Hekhemmut (327 BCE – 260 BCE)

 

The son of the noble Harchus, Hekhemmut was himself a well known and well respected warrior. Years of constantly fighting against Ptolemy’s army of assassins and allies had sharpened his fighting skills and made him a practical but imaginative strategist. He was also a very good speaker and ultimately a good ruler.

The Known World

At the end of the civil war, once Hekhemmut came to power and became the new Pharaoh, he inherited a powerful kingdom, but also many challenges. Egypt had been weakened by several years of war and conquest. The infrastructure of some of her greatest cities had been destroyed and needed to be painstakingly rebuilt. The treasury was well stocked but not excessively and the economy was on the verge of decline.  The Imperial Army was much depleted, especially of the more professional units, after years of continuous war and the lack of proper training facilities.

  

Egypt (Circa. 270 BCE)

Envious neighbours were growing in power and getting more aggressive in their dealings, casting covetous eyes at the rich Nile valley.

The Seleucids to the north were the main threat, having already fought against the Egyptians once in the First Syrian War. They had been rebuilding their armies and growing stronger with every passing year. The remnants of Alexander’s huge empire, they were already the greatest power in the Arabian Peninsula and their famed Hoplites & strong cavalry were reputed to be almost unbeatable. They controlled the whole of north Arabia, including the fabled city of Babylon.

Lying in the heart of the arid and massive Arabian Desert, the conglomerate of free Arabian states was populated by many thousands of hardened desert warriors called Bedouin, expert riders, spearmen and archers, as well as rebels from the surrounding great civilizations, who had been leading raids on the fertile Nile valley to their west for many hundreds of years. They had been beaten back many times, but each time they came back, stronger than before. If the legends were to be believed, they were “as numerous as the grains of the sands from whence they came”! And with the border garrisons weakened after the war, these raids had greatly increased in recent years.

To the far east, on the other side of the wasteland, lay the Parthians, the successor to the once mighty Persian empire. Their power was diminished, but they still possessed powerful armies of strong cavalry, cavalry archers and innumerable spear wielding infantry and archers.

 

To the west lay another bigger endless wasteland of sand, inhabited by the fearsome Nubians. These warriors were expert in fighting in the desert and many of them had been employed in the Pharaoh’s armies for generations in return for grants of land. These wastes were also filled with raiders and rebels alike, who plagued the main Egyptian cities themselves. 

To the far west, lay the Carthaginians, former Phoenicians who had set up a prosperous civilization centered on the rich trade lanes of the Mediterranean. 

Lying across the Mediterranean, to the far north, lay the remains of the once mighty Greek and Macedonian civilizations. Although weakened after years of civil war and endless strife amongst themselves, both still had the potential to re-build a great empire and their deadly Hoplite armies were still the envy of the entire world. The Greek city states were  amongst some of the richest and most advanced, lying astride several of  the most valuable trade routes in the Mediterranean.

And to the northwest, from the heart of the Italian mainland, there came rumours of a new and rising power, the Romans, who despite being divided into different families, were rapidly conquering their neighbours with their disciplined legions!

This, therefore, was the situation in which the first of the Pharaohs of the 31^st Dynasty, Hekhemmut, ascended to the throne. An exciting time, filled with many dangers and challenges, but also great opportunities for great and brave men!