from whence, he does
not declare in these places, though in other places he had declared
this. Some of those who have seen these carvings conjecture that the
figure is that of Memnon, but herein they are very far from the truth.
As this Egyptian Sesostris was returning and bringing back many men of
the nations whose lands he had subdued, when he came (said the
priests) to Daphnai in the district of Pelusion on his journey home,
his brother to whom Sesostris had entrusted the charge of Egypt
invited him and with him his sons to a feast; and then he piled the
house round with brushwood and set it on fire.
And Sesostris when he
discovered this forthwith took counsel with his wife, for he was
bringing with him (they said) his wife also; and she counselled him to
lay out upon the pyre two of his sons, which were six in number, and
so to make a bridge over the burning mass, and that they passing over
their bodies should thus escape. This, they said, Sesostris did, and
two of his sons were burnt to death in this manner, but the rest got
away safe with their father.
Then Sesostris, having returned to Egypt
and having taken vengeance on his brother employed the multitude which
he had brought in of those who whose lands he had subdued, as follows:
--these were they drew the stones which in the reign of this king were
brought to the temple of Hephaistos, being of very good size; and also
these were compelled to dig all the channels which now are in Egypt;
and thus (having no such purpose) they caused Egypt, which before was
all fit for riding and driving, to be no longer fit for this from
thenceforth: for from that time forward Egypt, though it is plain
land, has become all unfit for riding and driving, and the cause has
been these channels, which are many and run in all directions.
But the
reason why the king cut up the land was this, namely because those of
the Egyptians who had their cities not on the river but in the middle
of the country, being in want of water when the river went down from
them, found their drink brackish because they had it from wells. For
this reason Egypt was cut up: and they said that this king distributed
the land to all the Egyptians, giving an equal square portion to each
man, and from this he made his revenue, having appointed them to pay a
certain rent every year: and if the river should take away anything
from any man's portion, he would come to the king and declare that
which had happened, and the king used to send men to examine and to
find out by measurement how much less the piece of land had become, in
order that for the future the man might pay less, in proportion to the
rent appointed: and I think that thus the art of geometry was found
out and afterwards came into Hellas also.
For as touching the sun-dial
and the gnomon and the twelve divisions of the day, they were learnt
by the Hellenes from the Babylonians. He moreover alone of all the
Egyptian kings had rule over Ethiopia; and he left as memorials of
himself in front of the temple of Hephaistos two stone statues of
thirty cubits each, representing himself and his wife, and others of
twenty cubits each representing his four sons: and long afterwards the
priest of Hephaistos refused to permit Dareios the Persian to set up a
statue of himself in front of them, saying that deeds had not been
done by him equal to those which were done by Sesostris the Egyptian;
for Sesostris had subdued other nations besides, not fewer than he,
and also the Scythians; but Dareios had not been able to conquer the
Scythians: wherefore it was not just that he should set up a statue in
front of those which Sesostris had dedicated, if he did not surpass
him in his deeds. Which speech, they say, Dareios took in good part.
Herodotus II, 102ff
Project Gutenberg
|
