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t THE wARS oF sETHos | 37R. O. FAULKNERcanaan' (Gaza?),'sethos
overran the maritime plain of southern palestine. Butwas not the
limit of his advance, for Rowe, excavating at Bethshan (modern
Beisan),rd a stela dated in'year r, 3rdmonth of surnmer, diy
to,,which escribes certainiequent operations.z The relevant portion
of the inscription runs as follows: .?one c,ame to tell His Majesty
that the oile foe zrho was in thz ioam of Hamath had
coilected,.mself many men and was tahing the toum of Bethshan,
haring ade ailiance *;il, ,t r*'ella, and he would not permit the
prince of Rehob to come oit. And His Majesty sentfr: :rfy_:f.Amn
Mighty-oJ-Boy:, to tlrc-toztm of f,Iamath, and the frsi arnty
oyRich-in-valour to the town of Be.thshan, and the frst army of
sutekh victoriousa-of-s to the toztn of Yenoam. And it came to pass
in the spice-of one day that they feilc might of His Majuty the
King of Uppei and Louer-Egypt'Menmairlr, the Smt ofS e ti -mer ary
tuh, giom tife.'his inscription.makes it quite certain that the
Egyptian advance into the plain ofaelon follon'ed directly on the
overrunning of lii, conoon' as part of tii. sa-"7aign. It would
also seem likely that the_stronghold of rlegido, commandingrorthern
exit from the canaanite coastal plain, d]d not oppo." the passage
of thertian army-at least there is no record of any fighiing ut
tt.r. poi'tind i? is crearBethshan, the fortress founded by
Tuthmosis III, s.,pporte the Egl,ptian cause,d. the iesser city of
Ret,ob. This fact suggests either that Egyptiln'pr".tig. i';tine
did not suffer such an utter eclipse duiing the chaos of tn:a-aun
f.rioausually supposed, or else that the expedition
uiTrrt,".rkhr-n, though inefectiver as material results were
concerned-for sethos had to fight a battie against theu apparently
on the very southern frontier of palestine-lmay have pved lessive
in moral effects, by warning at reast some palestinian chiefins
th.i the fo*".pt promised once more to be a factor to be reckoned
with. The inscripti alsos that the advances to Bethshan, Harnath,
and yenoam were planned to take prace'taneously' and it would be
interesting to know the base from which sethoshed his columns-could
it have been Megiddo ? The town of Hamath with whiche here
concerned is shorvn in most *.p. ,a situated on the western shore
of thef Galilee, though Rorves would prace ii a iittre farther to
the sourh, at the mouth: Yarmk valley; it is not to be confused
r.vith the city of the same name on theies forty-three miles
downstream from Kadesh. No mention is made in thehan inscription of
any direct attempt to relieve Rehob, rvhich may rr"". rri. ,,'uth
of Bethshan,6 itself situated in the valley of Jezieel not far fro
irr"lora"rr;urpose was no doubt achieved automatically by the
relief of Bethshan and theon Hamath. Also no mention is made of
any'advance against peila (Egyptiansouth-east of Bethshan on the
opposite side of the Jordan, b'ut it was .,noiili.ary:d before
Sethos returned home,,for its name "pp"".. in a rist
or.orrqu.r.Jpiu..,phinx in his funerary temple at Kurnah,z and l're
set up a stela at lfeti estr-siitrau4vt, to4; for the scene see
Wreszinski, op. cit. u, pl. 39.re, Betl*shan, r, pp. z4 fr. and pl.
4r.is- and the similar epithets below probably refer to the amy,
not to the god after whom it is named.Ld nftt. s Op. cit. r, 26, n.
5o. o Ibid., n. 52.s,, Danhm., rrr, r3r a; Breasted, op. cit. lrr,
$ r14; petrie, History, ur, 17
:;:i,, th. H,u,".,I I : :y-:l",rTf il:'":,H i ::r:irTli:: ;" il
#: :,: i[' ::t?. :some stage in the course ot t":
lll""^',,"::ii:;'-:-;,;,".. ^. *. iearn from the above-that the
seaports or "rcre.and Tyre fell toihe Egyptian arms' as we iearn
trom tmentioned $urnah. tpn"'*l i'ttt tupt"" of i"no"rn and of the
Lebanese (?) town ofGader,zand 1n1 tlto'"qu""' *U-lt'lot' of the
chieftains of the Lebanon are the high-rvater mark ol thrs nrsr
campaign' and Setho^s ::L.:"tutntd to Eg1'pt in triumph'r witha
very creditable record oi achievement to show' Incidentally' we
learn from
theBethshansterasomethln*";il;;;;'"'",1:l:Ti:::::,,5'l:'":"*T#;J"t",';
Bethshan.stel'""J]:::'i':.;";;"';;;;;i"L1".. or the Dgvptia" T'Y
named rter'I liff il:rui :r ;r:''i'._ fr.Ty_,,y*:;;::,li,i:::,
i:';;:ff ;if;J;:?::,i'"::t"::fi:i:.1.h i","e_lt* il ""i.,""."
o.second' divisions, perhaps the,...ru. ..tuUtishments at home in
Eglpt'As already remarked, the record i ^Stt}'ot' second camprign
is lost' in so far as itwas contained in the top [ft-it""Jttgtster
of the Karnak "tntt' but the fact that onhis Kurnah sphinx he
.t^;;;; ."p,,ir" of Ziml.raand Ullaza renders it probable thatthe
missing ....r.. pottttl'tJ tnt to"q""st of at any rate a portion of
the Amorite coast-lands, of v'hich Zimyra rvas the moit
important,seaport;; this constitutes- the thirdstrategic phase of
,t" prr", "i^i.,ir.,-o.is^ru and therefore ex hypothesi of Sethos
I'The fourth phase u.as tne r.duction of I(adesh on Orontes, the
gatervay to the NorthSyrian plain, and this ;t ttt"tat; "" rvirat
remains of the top right-hand register atKarnak;6 1I. Pzard
di,t;t;';; at Kadesh the-upPer portionof a stela of Sethos I'zthus
proving that that Ph;t;;t had' tccupied 1ft9.titu and effectit'ely
disposing of
thecontentionofBreastedandofxleyerthattheGalileanKadeshwasmeant.8Fromtheinscription
on th. Ku.n"k fi.,,rr. of the fortr_ess of Kadesh, rvhich reads'The
ascentuhich pharaoh matle to )rirr"y'iri'r oy 6oarrl, und the land
of Amor"e it rvor'rldappear that the capture "i-I(Jattn and the
conquest of Amor u'ere trvo phases of asingle campaig.t; th" f*ti
th"t the scene of the capture of Ifudesh aPqears at the endof the
rvall, i.e. as far "t ;;t;;;;t;;ih" t""t"l oorrvay' indicates
that'this was thefarthest point reached bj the Egyptian army
on,thisexpeition'r'o-the earlier phases
ofrvhicharenorvlost.Itseemslikely,therefore,t.hatAmorhererefersnottotheNorthsyrian
coast, tt " .onqu"ri;i;i"ir'r"^ probably dealt rvith to the left of
the
doorrvay,buttoaninlandextensionofAmorite^territoryintothecountrysouthofKadesh'possibly
even as f". totr't "t Damascus' which seems to have fallen under
Amorite. influence during the,"uolt i" Akhenaten's time'II It may
rvellbe tothis campaign that
sethos is referring when in his list of conquests on the i(urnah
sphinx he includes theland of Takhsy, rvhose southern limit maY not
have been veiy far removed fromt T,all, Anc. Flist. NearEds' (6th
ed.), :S6' - - - ' wreszinski' op' cit rl' pls' :4 fi', 1n ,t, pl.
r r ; see \rever, Geschichte (nd ed')' tt: -1,.,11{'i otron, R
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R. O. FAULKNERrscus.I Meyer would place this campaign after the
Hittite rvar, but apart fromristaken identification of Kadesh
itself, his view is vitiated by the strategic con_rtions urged
above; there is no evidence to suggest that the frntier of thJ
Hittite:e lay to the south of {adesh, which in the days of Ramesses
II rvas its mainern bastion of defence. Even late in the 'Amrnah
period the valley from ISadeshward, then known as Amki and to-day
as El-Bik', was recognized as falling v.ithingyptian sphere of
influence, as is shown by the Hittite tablets relating to
thJcuriousje involving the Egyptian queen 'Dakhamun' and the
Hittite kini Shubbiluliu.,hos' plans for following up his success
at Sadesh with further cJnquests in the_were, however, temporarily
deranged by trouble on his western border, whereibyans_were
apparently pushing into the Delta, as th.ey did later in the reign
ofptah-. His fourth campaign, occupying the middle righi-hand
register at Kainak,rerefore devoted to dealing with this menace,
which he dispelled"by defeating the'ns in trvo pitched battles.3
Breasted is inclined to place tn" libyu" *u. i'y.u. z,:fore the
second Asiatic campaign,+ but in so doing he ignores any
concei'ableological sequence on the original monument, and hls
argument thai sethos may:ought the Libyan 'i'ar in year z because
he spent a large part of that year in theis a non sequitur; there
mayha'e been any number of .eiso.,s w-hy he styed there,tin_g the
probability that his principal residence was in the .ro.th, "., the
factt Karnak the Libyan rvar is inserted betrveen the capture of
Kadesh and. they.over-the.Hittites is surely-lacking positive
evidence to the contrary-a sufficienttion that it intervened
between those two events.his last recorded campaign sethos met a
Hittite army and defeated it, takingLers and booty.s we do not know
where the battle was fought, but it was doubtlessvhere rveil to the
north of Kadesh. His victory, however, was not decisive, for itrt
materially affect the power of Khatti, and although the Egyptians
appurentlyrmporary control of at any rate part of the North Syrian
plain-there seems no'eason to doubt the more precise claims of the
lists, rvhich include such familiaras Katna6 and runipz-there can
be no doubt that in the end sethos lost allrre.northerly conquests.
Naturally the unsuccessful fighting which followed thevictories
remained unrecorded by the Egyptians, b"t i"t ;. significant
that;ses II in his first campaign had to take Brt by force of arms.
At ihe end of thef sethos I it seems probable that the frontier oi
the re-established Asiatic empireughly eastrvard from rhe mouth of
the river Litany, with ryre, Megiddo, ndran perhaps serving as its
main military bases. Reaiizing thai he coul -uk" nor_headr.vay in
syria, sethos seems to have concruded aireaty of peace with ther
king Murvatallu,s and thereafter he went to war no more. Althoueh
he failedthe land of Talhsy see Gardiner, Onorcstica, r, r5o* f.thc
references cited by Hclck, Milit{nhra,74, n. 4. 3 Breastecl, Anc.
Rec. rrr, $$ rzo ff.l.$tzo;History,4rz.
IcanseenothingwhatevertowarrantBreroted'sassumption
@nr.il"i,ut,raz)incomplete Karnak stela set up by sethos just after
his return from his firet campuis. .,r" i;il.a"arnce an outbreak of
hostilities on the Libyan frontier.
, THE WARS OF SETHOS I 39ito restore the Asiatic emp.ire of
Egypt to whal it once had been' he at least succeededin imposing
EcyPt]i". ""t;;;it "iitftt whole of.Palestine and probably a
portion ofSouthern Syrta, whtcn '". it'" tt of a strong Hittite
empire in the north rvas as muchas Egypt couid.reasonao'y t"pttt to
hold; it would have been rvcll for both
empiresifRamessesl,n"o,".og,,i,.dthisfact.InhislistsofconquestsSethosciaimstohave;;;
Khatti, Nahrin, and Alasia (cyprus), but such large and vague
boasts cannotbe taken seriously, except to th. "*t"niih"t he
undoubtedly at least-once defeated
aHittitearmyandforau.hilecontrolledterritorybelongingtothesyrianvassalsofil;,;;,
h" "ubtless felt ,rr", i,. could not pitch his tale of victories
lorver than that"r rri. i1".,.i"us forerunners. Apart from the"e
vague claims, however, there seemsno reason to reject the evidence
of the iists when ihey come dorvn to more precisecietails of towns
and airt.i.i.,ro. the names of these, so far as they can be
identified', r."t*Jfv rvell into the scheme of Sethos' campaigns as
rve knorv them'
t- $$ r4z ff.; Wreszinski, op. cit. rr, pls. 45 ff.nak list,
Leps., Denkm. ut, tzg.aporte, ,J Hittites, rz9. 7 l.{urnah
sphinx.
