The Kings or pharaohs of Ancient Egypt were the most powerful humans of the Ancient World. Thutmose III had a particularly interesting and radical career as pharaoh in contrast with previous pharaohs of antiquity. To ascertain whether Thutmose III was a pharaoh who benefited the Egyptian people or not the following aspects will be examined: the development of the King through his childhood and adolescent years, the campaigns fought by the King and the structures that he built that add to the mystic and phenomenal civilization of the Ancient Egyptians. These aspects of Thutmose III's reign will be examined through sources, and educated assumptions will be made upon the evaluation of ...view middle of the document...
This is evident in the following quote: "Tribute of the princes of Retenu, who came to do obeisance ...to the souls of his majesty... Now every harbor at which his majesty arrived was supplied with loaves and with assorted loaves, with oil, incense, wine, fruit, abundant were they beyond everything ...The harvest of the land of Retenu was reported, consisting of much clean grain, grain in the kernel, green oil, wine fruit, every pleasing thing of the country." [JBRE, Sec. 471-473] This quote shows lands paying tribute to Thutmose after a campaign. A trait typical to Thutmose was not to wipe out a city but to negotiate with the King or mayor and arrange an annual tribute or tax so Thutmose does not destroy the city. Actions like these are an obvious result of the experience he obtained from the events surrounding Hatshepsut's rule, which would have greatly benefited the Egyptians.Secondly, the campaigns of Thutmose were well documented by Egyptian scribes, which would indicate that the Egyptian people were proud and fond of their Pharaoh for achieving these victories, also the fact that these records were not destroyed show this as well. Thutmose was coined "The Napoleon of Ancient Egypt" by Egyptologist James Breasted , this sums up his military achievements perfectly. He was by modern standards, a tactical and strategic genius and his use of order within regiments was pioneered primarily by him. He achieved a total of 17 campaigns and captured somewhere near 350 cities. It was this capturing or blockading of cities that not only greatly expanded Egypt's boarders at the time, but also increased the revenue earned by the empire by approximately tenfold . The most notable campaign Thutmose endeavored was the Campaign of Megiddo, in which he quelled the uprising of 330 princes. Megiddo was a very important city during the time of Thutmose III. It was recorded that statistically, whoever controlled Megiddo controlled the trade route of the ancient world. For almost seven months, he besieged the well-fortified city of Megiddo. His eventual victory at Megiddo saw many benefits for the Egyptian people. The following quote shows this: ".... 340 living prisoners; 83 hands; 2,401 mares; 191 foals; 6 stallions; ... young ...; a chariot, wrought with gold; 892 chariots of his wretched army; total, 924 (chariots); a beautiful suit of bronze armor; 200 suits of armor, belonging to his wretched army; 502 bows; 7 poles of (mry) wood, wrought with silver. Behold, the army of his majesty took ...., 297 ...., 1,929 large cattle, 2,000 small cattle, 20500 white small cattle." [JBRE, `Records', Vol. II, Sec. 435] This shows that with each victory, not only does the Pharaohs reputation swell, but so do the possessions and luxuries of the people. Due to the fact that the people of Egypt were receiving these "spoils of war", their admiration and appreciation of Thutmose would also swell. This would mean that the monuments and structures that Thutmose created in...
