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Eyewitness Reports of Great Events
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Historical SummaryONE of the earliest war correspondents of history was an Egyptian scribe named Thaneni, who followed Thothmes III, the "Napoleon of Egypt," on the great campaigns which took him across western Asia to the Euphrates River. "I followed the Good God, Sovereign of Truth, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Menkeperre (Thothmes III)," wrote Thaneni. "I beheld the victories of the king which he won in every country. . . . I recorded the victories which he won in every land, putting them into writing according to the facts." Pharaoh had commanded that the report of his campaigns be inscribed on the walls of the great Karnak Temple of Ammon, and the annals which Thaneni had accordingly prepared were based upon the daily record kept by the royal secretaries, a copy of which on a roll of leather was preserved in the very same temple. The most dramatic incident in the annals relates to the victory of Thothmes over the forces of Syria at Armageddon, or Megiddo (1479 B.C.). This strategic town on the plain of Jezreel, where, centuries later, Josiah fell resisting Pharaoh Necho, where in the First World War the British started to roll up the Turkish forces and push northward, and where, according to the author of Revelation, the mighty battle of the nations was to be fought before the Last Judgment, marked a temporary haven for the Syrian fugitives defeated on the battlefield. Had not the soldiers been so intensely preoccupied with gathering up the booty, the Egyptians would not have permitted these remnants to slip through their fingers and take refuge behind the walls of the town. Such, at least, is Thothmes’s alibi. The narrative of these stirring events, preserved in the following selection, has been translated from the hieroglyphics by the Egyptologist, E. A. T. W. Budge. These Egyptian annals have some of the quality of an Homeric epic. Only four years after Armageddon, General Thutii, one of Thothmes III’s top commanders, used the Trojan-horse technique in capturing Joppa, port of southern Palestine. He enticed the prince of that city to a conference and told him in confidence that he was prepared to switch sides. Accepting Thutii’s statement at face value, the prince of Joppa asked to see King Thothmes’s celebrated club. Thutii had the dub brought in, and, standing before the prince, shouted: "Behold, O Prince of Joppa, this is the club of King Thothmes, the fierce-eyed lion! Amen, his father, has given him strength to slay the enemy." With these words he gave the prince a resounding blow on the temple. The unconscious captive was bound with leather thongs, and chains were put on his feet. Then Thutii had several hundred soldiers put into sacks, with orders that other soldiers were to carry them into the city. If challenged, they were to state that the sacks were laden with captive Egyptians. When the prince’s charioteer told the watchman at Joppa’s gate, "We have Thutii," the gates were opened, the soldiers entered by this ruse, and the population was placed in chains.
Key QuoteOne of the earliest war correspondents of history describes the victory of Thothmes III, the Napoleon of Egypt, over the forces of Syria.
Thaneni’s Account
of Pharoah Thutmose III
Victory Over the Syrians at Armageddon
Then the tents of His Majesty were pitched, and orders were sent out to the whole army, saying:
"Arm yourselves! Get your weapons ready, for we shall set out to do battle with the miserable enemy at daybreak."
The king sat in his tent, the officers made their preparations, and the rations of the servants were provided. The military sentries went about crying:
"Be firm of heart. Be firm of heart. Keep watch! Keep watch! Keep watch over the life of the king in his tent."
And a report was brought to His Majesty that the country was quiet, and that the foot soldiers of the south and north were ready. On the twenty-first first day of the first month of the season Shemu [March-April] of the twenty-third year of the reign of His Majesty, and the day of the festival of the new moon, which was also the anniversary of the king’s coronation, at dawn, behold, the order was given to set the whole army in motion. His Majesty set out in his chariot of silver-gold, and he had girded on himself the weapons of battle, like Horus the Slayer, the lord of might, and he was like unto Menthu [the War god] of Thebes, and Amen his father gave strength to his arms. The southern half of the army was stationed on a hill to the south of the stream Kina, and the northern half lay to the southwest of Megiddo. His Majesty was between them, and Amen was protecting him and giving strength to his body.
His Majesty at the head of his army attacked his enemies, and broke their line, and when they saw that he was overwhelming them they broke and fled to Megiddo in a panic, leaving their horses and their gold and silver chariots on the field. [The fugitives] were pulled up by the people over the walls into the city. Now they let down their clothes by which to pull them up. If the soldiers of His Majesty had not devoted themselves to securing loot of the enemy, they would have been able to capture the city of Megiddo at the moment when the vile foes from Kadesh and the vile foes from this city were being dragged up hurriedly over the walls into this city; for the terror of His Majesty had entered into them, and their arms dropped helplessly, and the serpent on his crown overthrew them.
Chicago: Thaneni, Eyewitness Reports of Great Events, trans. E. A. T. W. Budge in They Saw It Happen: Eyewitnesses of Great Events, ed. Thaneni, Account of Pharoah Thutmose III Victory Over the Syrians, Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, E.A.T.W. Budge, trans. (New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1914) as cited in Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Co., 1951), Original Sources, accessed November 21, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8UXT9D9DAZC8BAS.
MLA: Thaneni. Eyewitness Reports of Great Events, translted by E. A. T. W. Budge, in They Saw It Happen: Eyewitnesses of Great Events, edited by Thaneni, Account of Pharoah Thutmose III Victory Over the Syrians, Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, E.A.T.W. Budge, trans. (New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1914) as cited in Louis Leo Snyder and Richard B. Morris, Harrisburg, Pa., Stackpole Co., 1951, Original Sources. 21 Nov. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8UXT9D9DAZC8BAS.
Harvard: Thaneni, Eyewitness Reports of Great Events, trans. . cited in 1951, They Saw It Happen: Eyewitnesses of Great Events, ed. , Stackpole Co., Harrisburg, Pa.. Original Sources, retrieved 21 November 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=8UXT9D9DAZC8BAS.
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