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The Modesty of Ramses the Great

Posted By: Charles Pope
Date: Thursday, 12 December 2002, at 8:23 p.m.

In Response To: Re:Em-Per-Ra (EL-REB)

el-REB,

Ramses II usurped many monuments of his predecessors, including Amenhotep III. The reputation of Ramses II has diminished greatly as a result of this revelation. Probably Abu Simbal was an original work, but he could have expanded an earlier monument of some kind at that location. Why not? Is there any evidence of this?

The Sesostris legend is relevant to another one of our more recent discussions. Egyptologists do not believe that pharaohs ever ventured far beyond the Euphrates. Yet according to Manetho Sesostris "conquered all Asia in 9 years, and Europe as far as Thrace." But why wasn't that feat recorded in Egypt by pharaoh Sesostris (Senusret III) himself? Apparently, it was acceptable for a pharaoh to claim sovereignty over all lands, but not to actually describe campaigns of conquest in those lands. On the other hand, the strivings of the pharaoh in maintaining the traditional borders of Egypt was certainly an appropriate (and frequent) subject of monumental reliefs.

It would have been poor etiquette to depict the trampling of "foreign" regions with Egyptian troops. This custom must derive from the fact that a single family ruled the "world." In Egypt this family was Egyptian, but in Babylon Babylonian. However, feelings of nationalism were encouraged within each region. This protocol eventually broke down as military logistics improved and kings recruited ever greater armies to win succession battles against royal rivals. They sewed the wind and reaped the whirlwind.

It is surfacing that other pharaohs that followed Senusret III of the 12th Dynasty also followed in his footsteps. They were equally reticent in how they accomplished the imperial mandate and manifest destiny of playing God. We can deduce it by a synthesis of records that the same king left in his many principalities. But first we have to figure out what each successive God called himself in the manifold and diverse places called "God's Lands."

I think we will find that it was the first Cyrus (a.k.a. Psuesennes I and Cyaxares) who subdued the Scythians. I had not expected to address the Persian period in the book, but it is now unavoidable. I am fully convinced that there was a substantial overlap between the Chaldean and Persian Periods. Likewise, there was an overlap of Assyrian and Chaldean Periods. In fact, Herodotus does not even recognize a separate Chaldean Period. From his perspective the two dynasties were coincident.

Well, we digress. If there is nothing more to say about Ramses I, it might be time to start new threads on the Atef Crown or the breeding of "Clydesdales" for the service of royal rolling stones.

-el Rebuscaro

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