t should have and, after carefully consolidating her power base and convincing her subjects that she was legitimate, gradually became pharaoh. As further proof, Tyldesley points to the fact that Tuthmosis III lived peacefully with Hatshepsut for all 22 years of her reign and that there was no attempted military coup against her.Upon Hatshepsut?s death, Tuthmosis III ascended the throne and, being widowed from Neferure, daughter of Tuthmosis II and Hatshepsut, he married Hatshepsut-Merytre as his principal wife and she gave him an heir, Amenhotep II. Historians believe that he spent a lot of time in the military during his step-mother?s reign and, once he was in sole possession of the throne, he embarked on a series of military campaigns, especially in Syria and Lebanon, to strengthen Egyptian borders. Some historians, Clayton and Ray, hold to the traditional belief that it was Tuthmosis III who initiated the expunging of his step-mother?s memory from official records and monuments. Certainly her reliefs and statues were destroyed at the temple in Deir el-Bahari, and many of her inscriptions were erased or hidden. But Tyldesley argues that recent archeological evidence suggests that these actions were taken perhaps near the end of Tuthmosis III?s reign, when he was in a weakened state and easily influenced by more unscrupulous political enemies of his step-mother or himself.Tuthmosis III has been called ?The Napoleon of ancient Egypt? (Clayton, 1994:109) because of his very ambitious Near Eastern campaign which is judged to be a masterpiece of planning and nerve. He marched to Gaza, took the city, pressed on to Yehem and then to Megiddo. His personal courage as a leader assured victory. In less that five months Tuthmosis had traveled from Thebes up the Syrian coast and captured three cities. In all he made 17 campaigns into Western Asia as well as to Nubia where he built temples. At Karnak, he recorded details of his wars not only glorif...
