ying his name but also promoting the god Amun, under whose banner he literally marched. His series of campaigns was the boldest military planning and execution under an Egyptian Pharoah until Ramses II some centuries later.Amenhotep II is known for his athleticism and his military prowess. Upon hearing of the death of Tuthmosis III, the Asiatic cities rose up in revolt and Amenhotep moved swiftly to quell the rebellion. He captured seven princes in Tikhsi and returned with them to the temple at Karnak. He revived an age-old ritual of sacrificing his captives to Amun by smiting them with his mace and then hanging them face down on the prow of his ship. With these gestures and a brief campaign in Nubia, Amenhotep II seems to have made his mark and he saw almost 25 years of peace for the remainder of his reign. There is some doubt about whether Tuthmosis IV was the legitimate heir based on a long inscription preserved on a tall stele between the paws of the Sphinx at Giza. It tells the story of how young prince Tuthmosis was out hunting in the desert when he fell asleep in the shadow of the Sphinx. Re-Harakhte, the sun god embodied in the Sphinx, appeared to him in a dream and promised that, if the sand engulfing the great limestone body was cleared away, the prince would become king. Little of a military nature is recorded about Tuthmosis IV nor does he seem to have built any significant structures. Tyldesley does say that by the time of Tuthmosis IV and Amenhotep III, the monarchy was starting to be challenged by the power and ever-increasing wealth of the cult of Amen. This, she argues, may account for the lack of recorded material about Tuthmosis IV in that any failure by the king, as chief priest to all the gods, could be interpreted as a sign that the king himself was failing to perform his duties correctly and a powerful and wealthy priesthood could ultimately bring about that fall of a weak or inefficient king. (Tyldesley, 1996:3...
