Those who sued for mercy and laid down their arms, were spared and sent bound from the field; and, as I have already observed, the hands of the slain being cut off, and placed in heaps before the king, immediately after the action, were counted by the military secretaries in his presence, who thus ascertained and reported to him the amount of the enemy's slain. Sometimes their tongues, and occasionally other members, were laid before him in the same manner; in all instances being intended as authentic returns of the loss of the foe for which the soldiers received a proportionate reward, divided among the whole army: the capture of prisoners probably claiming a higher premium, exclusively enjoyed by the captor. The arms, horses, chariots, and booty, taken in the field, or in the camp, were also collected, and the same officers wrote an account of them, and presented it to the monarch. The booty was sometimes collected in an open space, surrounded by a temporary wall, indicated in the sculptures by the representation of shields placed erect, with a wicker gate*, on the inner and outer face of which a strong guard was posted, the sentries walking to and fro with drawn swords. The subject, from which this is taken†, may serve to show their mode of encamping; for though, after they had been victorious, and no longer feared an attack, the strongly fortified camp was unnecessary, its general * Vide wood-cut, No. 71., next page. On the N. E. tower of the Memnonium, at Thebes. form may be hence inferred; and the only dif ference between this and a permanent station, or regular encampment, (the castra stativa of the Romans,) probably consisted in the latter being constructed with greater attention to the principles of defence, and furnished with ditches and a strong efficient rampart. Judging from those of El Kab, Hieracon, and other fortified places in the valley of the Nile, distinct from the towns themselves, their fixed stations were surrounded by a massive and lofty wall of brick, whose broad rampart, having a wide staircase, or inclined way, was furnished with a parapet wall, for the protection of the soldiers; and though, from the nature of the ground, or other accidental causes, they were not strictly confined to the figure of a square, the quadrangular form was always preferred, and no instance occurs of a round camp like that of the Lacedæmonians. It was forbidden to the Spartan soldier, when on guard, to have his shield, in order that, being deprived of this defence, he might be more cautious not to fall asleep; and the same custom appears to have been common also to the Egyptians, since we find the watch on duty at the camp gates are only armed with swords and maces, though belonging to the heavy-armed corps, who, on other occasions, were in the habit of carrying a shield.* The field encampment was either a square or a parallelogram, with a principal entrance in one of the faces; and near the centre were the general's tent, and those of the principal officers. In form, it resembled a Roman camp; but the position of the general's tent agreed with the Greek custom mentioned by Homer †, and differed from that of the Romans, who placed the prætorium ‡ on the side most distant, or least exposed to attack, from the enemy. The general's tent was sometimes surrounded by a double rampart or fosse, enclosing * Vide wood-cut, No. 71. + Hom. Il. 0, 222.: Στη δ' επ' Οδυσσηος μεγακητεῖ νηῒ μελαινῃ, Pope, viii. 270. two distinct areas, the outer one containing three tents, probably of the next in command, or of the officers on the staff; and the guards, like the Roman excubiæ, slept or watched in the open air. Other tents were pitched, without these enclosures; and near the external circuit, a space was set apart for feeding horses and beasts of burthen, and another for ranging the chariots and baggage. It was probably near the general's tent, and within the same area, that the altars of the gods, or whatever related to religious matters, the standards, and the military chest, were kept; and we find an instance of persons kneeling before certain sacred emblems beneath a canopy, within an enclosure similar to that where the tent stood. To judge from the mode of binding their prisoners, we might suppose they treated them with unnecessary harshness and even cruelty, at the moment of their capture, and during their march with the army; and the contempt with which they looked upon all foreigners, whom they stigmatised by the name of impure gentiles, did probably lead many of the soldiers to commit acts of brutal severity. They tied their hands behind their backs, or over their heads, in the most strained positions, and a rope passing round their neck fastened them to each other; and some had their hands enclosed in an elongated fetter of wood*, made of two opposite segments, nailed * Vide wood-cut, No. 92. at the end of Chap. IV. together at each end; such as are still used for securing prisoners in Egypt, at the present day. In the capture of a town some were beaten with sticks*, in order to force from them the secret of the booty that had been concealed; many were compelled to labour for the benefit of the victors; and others were insulted by the wanton soldiery, who pulled their beards and derided their appearance. But when we remember how frequently instances of harsh treatment have occurred, even among civilised Europeans, at an epoch which deemed itself much more enlightened than the fourteenth century before our era, we are disposed to excuse the occasional insolence of an Egyptian soldier; and the unfavourable impressions conveyed by such scenes are more than counterbalanced by the proofs of Egyptian humanity, as in the sea-fight above mentioned. Indeed, I am inclined to think the captives bound beneath the chariot of the conqueror in his triumph † a licence of the sculptors, who, as Gibbon ‡ observes, "in every age have felt the truth of a system, which derives the sublime from the principle of terror." The custom of dragging behind a chariot the murderers of a friend was usual among the Thessalians; and the early Greeks insulted the dead on the field of battle, and mutilated their bodies to * This is the usual mode in the East of eliciting the truth at the present day. At Medeenet Haboo and Karnak. Gibbon, vol. ii. 64. note. |