Recalling or constructing the past? The image of the Egyptian “world empire” in the Classical and the Byzantine traditions

Abstract

The Сlassical motif of the great Egyptian king-conqueror who ruled in the remote past was usually analyzed regarding the alleged scale of his conquests (e. g. the outcome of his assault on Scythia) but the presentation of their purpose and the organization of his possessions remained untouched. The earliest account of the king Sesostris by Herodotus (II.102–110) tells virtually nothing about that. Pompeius Trogus, deriving his evidence from some earlier source, made a telling remark that the Egyptian king Vesosis and his Scythian counterpart Tanaus sought not power (imperium) for themselves but rather glory for their peoples, unlike the Assyrian king Ninus, who craved territorial dominion and made the conquered lands his permanent possession (Iust. I.1.7). Diodorus Siculus, probably reproducing the work on Egypt by Hecataeus of Abdera (late 4th century BC), ascribed to the Egyptian conqueror Sesoosis a rather mild treatment of subdued peoples, levying on them regular tribute and using the labour of prisoners of war (Diod. I.55.10–12, 56.2). At the same time Diodorus tells a story of the king’s habit to place the subdued rulers four-in-hand under the yoke in his chariot (Ibid. 58.1–2); this motif obviously extrapolates the Assyrian practice onto reminiscences of Egypt’s past and is eventually known in Roman and Byzantine tradition. In addition, Roman authors compare the Egyptian empire of the past with the contemporary Roman and Parthian empires (Tac. Ann. II.60.3; cf. Strabo XVII.1.46). It seems that the earlier tradition preserved real memories of Egyptian possessions of the 2nd millennium BC as a sphere of influence distinct from the centralized empires of the 1st millennium BC, but in Roman times they were likened to such states.