9. The Rebirth of Kemet (111 BS – ca. 180 AS)
Merenatem II was an ambitious man. He dreamed to restore the empire of Ramses II under his own XXVIII dynasty. The first step was to rebuild the culture of his ancestors. At Men-Nefer he order the construction of many monuments about his victory; his colossal statue at the Temple of Ptah and the vast bas-relief depicting the naval battle of Tyre are the most noteworthy. Art historians have noticed that his portraits are markedly more naturalistic compared to the highly stylized art before the Persian conquest.
The greatest asset of Egypt – now Kemet, the “black land” made fertile by floods and surrounded by the “red land” of the desert – was as always the Nile. Since the Nile Valley had been spared from the worst destruction, and remained highly productive farming land, Kemet was able to export great amounts of grain both to Parthia (as Mesopotamia had been badly damaged by the war) and to Qart-Hadasht (as Sicily was still largely controlled by Reburrus).
After having secured the independence of Kemet at the Peace of Ecbatana, Merenatem went on to secure its borders. The desert provided enough protection in the west, crossed only by the Imazigh caravans. At north and east, Armenia and Parthia weren't in the conditions to expand their territory. Therefore, the only possible threat was at the south: the Kingdom of Kush on the middle Nile.
Kush had a long story of interaction with Egypt; once a province of the Ramessid empire, it had produced a dynasty of pharaohs after the power of Memphis had dwindled. The times of union had left a distinct mark on Kushite culture: they built pyramids, worshiped Sekhmet and Ra, and gave the title of Pharaoh to the kings in Medewi. [1]
Since then, the age of the war chariots that won at Qadesh had long passed: Merenatem had to organize an army of massed infantry as seen in Persia and China. Iron had replaced bronze as the metal of choice for weapons, and new breeds of horses more suitable for riding had appeared. With all his devotion to traditional Kemetic culture, Merenatem wasn't blind to technological advancement. He organized a modern army, buying great amounts of iron from Qart-Hadasht, and crossed into Kush. He found relatively little resistance: Medewi fell in 95 BS [228 BC].
By this time Merenatem II was over 70 years old. He would succumb to a lung disease a few years later. He was followed by his son, Sekhemre [“might of Ra”], whose crown bore the double
wadjet (snake) of the Kushite kings. With the south pacified under a viceroy appointed among the noblemen, he prepared to carry on his father's work in the east.
To accomplish that, he chose to bring the Pelusion Channel under entirely Kemetic control. He attempted to buy it from Vidarna's heirs with the gold gained from Qart-Hadasht and extracted from Kushite mines; when that failed, he resorted to bribe the government of Nabataea, a small Arab kingdom that bordered both Kemet and Armenia. The young kingdom of Armenia was not in good shape, and if a war broke out it would have to face Nabataea having a direct access to the Cananean cities. The king Arshama [Arsames] eventually accepted to bequeath the Channel to Kemet in exchange for islands on the Ionian coast seized by Merenatem during the war, allowing access to the Carthaginian trade net, and a rich compensation in gold, ivory and slaves.
Ironically, the channel created by the Persian occupiers at Pelusion (now Per-Amun) was now one of the major factors in the ascent of Kemet. With Cyprus, Saba and Punt turned into tributaries by the middle 1st century BS, it gave Kemet the almost monopoly of trade routes between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. Carthaginian sailors, shipbuilders and naval engineers were routinely employed in all major Kemetic harbors.
The kingdom of Sekhemre is considered the golden age of the new Kemetic Empire; his successors never entirely lived up to him and his father. In the following centuries, they would be both worshiped as gods in a number of temples, most importantly at Hut-Waret [Avaris], Merenatem II's natal city. Kemetic culture, of course, was never completely restored to what it was before Persia.
The last pulse of Kemetic expansion occurred in the middle of the century, under Sekhemre III. Kemet and a resurgent Armenia had fought a brief war over the control of the harbors of Cyprus, which had resulted in Armenian troops preemptively invading Nabataea and replacing its government with Arshama's grandson. While the war had been mainly naval until then, at that point Kemet sent the bulk of its army beyond the Per-Amun Channel, into Canaan.
The Kemetic army swept northward over Canaan, but it was defeated by the Armenian one at the battles of Megiddo and Bethabara. Even the son of Sekhemre III was slain at the river Yarden [Jordan]. The Kemetic army also pushed into western Nabataea, but the campaign was abandoned due to dwindling supplies with the eastern half of the kingdom surviving as a satellite state of Armenia, under the surprisingly lasting Arshamid dynasty. It was 31 BS [164 BC].
By that time, the war had been fought for well over nine years, and both nations were tired. Maybe it could have gone on for much longer under Sekhemre III, driven by pride and by revenge for his son's death, if he hadn't died at 56 that year. The regent queen, Ankhesenmat [“life of Maat”], was more willing to compromise. She accepted a joint Armenian-Kemetic control of Cyprus, and economic privileges for Armenian ships crossing the Per-Amun Channel. However, the conquered land in Canaan south of Bethabara would be annexed to the Kemetic Empire.
The figure of the Pharaoh as god-king, identified with Amun-Ra, wasn't taken very seriously by most subject. While in the Kemetic core the worship of Merenatem II and Sekhemre I was popular, the later kings abandoned many of the divine honors, and the people of Kush and Canaan mostly regarded the Pharaoh just as king and high priest. The custom of marrying their own sister was largely abandoned, in favor of marrying noblewomen from the outer provinces. Curiously, we find in Canaan depictions of Merenatem I crucified, turned into religious imagery.
As the influence of ancient Persia waned, and so the influence of Aramaic, the Coptic language affirmed itself as the language of trade, religion (the Kemetic religion became very popular in Ionia, with temples to Amun-Ra built in Athens, Pella and Thebes), and then high culture. Even today, most languages spoken in the eastern Mediterranean, from Lucanian in the west to Aleppine in the east, are essentially Coptic dialects; the main exceptions are Hebrew, Armenian and some West Turkic languages. Despite this, the Aramaic alphabet was still in use outside of sacred writing, and would eventually develop in the phonemic Anatolian script.
[1] The Meroitic name of Meroe, capital of Kush from the 6th century BC.
Sekhemre III leading his army along the lower Yarden.
In the next installment: a province of the empire rebels.