Military history

So as this month's lore post, because the next one will be replaced by a POV scene instead, here is one of my favorite subjects! MILITARY HISTORY YEEEAAAHHH! As you can guess, this is going to be long. I had immense fun writing it, and used the same sources as before.

Behold:

Brief military history of Egypt until the New Kingdom. I say ‘brief’, but I’m obviously lying, so buckle up!

Before the unification of Egypt, the land was ruled by tribes with their own leaders. These periods are usually called the Nagada cultures because they were centered around the town of Nagada, which is a bit north of Thebes, in Upper Egypt. Occasionally, one of their chieftains would try to conquer the Delta area and Lower Egypt, with more or less success, but the first person who actually succeeded was Narmer the First. He was born in Tjenu, near Abydos, around the year 3000 BC, and he led several, highly successful military campaigns to bring Lower Egypt and the Delta under his rule, and around this time, he also founded Memphis.

Now resources about the entire Egyptian chronology are muddy at best. Technically, it’s not clear what happened when because Ancient Egyptians didn’t have a set calendar. They counted years by how long a king’s reign was, so for example, ‘Ramses II’s reign, second year’.

You can obviously see where the problem lies. What happens when the king dies? What happens when two kings rule the land at the same time, for example during the Intermediate Periods, or during uncertain times? What happens when a king rules for less than a year? How do they count that? What happens when a king’s ruling years are entirely unknown because every resource mentioning them was lost? What happens when we don’t even know which king was who because several resources mention them in different names? What happens when several resources about the same king’s reigning years contradict each other?

All of these problems are very much real, so it’s practically impossible to make a correct chronology. The exact numbers you read in history books are not exact at all. They are guesses at best. What’s quite interesting as well, is that according to Herodotus -- the ancient Greek historian and geographer who lived in the 5th century BC -- from the rule of the first king of Egypt until Herodotus’s time, 11 000 years have passed. And when Platon talks about Egyptian history, he also talks about the years in the tens of thousands. Where did they get their info from? They lived at the same time as the late-period pharaohs. They got their info first-hand from them, probably. We didn’t.

The first person (that we know of) who made a comprehensive list of Egyptian kings was Seti I, the father of Ramesses the Great. He was the one who built several temples in Abydos, and on the wall of one of them, is the Abydos King List. So thanks to him, we can more or less know how the kings succeeded each other. I say more or less because he left out many of them, intentionally or not, for this or that reason.

According to pretty much everyone though, Narmer was the person who started the history of the Egyptian Empire. The first pharaoh was considered to be Menes, but was he the same person as Narmer, and he simply took a different name when he was crowned? We don’t know.

What we do know is that Narmer was one of the most successful military leaders in Egyptian history, and without him, there would likely be no Egypt, or it would have started out quite differently.

After Narmer’s rule, the first dynasty of Egypt had the responsibility to secure the new kingdom, and they made a valiant effort. Unfortunately, during the second dynasty, the land was divided again and Upper and Lower Egypt was at war with each other, until the southern king finally came out victorious. According to his scribes, the enemy casualties reached 50 000, which is a shockingly high number.

Starting from the third dynasty, the kingdom was finally secured for good, and this is when the era of the Old Kingdom begins – the era of the pyramids – and it ends with the rule of Pepi II, the longest reigning monarch in the world (90+ years). After his reign, the kingdom burned up in anarchy in the First Intermediate period.

Almost two hundred years have to pass until order is restorted again for good in the 11th dynasty, with King Mentuhotep. Many of his contemporaries call him the second Narmer, because he basically did the same as Narmer – he had to unify a warring, chaotic land through the only means known to them – war. He was the founder of the Middle Kingdom, and this was the time when Egypt started to lead successful military campaigns into Nubia as well, and start building the fortress system along the river.

The end of the Middle Kingdom signals a very uncertain period that nobody knows how to date. There were many kings succeeding each other quickly and simultaniously, and it’s impossible to say who ruled and for how long. There wasn’t full-on pillaging rampaging anarchy like in the First Intermediate period because the system of administration didn’t collapse this time, but the royal instituation did.

And this was when the Hyksos arrived.

The Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos occupation

Who were the Hyksos even, you may ask? They’ve been discussed endlessly in the game, but what was their deal? Who were they and where did they come from?

Get ready to learn the answer…

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We don’t know.

Hilarious, right? We don’t know who the Hyksos were. Hyksos means ‘foreigner’ in Egyptian.

They simply called them foreigners. Foreigners.

If you think Ancient Egyptians were not incredibly innovative with their descriptions, at least when it was about important things (like an invading army), you may be right. But what do we expect from a people who simply called themselves ‘people’? They didn’t call themselves Egyptians. No, they didn’t have any special name for their own. They just called themselves people. Very original.

Anyway, we do know that the Hyksos came from the east, and they were steppe-people. Could they have been ancient Scythians or Hurrians? Maybe! They were definitely not Assyrians because Assyria wasn’t very big at the time, and they didn’t call it the ‘Assyrian Invasion’, no, they called it the ‘Hyksos Invasion’. Maybe they were a separatist tribe who broke out of one of the other kingdoms in the east and decided to look for greener pastures.

Quite literally, because they came with horses.

The nature of the occupation is questionable. Some sources say it was violent and swift, some say it was mostly domestic instead, meaning, they simply moved into Egypt. Because of the jobs or whatever. They started with the Delta, and renovated an ancient city there with a newly built fortress and walls, and named it Avaris, their new capital. From here, they built out a military checkpoint- and fortress system along the Nile, and sometimes their rule went as far as Nubia.

They controlled the Nile, and they also controlled the southern lands through high taxes.

The Theban dynasty persevered in Upper Egypt and they held the dream of a unified Egypt. Many of them was named Mentuhotep as a symbolic meaning that they were holding out and they were hoping to unify the land once again.

During the end of the 17th Theban dynasty, the hostilities sharpened. One of the last Hyksos rulers, Apepi (he’s mentioned by name in the game too) wrote a letter to the then-reigning Theban monarch, Seqenenre, saying that he can’t sleep from the loud noises the Theban hippos make. This was probably his way of saying ‘Seqenenre, you are annoying and I don’t like you’, considering that there is 700 kilometers between Avaris and Thebes.

Recapturing the Delta and vanquishing the Hyksos was very tricky, however. First of all, the Hyksos had the very genius, very deadly, very advanced weapon that the Egyptians didn’t: the war chariot. Seqenenre paid the price too because he died in a brutal way in battle. His mummy shows clear signs that the body was already very, uh… ripe… by the time they started mummification on it. He has a massive fracture on his skull from a battle axe, and he was probably stabbed in the neck as well. There is a theory that he was ritualistically murdered after a lost battle against the Hyksos. If that’s true, it could explain the decomposing body if they put it on display for a few cheerful days. Then again, we don’t know where he died, so maybe the simple reason was that Kamose (his successor) had a hard time transporting the body back to Thebes in a timely manner.

Kamose followed him on the throne, and this is where things get really interesting. He reigned for a short time, only about 5 years, but even during these years, he led many successful battles. He managed to push the border from Kusai further up north, and he led his army as far as Avaris. He didn’t conquer the city, but he apparently sacked the lands around it and ‘put great fear into their hearts’. In other words, he shouted a big ‘fuck you’ in front of their gates, and honestly, that was impressive as hell, considering that nobody before him could do any of that.

Apepi didn’t like that at all, and he sent a secret letter to Nubia to encourage an alliance. This would put Kamose into a deadly pincer, Avaris attacking from the north, and Nubia from the south. Fortunately, in an impressive feat of ingenuity, Kamose put spies into the desert for this exact reason, and his spies managed to capture the letter before it could reach Nubia. How cool is that? Very, if you ask me.

Kamose led one last campaign against Nubia and recaptured the fortress of Buhen, which is pretty far up the Nile, so that means, he went waaaay beyond his original borders. Like I said, impressive.

He died sometime after, for unknown reasons. His mummy was found, and a second later, literally thrown out with the trash in the 1800s. Possibly eaten by the Victorians. (Fucking Victorians)

Ahmose followed him on the throne, who was still a child at the time. In his name, his mother reigned as regent until Ahmose grew up. He was the one who eventually conquered Avaris and unified the land, founding the 18th dynasty and the New Kingdom of Egypt. We don’t know almost anything of his battles, but it can safely be said that he did a good job.

Now, I said before that in the game, Narmer and his father do what Ahmose and Kamose did in real life. What leads to their rule though? It’s mentioned several times in the game that Narmer is not a royal, technically. Or wasn’t, until he became an adult. That’s because King Senhotenre (see how his name resembles Seqenenre) is technically the last pharaoh of the in-game 17th dynasty. His heirs get murdered, and so he appoints his friend, Narmer’s father, as his successor because the guy already has an adult son (Narmer), and the son already has 2 children (Hor and Ahmose).

Senhotenre dies shortly after, and King Userkare, Narmer’s father, gets the crown. He starts the war against the Hyksos, and Narmer is there from the beginning, right on the front lines.

Then Userkare dies in battle, and Narmer finishes the job. He leads the campaign against Nubia and Avaris, conquers the city, and unifies Egypt. Technically, in the game, Narmer is the founder of the New Kingdom. Coincidentally, he was also canonically named after the first Narmer, the first king.

The army

In the beginning, Egypt didn’t have a standing army. They conscripted soldiers from the civilian population, but after the military campaigns became more and more frequent, the kings came to the ingenious conclusion that maybe it would be better to have a proper army instead of peasants with sticks. They had their own private militia before too, so don’t laugh. They had guards, they had city security, and they guarded the boarders, but a proper army would mean that first, they could rely on them any time of the year, and second, they could be properly trained, ergo, a lot more deadly than a peasant with a stick.

By the time of Seti I (19th dynasty, the guy who made the king list in Abydos) had a standing army of 5 000 men, divided into 3 battle corps. His son, Ramesses the Great, had an army of 7 000, with 4 battle corps. They were named after gods, and had cool descriptions, like the Amun Corps was called ‘Valuable Bow’. Cute.

The battle corps then were divided into battalions (around 1000 men), companies (100 men), and squads (10 men).

Captain MC for example, if went to war, was the leader of a company and held the rank Major. Noble MC’s brother is a general and is leading the Osiris battle corps. Hudjefa used to have a Major rank in the army during the war, and he led a special squad of battle priests. Male Ahmose is a general as well, in charge of the royal chariot battalion. Qenna is the general of the Amun Corps, and Narmer is the Major General, the head of the entire army.

The army was nothing without a rigorous system of administrators though. Army scribes were the ones keeping everything in check, and the entire officer system was in charge of – starting with the vizier – ensuring that the war machine was properly equipped, fed, and had everything they needed for a campaign. They were the ones deciding about the repairs of chariots, the feeding of animals; how much food each soldier would have to keep on their person, how many arrows they had to have inside the chariots… They were keeping track of everything, down to the last arrowhead.

The army scribes were pretty thorough for another reason too – because once they made a name for themselves in the army, they were in a much better position to continue their career in the civil world as well, as high-ranking officials. At least three pharaohs started their career in the military, for example. Horemheb, one of the successors of Tutankhamun, was a soldier originally. He died without a heir, so he appointed his friend from the army, Ramesses, as his successor because Ramesses already had an adult son, and the son had two children. Familiar situation, right? That son was Seti I, who was also a soldier. And Seti’s son, one of the greatest rulers of Egypt, was Ramesses II.

The medjays

The medjays, originally, were special desert scouts from Nubia. The name first appears in the Old Kingdom, and they refer to some people from Nubia, specifically some tribes who were especially good in the desert, and they were great archers. Several medjays served in Kamose’s army against the Hyksos as desert scouts.

In the game, Tabiry’s father used to be the leader of the Medjay forces, and he was specifically invited to the country by Narmer’s father to serve as his scout leader in the war. After he retired, Tabiry inherited the position from him.

During the New Kingdom, the medjay term seemed to lost its ethnic meaning, and they started using it for the special paramilitary desert police who kept the peace along the desert roads in Egypt. They obviously originated from the original medjay meaning, but they were no longer only Nubians.

The navy

The Egyptian Navy, first and foremost, served a logistical purpose. They transported soldiers, equipment, and provisions quickly and efficiently, but since these boats were usually not optimal on the sea, sailing out against Lebanon for example, was a very risky manouver. During the time when the Bronze Age Collapse started affecting the neighboring empires and the Sea People attacked, Ramesses III created an entire fleet against them, with big boats that were able to hold a crew of 50. With cunning tactics, they forced the enemy ships closer to the shore where the Egyptian boats didn’t have such a big disadvantage, and from the coast, they shot at them with an army of archers.

Mercenaries

Mercenary companies were always present in the Egyptian armies. Especially during wars and military campaigns, their numbers grew drastically, and the king usually paid them from the royal treasury, the same way he paid his official soldiers. People who have been conquered were often offered a spot in the mercenary companies. Many of them were volunteers, but prisoners of wars were also sometimes chosen. Nubians, Libyans, and other Middle Easterners all served in the Egyptian armies, sometimes in their designated mercenary companies, or mixed in with the Egyptian soldiers. Nubians were considered to be great archers, and Libyans great chariot riders.

These positions were quite sought after – especially as a prisoner of war, this was a very desirable alternative to, for example, becoming a slave. These mercenaries were paid, they had the same rights as Egyptian soldiers, they could bring their family with them into the military camps, and they could even gain full citizenship, and small plots of lands in the country.

Some pharaohs even employed them as royal bodyguards.

The only problem was that many Egyptians didn’t like foreigners living amongst them, so they probably had to be lucky with their neighbors.

Armors and other practical clothing

Soldiers in Egypt didn’t wear any kind of uniform. In the Old Kingdom, they were mostly naked, and later, they wore loincloths – most of them were even barefeet. The officers, obviously, had more elaborate clothing. They wore skirts, tunics, shoes, and they wore ostrich feathers on their head to be visible from afar.

Foreign soldiers used the simple Egyptian fashion to show that their sense of style, obviously, was superior, and much more fearsome. Nubians wore colorful loincloths, and they had huge hoop earrings. Libyans wore yellow capes with round hats on top of their long braids. Syrians wore long scarves wrapped around their torso, and braided their hair with ribbons. Sardinians wore helmets with a sun and moon symbol. They were all pretty spectacular when they marched somewhere. I wish I could see them honestly because they sound like an impressive bunch.

Armors didn’t really appear until the New Kingdom. Before then, soldiers used shields for protection – turtle shell, braided papyrus shields, or a wooden plate covered in leather.

The first armors were made of hardened linen stripes that were wrapped around the chest and torso and were held in place by two straps across the shoulders. They put the same in front of their loincloths. Helmets appeared as well that covered the ears.

They soon started using leather, which gave much better protection, and bronze, which was the most expensive, and the best in battle. They made battle vests, a sort of sleeveless scale armor, with bronze plates that resembles fish scales, and they also reinforced the shields with metal plates in the middle.

Weapons

During the New Kingdom, as the bronze smithing techniques developed, the quality and forms of the weapons changed a great deal. During the New Kingdom, the battle axe became the most popular weapon, but they also had wide-bladed daggers, and shortswords.

The most unique Egyptian weapon was the khopes, a curved sword that was half sickle-half sword, and was excellent both at cutting and stabbing, and because of its unique shape, the curve served really well as a protection against enemy blades as well.

The Egyptian arrows were legendarily deadly as well. They were a composite, 4-sided arrow that flew further and hit harder than the normal arrows. These were made from reed stalks, feathers, and bronze for the tip, and were quite delicate. They easily became warped, so they usually stored them in quivers, or carried them by hand. Ramesses II had every one of his archers equipped with these, and he himself was rumored to be able to shoot through a bronze plate with an arrow like this.

Horses and the cavalry

Horses were rare and expensive in Egypt. They were introduced to Egypt by the Hyksos – before that, they were unknown in Egypt. They never had enough horses either, so they often maintained the royal stables by foreign purchases, as foreign tax, or they captured them from the enemy in battles. They were kept in excellent conditions, got the best fodder, and they even built out a veterinary system to keep the animals healthy and in check.

They were so valuable in fact, that often, in polite conversation, they would ask about the family, and immediately after, they would ask about the other person’s horse.

The horses in Egypt were used almost exclusively in the cavalry. During Seqenenre and Kamose’s reign, they started building the first war chariots, and by the time of Ahmose, Egypt had a permanent cavalry to compete with the Hyksos. The Hyksos chariots were heavy, and their primary purpose was to break through enemy lines in steppe-battle. The Egyptians quickly realised that they needed something different than that, so they started experimenting with lighter, more manouverable chariots that suited the Egyptian landscape a whole lot better. Instead of the heavy wooden hull, they started using leather, they changed the wheels, and put the axis (?) further back, so the chariot became a lot better at making quick, sudden changes of directions. With these changes, the entire chariot weighed only as much as an adult person.

They were ridden by 2 people: a rider, and a warrior. The rider directed the horses, and their job was simply to manouver the chariot, while the warrior, most often a high-ranking officer, fought with a composite bow, spears, or swords, depending on the situation. The warrior wore a scale armor, but the rider was only protected by a shield. They could also quickly get on and off the chariot because the back was completely open, so once they were done properly bashing the head off an enemy soldier, they could simply jump back on and ride away.

Riding a war chariot was an honour, and the cavalry was the elite of the elite within the army. The pharaoh’s chariot was the most decorated and best equipped of all, and many kings personally went to battle on top of them.

Fortresses

Egyptians had a system of fortresses built since the Old Kingdom, mostly on the eastern borders, but on the south as well along the Nile, towards Nubia. These had thick walls, a moat, bastions, and housed proper garrisons inside them. They were placed along strategic points, and their job was to keep an eye on the comings and goings on the borders. They were supposed to check every traveler on the road, and keep a ledger about them. Their job was also, obviously, warn the king if an invading army approached, and they were also used to protect travelers from bandits on the road.

Serving in the border fortresses was extremely boring however, they were often far away from any cities, and had nothing much to do in times of peace.

When Egyptians were the ones who were trying to capture fortresses, they used long rope ladders to scale the walls, and if the fortress was built on sand, they often dug tunnels under the walls to get in.

On the battlefield

The main force of the army was the infantry. Behind them stood the archers, in light clothing, because then never went close to the enemy. Along both sides stood the cavalry, whose job was to stop hostile chariot attacks, so they road ahead of the infantry, and they were followed by lightly armored spearmen, who ran along the chariots, pulled down enemy riders and killed them on the ground, and also served as reinforcement if a friendly chariot got into trouble.

Ramesses II, for example, was almost killed in the battle of Kadesh because his chariot battalion was lured into a trap, but then reinforcement arrived, and he managed to get out. He also won the battle, after which, him and the Hittite king formed the first written peace treaty in the world (that we know of).

Aftermath

When the battle was over and won, administration began. Those soldiers who weren’t injured, were tasked to count casualties. They collected their own dead, and counted the enemy by cutting off the corpses’ hands. Those who survived or surrendered, were taken as prisoners of war.

Egypt didn’t really have slaves, but they had indebted servitude, and they also took slaves as prisoners of war. Egyptian soldiers were often rewarded with the bounties of battle – horses, chariots, land, and sometimes prisoners of war, whom they could use as slaves and work them until the slave reached a desired goal, for example work for 10 years with loyalty. After that, the owner could free him, give him enough money so that he could start his own life, and then the person would gain full citizenship.

Narmer I for example took 120 000 prisoners of war during his campaign to unify Egypt, which is truly an astonishing number.