726 Military: Egypt Archaeologists think that this means the Egyptians had become very secure in Nubia and had nothing to fear from the local people The military’s function in Kush was to keep the kingdom’s trade routes open and to protect the kingdom from nomadic raiders who would steal crops and loot villages and towns For this, Kush maintained a standing army, perhaps a few thousand troops at first and possibly as many as 40,000 at the kingdom’s height of power Kush may have had a military academy for training its officers It is not clear who was and was not eligible to become an officer, but it is known that women sometimes led the army into battle A queen was called candace, and ancient Greeks recorded an attack in c.e led by such a woman, Candace Amanirenas, against the Romans in Egypt There exist some impressive stone structures that may once have been part of Kushite fortresses, but archaeologists disagree over the purposes of the edifices For maintaining garrisons in its territories, particularly on its frontiers, Kush seems to have followed Egyptian patterns of constructing clay brick fortresses These had outer walls with towers at their corners and an interior keep also made of brick Defensive ditches lay outside the walls Siege engines were rarely used in Egypt and Kush, so an attacking force would have to overcome defenders in the ditches while archers on the walls rained arrows on them The typical way to lay siege to a fortress was to surround it and wait to starve out the defenders, which could take a few years The nomads who raided Kush did not have this staying power, and the Kushite army could relieve a fortress long before the raiders could overcome it The Kushite general Piye, who invaded Egypt in about eighth century b.c.e., had as the core of his army veteran troops who were highly disciplined Army units tended to be divided into archers, spearmen, and swordsmen The spearmen undertook the heaviest fighting The archers fought behind the spearmen, and the swordsmen protected the archers Even ordinary Kushites tended to be good warriors, and they were often hired as mercenaries by Near Eastern kingdoms and Egypt Kush could therefore field an army of fierce fighters, all of whom had some understanding of military discipline As he advanced north through Egypt, Piye renovated Egypt’s fortresses and city defenses He eventually took on the duties of pharaoh (r ca 750–ca 712 b.c.e.) His successors continued to rebuild Egypt’s defenses Although they organized Egypt’s military intelligently, their weapons and thinking were still in the Bronze Age, whereas the Near East was in the Iron Age When the Kushite pharaoh Tantamani (r ca 664–ca 657 b.c.e.) tried to reestablish Egyptian influence in Palestine, the Assyrians attacked Plague helped to destroy the first Assyrian strike force, but superior armor, weapons, and tactics enabled the Assyrians to drive the Cushites out of Egypt around 656 b.c.e The Kush government took note of how Assyria had defeated Tantamani’s armies and took firm measures to advance into the Iron Age Although Kush’s soldiers appear to have continued to use shields made of hide, their weapons and tactics advanced to a level unmatched elsewhere among Africans The military became focused on protecting the southern reaches of Kush as well as protecting its northern and western territories Commerce in eastern Africa seems to have flourished in part because Kush’s army kept the peace among the region’s southern tribes When Kush’s military power faded is not known It seems to have still been formidable in the 200s c.e., but little else is known of the region during the early years of the Common Era By 330 c.e the Kushites had fled their country, and it was occupied by nomadic tribes By then a new power had risen in eastern Africa, in present-day Ethiopia This was the kingdom of Axum It had begun as a trading city that was visited by Arabs and Indians from the east By the 200s c.e it controlled much of eastern Africa Not much is known about Axum’s military Axum seems to have had a small coastal navy Imposing forts made of stone and masonry sat atop coastal hills and controlled access to the interior of Axum In 330 c.e the nomads who had invaded Kush violated a treaty they had with Axum, and Ezānā, king of Axum, led an invasion of Kush that found only the nomadic tribes Red Noba and Black Noba, who were soundly defeated Overall, Axum seems to have preferred diplomacy to taking military action, and it emphasized commerce over war, using its military mostly to keep pirates and bandits at bay Its hilltop fortresses suggest that it had a standing army to man them and that the army was expected to defend Axum from invasion Perhaps Axum’s military played a role in protecting the country from Arab invasions from the seventh century c.e onward, but this is not yet known EGYPT BY AMR KAMEL Egypt had no standing professional army before the New Kingdom (ca 1550–ca 1070 b.c.e.) When the need arose, provincial governors, temples, and estates provided units under the command of local officials, as in the case of Unas (r 2356–2323 b.c.e) in the Fift h Dynasty The official related in his autobiography that the army under his command, who fought the “Asiatic Sand Dwellers,” was originally composed of men from Upper Egypt, Lower Egypt, and Nubia and that he did not have strong military background or a previous military title Evidence does exist of a permanent royal army led by professional officers during the Middle Kingdom (ca 2040–ca 1640 b.c.e.) in lower Nubia, which became a heavily militarized zone, and references to a variety of military titles increased toward the end of that period During the New Kingdom a large professional army with a fully developed hierarchy fulfi lled the pharaohs’ plans to form a great empire, including territories in Nubia and Palestine and areas of present-day Lebanon, Syria, and northern Iraq The Egyptian military was composed primarily of infantry, which was organized into four divisions named, un-