King Ramesses and Bactria: A Motif of the Late Egyptian History Writing

 
PIIS032103910021827-2-1
DOI10.31857/S032103910021827-2
Publication type Article
Status Approved
Authors
Occupation: Associate Professor; Professor
Affiliation:
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of History, Department of Ancient History, Associate Professor
NRU Higher School of Economics, Faculty of Humanities, School of History, Professor
Address: Russian Federation, Moscow
Abstract

The article analyses a complex of Classical evidence reflecting the Egyptian conquest of Bactria or its attempt (Diod. I. 46-47; Tac. Ann. II. 60. 3; Strabo XVII.1.46), a statement of Manetho of Sebennytos on the vast conquests of king Sethos-Ramesses (I) (Manetho. Frg. 50 = Ios. C.Ap. I. 15. § 98–102), and the text of the hieroglyphic Bentresh Stela telling about the relations of Egypt under a king Ramesses with a distant Asiatic land of Bakhtan. These sources reflect the Theban tradition based on the memories of Egyptian expansion under Dynasty XIX, i.e. the conquests of Sethy I, who successfully restored the Egyptian domain in Asia after the Hittite assault at the end of Dynasty XVIII (Manetho’s Sethos-Ramesses (I)), and the wars of Ramesses II, who failed to continue that effort and had to compromise peace with the Hittites (Osymandias of Hecataeus of Abdera and Diodorus, Ramesses of the Bentresh Stela). The images of these kings were partly mingled (Tacitus’ king Ramesses), and, probably, involved the recollections of the whole New Kingdom expansion at Asia (under both Dynasty XVIII and XIX). The historical Hittite Kingdom happened to be replaced in this tradition with Bactria due not only to the erosion of its memory and the transformation of its denotation but also to the Egyptian notion that the adversary of Egypt at that stage of history was a great and a very distant realm, which remained outside of the Asiatic empires of the First Millennium B.C. for a long time.

KeywordsEgypt, Bactria, the Hittite Kingdom, Sethy I, Ramesses II, wars, historical tradition
AcknowledgmentRussian Science Foundation, project no. 22-28-01236
Received02.09.2022
Number of characters55978
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