THUTMOSIS IIII

THUTMOSIS IIII

The Date of the Exodus: 1446 BC
Pharaoh who killed Hebrew children: Amunhotep I: 1532-1511 BC
Pharaoh's Daughter who adopted Moses: Hatshepsut: 1526 BC
Pharaoh of Moses' flight to Midian: Thutmoses II/Hatshepsut: 1498-1485 BC
Pharaoh of the Exodus: Thutmoses III: 1485/1464 - 1431 BC

Thutmoses III was Pharaoh in 1446 BC for a total of 54 years. (1485-1431). But there were three distinct phases to his rule.

Thutmoses III: (1485-1431)

1. (1485-1464) First was when he was a baby and his step-mother Hatshepsut ruled as co-regent for 21 years .
2. (1464-1446) Second, after Hatshepsut died he ruled as Pharaoh for 18 years until the exodus .
3. (1446-1431) Third, he ruled another 15 years after the exodus.

Thutmosis III.: the organisation of the Syrian provinces—Amenothes III.: the royal worshippers of Atonû.
 
In the year XXXIV. the Egyptians reappeared in Zahi. The people of Anaugasa having revolted, two of their towns were taken, a third surrendered, while the chiefs of the Lotanû hastened to meet their lord with their usual tribute. Advantage was taken of the encampment being at the foot of the Lebanon to procure wood for building purposes, such as beams and planks, masts and yards for vessels, which were all shipped by the Kefâtiu at Byblos for exportation to the Delta. This expedition was, indeed, little more than a military march through the country. It would appear that the Syrians soon accustomed themselves to the presence of the Egyptians in their midst, and their obedience henceforward could be fairly relied on. We are unable to ascertain what were the circumstances or the intrigues which, in the year XXXV., led to a sudden outbreak among the tribes settled on the Euphrates and the Orontes. The King of Mitanni rallied round him the princes of Naharaim, and awaited the attack of the Egyptians near Aruna. Thûtmosis displayed great personal courage, and the victory was at once decisive. We find mention of only ten prisoners, one hundred and eighty mares, and sixty chariots in the lists of the spoil. Anaugasa again revolted, and was subdued afresh in the year XXXVIII.; the Shaûsû rebelled in the year XXXIX., and the Lotanû or some of the tribes connected with them two years later. The campaign of the year XLII. proved more serious. Troubles had arisen in the neighbourhood of Arvad. Thûtmosis, instead of following the usual caravan route, marched along the coast-road by way of Phoenicia. He destroyed Arka in the Lebanon and the surrounding strongholds, which were the haunts of robbers who lurked in the mountains; then turning to the northeast, he took Tunipa and extorted the usual tribute from the inhabitants of Naharaim. On the other hand, the Prince of Qodshû, trusting to the strength of his walled city, refused to do homage to the Pharaoh, and a deadly struggle took place under the ramparts, in which each side availed themselves of all the artifices which the strategic warfare of the times allowed. On a day when the assailants and besieged were about to come to close quarters, the Amorites let loose a mare among the chariotry of Thûtmosis. The Egyptian horses threatened to become unmanageable, and had begun to break through the ranks, when Amenemhabî, an officer of the guard, leaped to the ground, and, running up to the creature, disembowelled it with a thrust of his sword; this done, he cut off its tail and presented it to the king. The besieged were eventually obliged to shut themselves within their newly built walls, hoping by this means to tire out the patience of their assailants; but a picked body of men, led by the same brave Amenemhabî who had killed the mare, succeeded in making a breach and forcing an entrance into the town. Even the numerous successful campaigns we have mentioned, form but a part, though indeed an important part, of the wars undertaken by Thûtmosis to “fix his frontiers in the ends of the earth.” Scarcely a year elapsed without the viceroy of Ethiopia having a conflict with one or other of the tribes of the Upper Nile; little merit as he might gain in triumphing over such foes, the spoil taken from them formed a considerable adjunct to the treasure collected in Syria, while the tributes from the people of Kûsh and the Uaûaîû were paid with as great regularity as the taxes levied on the Egyptians themselves. It comprised gold both from the mines and from the rivers, feathers, oxen with curiously trained horns, giraffes, lions, leopards, and slaves of all ages. The distant regions explored by Hâtshopsîtû continued to pay a tribute at intervals. A fleet went to Pûanît to fetch large cargoes of incense, and from time to time some Ilîm chief would feel himself honoured by having one of his daughters accepted as an inmate of the harem of the great king. After the year XLII. we have no further records of the reign, but there is no reason to suppose that its closing years were less eventful or less prosperous than the earlier. Thûtmosis III., when conscious of failing powers, may have delegated the direction of his armies to his sons or to his generals, but it is also quite possible that he kept the supreme command in his own hands to the end of his days. Even when old age approached and threatened to abate his vigour, he was upheld by the belief that his father Amon was ever at hand to guide him with his counsel and assist him in battle. “I give to thee, declared the god, the rebels that they may fall beneath thy sandals, that thou mayest crush the rebellious, for I grant to thee by decree the earth in its length and breadth. The tribes of the West and those of the East are under the place of thy countenance, and when thou goest up into all the strange lands with a joyous heart, there is none who will withstand Thy Majesty, for I am thy guide when thou treadest them underfoot. Thou hast crossed the water of the great curve of Naharaim* in thy strength and in thy power, and I have commanded thee to let them hear thy roaring which shall enter their dens, I have deprived their nostrils of the breath of life, I have granted to thee that thy deeds shall sink into their hearts, that my uraeus which is upon thy head may burn them, that it may bring prisoners in long files from the peoples of Qodi, that it may consume with its flame those who are in the marshes,** that it may cut off the heads of the Asiatics without one of them being able to escape from its clutch. I grant to thee that thy conquests may embrace all lands, that the urseus which shines upon my forehead may be thy vassal, so that in all the compass of the heaven there may not be one to rise against thee, but that the people may come bearing their tribute on their backs and bending before Thy Majesty according to my behest; I ordain that all aggressors arising in thy time shall fail before thee, their heart burning within them, their limbs trembling!” 


 

* Bûrnabûriash, King of Babylon, speaks of Syrian agents who
     had come to ask for support from his father, Kûrigalzû, and
     adds that the latter had counselled submission. In one of
     the letters preserved in the British Museum, Azîrû defends
     himself for having received an emissary of the King of the
     Khâti.

     ** Cf. the raiding, for instance, of the regions of Arvad
     and of the Zahi by Thûtmosis III., described in the Annals,
     11. 4, 5. We are still in possession of the threats which
     the messenger Khâni made against the rebellious chief of a
     province of the Zahi—possibly Aziru.

 rETENU (SYRIAN- TOWNS WERE UNDER eGYPT TERRITORY UNDER THUTMOSIS III
“I.—I am come that I may grant unto thee to crush the great ones of Zahi, I throw them under thy feet across their mountains,—I grant to thee that they shall see Thy Majesty as a lord of shining splendour when thou shinest before them in my likeness!
“II.—I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush those of the country of Asia, to break the heads of the people of Lotanû,—I grant thee that they may see Thy Majesty, clothed in thy panoply, when thou seizest thy arms, in thy war-chariot.
“III.—I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the land of the East, and invade those who dwell in the provinces of Tonûtir,—I grant that they may see Thy Majesty as the comet which rains down the heat of its flame and sheds its dew.
“IV.—I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the land of the West, so that Kafîti and Cyprus shall be in fear of thee,—I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like the young bull, stout of heart, armed with horns which none may resist.
“V.—I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush those who are in their marshes, so that the countries of Mitanni may tremble for fear of thee,—I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like the crocodile, lord of terrors, in the midst of the water, which none can approach.
“VI.—I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush those who are in the isles, so that the people who live in the midst of the Very-Green may be reached by thy roaring,—I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like an avenger who stands on the back of his victim.
“VII.—I am come, to grant that thou mayest crush the Tihonu, so that the isles of the Utanâtiû may be in the power of thy souls,—I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like a spell-weaving lion, and that thou mayest make corpses of them in the midst of their own valleys.*
“VIII.—I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the ends of the earth, so that the circle which surrounds the ocean may be grasped in thy fist,—I grant that they may see Thy Majesty as the sparrow-hawk, lord of the wing, who sees at a glance all that he desires.
“IX.—I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the peoples who are in their “duars,” so that thou mayest bring the Hirû-shâîtû into captivity,—I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like the jackal of the south, lord of swiftness, the runner who prowls through the two lands.
“X.—I am come, to grant thee that thou mayest crush the nomads, so that the Nubians as far as the land of Pidît are in thy grasp,—I grant that they may see Thy Majesty like unto thy two brothers Horus and Sit, whose arms I have joined in order to establish thy power.”

     * The name of the people associated with the Tihonu was read
     at first Tanau, and identified with the Danai of the Greeks.
     Chabas was inclined to read Ûtena, and Brugsch, Ûthent, more
     correctly Utanâtiû, utanâti, the people of Uatanit. The
     juxtaposition of this name with that of the Libyans compels
     us to look towards the west for the site of this people: may
     we assign to them the Ionian Islands, or even those in the
     western Mediterranean.

The poem became celebrated. When Seti I., two centuries later, commanded the Poet Laureates of his court to celebrate his victories in verse, the latter, despairing of producing anything better, borrowed the finest strophes from this hymn to Thûtmosis IIL, merely changing the name of the hero. The composition, unlike so many other triumphal inscriptions, is not a mere piece of official rhetoric, in which the poverty of the subject is concealed by a multitude of common-places whether historical or mythological. Egypt indeed ruled the world, either directly or through her vassals, and from the mountains of Abyssinia to those of Cilicia her armies held the nations in awe with the threat of the Pharaoh.
The conqueror, as a rule, did not retain any part of their territory. He confined himself to the appropriation of the revenue of certain domains for the benefit of his gods.* Amon of Karnak thus became possessor of seven Syrian towns which he owed to the generosity of the victorious Pharaohs.**

     * The seven towns which Amon possessed in Syria are
     mentioned, in the time of Ramses III., in the list of the
     domains and revenues of the god.

     ** In the year XXIII., on his return from his first
     campaign, Thûtmosis III. provided offerings, guaranteed from
     the three towns Anaûgasa, Inûâmû, and Hûrnikarû, for his
     father Amonrâ. 

Certain cities, like Tunipa, even begged for statues of Thûtmosis for which they built a temple and instituted a cultus. Amon and his fellow-gods too were adored there, side by side with the sovereign the inhabitants had chosen to represent them here below.* These rites were at once a sign of servitude, and a proof of gratitude for services rendered, or privileges which had been confirmed. The princes of neighbouring regions repaired annually to these temples to renew their oaths of allegiance, and to bring their tributes “before the face of the king.” Taking everything into account, the condition of the Pharaoh’s subjects might have been a pleasant one, had they been able to accept their lot without any mental reservation. They retained their own laws, their dynasties, and their frontiers, and paid a tax only in proportion to their resources, while the hostages given were answerable for their obedience. These hostages were as a rule taken by Thûtmosis from among the sons or the brothers of the enemy’s chief. They were carried to Thebes, where a suitable establishment was assigned to them,** the younger members receiving an education which practically made them Egyptians.
* The statues of Thûtmosis III. and of the gods of Egypt erected at Tunipa are mentioned in a letter from the inhabitants of that town to Amenôthes III. Later, Ramses II., speaking of the two towns in the country of the Khâti in which were two statues of His Majesty, mentions Tunipa as one of them. ** The various titles of the lists of Thûtmosis III. at Thebes show us “the children of the Syrian chiefs conducted as prisoners” into the town of Sûhanû, which is elsewhere mentioned as the depot, the prison of the temple of Anion. W. Max Mullcr was the first to remark the historical value of this indication, but without sufficiently insisting on it; the name indicates, perhaps, as he says, a great prison, but a prison like those where the princes of the family of the Ottoman sultans were confined by the reigning monarch— a palace usually provided with all the comforts of Oriental life. As soon as a vacancy occurred in the succession either in Syria or in Ethiopia, the Pharaoh would choose from among the members of the family whom he held in reserve, that prince on whose loyalty he could best count, and placed him upon the throne.* The method of procedure was not always successful, since these princes, whom one would have supposed from their training to have been the least likely to have asserted themselves against the man to whom they owed their elevation, often gave more trouble than others. The sense of the supreme power of Egypt, which had been inculcated in them during their exile, seemed to be weakened after their return to their native country, and to give place to a sense of their own importance. Their hearts misgave them as the time approached for them to send their own children as pledges to their suzerain, and also when called upon to transfer a considerable part of their revenue to his treasury. They found, moreover, among their own cities and kinsfolk, those who were adverse to the foreign yoke, and secretly urged their countrymen to revolt, or else competitors for the throne who took advantage of the popular discontent to pose as champions of national independence, and it was difficult for the vassal prince to counteract the intrigues of these adversaries without openly declaring himself hostile to his foreign master.**
* Among the Tel el-Amarna tablets there is a letter of a petty Syrian king, Adadnirari, whose father was enthroned after a fashion in Nûkhassi by Thûtmosis III. ** Thus, in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence, Zimrida, governor of Sidon, gives information to Amenôthes III. on the intrigues which the notables of the town were concocting against Egyptian authority. Ribaddû relates in one of these despatches that the notables of Byblos and the women of his harem were urging him to revolt; later, a letter of Amûnirâ to the King of Egypt informs us that Ribaddû had been driven from Byblos by his own brother.

The frontier was continually shifting, and Thûtmosis III., like Thûtmosis I., vainly endeavoured to give it a fixed character by erecting stelas along the banks of the Euphrates, at those points where he contended it had run formerly. While Kharu and Phoenicia were completely in the hands of the conqueror, his suzerainty became more uncertain as it extended northwards in the direction of the Taurus. Beyond Qodshû, it could only be maintained by means of constant supervision, and in Naharaim its duration was coextensive with the sojourn of the conqueror in the locality during his campaign, for it vanished of itself as soon as he had set out on his return to Africa. It will be thus seen that, on the continent of Asia, Egypt possessed a nucleus of territories, so far securely under her rule that they might be actually reckoned as provinces; beyond this immediate domain there was a zone of waning influence, whose area varied with each reign, and even under one king depended largely on the activity which he personally displayed.
This was always the case when the rulers of Egypt attempted to carry their supremacy beyond the isthmus; whether under the Ptolemies or the native kings, the distance to which her influence extended was always practically the same, and the teaching of history enables us to note its limits on the map with relative accuracy.* 

 
 THUTMOSIS III, PHARAOH OF EGYPT 
OF THE 18TH DYNASTYIN THE CITY OF THEBES

 
 The coast towns, which were in maritime communication with the ports of the Delta, submitted to the Egyptian yoke more readily than those of the interior. But this submission could not be reckoned on beyond Berytus, on the banks of the Lykos, though occasionally it stretched a little further north as far as Byblos and Arvad; even then it did not extend inland, and the curve marking its limits traverses Coele-Syria from north-west to south-east, terminating at Mount Hermon. Damascus, securely entrenched behind Anti-Lebanon, almost always lay outside this limit. The rulers of Egypt generally succeeded without much difficulty in keeping possession of the countries lying to the south of this line; it demanded merely a slight effort, and this could be furnished for several centuries without encroaching seriously on the resources of the country, or endangering its prosperity. When, however, some province ventured to break away from the control of Egypt, the whole mechanism of the government was put into operation to provide soldiers and the necessary means for an expedition. Each stage of the advance beyond the frontier demanded a greater expenditure of energy, which, with prolonged distances, would naturally become exhausted. The expedition would scarcely have reached the Taurus or the Euphrates, before the force of circumstances would bring about its recall homewards, leaving but a slight bond of vassalage between the recently subdued countries and the conqueror, which would speedily be cast off or give place to relations dictated by interest or courtesy. Thûtmosis III. had to submit to this sort of necessary law; a further extension of territory had hardly been gained when his dominion began to shrink within the frontiers that appeared to have been prescribed by nature for an empire like that of Egypt. Kharû and Phoenicia proper paid him their tithes with due regularity; the cities of the Amurru and of Zahi, of Damascus, Qodshû, Hamath, and even of Tunipa, lying on the outskirts of these two subject nations, formed an ill-defined borderland, kept in a state of perpetual disturbance by the secret intrigues or open rebellions of the native princes. The kings of Alasia, Naharaim, and Mitanni preserved their independence in spite of repeated reverses, and they treated with the conqueror on equal terms.* 

The tone of their letters to the Pharaoh, the polite formulas with which they addressed him, the special protocol which the Egyptian ministry had drawn up for their reply, all differ widely from those which we see in the despatches coming from commanders of garrisons or actual vassals. In the former it is no longer a slave or a feudatory addressing his master and awaiting his orders, but equals holding courteous communication with each other, the brother of Alasia or of Mitanni with his brother of Egypt. They inform him of their good health, and then, before entering on business, they express their good wishes for himself, his wives, his sons, the lords of his court, his brave soldiers, and for his horses. They were careful never to forget that with a single word their correspondent could let loose upon them a whirlwind of chariots and archers without number, but the respect they felt for his formidable power never degenerated into a fear which would humiliate them before him with their faces in the dust.
This interchange of diplomatic compliments was called for by a variety of exigencies, such as incidents arising on the frontier, secret intrigues, personal alliances, and questions of general politics. The kings of Mesopotamia and of Northern Syria, even those of Assyria and Chaldæa, who were preserved by distance from the dangers of a direct invasion, were in constant fear of an unexpected war, and heartily desired the downfall of Egypt; they endeavoured meanwhile to occupy the Pharaoh so fully at home that he had no leisure to attack them. Even if they did not venture to give open encouragement to the disposition in his subjects to revolt, they at least experienced no scruple in hiring emissaries who secretly fanned the flame of discontent. The Pharaoh, aroused to indignation by such plotting, reminded them of their former oaths and treaties. The king in question would thereupon deny everything, would speak of his tried friendship, and recall the fact that he had refused to help a rebel against his beloved brother.* These protestations of innocence were usually accompanied by presents, and produced a twofold effect. They soothed the anger of the offended party, and suggested not only a courteous answer, but the sending of still more valuable gifts. Oriental etiquette, even in those early times, demanded that the present of a less rich or powerful friend should place the recipient under the obligation of sending back a gift of still greater worth. Every one, therefore, whether great or little, was obliged to regulate his liberality according to the estimation in which he held himself, or to the opinion which others formed of him, and a personage of such opulence as the King of Egypt was constrained by the laws of common civility to display an almost boundless generosity: was he not free to work the mines of the Divine Land or the diggings of the Upper Nile; and as for gold, “was it not as the dust of his country”?**

     * See the letter of Amenôthes III. to Kallimmasin of
     Babylon, where the King of Egypt complains of the inimical
     designs which the Babylonian messengers had planned against
     him, and of the intrigues they had connected on their return
     to their own country; see also the letter from Burnaburiash
     to Amenôthes IV., in which he defends himself from the
     accusation of having plotted against the King of Egypt at
     any time, and recalls the circumstance that his father
     Kurigalzu had refused to encourage the rebellion of one of
     the Syrian tribes, subjects of Amenôthes III.

     ** See the letter of Dushratta, King of Mitanni, to the
     Pharaoh Amenôthes IV.

The princesses thus sent from Babylon or Mitanni to the court of Thebes enjoyed on their arrival a more honourable welcome, and were assigned a more exalted rank than those who came from Kharû and Phoenicia. As a matter of fact, they were not hostages given over to the conqueror to be disposed of at will, but queens who were united in legal marriage to an ally.* Once admitted to the Pharaoh’s court, they retained their full rights as his wife, as well as their own fortune and mode of life. Some would bring to their betrothed chests of jewels, utensils, and stuffs, the enumeration of which would cover both sides of a large tablet; others would arrive escorted by several hundred slaves or matrons as personal attendants.** A few of them preserved their original name,*** many assumed an Egyptian designation,**** and so far adapted themselves to the costumes, manners, and language of their adopted country, that they dropped all intercourse with their native land, and became regular Egyptians.
* The daughter of the King of the Khâti, wife of Ramses IL, was treated, as we see from the monuments, with as much honour as would have been accorded to Egyptian princesses of pure blood. ** Gilukhipa, who was sent to Egypt to become the wife of Amenôthes III., took with her a company of three hundred and seventy women for her service. She was a daughter of Sutarna, King of Mitanni, and is mentioned several times in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence. *** For example, Gilukhipa, whose name is transcribed Kilagîpa in Egyptian, and another princess of Mitanni, niece of Gilukhipa, called Tadu-khîpa, daughter of Dushratta and wife of Amenôthes IV. **** The prince of the Khâti’s daughter who married Ramses II. is an example; we know her only by her Egyptian name Mâîtnofîrûrî. The wife of Ramses III. added to the Egyptian name of Isis her original name, Humazarati.

 These foreign wives had often to interfere in some of the contentions
      which were bound to arise between two States whose subjects were in
      constant intercourse with one another. Invasions or provincial wars may
      have affected or even temporarily suspended the passage to and from of
      caravans between the countries of the Tigris and those of the Nile; but as
      soon as peace was re-established, even though it were the insecure peace
      of those distant ages, the desert traffic was again resumed and carried on
      with renewed vigour. The Egyptian traders who penetrated into regions
      beyond the Euphrates, carried with them, and almost unconsciously
      disseminated along the whole extent of their route, the numberless
      products of Egyptian industry, hitherto but little known outside their own
      country, and rendered expensive owing to the difficulty of transmission or
      the greed of the merchants. The Syrians now saw for the first time in
      great quantities, objects which had been known to them hitherto merely
      through the few rare specimens which made their way across the frontier:
      arms, stuffs, metal implements, household utensils—in fine, all the
      objects which ministered to daily needs or to luxury. These were now
      offered to them at reasonable prices, either by the hawkers who
      accompanied the army or bythe soldiers themselves, always ready, as
      soldiers are, to part with their possessions in order to procure a few
      extra pleasures in the intervals of fighting.

On the other hand, whole convoys of spoil were despatched to Egypt after every successful campaign, and their contents were distributed in varying proportions among all classes of society, from the militiaman belonging to some feudal contingent, who received, as a reward of his valour, some half-dozen necklaces or bracelets, to the great lord of ancient family or the Crown Prince, who carried off waggon-loads of booty in their train. These distributions must have stimulated a passion for all Syrian goods, and as the spoil was insufficient to satisfy the increasing demands of the consumer, the waning commerce which had been carried on from early times was once more revived and extended, till every route, whether by land or water, between Thebes, Memphis, and the Asiatic cities, was thronged by those engaged in its pursuit. It would take too long to enumerate the various objects of merchandise brought in almost daily to the marts on the Nile by Phoenician vessels or the owners of caravans. They comprised slaves destined for the workshop or the harem,* Hittite bulls and stallions, horses from Singar, oxen from Alasia, rare and curious animals such as elephants from Nîi, and brown bears from the Lebanon,** smoked and salted fish, live birds of many-coloured plumage, goldsmiths’work*** and precious stones, of which lapis-lazuli was the chief.

     * Syrian slaves are mentioned along with Ethiopian in the
     Anastasi Papyrus, No. 1, and there is mention in the Tel
     el-Amarna correspondence of Hittite slaves whom Dushratta of
     Mitanni brought to Amenôthes III., and of other presents of
     the same kind made by the King of Alasia as a testimony of
     his grateful homage.

     ** The elephant and the bear are represented on the tomb of
     liakhmirî among the articles of tribute brought into Egypt.

     *** The Annals of Thutmosis III. make a record in each
     campaign of the importation of gold and silver vases,
     objects in lapis-lazuli and crystal, or of blocks of the
     same materials; the Theban tombs of this period afford
     examples of the vases and blocks brought by the Syrians. The
     Tel el-Amarna letters also mention vessels of gold or blocks
     of precious stone sent as presents or as objects of exchange
     to the Pharaoh by the King of Babylon, by the King of
     Mitanni, by the King of the Hittites, and by other princes.
     The lapis-lazuli of Babylon, which probably came from
     Persia, was that which was most prized by the Egyptians on
     account of the golden sparks in it, which enhanced the blue
     colour; this is, perhaps, the Uknu of the cuneiform
     inscriptions, which has been read for a long time as
     “crystal.” 

On arriving at the frontier, whether by sea or by land, the majority of these objects had to pay the custom dues which were rigorously collected by the officers of the Pharaoh. This, no doubt, was a reprisal tariff, since independent sovereigns, such as those of Mitanni, Assyria, and Babylon, were accustomed to impose a similar duty on all the products of Egypt. The latter, indeed, supplied more than she received, for many articles which reached her in their raw condition were, by means of native industry, worked up and exported as ornaments, vases, and highly decorated weapons, which, in the course of international traffic, were dispersed to all four corners of the earth. The merchants of Babylon and Assyria had little to fear as long as they kept within the domains of their own sovereign or in those of the Pharaoh; but no sooner did they venture within the borders of those turbulent states which separated the two great powers, than they were exposed to dangers at every turn. Safe-conducts were of little use if they had not taken the additional precaution of providing a strong escort and carefully guarding their caravan, for the Shaûsû concealed in the depths of the Lebanon or the needy sheikhs of Kharû could never resist the temptation to rob the passing traveller.*
* The scribe who in the reign of Ramses II. composed the Travels of an Egyptian, speaks in several places of marauding tribes and robbers, who infested the roads followed by the hero. The Tel el-Amarna correspondence contains a letter from the King of Alasia, who exculpates himself from being implicated in the harsh treatment certain Egyptians had received in passing through his territory; and another letter in which the King of Babylon complains that Chaldoan merchants had been robbed at Khinnatun, in Galilee, by the Prince of Akku (Acre) and his accomplices: one of them had his feet cut off, and the other was still a prisoner in Akku, and Burnaburiash demands from Amenôthes IV. the death of the guilty persons.

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