A saying attributed to Sesostris III, a pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom, is representative of the ideal of kingship that prevailed in Egypt.
A valiant man must attack. To retreat is cowardly. He who goes no further than his own frontier is a real **** (obscene word) … he who runs away from the frontier and no longer fights to defend it, is not my son. (Montet 36)
The pharaoh was trained from youth to lead the army into battle.
So His majesty rose up like a King, a fully-grown young man. At eighteen, he was completely mature. he had learned to master every craft of Montu (a warrior god). On the battlefield he had no equal. He learned to ride and train horses. There was none like him in this great army. There was not a single man who could draw his bow. he could not be overtaken in the races. (Montet, 37)
This was the world into which the young Ramses entered. As a child, he watched as the craftsmen carved the exploits of his father, Seti I, into the stone walls of the temple at Karnak. His father had fought to restore the borders of Egypt to where they had been in the days of Thutmose III. He fully expected Ramses to continue the fight. Ramses did not disappoint.
In his fourth year, Ramses II campaigned in Syria, bringing all of Canaan as far as Tyre and Byblos under his control. In his fifth year he made preparations for another campaign that would penetrate as far as Kadesh on the Orontes River. Since the days of Thutmose III, this kingdom had passed from Egyptian to Hittite control. Ramses was intent on restoring it to Egypt.
The Battle of Kadesh
Ramses divided his troops into four contingents: The Amun division from Thebes, the Ptah division from Memphis, the Re division from Heliopolis, and the Sutekh division whose origins are unknown but should probably be located at Tanis in the Nile Delta.
Ramses left a detailed descriptions of this battle on the walls of buildings at Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, Abu Simbel, and the so-called “Ramesseum”, a giant mortuary temple Ramses constructed on the opposite bank of the Nile from Karnak.
Ramses does not seem to have done a very good job of managing the challenges of moving a large army across long distances. To be fair, this is a difficult task. Armies require wide and well built highways in order to move efficiently. Even then, it is impossible for large bodies of men to move together in formation. The best a military commander can do is prevent his army from getting too strung out. This is where Ramses seems to have failed. For by the time the Amun division reached enemy territory, the Sutekh division was several days journey behind. Rather than bringing his units together before crossing the Orontes River, he continued to press forward.
Incredibly, according to his own account, Ramses was unaware of the presence of the Hittite army nearby. He was operating on information gleaned from some Shasu tribesmen who claimed that the Hittite king, Muwatalli, was afraid to fight Ramses and that he remained ensconced with his army in Aleppo, far to the north.
…for the Fallen One of Hatti is in the Land of Aleppo to the north of Tunip, and he feared Pharaoh (too much) to come southward when he heard that Pharaoh had come northward.
But these Shasu tribesmen were planted by Muwatalli to sow disinformation. In fact, Muwatalli knew that a face-off with Egypt was coming and had assembled a huge army to meet the Egyptian invasion. Ramses numbers the Hittite army at 3,500 chariots and 37,000 infantry. This army was not in Aleppo but massed behind a nearby hill, Old-Kadesh, waiting for the signal to attack!
Believing that the Hittite army was far to the north, and that the Hittites had therefore abandoned the city of Kadesh to its fate, Ramses began to set up camp and make preparations for the siege of Kadesh. It was only after two Hittite scouts were captured, that Ramses learned of the mortal danger he was in.
Said his Majesty [Ramses II] to them [the Hittite scouts], ‘Where is he, the Ruler of Hatti? See, I heard it said that he was in the Land of Aleppo, north of Tunip.’ They replied, ‘Behold, the Ruler of Hatti has (already) come, together with the many foreign lands that he brought as allies…. See, they are poised, armed, and ready to fight behind Old-Kadesh!”
But Muwattali chose not attack Ramses and the Amun division, but the Re division instead, which was still crossing the Orontes River with the intention of joining Ramses and the Amun division at Kadesh. The Hittites took the Re division by surprise. It was a complete route. The Re division fled in the direction of the Egyptian camp where Ramses and the Amun division were then stationed. The Hittite army was now poised to encircle and destroy the Egyptian army and win a stunning victory. But in the hour of trial, Ramses rallied his troops and charged into the Hittite ranks.
Then His Majesty started forth at a gallop, and entered into the host of the fallen ones of Hatti, being alone by himself and no other with him… And he found 2,500 chariots hemming him in on his outer side, consisting of all the fallen ones of Hatti with the many foreign countries which were with them… I called to you, My Father Amun, when I was in the midst of multitudes I knew not. All foreign countries were combined against me, I being alone by myself, none other with me, my numerous infantry having abandoned me, not one looking at me of my chariotry. I kept on shouting to them, but none of them hearkened to me as I called…
Ramses claims that his army abandoned him and that he plunged into the midst of 2500 chariots, alone!
I was like Mont. I shot on my right and captured with my left… I found the 2,500 chariots, in whose midst I was, sprawling before my horse. Not one of them found his hand to fight… I caused them to plunge into the water even as crocodiles plunge, fallen upon their faces one upon the other. I killed them according as I willed.
It is a striking picture that Ramses paints for us, and one that the soldiers who participated in the battle that day could not have appreciated very much. What actually happened at this battle? That the Egyptian army escaped from complete destruction is certain. And it is probably true that Ramses rose to the occasion and led his army to in an effective counterattack. But as Trevor Bryce notes, it is also possible that troops belonging to Amurru, an ally of Egypt, showed up at the right time and saved the day.
Ramses II claimed complete victory. He even has the Hittite king declaring to Ramses:
Thereupon the wretched Ruler of Hatti sent and did homage to my name like that of Re, saying ‘You are Sutekh, Baal in person. The dread of you is a brand in the land of Hatti… As for the land of Egypt and the land of Hatti, they are yours, your servants, they are under your feet…Be not hard in your dealings, victorious king. Peace is better than fighting. Give us breath!
When the Hittites and Egyptians made peace many years later, the king of the Hittites specifically objected to the obviously false account of these events inscribed on the walls of Egyptian temples.
Although we do not have an account of the battle from the Hittite side, we know that they also claimed victory. Bryce suggests that the battle probably ended in a stalemate with both sides experiencing heavy losses. However, the Hittites seem to have gained a strategic advantage since, at the conclusion of the battle, the Egyptians withdrew completely while the Hittites proceeded to capture lands as far south as Aba and, most importantly, they regained control of Amurru, which had formerly been conquered by Seti I. Ramses II would campaign in Syria again, and extend Egyptian control north of Syria, but he was never able to recapture Aba, Amurru, or Kadesh.
Everything Ramses II did was big. Pieces of colossal statues of his person dot the landscape of Egypt and fill the museums of Europe. Although colossal statues in Egypt date back to the famous Great Sphinx of Giza, which bore visage the visage of pharaoh Kufu, Ramses II was the first to incorporate colossal statues of himself into temple walls.
The huge statues of Ramses II which lay toppled in the Ramesseum would later inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley to compose his most famous poem, Ozymandias, which is the Greek name for Ramsses II:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
A saying attributed to Sesostris III, a pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom, is representative of the ideal of kingship that prevailed in Egypt.
A valiant man must attack. To retreat is cowardly. He who goes no further than his own frontier is a real **** (obscene word) … he who runs away from the frontier and no longer fights to defend it, is not my son. (Montet 36)
The pharaoh was trained from youth to lead the army into battle.
So His majesty rose up like a King, a fully-grown young man. At eighteen, he was completely mature. he had learned to master every craft of Montu (a warrior god). On the battlefield he had no equal. He learned to ride and train horses. There was none like him in this great army. There was not a single man who could draw his bow. he could not be overtaken in the races. (Montet, 37)
This was the world into which the young Ramses entered. As a child, he watched as the craftsmen carved the exploits of his father, Seti I, into the stone walls of the temple at Karnak. His father had fought to restore the borders of Egypt to where they had been in the days of Thutmose III. He fully expected Ramses to continue the fight. Ramses did not disappoint.
In his fourth year, Ramses II campaigned in Syria, bringing all of Canaan as far as Tyre and Byblos under his control. In his fifth year he made preparations for another campaign that would penetrate as far as Kadesh on the Orontes River. Since the days of Thutmose III, this kingdom had passed from Egyptian to Hittite control. Ramses was intent on restoring it to Egypt.
The Battle of Kadesh
Ramses divided his troops into four contingents: The Amun division from Thebes, the Ptah division from Memphis, the Re division from Heliopolis, and the Sutekh division whose origins are unknown but should probably be located at Tanis in the Nile Delta.
Ramses left a detailed descriptions of this battle on the walls of buildings at Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, Abu Simbel, and the so-called “Ramesseum”, a giant mortuary temple Ramses constructed on the opposite bank of the Nile from Karnak.
Ramses does not seem to have done a very good job of managing the challenges of moving a large army across long distances. To be fair, this is a difficult task. Armies require wide and well built highways in order to move efficiently. Even then, it is impossible for large bodies of men to move together in formation. The best a military commander can do is prevent his army from getting too strung out. This is where Ramses seems to have failed. For by the time the Amun division reached enemy territory, the Sutekh division was several days journey behind. Rather than bringing his units together before crossing the Orontes River, he continued to press forward.
Incredibly, according to his own account, Ramses was unaware of the presence of the Hittite army nearby. He was operating on information gleaned from some Shasu tribesmen who claimed that the Hittite king, Muwatalli, was afraid to fight Ramses and that he remained ensconced with his army in Aleppo, far to the north.
…for the Fallen One of Hatti is in the Land of Aleppo to the north of Tunip, and he feared Pharaoh (too much) to come southward when he heard that Pharaoh had come northward.
But these Shasu tribesmen were planted by Muwatalli to sow disinformation. In fact, Muwatalli knew that a face-off with Egypt was coming and had assembled a huge army to meet the Egyptian invasion. Ramses numbers the Hittite army at 3,500 chariots and 37,000 infantry. This army was not in Aleppo but massed behind a nearby hill, Old-Kadesh, waiting for the signal to attack!
Believing that the Hittite army was far to the north, and that the Hittites had therefore abandoned the city of Kadesh to its fate, Ramses began to set up camp and make preparations for the siege of Kadesh. It was only after two Hittite scouts were captured, that Ramses learned of the mortal danger he was in.
Said his Majesty [Ramses II] to them [the Hittite scouts], ‘Where is he, the Ruler of Hatti? See, I heard it said that he was in the Land of Aleppo, north of Tunip.’ They replied, ‘Behold, the Ruler of Hatti has (already) come, together with the many foreign lands that he brought as allies…. See, they are poised, armed, and ready to fight behind Old-Kadesh!”
But Muwattali chose not attack Ramses and the Amun division, but the Re division instead, which was still crossing the Orontes River with the intention of joining Ramses and the Amun division at Kadesh. The Hittites took the Re division by surprise. It was a complete route. The Re division fled in the direction of the Egyptian camp where Ramses and the Amun division were then stationed. The Hittite army was now poised to encircle and destroy the Egyptian army and win a stunning victory. But in the hour of trial, Ramses rallied his troops and charged into the Hittite ranks.
Then His Majesty started forth at a gallop, and entered into the host of the fallen ones of Hatti, being alone by himself and no other with him… And he found 2,500 chariots hemming him in on his outer side, consisting of all the fallen ones of Hatti with the many foreign countries which were with them… I called to you, My Father Amun, when I was in the midst of multitudes I knew not. All foreign countries were combined against me, I being alone by myself, none other with me, my numerous infantry having abandoned me, not one looking at me of my chariotry. I kept on shouting to them, but none of them hearkened to me as I called…
Ramses claims that his army abandoned him and that he plunged into the midst of 2500 chariots, alone!
I was like Mont. I shot on my right and captured with my left… I found the 2,500 chariots, in whose midst I was, sprawling before my horse. Not one of them found his hand to fight… I caused them to plunge into the water even as crocodiles plunge, fallen upon their faces one upon the other. I killed them according as I willed.
It is a striking picture that Ramses paints for us, and one that the soldiers who participated in the battle that day could not have appreciated very much. What actually happened at this battle? That the Egyptian army escaped from complete destruction is certain. And it is probably true that Ramses rose to the occasion and led his army to in an effective counterattack. But as Trevor Bryce notes, it is also possible that troops belonging to Amurru, an ally of Egypt, showed up at the right time and saved the day.
Ramses II claimed complete victory. He even has the Hittite king declaring to Ramses:
Thereupon the wretched Ruler of Hatti sent and did homage to my name like that of Re, saying ‘You are Sutekh, Baal in person. The dread of you is a brand in the land of Hatti… As for the land of Egypt and the land of Hatti, they are yours, your servants, they are under your feet…Be not hard in your dealings, victorious king. Peace is better than fighting. Give us breath!
When the Hittites and Egyptians made peace many years later, the king of the Hittites specifically objected to the obviously false account of these events inscribed on the walls of Egyptian temples.
Although we do not have an account of the battle from the Hittite side, we know that they also claimed victory. Bryce suggests that the battle probably ended in a stalemate with both sides experiencing heavy losses. However, the Hittites seem to have gained a strategic advantage since, at the conclusion of the battle, the Egyptians withdrew completely while the Hittites proceeded to capture lands as far south as Aba and, most importantly, they regained control of Amurru, which had formerly been conquered by Seti I. Ramses II would campaign in Syria again, and extend Egyptian control north of Syria, but he was never able to recapture Aba, Amurru, or Kadesh.
Everything Ramses II did was big. Pieces of colossal statues of his person dot the landscape of Egypt and fill the museums of Europe. Although colossal statues in Egypt date back to the famous Great Sphinx of Giza, which bore visage the visage of pharaoh Kufu, Ramses II was the first to incorporate colossal statues of himself into temple walls.
The huge statues of Ramses II which lay toppled in the Ramesseum would later inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley to compose his most famous poem, Ozymandias, which is the Greek name for Ramsses II:
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.