History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
* This campaign is mentioned in the inscription of Medinet-
Habu. We find some information about the war in the _Great
Harris Papyrus_, also in the inscription of Medinet-Habu
which describes the campaign of the year V., and in other
shorter texts of the same temple.
They were subjected to one of those irresistible impulses such as had
driven the Shepherds into Egypt; or again, in later times, had carried
away the Cimmerians and the Scyths to the pillage of Asia Minor: "no
country could hold out against their arms, neither Khati, nor Qodi, nor
Carchemish, nor Arvad, nor Alasia, without being brought to nothing."
The ancient kingdoms of Sapalulu and Khatusaru, already tottering,
crumbled to pieces under the shock, and were broken up into their
primitive elements. The barbarians, unable to carry the towns by
assault, and too impatient to resort to a lengthened siege, spread
over the valley of the Orontes, burning and devastating the country
everywhere. Having reached the frontiers of the empire, in the country
of the Amorites, they came to a halt, and constructing an entrenched
camp, installed within it their women and the booty they had acquired.
Some of their predatory bands, having ravaged the Bekaa, ended by
attacking the subjects of the Pharaoh himself, and their chiefs dreamed
of an invasion of Egypt. Ramses, informed of their design by the
despatches of his officers and vassals, resolved to prevent its
accomplishment. He summoned his troops together, both indigenous
and mercenary, in his own person looked after their armament and
commissariat, and in the VIIIth year of his reign crossed the frontier
near Zalu. He advanced by forced marches to meet the enemy, whom
he encountered somewhere in Southern Syria, on the borders of the
Shephelah,* and after a stubbornly contested campaign obtained the
victory. He carried off from the field, in addition to the treasures of
the confederate tribes, some of the chariots which had been used for the
transport of their families. The survivors made their way hastily to the
north-west, in the direction of the sea, in order to receive the support
of their navy, but the king followed them step by step.
* No site is given for these battles. E. de Rouge placed the
theatre of war in Syria, and his opinion was accepted by
Brugsch. Chabas referred it to the mouth of the Nile near
Pelusium, and his authority has prevailed up to the present.
The remarks of W. Max Mueller have brought me back to the
opinion of the earlier Egyptologists; but I differ from him
in looking for the locality further south, and not to the
mouth of Nahr el-Kelb as the site of the naval battle. It
seems to me that the fact that the Zakkala were prisoners at
Dor, and the Pulasati in the Shephelah, is enough to assign
the campaign to the regions I have mentioned in the text.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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