The Coming of the Greeksthroughout the Near East, and in fact a single chariot type was
employed from Greece to India (the Hittite chariot was slightly
larger than those in use elsewhere, but had the same design).
The Egyptians of the New Kingdom created an empire with
their chariot corps: the great battles of Megiddo in 1468 and
of Kadesh in 1286 were essentially chariot battles. At Me-
giddo, Thutmose III rode in a chariot of gold. After being
routed by Thutmose's charioteers, the enemy fled to the walls
of Megiddo and were hoisted by ropes into the city. Thutmose
claims to have captured 2,041 horses, 924 chariots (two of
which were covered with gold), and—the figure is significantly
low—340 men. At the beginning of the thirteenth century
B.C., Ramesses II boasted that at Kadesh his chariots defeated
3,500 chariots belonging to his Hittite adversary.
Chariot warfare changed the face of society in the ancient
Near East. 44 In the third millennium the kings of Egypt and
of Sumer boasted more of their piety than of their military
prowess, but in the Late Bronze Age the king is essentially a
smiter of his kingdom's foes. In inscription and in statuary,
the Egyptian pharaoh of the New Kingdom is an invincible
warrior, who from his hurtling chariot discharges such volleys
of arrows that no enemy can escape destruction. In this
changed world, a professional military elite is conspicuous.
The old militias and unprofessional levies of the third and early
second millennia have been replaced by highly trained and
expert charioteers. The status of these charioteers is revealed in
correspondence of the period. When a king of Mitanni or of
Kassite Babylon writes to the king of Egypt, he employs a for-
mal salutation for greeting not only his "brother" the pharaoh
"but also his wives, his chariots, his horses, and his chief men,
usually in that order." 45
- Cf. R. O. Faulkner, "Egyptian Military Organization," JEA 39
(J953): 4 I: tne rise of the Eighteenth Dynasty brought with it changes in
the military sphere which amounted to a revolution." - C. Aldred, Akhenaten andNefertiti (New York: Brooklyn Mu-