The origins of the Trojan Horse; The Warrior King, Tuthmosis the 3rd

BY DAVE RANKIN

In our previous installment, we had shown that Tuthmosis the 3^rd wasted little time in making his mark on the world’s stage.

His battle at Megiddo or Armageddon displayed a military prowess that foreshadowed the type of commander he set out to be. Since Meggido was a literal gateway to the riches of the north it was of no wonder why Tuthmosis the 3^rd had chosen the route, which presented an element of surprise leading to the detriment of the armies of Kadesh.

While the battle of Meggido may have begun his legend it was the need to proceed with seventeen additional campaigns into parts of the Mediterranean and Western Asia that solidified this. There was a strong need to keep the Kemtian enemies as far away from Kemet and in doing this, Tuthmosis the 3^rd had established one of the largest Kemetian empires under his rule. The reports that survived through scribe, and world’s first war correspondent Thanuny, have allowed Egyptologists of the day to label him as the ‘Napoleon of Egypt.’ What these Egyptologists failed to mention was that Tuthmosis the 3^rd was far greater than Napoleon for a number of reasons. The simplest reason of them all was that he never lost a battle.

Immediately after conquering Megiddo, Tuthmosis the 3^rd set his sights north towards Tyre capturing numerous small cities along the way. This particular siege was composed into a series of the campaigns during his twenty-second to twenty-fourth years of reign. In his twenty-ninth year, he began his fifth through seventh campaigns. First he took a city named Ullaza, which was held by the prince of Tunip (a western Syrian city-state). Then he pillaged Ardata, and finally capturing Djahy, a territory that covered parts of ‘Lebanon to as far inland as the Sea of Galilee.’ The acquisition of Djahy proved to be very strategic since it enabled Tuthmosis the 3^rd to “Ship supplies and troops back and forth between Syria and Kemet.”

 There was an uprising in Ardata during his sixth campaign that led back and finally subdues them. It was at this time that Tuthmosis the 3^rd employed a policy that the Romans later adopted. He brought the sons of the rebel chiefs as hostages back to Kemet to ”Teach them manners and tastes… and to assimilate them to Pharaonic culture,” as Cheikh Anta Diop states from his work Civilization Or Barbarism. Then they were sent back to replace their fathers on the throne.

During his thirty-third year of reign, his attack on the Mitanni, an Indo-Aryan peoples who were located across the Euphrates river came as a surprise, as they did not have an army ready to defend themselves. It was here that Tuthmosis the 3^rd put up a stele or an erected free standing stone, to commemorate his victory next to the stele of his grandfather, Tuthmosis the 1^st. Tuthmosis 3^rd spent his next nine campaigns bringing the Mitanni under control.

Of all the great feats that made him a legend, it was probably the capture of Joppa or present day Jaffa that had to be one of the greatest. While camped outside the city, General Djehuti under instructions from Tuthmosis the 3^rd had invited the prince of Joppa to dine with him. Accepting the invitation, the prince arrived and began his discourse with the Kemetian General. During their dialogue, the prince had expressed a desire to see the ‘Club of King Tuthmosis,’ which the general had with him. Upon it being produced, the General grabbed the club, struck the prince and had him subdued.

After the prince was eliminated, General Djehuti had at least two hundred baskets that were secretly filled with Kemetian soldiers inside of them to be sent to Joppa. He then sent a message to one of the prince’s men to relay to the princess of Joppa that the prince has just captured the Kemetian commander and was on his way home with a large ‘booty’ of baskets and at least 500 prisoners. As soon as the Kemetians got through the gate they overpowered everyone and took hold of the city. This later served as a precursor to the Trojan Horse of Greek folklore.