4 legendary battles from Ancient Egypt
Warfare was a way of life for many Ancient Egyptian pharaohs. A new Sky HISTORY series sees why several of their battles are considered the stuff of legend.
Image: A Bas-Relief depicting Thutmose III during the Battle of Megiddo | Dietmar Rauscher / Shutterstock.com
The pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were under pressure to demonstrate their strength by engaging in military campaigns. Some of these resulted in stunning victories that left enemies quaking in their boots and expanded (or at least protected) Egypt’s empire.
Other conflicts waged by pharaohs were… rather less successful. The new Sky HISTORY series Pharaohs At War, available from Monday, 28th July, chronicles the Ancient Egyptian battles that most firmly left their imprint on history. Below, we at Sky HISTORY introduce the battles you can expect to see featured — and why they were especially influential.
1. Battle of Megiddo (1457 BC)
Thutmose III embarked on many successful military endeavours, earning himself the modern-day epithet ‘the Napoleon of Egypt’. Like the post-revolutionary French leader, Thutmose is reputed today as a military genius.
One battle demonstrating his skills especially well is the Battle of Megiddo — if, crucially, you take Ancient Egyptian reports about it at face value. By the standards of the time, the battle is recorded in impressive detail, but much of this would have been recorded as Thutmose wanted it.
Thutmose came to the Egyptian throne aged just two in 1479 BC, and co-ruled with his mother Hatshepsut for the next 22 years. After her death, he became sole ruler. A number of Canaanite states neighbouring Egypt became restless, wanting to test the mettle of the new king.
Thutmose led an army of about 10,000 to 20,000 men towards Megiddo, where the rebellion was fermenting. Canaanite forces gathered at two of the routes to Megiddo, but Thutmose decided to take a third, riskier route. This move took the rebels by surprise and reportedly led them to surrender after a seven-month siege.
The victory at Megiddo restored Egyptian authority in Canaanite — and sent out the important message that Thutmose was not to be messed with.
2. Battle of Qadesh (1274 BC)
What happened when Ramesses II took on a Hittite army at the Battle of Qadesh, near what is now the Lebanon-Syria border? The answer: Not quite what the pharaoh wanted. For this reason, he engaged in what could be considered the Ancient Egyptian equivalent of spreading misinformation on social media.
Yes, he made a big effort to hoodwink his citizens about how the battle actually went down. Ramesses and his army sought to capture Qadesh, a city under Hittite control. However, Hittite spies convinced Ramesses that the Hittite forces were much further away from Qadesh than they actually were.
The result was an ambush where the Egyptians found themselves heavily outnumbered. For Ramesses, reinforcements arrived only just in time to help his troops avert a catastrophic defeat. Many historians today deem the battle a stalemate, as Ramesses soon had to withdraw from the battlefield, with Qadesh itself remaining in Hittite hands.
None of this deterred the pharaoh from extensively commemorating the Battle of Qadesh after returning to his home turf. He built the Abu Simbel temple complex, where he told his own version of events, depicting himself as the undisputed victor of the conflict.
3. Battle of Raphia (217 BC)
Ptolemaic Egypt and the Seleucid Empire were both descended from Alexander the Great’s Macedonian empire. However, they also regularly competed for control over the Coela-Syria region in a series of tussles that came to be known as the Syrian Wars.
This fierce rivalry culminated in one of the ancient world’s largest battles — the Battle of Raphia — in June 217 BC. Seleucid ruler Antiochus III the Great lit the touchpaper by invading Coela-Syria. Egypt’s pharaoh at the time, Ptolemy IV, fielded an army that went on to emphatically crush his rival’s near the town of Rafah.
4. Battle of Actium (31 BC)
Ancient Egypt had quite a few Cleopatras, but easily the best known is Cleopatra VII. She’s the one immortalised by Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor and said to have met a tragic end by being fatally bitten by an asp. However, before all of that, Cleopatra was a pharaoh commanding armies!
Cleopatra also became romantically attached to Roman general Mark Antony. Together, they commanded ships at the spectacular Battle of Actium in 31 BC. However, Cleopatra was waging a battle against a Roman ruler — Octavian — rather than alongside one. She was also on the losing side, with Egypt getting absorbed into the Roman Empire after her death.
Whether you’re interested in learning more about Ancient Egypt or Roman history, you can bet Sky HISTORY has a show coming up for you. That’s why it’s a good idea to subscribe to the Sky HISTORY Newsletter, ensuring you are kept in the loop.
