The high spirited young man of Ancient Egypt had an outlet for his energies that promised excitement and a path for advancement.
For the Egypt of New Kingdom times had a large and well-trained army, which protected the frontiers and patrolled the pharaoh’s outlying lands. The King was the army’s commander in chief and often took to the field in person, with a bodyguard of chosen men, and officials to advise him.
There were a number of military titles, including specialist in desert travels, and frontier and desert warfare, garrison troops, frontier troops, quartermaster officers, and scribes, who seem to have functioned as senior noncommissioned officers.
There were also titles that refer to ‘overseers of arsenals’, ‘overseers of desert blockhouses and royal fortress’ and caravan leaders.
The size of the combined army is difficult to estimate but must easily have been over 100,000 men. With a population of 4.2 million at the time of Ramses II in 1300 BC, and a conscription policy of taking every tenth man into state service, an army of this size would not have been difficult to raise.
Each division of the Egyptian army consisted of about 5000 men. Four thousand of them were infantry troops who were subdivided into companies of 200 men. Companies, with names such as ‘Bull in Nubia’ and ‘Manifest in Justice’, were divided into unit of 50 soldiers.
The division’s remaining 1000 men formed a chariot wing of two man teams. They were also foreign mercenaries, often lightly armed skirmishers, who were particularly useful on frontier and desert patrol. Because of the good prospects it offered, the army was not usually short of volunteers.
The army maintained its own ships for patrol and transport and its own support units and cavalry, In the support units the civilian hierarchy consisted of scribes, quartermasters, stablemasters, etc.
The heart of the army consisted largely of a volunteer force with it ranked filled by second and third sons not in line to take over their father’s profession.
New recruits had their hair cropped, and were issued with leather body armour, helmets and shields.
They learned it use all the army’s weapon, but tended to specialize in one in particular, so that there were companies of spearmen, companies of the bowmen and so on.
Egyptians Soldier during 1300 BC
