Napoleon of Egypt

    Upper part of a statue of Thutmose IIIca. 1479–1425 B.C. by Metmuseum

Thutmose III

(or Tuthmosis III)

Napoleon of Egypt (c. 1504–1450 bc). During the first 22 years of his reign Thutmose III was overshadowed by his aunt Hatshepsut, wife of Thutmose II, who had herself declared regent in 1503. When she died in 1482, he promptly mobilized the army and defeated a coalition of Syrian and Canaanite enemies near Megiddo, gaining nearly all of Syria for his empire. Further successes followed, culminating in the defeat of the powerful Mitanni beyond the Euphrates. He extended Egyptian rule in Nubia, but generally he concentrated on the administration of his lands. The thriving prosperity of his reign was reflected in much new building at Karnak.

Thutmose III actually created Egypt’s wealth. Thutmose III possessed the archetypal qualities of a great ruler. A brilliant general who never lost a battle, he also excelled as an administrator and statesman. He was an accomplished horseman, archer, athlete, and discriminating patron of the arts. Thutmose had no time for pompous, self-indulgent bombast and his reign, with the exception of his uncharacteristic spite against the memory of Hatshepsut, shows him to have been a sincere and fair-minded man.

Family

Thutmose III was the son of Pharaoh Thutmose II and Aset (sometimes transliterated Isis), a secondary wife of Thutmose II.Because he was his father's only son, he took the throne when Thutmose II died, however because he was not the son of his father's Queen, Hatshepsut, his "degree" of royalty, so to speak, was less than ideal.To bolster his image, he may have married a daughter of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut. Neferure and Merytre-Hatshepsut II have been suggested, but in the case of the former it is uncertain if they were ever married,and in the case of the latter it is doubtful if Merytre-Hatshepsut was Hatshepsut's daughter. Regardless of this, when Thutmose II died Thutmose III was too young to rule, so Hatshepsut became his regent and soon coregent, declaring herself to be the Pharaoh.For approximately 22 years Thutmose III had little power over the empire while Hatshepsut assumed the formal titulary of kingship complete with a royal prenomen—Maatkare. After the death of Hatshepsut, Thutmose III ruled Egypt on his own for 32 years until his death in his 54th regnal year.

Dates and Length of Reign

Thutmose III ruled from 1479 B.C.E. to 1425 B.C.E. according to the Low Chronology of Ancient Egypt. This has been the dominant theory in academic circles since the 1960s, yet in some academic circles the dates 1504 B.C.E. to 1450 B.C.E. are still preferred. These dates, like all the dates of the 18th Dynasty, are open to dispute because of uncertainty about the circumstances surrounding the recording of a Heliacal Rise of Sothis in the reign of Amenhotep I.A papyrus from Amenhotep I's reign records this astronomical observation which could theoretically be used to perfectly correlate the Egyptian chronology with the modern calendar, however to do this the latitude where the observation was taken must also be known.

Military Campaigns

Thutmose III had spent the long years of his aunt Hatshepsut’s reign training in the army. This kept him away from court politics but nevertheless prepared him well for his own role as pharaoh because great ability in war was considered a desirable quality in the ancient world. Egyptian pharaohs were expected to lead their armies into foreign lands and demonstrate their bravery on the field in person. After a few victorious battles, a king might return home in triumph, loaded with plunder and a promise of annual tribute from the defeated cities. But during Hatshepsut’s reign, there were no wars and Egypt’s soldiers had little practice in warfare. The result was that Egypt’s neighbors were gradually becoming independent and when this new, unknown pharaoh came to the throne; these other kings were inclined to test his resolve.

Widely considered a military genius by historians, he was an active expansionist ruler who is sometimes called Egypt's greatest conqueror or "the Napoleon of Egypt."He is recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule and conquered much of the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia during 17 known military campaigns. He was the first Pharaoh to cross the Euphrates, doing so during his campaign against Mitanni. His campaign records were transcribed onto the walls of the temple of Amun at Karnak, and are now transcribed into Urkunden IV. He is consistently regarded as one of the greatest of Egypt's warrior pharaohs, who transformed Egypt into an international superpower by creating an empire that stretched from southern Syria through to Canaan and Nubia.

Much is known about Thutmosis "the warrior," not only because of his military achievements, but also because of his royal scribe and army commander, Thanuny, who wrote about his conquests and reign. The prime reason why Thutmosis was able to conquer such a large number of lands, is because of the revolution and improvement in army weapons. His army had also carried boats on dry land.

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