Ars Bellica

EGYPT

In his millenary history, Egypt has mostly known for events related to economic, commercial, scientific or cultural; but it had also involved in wars of great importance. In fact, in ancient Egypt, the army played a major role in the structure of society, although not the Egyptian were a strong militaristic culture. From the stage that could be called feudal of the Old Kingdom, in which the fighters were provided by local rulers, and whose loyalty and reliability of actual control that directly depended on the king of the state, the Egyptian army turned up to have new figures, such as the military career (official) and the mercenary team (not Egyptian). The professional soldier was an officer who resided in the city and received money for his tenure as the usufruct of a plot of land and slaves to cultivate it. The office was often hereditary. The mercenaries were elements of neighboring peoples: Palestinians, Nubians, Libyans sometimes prisoners of war who were often settled in specific territories, colonies and military forts, along with their families. The mercenary element will be a fixed characteristic of the ancient Egyptian armies, indeed, during the Late Period mercenaries, this time the Greeks, will form the backbone of the Egyptian army. So the Army of the Pharaohs, if at first take on the characteristics of neighboring armies, such as, for example, the use of the war chariot as the neighboring people of Mesopotamia, during the course of the centuries went changing even more being composed of external elements to their society, the mercenaries, who, despite the objective quality on the battlefield, were not sufficient to protect the independence of ancient Egypt by armies with completely different organizational. The arrival of the Persian army, and its conquest of the land of the pharaohs, it will be the most obvious consequence.

Battles

kadesh

Battle of Kadesh

13th C. BC (1284)

At the battle of Kadesh (also Qadesh) Egyptians and Hittites face off in the first well documented battle in human history.

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