The wars of the Ancient Egyptians

[Currahee Chris]

I hope I placed this in the right section :oops:

I have often wondered how Egypt came to power? Greece and Rome did by the sword, but Egypt seems to be lacking in major battles like Alesia, Zama, etc. I know of Quadesh, which took place waay before Rome was around.

I understand that when Rome was coming to power, Egypt was in some state of decline, not a rapid spiral, but seemed to be a very slow decline. Just curious if there are any other major battles that took place that I am simply not aware of that helped catapult Egypt to a place of prominence. Or was it simply that they controlled a lot of rich agriculture and were very shrewd with how they managed that postion in the ancient world?? I know they area mentioned quite a bit in the Bible. Perhaps there are battles that we simply arent aware of today???

Any insight would be appreciated.
CC

[Macedon]

If you include Ptolemaic Egypt in your query, as it seems you do since you mention the Romans, then there are a number of battles fought with the Seleucids with Raphia being the grandest (others would include the attack on the wall of the Camels, by Perdiccas, the campaign of Antigonus in Egypt etc).

We also have the invasion of Artaxerxes, that of Cambysis, Sesoosis' invasion of Ethiopia, Nectanebo's war against Tachos, Psammetichus in Syria, Psammetichos against Tementhes, Amasis against the Arabs etc etc etc.

There are many mentions of battles in Egypt or campaigns of Egyptian (or non-Egyptian) rulers of Egypt. The problem is that there are rarely details on those battles that would allow a complete picture to be made, most are just mentioned as instances in history or to illustrate very specific historical or tactical details.

[Quintus Aurelius Lepidus]

perhaps you should read this 'fighting pharaohs' by Partridge. Partridge is the editor of ancient egypt magazine.

It's a study about the campaigns, equipment, fortifications, of the ancient egyptians.

i think it's an affordable book.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fighting-Pharaoh...467&sr=8-1

[Daan]

Osprey's got two descent books about the ancient Egyptians too, I believe; "Qadesh 1300BC" and "New Kingdom Egypt".

As far as I am aware of some major battles in the period of ancient Egypt are
- Megiddo (1400-1500 BC), Thutmosis III defeated the Canaanites
- Qadesh (1280-1300 BC), between Ramesses II and the Hittites
- Megiddo (609 BC), between Egypt and Judea

Problem is that neither Egyptians, nor their enemies kept a descent recording about any military action, except the pharao propaganda how great their victory might have been (Thutmoses, Ramesses, ...). Main threats came from the Middle East, Nubians from the south, Libians from the west and the 'Sea People', whoever they were . Plus all internal rival factions. Personally I don't believe Egypt ever was a very strong, dominant military power (with very poor or non-existing defences) and were "easily" conquered by the Persians, Macedonians, etc. Or is that a bad view?

(PS, sorry for the late answer, haven't been here for a while and I just saw the topic :oops: )

[Ioannis]

Personally I believe that the battle of Raphia is a very interesting case as it's the first time that native Egyptians fought as phalangites.

[Quintus Aurelius Lepidus]

Personally I don't believe Egypt ever was a very strong, dominant military power (with very poor or non-existing defences) and were "easily" conquered by the Persians, Macedonians, etc. Or is that a bad view?

true and not true. there are periods when they were a superpower (18 & 19th dynasty) and there were periods when they were weak. (2nd intermediate period). during the 18th and 19th dynasty, other great kings saw them as equals and addressed the pharaoh as 'brother'. this is not a title given to vassals.

i think you need to see the egyptian army as a product of their time.

Ps: I don't have a source for it but I thought I once read in a Jona Lendering book that Egypt was betrayed to Cambyses. they could well have denied them access with their fleet through the sinai.

[Quintus Aurelius Lepidus]

I would also like to point to 2 other books:

-Warfare in the Ancient Near East to 1600 BC by William Hamblin
-Bronze age military equipment by Dan Howard

* The first one deals with bronze age warfare in the Ancient Near East (Hittites, Mitanni, anatolia, egypt, mesopotamia, syria, ...) and has long been some sort of bible to me.

* the 2nd came out last year and deals with equipment and tactics during the bronze age. so this is an excellent and up to date work to start with.

you'll find out that there is quite a difference between bronze age warfare and iron age / roman warfare.

i think you'll find out that ancient egypt really was a force to be reckoned with in their timeframe.

i would also like to point out that the ancient warfare magazine deals with ancient egypt warfare within a couple of months.