104 FEBRUARY 2016 http://www.stampandcoin.co.ukT
he drama of the battle
scene and an idealised
portrayal of the heroic
general are captured
in this medal which
shows Napoleon inspiring his troops,
ordering them forward with the
pyramids behind.
Bonaparte’s Egyptian Expedition
was in essence a response to the
powerful position held by Britain in
the East Indies. Napoleon’s plan was
to take possession of Mamluk Egypt
which would protect French trade
interests, provide a platform from
which to attack British commerce
and thus undermine Britain’s access
to India and the East Indies. The
fleet was mobilised in southern
France and sailed first to Malta,
where Napoleon took the island
from the Knights, before sailing to
Alexandria – all the time evading the
notice of the British Navy.
Once Alexandria was taken the force
moved by land toward Cairo in order
to avoid the superior British fleet that
now approached. The ‘Battle of the
Pyramids’ (or ‘Battle of Embabeh’)
was fought against the Mamluks on
21 July, 1798 on the west banks of
the Nile some nine miles from Giza,
which might have been distantly
visible on the horizon. The opponents
were the Georgian brothers Murad and
Ibrahim Bey. Though outnumbered,
his 25,000 strong army faced 40,000
Egyptian troops led by Murad Bey andNapoleon’s exploits in Egypt
This month’s object
from the British
Museum’s collection is
an 18th-century French
medal commemorating
a battle from Napoleon’s
Egyptian campaign,
writes Richard KelleherBritish Museum
EXCLUSIVE Inside the British Museum Coins and Medals Department‘5 THERMIDOR AN 6’ in the French
Revolutionary calendar (21 July). The
small inscription at the base of the
pyramid gives the name J.J. DUBOIS.
F who engraved or modelled the dies
for this piece. We know little about
Jean-Joseph Dubois, apart from the
fact that he was a draughtsman of
some repute and an archaeologist.
On the reverse is an inscription
in five lines encircled by branches
of palm to the left, and olive to
the right which reads ‘ALLEZ, ET
SONGEZ / QUE DU HAUT
DE CES / MONUMENTS
QUARANTE SIECLES / VOUS
COMTEMPLENT’ which translates
as ‘Soldiers - forty centuries look down
upon you’. This exhortation was what
Napoleon was said to have uttered
before the battle to inspire his troops.
Around the edge of the medal a further
inscription reads ‘ALLOCUTION DU
GL. N. BONAPARTE A L’ARMEE
FRANCAISE AU PIED DES
PYRAMIDES’ (address by General N.
Bonaparte to the French army at the
foot of the pyramids).
This medal is not only a reminder
of the territorial ambitions of
Napoleon’s regime and his military
expertise but also, through its
iconography, a window into
Enlightenment preoccupations with
the ancient past and its place in
forging the identity and legitimacy of
the nation states of the late 18th and
early 19th centuries.in an innovative arrangement he set his
five divisions of troops in ‘divisional
squares’ which allowed the army to
repulse the wild attacks of the Mamluk
horsemen, to storm the Egyptian
camp (suffering few casualties) and
ultimately to live up to their leaders’
sense of history. These ‘squares’ were
actually hollow rectangles and with
cavalry and baggage at the centre
and cannon at the corners. The even
larger army of Ibrahim Bey watched
helplessly from the other side of
the Nile, unable to join the battle.
In all the French lost just 300 men
compared to around 6,000 Mamluks.
Napoleon was an advocate of
the fine arts and commissioned a
series of medals to celebrate his
many victories in France, Egypt,
Prussia, Poland, Austria and Russia.
A sequence of medals, of which this
is one, concentrate on Bonaparte’s
successes in Egypt and his tactical
genius which were framed in order
to build the legend of a military
hero. The medal itself is 57mm
in diameter and of bronze, on the
obverse we can see Napoleon in the
centre addressing his troops. He is
outfitted in military dress with his
characteristic bicorn hat and stands
before the great pyramids of Giza.
His troops are depicted, from right
to left, as a sapper, a mameluke, and
four grenadiers, with two further
figures obscured behind the group.
The inscription below gives the dateNapoleon commissioned
many medals to help
celebrate his military
victories. This example
shows the French leader
with his troops, the
Egyptian pyramids in
the backgroundThe British Musesum
Coins and Medals
department is home
to one of the world’s
finest numismatic
collections and is
featured in every issue
of Stamp & Coin Mart.
Find out more at: http://
stamp.cm/brit-museumINTERACTIVE
GALLERIESTap the coin to
flip it overp104 British Museum.indd 104 22/12/2015 09:55