CAMPAIGN OF THOTHMES II IN THE SUDAN

The following extract illustrates the inscriptions in which the king describes an expedition into a hostile country which he has conducted with success.  It is taken from an inscription of Thothmes II, which is cut in hieroglyphs on a rock by the side of the old road leading from Elephantine to Philae, and is dated in the first year of the king’s reign.  The opening lines enumerate the names and titles of the king, and proclaim his sovereignty over the Haunebu, or the dwellers in the northern Delta and on the sea coast, Upper and Lower Egypt, Nubia and the Eastern Desert, including Sinai, Syria, the lands of the Fenkhu, and the countries that lie to the south of the modern town of Khartum.  The next section states:  “A messenger came in and saluted His Majesty and said:  The vile people of Kash (i.e. Cush, Northern Nubia) are in revolt.  The subjects of the Lord of the Two Lands (i.e. the King of Egypt) have become hostile to him, and they have begun to fight.  The Egyptians [in Nubia] are driving down their cattle from the shelter of the stronghold which thy father Thothmes [I] built to keep back the tribes of the South and the tribes of the Eastern Desert.”  The last part of the envoy’s message seems to contain a statement that some of the Egyptians who had settled in Nubia had thrown in their lot with the Sudani folk who were in revolt.  The text continues:  “When His Majesty heard these words he became furious like a panther (or leopard), and he said:  I swear by Ra, who loveth me, and by my father Amen, king of the gods, lord of the thrones of the Two Lands, that I will not leave any male alive among them.  Then His Majesty sent a multitude of soldiers into Nubia, now this was his first war, to effect the overthrow of all those who had rebelled against the Lord of the Two Lands, and of all those who were disaffected towards His Majesty.  And the soldiers of His Majesty arrived in the miserable land of Kash, and overthrew these savages, and according to the command of His Majesty they left no male alive, except one of the sons of the miserable Prince of Kash, who was carried away alive with some of their servants to the place where His Majesty was.  His Majesty took his seat on his throne, and when the prisoners whom his soldiers had captured were brought to him they were placed under the feet of the good god.  Their land was reduced to its former state of subjection, and the people rejoiced and their chiefs were glad.  They ascribed praise to the Lord of the Two Lands, and they glorified the god for his divine beneficence.  This took place because of the bravery of His Majesty, whom his father Amen loved more than any other king of Egypt from the very beginning, the King of the South and North, Aakheperenra, the son of Ra, Thothmes (II), whose crowns are glorious, endowed with life, stability, and serenity, like Ra for ever.”

CAPTURE OF MEGIDDO BY THOTHMES III