Age of the Pharaohs

Age of the Pharaohs, story by story.

1. IThebes, Egypt, about 1479 to 1472 BCE
   

   Chapter I · Thebes, Egypt, about 1479 to 1472 BCE

   Hatshepsut

   You play Hatshepsut

   She is ruling for a toddler king. Will she hand the throne back, or sit on it?

   Egypt, about 1479 BCE. The pharaoh has died, and the new pharaoh is a little boy. His father's widow, Hatshepsut, will run the kingdom until he grows up.

   Your first call · The boy king: still a child

   Stay regent until he comes of ageBe crowned king beside the boy

   Sources

   • Ineni, tomb biography (TT81), in J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt II (1906) §341: 'His son stood in his place as king of the Two Lands... His sister the Divine Consort, Hatshepsut, settled the affairs of the Two Lands by reason of her plans'
   • Hatshepsut's Deir el-Bahari texts, in Breasted, Ancient Records II: the divine birth (Amun fathering her, §§187 to 212), Thutmose I naming her his successor (§237), the Punt reliefs (§§246 to 295: five vessels §252; cargo and 'never was brought the like of this for any king' §265; thirty-one myrrh trees §272), the Karnak obelisks (§§304 to 321)
   • Annals of Thutmose III, in Breasted, Ancient Records II §§478 to 479: his tablet set up in Naharin beside the tablet of his father Thutmose I (the Euphrates boast)
   • Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt II §§345 to 363 (inscriptions of Senmut): 'chief steward', who reared the king's eldest daughter Nefrure; §292: the year 9 audience on the Punt expedition; §§285 to 288: Amun's oracle that 'the ways to Punt should be searched out'
   • C. H. Roehrig (ed.), Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005), full text: Roth, 'Models of Authority' (Thutmose III 'a young child'; crowned 'sometime before the seventh regnal year'; a king traditionally male, a manifestation of Horus; kings shown striding, a female figure standing 'feet held close together by an ankle-length dress'; Nefrusobek 'the final king of the Twelfth Dynasty', queens regnant taking the throne 'in the absence of a male heir'); Dorman (half brother and husband Thutmose II; Great King's Wife and God's Wife of Amun; Thutmose III 'born to a secondary wife, Isis'; a daughter with Thutmose II; 'more than two decades as principal ruler'; name omitted from later king lists, rediscovered in the nineteenth century); Keller, 'The Joint Reign' (about fifteen years shared; 'Hatshepsut usually takes precedence'; Punt return in year 9; Karnak 'respectable but not spectacular' until her building); Dorman, 'The Career of Senenmut' (parents 'of relatively lowly origin'; tutor and steward of Neferure, probably appointed by Thutmose II; expanded responsibilities 'owing to her favor'); Thutmose III (r. 1479 to 1425 B.C.) 'created the Egyptian empire'; destruction of her monuments 'about year 42'
   • Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt I (1906), Twelfth Dynasty chronology and §614: father and son coregencies (Amenemhet II with Sesostris II); Sebeknefrure's reign after Amenemhet IV
   • Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt II §135: Thutmose III's mother 'a lady not of royal blood, named Isis'
2. IIThebes and Amarna, Egypt, about 1353 to 1346 BCE
   

   Chapter II · Thebes and Amarna, Egypt, about 1353 to 1346 BCE

   One God

   You play Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)

   Can a king change his country's god?

   Thebes, about 1353 BCE. Egypt is at its richest, and its richest god is Amun, king of the gods, with temples, herds and gold to match.

   Your first call · Amun's priests: rich, and watching

   Build the Aten a new capital hereMarch on Karnak and seize Amun's temple

   Sources

   • The Amarna boundary stelae, earlier proclamation of year 5 and later proclamation of year 6 (Murnane and van Siclen translation, quoted by the Amarna Project): 'not being the property of a god, not being the property of a goddess, not being the property of a ruler'; 'I shall not make Akhetaten for him to the south of it, to the north of it...'; the passage on things heard 'worse than' those of years 4, 3 and 1 and those of his father
   • Amarna letters, trans. W. L. Moran, The Amarna Letters (1992): EA 74 ('Like a bird in a trap : ki-lu-bi (cage), so am I in Gubla'); EA 124 (Rib-Hadda quoting Pharaoh: 'You are the one that writes to me more than all the (other) mayors'); EA 136 to 137 ('my younger brother turned Gubla into an enemy... and drove me from the city'; 'I wrote to the palace for troops, but no troops were given me'); EA 19 (Tushratta to Amenhotep III: 'In my brother's country, gold is as plentiful as dirt'); Moran's introduction n. 127 to 129: Rib-Hadda's Aziru-period letters (including EA 124) addressed to Amenophis IV
   • O. Zapletniuk, 'Amarna Period Boundary Stelae Texts of the Earlier Proclamation', Shodoznavstvo 85 (2020) 69 to 104, transliteration and translation of lines 20 to 21: worse than what I heard in regnal year 4, 3, 2, 1; worse than what king Nebmaatre (his father) heard; stelae K and X, dated year 5, already carry the new name Akhenaten (Axn-Itn), and the text before the 'worse than' passage is damaged
   • Penn Museum, Expedition magazine, 'The Akhenaten Temple Project and Karnak Excavations': over 100,000 talatat found, some 35,000 decorated; Nefertiti 'represented in the painted reliefs of her husband's temples nearly twice as often as he himself'; the Mansion of the Benben 'shows only Nefertiti and her daughters'; work concentrated in the first five years of the reign
   • UC Santa Cruz, Digital Karnak, Aten Temples: talatat about 52 by 26 by 22 cm; colossal statues of the king and queen at the Gempaaten; dismantled by Horemheb
   • Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt II: §§884 to 885 (a House of Amon under Amenhotep III: storehouse 'filled with male and female slaves', cattle 'like the sand of the shore'); §§899 to 903 (Amenhotep III's third Karnak pylon, 'wrought with gold'); §§933 to 937 (Amenhotep IV's early Aten sanctuary at Karnak; under the name Amenhotep he 'still permitted references to Amon and the gods'); §§949 to 950 (Akhetaten, 'Horizon of Aton', and its boundary stelae); notes on Amon's name and 'the gods' cut out under Ikhnaton; §1019 (Tutenkhaton became Tutenkhamon and restored the monuments Ikhnaton defaced)
   • UC Santa Cruz, Digital Karnak, Head of Colossal of Akhenaten: 'an elongated face, full lips, narrow, half-closed eyes, and a long nose', from the Gem-pa-Aten court
   • The Past (Current World Archaeology), 'Statues of Akhenaten at Karnak': 'a thin face, arms across the chest, a protruding stomach, and wide hips'
   • UC Santa Cruz, Digital Karnak, Restoration Stela of Tutankhamen: the temples of Egypt 'had fallen into ruin during Akhenaten's reign' and Tutankhamen restored them
   • Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh (Met, 2005), full text: Akhenaten (r. to 1336 B.C.); the Amarna kings absent from later king lists
3. IIISyria, spring 1274 BCE
   

   Chapter III · Syria, spring 1274 BCE

   Kadesh

   You play Ramesses II

   The Hittite army has vanished. Does he know where his enemy is?

   Syria, spring 1274 BCE. Two empires want the same strip of land, and the fortress of Kadesh sits in the middle of it.

   Your first call · Your other divisions: far behind

   Ride ahead and camp at KadeshWait for your army to close up

   Sources

   • The Kadesh 'Bulletin' (official record) and Reliefs, in J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt III (1906) §§316 to 347: the two Shasu and their false report (Hittite king 'in the land of Aleppo... he fears... to come southward'), the camp north-west of Kadesh, the two Hittite scouts beaten, the governors who failed to report, the vizier sent to hurry the divisions, the attack 'while they were marching', the king's charge 'alone', the 2,500 chariots, the 'recruits' from Amor cutting off the Hittites entering the camp
   • The Kadesh Poem, summarised in Breasted, Ancient Records III §§305 to 315: the king reproaching his army for cowardice, the Hittite king's letter asking for peace, the march home; one month from the border at Tharu (Poem l. 9)
   • Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt III: §297 (first campaign along the coast, the Nahr el-Kelb (Dog River) stela of year 4, near the northern boundary of Seti I's conquests); §§298 to 302 (Shabtuna ford, the two Shasu 'sent out by the Hittite king', Kadesh 'surrounded by moats', the 'recruits' from Amor); §§80 ff. (Seti I meets the Hittites on the Orontes; note to §140: Breasted argues Seti's relief of 'Kadesh, of the land of Amor' is not Kadesh on the Orontes); §§367 to 391 (the treaty of year 21 with Hattusili, brought on a silver tablet); note on the Poem: 'Ramses continued the conflict with the Hittites until long after this'; §§300 to 302 (the governors 'told his report to his majesty daily'; the 'recruits' who 'arrive from Amor'); the Poem cut at Abydos, the Ramesseum, Luxor, Derr and Abu Simbel
   • Amarna letters, trans. Moran: Aitukama of Kadesh acting for the king of Hatti against Egypt's vassals in the Amarna period
   • United Nations Gifts: replica of the peace treaty between Hattusilis and Ramses II, given by Turkey in 1970, 'the earliest peace treaty whose text is known to have survived', outside the Security Council Chamber
4. IVDeir el-Medina, Thebes, about 1157 BCE
   

   Chapter IV · Deir el-Medina, Thebes, about 1157 BCE

   The First Strike

   You play Amennakht, scribe of the Tomb

   Pharaoh has stopped paying the men who build his tomb. What does the man who keeps the books do?

   Thebes, about 1157 BCE, the twenty-ninth year of Ramesses III. The men who carve Pharaoh's tomb have not been paid.

   Your first call · Grain: weeks late

   Go out and swear they will be fedSend the police to drive them back

   Sources

   • The Turin Strike Papyrus (Museo Egizio Cat. 1880), trans. P. J. Frandsen, 'Editing Reality: The Turin Strike Papyrus' (1990), as reproduced by libcom: year 29, second month of winter, day 10, the crew passing the five guard posts ('We are hungry, for 18 days have already elapsed in this month'), sitting at the rear of the temple of Menkheperre (Thutmose III); the scribe, foremen, deputies and proctors shouting 'Come inside' and swearing great oaths; day 12 in the temple of Wesermaatre-setepenre (Ramesses II) and the list 'no clothing, no ointment, no fish, no vegetables'; the ration issued that day; the third month walkout, Amennakhte sending the proctors and deputies, Qenna son of Ruta and Hay son of Huy: 'We will not come back... something bad has been done in this place of Pharaoh', 'Tell it as it is'; the vizier To's message that there is nothing in the granaries and the half ration; first month of summer day 2, Khonsu's advice and Amennakhte's threat of the courts; day 13, 'We are hungry' and the mayor's fifty sacks; the ration list (foreman 7½ sacks, men 5½); the vizier taking the gods to the Sed-jubilee
   • Museo Egizio, Turin: Highlights of the Turin Strike Papyrus (Amunnakht the scribe of the Tomb as its author)
   • A. Dorn and S. Polis, on the scribe Amennakhte son of Ipuy (2019): Scribe of the Tomb from year 16 of Ramesses III until the reign of Ramesses VI; his literary compositions
   • Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt IV: §§61 to 66 (Medinet Habu, northern war of year 8: the invaders overthrown 'by land and sea'); Medinet Habu 'on the west of Thebes'; §§413 to 414 (the vizier Ta commissioned for the jubilee in year 29, 'first occurrence of the Sed Jubilee'; he 'sailed north, after he had come to take the gods of the South')
   • J. Toivari-Viitala, 'Deir el-Medina (Development)', UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (2011): official designation Set Maat, 'Place of Truth' (the builders called it 'the village'); about 68 houses within the enclosure; west bank of Luxor
   • Fondation Gandur pour l'Art, Stater of Nectanebo II: the Egyptians kept to barter and were 'reluctant to adopt' coinage; Egypt's first coins came under Nectanebo II in the fourth century BCE
   • Hilary Wilson, 'Bread, beer, and economics, Part 2', The Past: Deir el-Medina wages in kind; 'being paid in a currency with which you could feed your family'
   • Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh (Met, 2005), Keller: a Sed festival is 'a ritual renewing the king's royal powers'
5. VEgypt, 48 BCE
   

   Chapter V · Egypt, 48 BCE

   Cleopatra and Caesar

   You play Cleopatra VII

   Thrown out by her brother, can she reach Caesar before her brother's men reach her?

   Egypt, 48 BCE. Its young queen has been thrown out of her own palace by her little brother's advisers, and she is camped in the desert with a hired army.

   Your first call · Your brother: already with Caesar

   Keep pleading through your agentsGet yourself smuggled into the palace

   Sources

   • Caesar, Civil War 3.103 to 112: Ptolemy at Pelusium making war on Cleopatra, whom he had expelled a few months before; Pompey's arrival; Caesar's order that both disband their armies and plead before him; Pothinus, the king's tutor and a eunuch, in charge of the kingdom, summoning the army from Pelusium; the father's will
   • Plutarch, Life of Caesar 48 to 49: the head and the ring, Pothinus's wooden and earthen dishes, Caesar secretly sending for Cleopatra, Apollodorus the Sicilian, the little skiff at dusk and the bed-sack, the war, the king's disappearance, Caesarion
   • Plutarch, Life of Pompey 77 to 80: the murder of Pompey in the boat; Caesar turning away from the man with the head and weeping over the seal-ring
   • Plutarch, Life of Antony 27: Cleopatra's languages; the kings before her had not learned Egyptian
   • Cassius Dio 42.34 to 35 and 42.44: Cleopatra first pleading through agents, entering the palace by night without Ptolemy's knowledge, Ptolemy tearing off his diadem and crying betrayal, the father's will read out; Caesar giving the kingdom to Cleopatra and her younger brother
   • Cassius Dio 43.19 and 43.27: Arsinoe led in Caesar's triumph to the crowd's displeasure; Cleopatra in Rome with her husband, settled in Caesar's house
   • Appian, Civil Wars 2.84 and 2.102: Cleopatra raising an army in Syria; her image placed beside the goddess in the temple of Venus Genetrix
   • Suetonius, Life of Julius Caesar 52 and 83: Caesar called her to Rome and let her name the child after him; the will naming Octavius heir
   • Cicero, Letters to Atticus 15.15 (13 June 44 BCE), trans. Winstedt: 'I detest Cleopatra'; 'the insolence of the queen herself, when she was in her villa across the river' (Latin: 'cum esset trans Tiberim in hortis'); and 14.8, April 44 BCE: 'Reginae fuga mihi non molesta est' (the queen's flight does not trouble me)
   • Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 15.4.1 (Whiston trans.): 'She had already poisoned her brother, because she knew that he was to be king of Egypt, and this when he was but fifteen years old'
   • The Alexandrian War 31 (summary: 'Defeat of the king and his forces: the king is drowned'), Loeb text on LacusCurtius
   • Cassius Dio 42.35: the father's will 'directed that they should live together according to the custom of the Egyptians and rule in common'; 47.31: Cleopatra 'granted the right to have her son called king of Egypt'
6. VITarsus, Alexandria and Ephesus, 41 to 32 BCE
   

   Chapter VI · Tarsus, Alexandria and Ephesus, 41 to 32 BCE

   Actium

   You play Cleopatra VII

   Rome is going to war over Egypt. Will Egypt's queen be allowed to fight it, and where?

   Ephesus, spring 32 BCE. The richest queen in the world has brought two hundred warships and a mountain of silver to her Roman partner's war.

   Your first call · Your share of the fleet: 200 ships

   Pay Canidius to argue you staySail home and wait in Alexandria

   Sources

   • Plutarch, Life of Antony 25 to 28 (the summons to Cilicia over money given to Cassius; the barge on the Cydnus, Venus, Antony left alone on his tribunal; the supper invitation; her conversation and languages; the winter in Alexandria), 31 to 35 (marriage to Octavia; Tarentum), 50 to 51 (the Parthian losses, Cleopatra bringing clothing and money), 54 to 56 (the Donations: silver tribunal, two golden thrones, the titles; Octavian's denunciations; Ephesus: 800 ships, 200 Cleopatra's, 20,000 talents, supplies; Domitius's advice and the order to sail home; the bribe to Canidius), 58 to 60 (desertions; the will; war voted against Cleopatra), 61 to 68 (the forces; Canidius's advice to fight on land; Cleopatra prevailing for the sea while planning flight; ships burned but sixty; sails carried; the battle; the sixty ships through the middle; Antony three days at the prow; the army waiting seven days), 74 to 86 (Alexandria; deaths; the image with the asp in the triumph)
   • Cassius Dio 50.15: sickness in the camp, Cleopatra's advice, the best ships kept and the rest burned, the most valuable possessions put aboard secretly by night
   • Cassius Dio 51.1 to 15: the aftermath of Actium, the fall of Alexandria, the deaths of Antony, Cleopatra and Caesarion
   • Cassius Dio 50.2 (Gnaeus Domitius and Gaius Sosius, both of Antony's party, consuls in 32 BCE), 50.12 (the camp at Actium 'suffered severely from disease... much more during the summer')