The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
World history
“The mouth of the river was like a mighty wall of ships and vessels of
every kind, filled from prow to poop with brave armed men. The infantry
soldiers, the picked men of the army of Egypt, were there like roaring
lions on the mountains; the charioteers, chosen from the swiftest of
heroes, were led by every kind of experienced officers; the horses
trembled in every limb and longed to trample nations under foot.
“As for me,” says Ramses, “I was like Mentu, the warlike. I rose
before them and they saw the work of my hands. I, the King Ramses, I
have acted like a hero, who knows his valour and who stretches his arm
over his people in the day of the struggle. Those who have violated
frontiers will no longer cultivate the land, the time for their souls
to pass into eternity is fixed. Those who were upon the shore were
prostrated on the banks of the water, massacred as in a charnel house.
I destroyed their vessels, and their goods were swallowed up by the
waters.”
Prompt as this victory was, it did not conclude the wars of Ramses III.
The Libyans, the old allies of the maritime races, would gladly have
joined against Egypt in the year VIII; and if they did not do so, it
was doubtless because they had not had time to repair their losses.
As soon as they were ready, they reappeared upon the scene, and in
the year XI the chief Kapur and his son Mashashal led the Mashauasha
[Maxyes], the Sabita, the Kaikasha and other less important tribes,
aided by the people of Tyre and Lycia, to the invasion of the Delta.
“For the second time their hearts told them that they would pass their
lives in the nomes of Egypt, and that they would till the valleys and
plains like their own land.”
But the attempt did not meet with success. “Death came upon them in
Egypt for they had run with their own feet to the furnace, which
consumes corruption, to the fire of the bravery of the king which
descends like Baal from the heights of the skies! All his members
are imbued with victorious strength. With his right hand he seizes
multitudes; his left extends like arrows over those before him to
destroy them; his sword-blade is as sharp as that of his father, Mentu.
Kapur, who had come to demand homage, blinded by fear, cast his arms
from him and his troops did likewise: he raised a supplicating cry to
Heaven and his son supported his arms. But lo, there stood by him the
god, who knew his most secret thoughts.
“His Majesty fell upon their heads like a mountain of granite, he
crushed them and watered the earth with their blood, their army and
their soldiers were massacred … they were taken, they were struck,
their arms were tied, and like birds, imprisoned in the hold of a ship,
they were in the power of his Majesty. The king was like Mentu, his
victorious feet trampled on the heads of the enemy; the chiefs who
opposed him were struck and held by the wrists.”
So the Libyans were careful henceforth not to disturb the peace of
Egypt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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