Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
THE RULE OF THE MILITARY KING
Out of the struggles to regain her independence and her ascendancy over the warlike nations of Western Asia, Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty emerged, for the first time in her history, as a predominantly military state under the rule of a king dedicated from early youth to the leadership of his army and navy and to the expansion and consolidation of his empire by force of arms.
Elevated while scarcely more than a boy to the rank of commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the heir apparent to the Egyptian throne under Tuthmosis I and his successors devoted a considerable portion of his early years to training himself in the arts of war. Proficiency as an archer, a charioteer, and a ship-handler, achieved under the supervision of his father's veterans, ranked high among the qualifications demanded of the future king and were the accomplishments in which throughout his life he took his greatest pride. Experience in actual combat followed shortly after the young ruler's accession to the throne, an occasion almost invariably seized upon by the princes of Nubia and Asia to revolt against their Egyptian overlord. Following the conquests of Tuthmosis III one or two campaigns usually sufficed to restore order throughout the empire and eliminated the need for further show of force on the part of the pharaoh. Nevertheless, the military point of view remained with the king throughout his reign and profoundly affected the nature of his government and the internal conditions of the land which he governed.
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