Gordon Doherty's Blog, page 5

Empires of Bronze: The Crimson Throne

​A story of bloody and world-shaking revenge

The King of the Hittites has been slain, and a reign of terror begins…

1272 BC: Prince Hattu returns home from the battlefield of Kadesh to find his nephew on the throne, the old king’s blood dripping from his hands. Under Urhi-Teshub’s reign, the Hittite realm has become a land of fear and violent reprisals. Ancient family lines and old ways are being wiped out as the young tyrant strengthens his bronze-fisted grip on power.

Hattu’s loved ones are spared only in return for his absolute obedience. Yet he knows he must choose between his family and his burning need for restitution. The Goddess Ishtar, ever-present in his dreams, assures him that there is only one future.
​
A war for the throne is coming… and blood will be let. Buy Try Bonus

OUT NOW - Masters of Rome

As competition for the imperial throne intensifies, Constantine and Maxentius realise their childhood friendship cannot last. Each man struggles to control their respective quadrant of empire, battered by currents of politics, religion and personal tragedy, threatened by barbarian forces and enemies within.
With their positions becoming at once stronger and more troubled, the strained threads of their friendship begin to unravel. Unfortunate words and misunderstandings finally sever their ties, leaving them as bitter opponents in the greatest game of all, with the throne of Rome the prize.
It is a matter that can only be settled by outright war...

Praise for Gordon Doherty and Simon Turney:'A page turner from beginning to end ... A damn fine read' Ben Kane, author of Lionheart'The Rise of Emperors series is first-rate Roman fiction. Doherty and Turney each breathe life into their respective characters with insight and humanity' Matthew Harffy, author of Wolf of Wessex'A nuanced portrait of an intriguing emperor' The Times (on Turney's Commodus)'A meticulously researched and vivid reimagining of an almost forgotten civilisation' Douglas Jackson, author of Hero of Rome (on Doherty's Empires of Bronze)'An intriguing and highly polished piece of historical fiction' James Tivendale from Grimdark (on Sons of Rome) Buy Try Listen (coming soon) Bonus

The Great Persecution

In the late 3rd century, the Roman Empire was a creaking mess. Riven by endless civil wars, succession struggles and splinter empires, the whole realm looked to be on the brink of disintegration.

​Along came Emperor Diocletian, who proposed a new system of rule: The Tetrarchy. Here, the empire would be split into more manageable Eastern and Western halves, with each half having an Augustus (a senior emperor) and a Caesar (a junior emperor). When an Augustus abdicated or died, his Caesar would step into his throne and appoint a Caesar of his own. And so on and so forth. No more wars of succession!

...yeah, right. Diocletian's Tetrarchy. Four emperors. No more strife... The Tetrarchic system & incumbents. The Roman Empire and its two halves in the age of the Tetrarchy.
Diocletian's vision was well-intended, but dreadfully executed. At the dawn of the 4th century AD he made one of his biggest mistakes by sponsoring the Great Persecution - a tyrannical pogrom of the empire's many Christians, led by himself and his Eastern Caesar, Galerius.
​
Diocletian's complaint against the Christians was this: for centuries, the citizens of the Roman Empire had worshipped the old pantheon of Jupiter and the Olympian family. In doing so, they were also acknowledging and paying homage to the emperor himself, venerating him as the embodiment of one of those Gods. Indeed, Diocletian had a penchant for painting himself gold and insisting on being addressed as Jupiter.

Emperor Diocletian, Augustus of the Eastern Empire and senior of all four Tetrarchs. Galerius, Diocletian's Caesar. Rumoured to be bloodthirsty and morbidly obese!
​Citizens were expected to demonstrate their loyalty to Jupiter and thus to him by sacrificing animals. The Christians, however, did not believe in the sacrifice of any living creature. They also did not believe in worshipping their god 'via' an emperor.

​In the eyes of Diocletian, they lived their lives in the Roman Empire, but not as part of it. This would not do, and so the Great Persecution began. What came next was an age of public burnings and peelings, of riots and butchery across the empire's cities.

It must be noted that much of the descriptive that follows comes from the Christian authors writing after this bleak time, and of course they were undoubtedly biased and keen to stress just what horrors their predecessors had been put through. Sacrifice of an animal at an altar was a sign of devotion to one's emperor and to the gods. It all began in a relatively gentle fashion with the legions. Soldiers seen making Christian gestures were blamed for imperial and military failures, and were summarily dismissed, losing their reputations and pensions.

Things became bloody when Diocletian and Galerius were at the city of Antioch to witness a ceremony of sacrifice. The proceedings were interrupted by a loud and grating voice. The Deacon Romanus circled the ceremony over and over, denouncing the act. Diocletian ordered his arrest, first sentenced him to death, then changed his mind and ordered his tongue ripped out first.

​Returning to his Tetrarchic seat at the city of Nicomedia, Diocletian then set about  formalising his dislike for the Christians. Egged-on by his underling, Galerius, he then issued what has come to be known as the First Edict of Persecution - a call to destroy all Christian buildings and scriptures and seize the faith's property and wealth.

“
It was the nineteenth year of Diocletian's reign [AD 303] and the month Dystrus, called March by the Romans, and the festival of the Saviour's Passion was approaching, when an imperial decree was published everywhere, ordering the churches to be razed to the ground and the Scriptures destroyed by fire, and giving notice that those in places of honour would lose their places, and domestic staff, if they continued to profess Christianity, would be deprived of their liberty. Such was the first edict against us. Soon afterwards other decrees arrived in rapid succession, ordering that the presidents of the churches in every place should all be first committed to prison and then coerced by every possible means into offering sacrifice.
”  - Eusebius, History of the Church (VIII.2)​

Diocletian recommended this should all be carried out without bloodshed. However, in practice - and overseen by Galerius - it was very different.

Etius was one of the first to be martyred. Having torn down a copy of the edict in Nicomedia's forum, he was arrested and burnt alive. Burning happened to be Galerius' favoured way of dealing with the Christians. Indeed, one prominent Christian church in Nicomedia was soon after set ablaze while still packed with worshippers. Bishop Anthimos escaped the flames, only to be captured and beheaded. Shortly after this, the imperial palace caught light and the Christians were blamed. This, in a way, legitamised Galerius' brutality and so many more Christians were now hunted down, beaten and, yep, burned alive.

A medieval depiction of the burning church, the scene of "the 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia"
​In order to weed out hiding Christians, the tests of sacrifice were became mandatory and took place all across the Eastern Empire. After refusing to comply, Diocletian's butler, Peter, was hung by his wrists and had the skin peeled from his body. If that wasn't enough he was then "roasted on a gridiron".
​ Flayed alive. The fate of Diocletian's butler, Peter "the Cubicularius".

“
Yet these three had been but accomplices of the emperor’s own valet, Peter the Cubicularius, who had denied nothing as they hung him by the wrists before the palace walls and scourged him expertly, never enough in so short a time to drive from him his wits. And when his bones were broken and his skin torn, they saved him from the agonies of his ravaged flesh by peeling it from him in strips, leaving him raw and shrieking. I had watched that afternoon as they had taken down the thing that had been Peter – a man whom I had known in no small measure – and poured salt and vinegar over his glistening pink form before lowering him onto red hot irons and roasting him slowly before the jeering crowd.​"
”  - excerpt from Sons of Rome

Countless burnings, peelings, beheadings and more followed. These atrocities threw the empire into chaos: widescale riots and protests against the persecutions only led to retaliatory mob attacks on the rioters and further edicts that intensified the brutality. Into this bloody and fiery world, Constantine the Great was born. Sons of Rome tells the story of his rise during the days of the Persecution and of the Tetrarchy, and his days of friendship with Maxentius, son of a Western Augustus. A friendship that was not to last... Sons of Rome tells the story of Constantine, written by Gordon Doherty & Maxentius, written by Simon Turney. BUY 'SONS OF ROME' NOW

Constantine... the man

The Rise of Emperors trilogy tells the story of the Roman Emperors Constantine the Great and his bitter rival, Maxentius. I'll leave the books to recount the epic tale of their struggle, but in this blog I wanted to look at the life and legacy of the first of those characters - to understand not Constantine the Great, but Constantine the man. His nuances and quirks, his values and beliefs, his weaknesses and strengths.


Let's just quickly summarise what history tells us at a glance: Constantine united a crumbling Roman Empire, fighting a legendary battle at the Milvian Bridge along the way - before which he was inspired by a sign from God in the sky, and after which he ended the oppression of the Christians. Right? Well, sort of. That is the distilled version of Constantine that comes down to us from the ancient texts. Many of these were penned by Christian authors writing about him after his wars and even long after his life. They absolutely venerated him. Some talked of him as a saint,  the bringer of Christianity, even the Thirteenth Apostle.  But these writings do not tell the whole story, for they largely obscured other writers (notably by Zosimus & Eunapius) who cast Constantine as a bit of a monster - politically ambitious, ruthless and manipulative. Such extremes!

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine's most famous moment. But it was just one moment. What do we really know about the man who rose to legendary status that day?
When reading into any part of history and the associated debate, I always seek some level of plausibility and balance - I like to finish my studying sessions feeling that I have understood the past as it might have been. So the commonly polarised caricatures of Constantine - which remain with us to this day - always leave me feeling dissatisfied, incomplete.
 
So take away the tug-of-war panegyrics and invectives, the grand orations and the legends. How much do we really know about the man?

The answer is short: very little. But here are a few scraps of information and anecdotes that may colour in the grey areas and raise an eyebrow or two...
 

Childhood
Constanine was born in 272 AD in the town of Naissus, Illyricum - a gateway between the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire.A few years later, when his father, Constantius, was offered the governorship of Salona in the neighbouring region of Dalmatia, he and his family moved there.His father - an erstwhile imperial guardsman - worshipped Mars and his mother, Helen, was a Christian. Alas, their marriage was not to last: Constantius was offered the hand of an imperial daughter and with it the chance to marry into the bloodline of emperors. Thus, he divorced Helena, estranging her and Constantine. Some claimed that Helena was only ever a Concubine, and others dismissed her as a prostitute. Regardless, a family had been broken apart. What scars must this have left on their young son? For any child, the dissolution of family can be potently formative.Constantine's loyalties were clear, however, as we know that throughout his life he remained devoted to his mother. The Roman ruins of Salona, by modern-day Split, Croatia. Here, Constantine's father served as governor. Adolescence ​Galerius, the Caesar of the East, (who went by the nickname 'the Herdsman' thanks to his rustic roots), spotted Constantine's potential, took him under his wing and furnished him with a home in the eastern city of Nicomedia, one of the four imperial capitals in the recently-established Tetrarchic system of rule.​There, he was assigned to the tutelage of Lactantius, a rhetorician who would later emerge as one of the foremost Christian writers. Lactantius taught Constantine Greek, Latin and Philosophy, and remained by his side throughout all that was to come.Constantine was taught to follow the example of the great philosopher-emperor, Marcus Aurelius. i.e. to dress plainly and to live simply, to avoid all softness and luxury. His body was trained to hardihood by wrestling, hunting and outdoor games.Although he and his father were estranged, in their time together he did pick up his sire's ‘keep your enemies close’ mantra, learnt during the latter's days of service under Emperor Aurelian.It seems that he had a fiery temper, like the emperors of his day. But - perhaps thanks to having the luxury of being present in the Nicomedian court to witness those rulers' failings in this respect - learned the benefits of being able to back down. Galerius, Caesar then later Augustus of the East in the Tetrarchic system. Nicomedia, Galerius' Tetrarchic capital, where Constantine was educated. This statue - currently resident in Venice - was crafted around 300 AD, to commemorate Emperor Diocletian's new Tetrarchic system of four emperors. Rise to Military Prominence
Once his education was complete, Galerius called Constantine into his legionary retinue to serve as an officer. Under Galerius' banner, he campaigned all across the ancient world, fighting against the empire's enemies in Sassanid Persia, in Egypt and in the Gothic northlands, taking in wondrous cities such as Babylon and Memphis along the way. He quickly gained a reputation as an excellent soldier and leader of men.Galerius now recognised that Constantine was bound for greatness, and - perhaps motivated by jealousy - sought to make him a firm (and obedient!) ally. While Constantine was still just an officer, he tendered the hand of his daughter, Valeria. Accepting this marriage would have instantly propelled Constantine into the imperial line as a son-in law of a Caesar and prime candidate to one day succeed him. It was a golden ticket up the ladder of power - just like the one his father had taken, except this time without the cost of breaking apart an existing family.
He surely accepted it, didn't he? Well, no. He rejected the offer and instead married a relatively low-born Syrian Christian woman named Minervina. This was the age of the Great Persecution - an era of public burnings and peelings of Christians, of riots and butchery across the Eastern Empire's cities… and Galerius was the figurehead for some of these atrocities. Only a brave - or foolhardy - man would spurn the Herdsman's daughter, and to do so in favour of a Christian (shock, horror!) must have put Constantine in a very precarious situation indeed.Interestingly, Valeria then went on to wed Maxentius, Constantine's rival! What kind of dynamic of power must this have introduced between the two men?Sensing Galerius' mood turning against him, Constantine realised that Nicomedia was no longer safe. He fled northwest to the opposite corner of the empire, to Britannia where his estranged father now lived. Father and Son were reunited and made peace. Constantius had by now attained the rank of Augustus of the West, ruling Britannia, Gaul and Hispania. More, he had opted not to enforce the Great Persecution in his lands - and thus it was a relatively peaceful realm. It must have been an eye-opener for Constantine given the horrors he had witnessed in the East.It is little wonder that when Constantine succeeded his father in 306, that he continued that policy. Perhaps this was because he had sympathy for the Christians, or maybe he believed in open religious worship, or perhaps simply because he had no wish to replicate the bloody chaos he had witnessed in the East.​  

The Roman legions in battle against the mighty Sassanid Persian army. The Goths attack the Roman lines! Constantine's flight from the court of Galerius, all the way to his father's land. Battle for the Empire and Beyond  
As soon as Constantine became emperor in his father's place, the cracks began to appear in the Tetrarchic system. Galerius raged against his accession, and jealousies began to arise elsewhere. His opponents questioned him at every turn: was he a senior Augustus or merely a junior Caesar? Emperor of all the West or just the northern part? Who ruled Italy and Africa? More importantly, who ruled the ancient capital of Rome - currently occupied by Maxentius? Tensions rose and rose and eventually boiled over.

What followed was an epic cycle of battles against Maxentius for complete control of the Western Roman Empire - a struggle that changed the course of European and world history. 
 

The Rise of Emperors trilogy tells the story of Constantine's famous war with Maxentius. Book 1 'Sons of Rome' is available in all good stores now! BUY 'SONS OF ROME' NOW! Later years
Constantine came out of the war with Maxentius firmly certain of the benefits of religious tolerance. In February 313 AD, he formalised the ethos of tolerance with the Edict of Milan. This stated that devotees of all religions should be allowed to follow their faith without oppression. The Christians - given the scale of the Great Persecution - were always going to benefit most from this.He banned certain works of anti-Christian literature, such as the rather literally-titled 'Against the Christians', by Porphyry of Tyre. Was this because he was personally offended by the content… or because it flew in the face of the Edict of Milan?There is a terrible episode of history during Constantine's later years in which his second wife, Fausta, is said to have had an affair with the son of his first, Crispus. Constantine is said to have ordered his son's execution and condemned his wife to death by boiling in her bath. This seems apocraphyl, as this was not a normal method of Roman execution, and Constantine had no reputation for torture - but one wonders what state of emotional madness the affair might have driven him to. Evagrius of Constantinople insists that the said executions simply never happened. One shudders to think that maybe he protests too much!Some people argue that, because Constantine was not baptised until he was on his death bed, he could not have been a sincere Christian. However, in Constantine's age, the concept of original sin and baptism at birth had not yet materialised. Commonly, Christians were baptised in later life or near death, in order to cleanse them of life's sins prior to the journey to heaven. In this respect, we can infer that his baptism was not cynical or 'last-minute'. His legacy
Constantine founded the 'New Rome' at Byzantium, renaming the city 'Constantinople'. This would be the main seat of the empire in its various guises for the next 1200 years.Many people today think Constantine 'made the Roman Empire Christian'. But that was not the case. After the Edict of Milan, all faiths were allowed to flourish. It was only some 40 years after his death that Theodosius I decreed Christianity as the official religion of the empire. Theodosius also started a new round of persecutions - this time against the pagans! Constantinople: The New Rome Conclusion
Considering the guiding figures in his life - his mother Helena, his first wife Minervina, his tutor Lactantius - Constantine must have been intimately familiar with Christianity. Perhaps he was spiritually open to it also. Or was he only interested in creating a religious harmony through which he could further his ambitions? As the historian David Potter muses: "Constantine didn’t mind if his subjects were not Christian. More important that they were his subjects." However, particularly because of his telling decision to spurn Galerius' daughter in favour of Minervina - a choice that both forewent personal gain and invited danger - I suspect there was more than naked ambition behind his bond with the religion.

Conversely, given his years of warmaking and the blood-curdling rumours of his second wife's demise, it is hard to uphold any view of him as a gentle, tolerant figure. Tens of thousands of men must have died on the ends of his legions' swords. Thus I suspect that - like most people - he found his way to his faith gradually, perhaps guided there by some of the terrible events he witnessed… and some that he created.



References
Constantine The Emperor, David PotterMeditations, Marcus AureliusEcclesiastical History, Evagrius ScholasticusNew History, ZosimusThe Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, GibbonConstantine, Unconquered Emperor, Paul StephensonRoman Legionary in the time of Diocletian and Constantine, Ross Cowan

The Sherden

The Empires of Bronze series is a tale of the late Bronze Age and pivots around the Hittite Empire. But one of the most crucial characters comes not from the realm of the Hittites, nor any of the other three 'great powers' (Assyria, Egypt and Ahhiyawa/Mycenaean Greece), but from an island on the periphery of that world. The island... of the Sherden.

In book 1, Son of Ishtar, Volca the Sherden mercenary arrives in Hittite lands and kneels before King Mursili, claiming he has sailed from the distant western island, seeking to find and serve the Hittite court. What a nice guy, eh? Well, we soon discover that he is anything but a noble adventurer, and he comes to be known throughout Dawn of War and Thunder at Kadesh as 'Volca, the bastard Sherden'. I won't say any more lest I spoil anything for readers just beginning the series, but I do think that Volca's origins deserve a little bit of exploration. Who were the Sherden, and where exactly did they come from? The Sherden: fierce sea-warriors from the distant west. The golden-robed chap on the left was my inspiration for Volca. It was something about the horned helmet, the look on his face, staring out of the picture at you, eyes dripping with menace and intelligence. Shudder! (artwork by Giuseppe Rava). Who Were the Sherden? The Sherden first rear their head from the mists of history in 1386 BC in the so-called 'Amarna Letters' - tablets exchanged between Egypt's Pharaoh and his vassals in Canaan and Amurru. Written in cuneiform script (wedge-shaped markings from the Latin cuneus = wedge) using the Akkadian language, these texts describe Pharaoh installing the Sherden as a garrison in the vassal city of Gubla (modern Byblos, Lebanon).

Subsequent tablets, papyruses, monumental temple reliefs and stele show them marching with Egypt's armies as a mercenary wing. In this role they soon acquired a fearsome military reputation. By the time of the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC) a select group had even risen to serve Pharaoh as a royal bodyguard corps. Reliefs attest to their gruesome role during that battle - serving as runners alongside the Egyptian chariots, tasked with hacking the hands from any dead or injured Hittites. Pharaoh Ramesses and his mighty armies preparing for battle on the plains of Kadesh. And who's that chap on Pharaoh's right, with the horned helm and straightsword? (Credit to Osprey Publishing for the artwork). Sherden warriors hard at work during another battle, hacking the hands from the dead or injured. Nice. This relief from Abydos depicts a Sherden warrior again serving Egypt at the Battle of Kadesh, and here we see him hacking the hand from a dead Hittite opponent. A Sherden warrior would typically be equipped with:
​A distinctive horned helmet. The horns were made of ivory, tin or lead. Some depictions show a disc rising from the crown as well, and one theory is that this was added to the traditional panoply after the Sherden joined the Egyptian ranks, as a symbol of devotion to the Egyptian Sun God Ra.A cuirass. The richer of the Sherden would probably have had a cuirass of inverted V-shaped leather or bronze bands known as 'lobster' style armour.A long ash wood spear.A battle axe.A straight sword for stabbing and hacking, sporting a strong central ridge. Interestingly, these seem to have been composed of copper and a hint of arsenic more often than much harder bronze. Perhaps that is the reason for the strengthened ridge?A dagger.A round buckler shield, sometimes gold-rimmed with many metallic bosses. A horned Sherden and mercenaries from other seafaring tribes preparing for battle. (Credit to Giuseppe Rava for the artwork). ​You'll notice the leftmost man in the image above carries a trident instead of a spear. The thinking here is that he is their leader, and that the trident symbolises the seafaring roots of his tribe. That brings us to our second question: the Sherden voyaged across the sea to come to Egyptian and Hittite lands, but from where exactly? The Lost Island of the Sherden Okay, so it's a cool-sounding subheading, but the Island of the Sherden is not really lost. It's right here, red-ringed in this map of the Near East during the Late Bronze Age (roughly the 13th century BC). The Near East during the Late Bronze Age, circa 1275 BC. ​"Hold on," I hear you cry, "that's not the Island of the Sherden, that's Sardinia!"

Yes it is Sardinia, but yes it was also the Island of the Sherden. How do we know that? Well, onomastic study deals with mining information from place names and how they have changed over time. A slippery business, certainly. But often, the ancient root in the name of a landmark or city echoes and persists for many millennia, through manifold conquests, culture-shifts, population-influx, devastation, natural disaster and abandonment: think of Britain - the name stems from Roman Britannia, which itself came from the original Celtic term Pretanī; or the city of Trier in modern Germany, founded by the Celtic Treveri tribe in the 4th c BC, conquered by the Romans 300 years later and renamed Augusta Treverorum, then battered from every angle through the many centuries of the Dark and Middle Ages by migrating peoples and roving armies as Europe was carved up time and time again. In both instances, we can still see a plausible link between the original and current place names, and recorded history allows us to confirm the timeline.

​So it is with the Island of the Sherden -> Sardinia. Likewise with its southern Bronze Age neighbour, the Island of the Shekelesh... now known as Sicily (Not convinced? Say Sicily with the Latin 'hard c' to hear how close it sounds). Sardinia: Volca's original home? ​However, debate continues as to whether the Sherden (and indeed the Shekelesh) inhabited their island before or after the period described in Empires of Bronze. Did they sail from the west to enter the politics of the Great Powers, or did they originate in the Near East and later voyage to and claim the island as their new home? We simply do not know for certain, as we don't have clear attestations that allow us to confirm either way. There is evidence and theory supporting both views. The Sardinian origin theory is supported by archaeological finds such as the Sherden-style sword discovered on Sardinia and dating from 1650 BC (several centuries pre-Empires of Bronze). The Sardinian destination theory is based on other plausible and closer (to the Near East) origins for the Sherden, such as Sardis on modern Turkey's Ionian coast - this fits in with an Egyptian record stating that the Sherden 'came from the north' and there is an onomastic link there too (Sardis->Sherden).

The debate will continue to sway back and forth I have no doubt, and to be honest, that's half the fun of it all! I hope that was a thought-provoking and entertaining read for you. You can read all about the Sherden in my Empires of Bronze series. Book 3 'Thunder at Kadesh' is out now!
​ Buy THUNDER AT KADESH Now!

The Battle of Kadesh Part 3: Clash of Empires

In part 2 of this blog, we followed the march of the Hittites and the Egyptians as they converged upon the city of Kadesh. We left off with Pharaoh Ramesses and his Amun Army encamped northwest of the city, triumphant that they had reached it before their rivals... only to be struck dumb by the news that the Hittites were in fact here already, concealed behind the eastern side of the Kadesh mound. 

Now we plunge into the depths of the oldest battle on record... ​Ramesses' Reaction and the Fate of the Ra Pharaoh Ramesses, alarmed and enraged that he had been tricked, sent one of his viziers off to the south to warn and hasten his other three armies. There was still time to gather his forces, he must have thought. 

At this point in time - the last stages of dawn - the closest of his three trailing armies was the Ra. They were led by one of Ramesses’ sons, and had just crossed the Ribleh Ford (see map, below). As they marched north, they would have passed the Forest of Robawi on their right flank, still completely unaware that the Hittites were anywhere near this land...
​
... and then the veils of deception dropped.
Prince Hattu leads a massive Hititte chariot wing in a charge from a concealed position. ​
​From the woods, a horde of Hittite chariots - possibly as many as two or three thousand of them - exploded into view in a blaze of light, slicing through the last curls of dawn mist.

These carefully-crafted three-man vehicles led the charge, with swarms of allied chariots alongside - some even from Troy. Prince Hattusili (Hattu) is likely to have led this strike. It was a devastating attack: they hammered into the Ra flanks and obliterated that force, sending many fleeing back to the south. It was a fine and thorough triumph. More importantly, they had effectively cut Ramesses and his Amun Army off from three-quarters of his entire campaign force.  First: The Ra Army hear thunder, feel the ground shudder. What is that coming from the dawn mists... coming towards their right flank? Next: Prince Hattu and the Hittite chariot elite burst into view! Finally: Hattu's three-man Hittite chariots plunge into the flank of the Egyptian Ra column. Deception! Or was it? It is still a matter of debate: when the Egyptians arrived at Kadesh, were they suddenly ambushed by the hidden Hittite forces as I have described above? Or was it more of a strategic surprise, i.e. did Ramesses reach Kadesh and see from a safe distance that the Hittites were already there, having arrived unexpectedly early? 

As a writer of historical fiction, it would take a strong and compelling case for me to go with the latter theory, and in truth, the stronger and more compelling cases I have read support the former anyway. Some argue that if it was truly an ambush, it would have been a notable, almost anachronistic twist in the art of war; for it is thought that such trickery was not the norm for major conflicts of that era. On the other hand we are without detail of any other battles of the time, so one must challenge that assumption. We do know that the Hittites celebrated and studied deceptive tactics, such as the myth of Sargon’s surprise attack and capture of the city of Purushanda, so there are plausible grounds for the Kadesh ruse being a true and well-laid ‘ambush’.

If it indeed was a surprise attack, then the Hittites executed it brilliantly, and the Battle of Kadesh was well and truly underway. ​The Destruction of the Amun Camp ​After routing the Army of Ra, Prince Hattu then turned his chariot host northwards, swinging across the shallow Orauntis tributary and speeding towards Pharaoh's Amun camp.

Within the vast and as-yet incomplete camp, Ramesses would no doubt have heard a strange rumble in the south, then noticed the heat-warped horizon there shaking and sparkling… before the Hittite chariots exploded into view, coming straight for them. By all accounts, the Hittites ripped the Amun camp to shreds, surging over the half-finished earth & shield rampart and harrowing through the sea of tents and men within. The Attack on the Amun camp. The Hittite chariot host smashes into Pharaoh's unfinished camp. Victory seems certain for the Hittites... The Hittite chariots blaze across the Egyptian camp. (Credit to Osprey Publishing for the artwork). Pinned by this chariot assault from the southwest, and unable to retreat across the Orauntis thanks to King Muwa and his forty thousand strong Hittite infantry force guarding the far riverbanks, Pharaoh was trapped. The historian J.H. Breasted suggests the Hittite infantry ‘plugged’ the fording points of the Orauntis and denied Pharaoh any route of escape that way. Indeed, accounts tell of heavy fighting in the river shallows.

So, trapped between this infantry anvil and chariot hammer, Ramesses found himself on the cusp of a complete rout. Egyptian accounts claim the Hittites were stopped from claiming this full victory only because of their greed – with some of their chariot crews stopping so they could load up with Egyptian treasures. Looting was a common part of ancient warfare so it is not unlikely, but one would think that if the Hittite chariotry were on the cusp of a complete victory then they might – having marched across the world to get here – complete that rout first before stopping to pick up jewels and trinkets.

Whatever the Hittite chariots were doing, the Amun Army apparently rallied. The Egyptian chronicler Pentaur describes Pharaoh in the midst of it all, riding his chariot alone, reins lashed around his waist, bow in hand:

"The serpent that glowed on the front of his diadem ‘spat fire’ in the face of his enemies."

But spirited fightback or not, the Amun were looking doomed. Until the sound of horns rose in the west...​ The Coming of the Ne'arin From the western mountains, a huge Egyptian reinforcement army known as ‘The Ne’arin’ appeared and sped into the battle. The origins of the Ne’arin are foggy to say the least. Some speculate that they were the soldiers of the close-by land of Amurru. Others suggest they might have been Pharaoh’s rearmost army – the Sutekh – having secretly stolen up the coastal road ahead of the Ra and the Ptah to be nearer to Kadesh than the Hittites expected.

In Thunder at Kadesh, I have opted for a combination of these two theories – that the Ne’arin were a vassal horde of Amurrites, Gublans and Canaanites and that they arrived with the expedited Sutekh alongside them for good measure. These forces relieved the Amun soldiers and began to overwhelm and pulverise Prince Hattu's Hittite chariotry. More, from the south the Egyptian Ptah Army was now across the Ribleh Ford and speeding towards the fray. The balance of battle had well and truly swung in favour of Egypt. The Egyptians rally and the Ne'arin reinforcements arrive! The Hittite chariots are now trapped in the ruins of the Amun camp. Now the Egyptians seem set to triumph... The Hittite chariots find the tables turned upon them. (Credit to Osprey Publishing for the artwork). A Hittite charioteer finds himself stranded by his smashed vehicle, facing the oncoming charge of Pharaoh Ramesses! (Credit to Osprey Publishing for the artwork). The Hittite Counterattack and the Coming of Dusk King Muwa, seeing the death-trap in which his brother Hattu and the Hittite chariotry were ensnared, led a reserve of chariots and elite soldiers into the fray, probably across a ford north of Kadesh (the 'Silver Ford' in my diagrams). These forces collided with the ongoing fray on the site of the already ruined Amun camp and the battle raged on throughout the day.

Egyptian records describe their Sherden mercenaries hacking the hands from Hittite casualties as some kind of ‘kill-tally’. Pharaoh’s war-lion, Foe-slayer, was there on campaign with him and no doubt played a part in the fray too. 

The action ceased only when the light began to fade and both armies began to peel apart. After a full day of battle, nothing had been decided. The Hittites still held Kadesh and the eastern banks of the Orauntis, while the Egyptians dominated the western banks. The Egyptians rally and reinforcements arrive! King Muwa leads a Hittite charge to relieve his trapped brother Prince Hattu and the Hititte chariots. King Muwa at the head of the Hittite reinforcement charge. What followed lasted for the rest of the day, and it was brutal. (Credit to Osprey Publishing for the artwork). The Remains of the Day ​So, in the blackness of night as both sides gathered up their dead and kept an anxious watch on their rivals across the Orauntis, another day of battle must have seemed certain. But then, most unexpectedly, some kind of talks took place either that night or early the next day... and it was all over. Never again in history did Egyptian and Hittite swords clash.

"Hold on," I hear you shout. ''You can't leave it there! What happened in the talks? Who 'won'?" ​So Who Won the Battle of Kadesh? Egyptian reliefs – carved into the walls of the temples at Karnak, Luxor and Abydos – describe the Hittite King falling to his knees and begging Pharaoh for mercy, presumably at these mysterious talks. Apparently, Pharaoh mercifully agreed to this, and the two armies went their separate ways. Following this account, it sounds like we have an Egyptian victory, doesn’t it? 

Well, until fairly recently, historians thought so (while also acknowledging the partisan nature of Egyptian accounts). That seems only fair, given there were no other source materials to contend with this view.

However, in modern times, more than thirty thousand tablets have been discovered under the ruins of the Hittite capital, Hattusa, and some of these shed a rather different light on things. It seems that the Hittites clearly considered themselves to be the victors of Kadesh and of the talks. And an objective analysis does support this, for we now know that immediately after the battle, Pharaoh withdrew his armies from Kadesh, leaving it in Hittite hands, and also – tellingly – pulled his garrison out of nearby Amurru, ceding that vital neighbouring region to the Hittites after twenty years of occupation. The Hittites then claimed further lands ot the south in Pharaoh's wake. Ramesses and his armies headed back south to Egypt having won not a patch of land and having lost a great deal of it. 

In any case, if the Hittites did truly ‘win’ the Battle of Kadesh it was in many ways a Kadmean victory, with great losses incurred: some seven allied kings and huge swathes of allied and Hittite men died over the course of that full day of combat. Victory for the Hittites! ...but at what price? ​The consequences of the victory were enormous, for the Hitittes and Egyptians remained at peace throughout the remainder of their time as contemporary powers, and even signed a formal defensive alliance some years later. But the history shows that this was a bad time for the Hittites to have weakened themselves so grievously. Indeed, dark ramifications lay ahead... ​Thanks for Reading! I hope you enjoyed this blog series. Any questions? Leave a comment below or get in touch - I'd be delighted to hear from you. Also check out my other blog post which looks at the Hittites' 3-man chariots, the 'secret weapon' that helped give them the edge at Kadesh.

And remember, the whole journey can be lived out in visceral detail in the Empires of Bronze series! Book 3 Thunder at Kadesh follows the build up to and execution of the battle you have just been reading about! Buy 'Thunder at Kadesh' Now! The Battle of Kadesh part 1 The Battle of Kadesh part 2 The Battle of Kadesh part 3 (this page)

The Battle of Kadesh Part 2: The Road to War

In part 1 of this blog, we followed the deterioration of relations between the Hittite and Egyptian Empires: a severe and irreparable collapse of diplomacy that led to their mutual declarations of war. In this second part, we will join the two great powers on their march across the ancient world towards the greatest showdown of the Bronze Age... 

But first, it is important to understand why King Muwatalli (Muwa) and Pharaoh Ramesses chose Kadesh as the place where they would fight out their differences. Why Kadesh? ​The River Orontes (Orauntis) rises in modern Lebanon and tumbles northwards through Syria, before finally crossing into southern Turkey and turning westwards to spill out into the Mediterranean Sea. Just north of the Lebanon-Syria border, the Orauntis is fed by a small tributary snaking in from the west. Nestled in the conflux of these waterways stands a mound known these days as as Tell Nebi Mend. The mound is large, high and dominant, giving an excellent and commanding view over the rivers and of the large expanse of flatland all around. This would have been an easy choice of site for a king or general looking to establish a stronghold, and scholars largely agree that the Bronze Age city of Kadesh once stood here. The mound of Kadesh (Tell Nebi Mend) today. The River Orauntis and its tributary fork around the tip of this mound - in the right hand of this photo. (Credit to www.dur.ac.uk for the photograph). The Great Powers of the Late Bronze Age. Note the area marked with a dashed box 'The Vassal Lands of Retenu', where the Egyptian and Hittite Empires meet. The Vassal Lands of Retenu. A close-up of the border zone. Note how Kadesh sits close to the boundary between empires, uniquely positioned on the river route north to south and east to west. Zooming into Kadesh: The Bronze Age city sat atop a large mound in a river fork - a strong position from which to oversee the wide flatlands all around. Note that the names of the city gates and the nearby river fords are all speculative (apart from the Ribleh Ford). Choosing to fight a great battle in the countryside of Kadesh made sense for a number of reasons:Geographically: Kadesh was positioned right on the border between the Hittite and Egyptian realms (see the chain of maps, above). It was the quintessential middle-ground between the two empires.Politically: Ownership of the mound-city (and neighbouring Amurru) was the cause of the dispute in the first place (as described in part 1).Strategically: The eastern desert and western mountains made the country of Kadesh something of a narrow chokepoint controlling movement from north to south. Equally, Kadesh's dominant position near one end of the Eleutheros Valley meant it was also something of a gatekeeper over the valley and thus controlled access to and from the coastal route in Amurru. Triumph in battle would grant the victor firm control of Kadesh and with it equally firm control of trade and military movements in the area.Tactically: As described earlier, the land around Kadesh was pan-flat and thus perfect for chariot warfare. This made for an ideal arena within which the two great kings could unleash their huge fleets of war-cars. ​The Race for Kadesh Both sides knew that once the fair marching weather of spring 1274 BC arrived, it would be a contest of speed and shrewd planning to reach Kadesh first - for the Hittites to bolster the city and for Egypt to seize it before the Hittites arrived.

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March of the Egyptians
Of the Egyptian march, we know most. Ramesses mustered his four great divisions - The Amun, the Ra, the Ptah and the Sutekh. Each of these forces numbered anything up to 10,000 men. Each was effectively a self-contained army, with their own archer companies, an infantry and chariot core, pack mules and supply wagons, medical staff, priests and scouts.

These four divisions set off from Pi-Ramesses, Pharaoh's capital on the Iteru (Nile) Delta. Ramesses himself led his elite Amun Army, and was followed by the Ra, the Ptah and the Sutekh as they marched along the ‘Way of Horus’ – the Egyptian military road of conquest. They came to the great fortress of Tjaru, stopping to take supplies from the armoury there, before continuing on into southern Retenu. Delays would have been hard to avoid: hold-ups with supply trains, bandits, sandstorms. There are even attestations of Egyptian soldiers falling ill with fever after drinking directly from the cold streams there, or perishing of shock after wading in - and any such delays on this campaign would have been worrying for Ramesses given the challenge of reaching Kadesh before the Hittites. But on they went, past Migdol fortress and up the Gublan (Lebanese) coast, before bending inland at the Dog River (the modern Nahr al-Kalb, where 3,000 year-old inscriptions in the rock made by Ramesses’ soldiers still exist!).

This took them into a highland region, and along the high Valley of Cedars. The River Orauntis cuts across the northern end of this valley in a deep gorge, and the Egyptians halted here to make camp for the night. From the gorge-side, Ramesses would have been able to look across the river and see the low, pan-flat countryside of Kadesh on the far side.

His goal was in sight... but had he made it here first? Pharaoh Ramesses leading the march (credit to Osprey Publishing for the artwork). An 18th century depiction of the coastal route near the Dog River (modern Nahr al-Kalb) and the reliefs carved by Ramesses' army on their march to Kadesh (the reliefs today are very faded otherwise I'd have included a photo of them in their present state). The gorge edge Ramesses would have come to at the end of the Valley of Cedars, with the Orauntis in the foreground. From the high gorge side he would have been able to stare across the river towards his target... Kadesh! March of the Hittites
​We know very little about the Hittite journey to Kadesh, but we understand that they were led by King Muwa and his brother, Prince Hattusili (Hattu) - who also served as a high general and Gal Mesedi (Hittite chief of state security).

We can surmise that they would have first mustered their four core divisions (four because they seem to have had a system of four generals), each maybe five thousand strong. We know they also called upon the many vassal kings to support them. The Trojans, the Arzawans, the Dardanians, the Masans, the Seha Riverlanders, The Karkisa, the Lukka... the list goes on.

​Estimates vary, but it is generally accepted as plausible that they marched to Kadesh with 40,000 infantry and 2,500 chariots (specialist vehicles, each crewed by three men) in tow, giving a possible grand total of 47,500 soldiers. To the onlookers of the time it must have seemed like the entire world was marching to war. How a Hittite division might have looked on the march. The Hittites rallied many of their long-term allies, including the Trojans (Credit to Giuseppe Rava for the artwork). The distinctive and crucial three-man Hittite chariot. ​The Hittite Army would have set off along the upper of their two heartland highways. This would have led them eastwards across the centre of modern Turkey, then southwards past one speculative location of the city of Zantiya (historically known as Lawazantiya) of whom Ishtar was the patron deity, then on through the White Mountains (the modern Anti-Taurus range in southeastern Turkey), gathering up more vassal armies along the way. They would have emerged from the mountains to meet yet more allies at the northern edges of Retenu, including the small but stout Hittite armies of their two Viceroyalties of Halpa (modern Aleppo) and Gargamis. Finally, they would have speared southwards towards Kadeshi lands. Who Won the Race? While Ramesses was encamped at the gorge-side and within sight of the countryside of Kadesh, two Shoshu Bedouin tribesmen arrived from the wilderness and came to him. They explained that the Hititte army was still far away in the north, near Halpa (modern Aleppo).

It was better news than Pharaoh could have hoped for. The city of Kadesh was within a day's striking distance. He could seize the city well before the Hitittes even reached these parts. But his thoughts must have been tinged with caution, for in his haste to reach Kadesh first, he had arrived here at the gorge camp with just his principal army, the Amun. Meanwhile, the Ra, Ptah and Sutekh were strewn out many miles in his wake. Some scholars debate that this was not rashness but prudence - leaving such a gap between armies would mean recources such as springs and pasture lands would have a chance to partially recuperate after one army had passed through, in time for the next to come by. Regardless, Ramesses' dilemma was the same: surge forth with the Amun Army and seize Kadesh, or waste precious hours, days even, waiting on the other three armies?

Ramesses opted to set forth at dawn the next day, before his other armies had caught up. He crossed the Orauntis at the Ribleh ford and led the Amun Army past the flat tongue of land between the Orauntis and its tributary, coming round on the tributary's western side and skirting that waterway until the Kadesh mound rose into view in the northeast. Just northwest of Kadesh, he halted and ordered his Amun soldiers to make camp. The sun was still crawling over the horizon as his troops set about making a siege camp, demarcating a huge area with a low rampart of soldiers' shields dug into the earth. Meanwhile, Ramesses set about planning how he might take the city, and he must have done so with a growing sense of triumph - for he had met not a jot of resistance... Ramesses' approach to Kadesh and the position of his Amun camp. ​It was here that Ramesses' day turned distinctly sour. His guards spotted two strange-looking soldiers hidden in nearby bushes, watching the Egyptian camp works. Captured and brought before Pharaoh, Ramesses realised they were Hittites. Forward scouts, he guessed, then ordered their interrogation. It must have been 'persuasive', because they soon revealed to him the news that surely turned his soul to ice...

The Great Hittite Army was not in Halpa... the enemy was already here, hiding behind the eastern side of Kadesh's huge mound!

Pentaur, Pharaoh's 'Poet Laureate' described the captured Hittites' confession as follows:

"Lo, the king of Hatti has already arrived, together with the many countries who are supporting him . . . They are armed with their infantry and their chariots. They have their weapons of war at the ready. They are more numerous than the grains of sand on the beach." 

​So who won the race to Kadesh? The Hittites, without question. And they were here in full, while Ramesses had just one-quarter of his forces with him. Reality! The Hitittes were hidden from view behind the Kadesh mound! What happened next? Sharpen your swords and stay tuned for The Battle of Kadesh Part 3: Clash of Empires (coming soon) - where we delve right into the Fray! Hope you enjoyed the read. Any questions? Leave a comment below or get in touch - I'd be delighted to hear from you. The Battle of Kadesh Part 1 The Battle of Kadesh Part 2 (this page) The Battle of Kadesh Part 3 - coming soon! Buy 'Thunder at Kadesh' Now!

Rise of Emperors: Sons of Rome

Buy Try Listen - COMING SOON Bonus Four Emperors. Two Friends. One Destiny.

As twilight descends on the 3rd century AD, the Roman Empire is but a shadow of its former self. Decades of usurping emperors, splinter kingdoms and savage wars have left the people beleaguered, the armies weary and the future uncertain. And into this chaos Emperor Diocletian steps, reforming the succession to allow for not one emperor to rule the world, but four.
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Meanwhile, two boys share a chance meeting in the great city of Treverorum as Diocletian's dream is announced to the imperial court. Throughout the years that follow, they share heartbreak and glory as that dream sours and the empire endures an era of tyranny and dread. Their lives are inextricably linked, their destinies ever-converging as they rise through Rome's savage stations, to the zenith of empire. For Constantine and Maxentius, the purple robes beckon...

The Battle of Kadesh

Part 1 of a 3-part blog exploring the first and cruellest of wars

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Thunder at Kadesh

The Battle of Kadesh Part 1: Great Rivals

Around 1274 BC, the Hittite and Egyptian Empires clashed near the city of Kadesh - a battle of unprecedented scale and repercussion, and the first such major and direct showdown ever recorded. 
This 3-part blog aims to explore the battle that took place at Kadesh over three thousand years ago, and we begin here with the first question: in an age of nobility, careful diplomacy and respect, why did it come to such a brutal conflict?  Why did the Hittite and Egyptian Empires go to war? By 1274 BC, the Hittites and the Egyptians had co-existed for some four centuries. The Hittites ruled most of modern-day Turkey and controlled a halo of vassal kingdoms on the Turkish coasts and in the northern Levant. Far to the south, the Egyptians held sway, their crop fields fed by the yearly inundations of the Nile and protected by the vast tracts of desert either side of that great waterway. The Egyptians too controlled many vassal lands near their home territory. The lay of the land: The Hittite and Egyptian Empires circa 1274 BC. Note the dash-edged box - the meeting point in the vassal lands, which the Egyptians called 'Retenu'. Click image for full size view. ​Relations between Egypt and the Hittites were not always peaceful, it must be said. But prior to 1274 BC, aggression between the two states had only ever been in the shape of posturing and political dispute, as well as proxy war - with the Hittites compelling some of their vassal kingdoms to attack or obstruct an Egyptian army or trade route and vice versa. Not once in all that time had the huge and mighty armies of Egypt's Pharaoh or the Hittite Labarna (high king) been mobilised to face one another in full, all-out war. But a sequence of tit-for-tat exchanges soon changed that... The Build-up of Tensions History teaches us that most empires grow until they meet some form of resistance that checks their expansion. Think of Xerxes' Achaemenid Persia, swelling and thriving inexorably until it met with the Greeks at the Hot Gates then Salamis. Or Attila's Hunnic juggernaut, invincible until his armies came up against the allied patchwork of the fading Western Roman Empire and its 'barbarian' allies. 

So it was with the realms of Egypt and the Hittites. Both gradually stretched out to claim more and more territory as their own. There was a particular desire on both sides to possess the lands of the modern Levant, known to the Egyptians as 'Retenu' (see the dash-lined box area in the map, above) - a land veined with ancient trade routes. No trade was more important than that of tin; tin was a scarce resource, and being essential in the production of bronze, a vital one for any state with martial ambitions. For the Hittite Labarna and Egypt's Pharaoh, controlling Retenu and denying it to their opponent was a must. Central Retenu: a close-up, circa 1274 BC. Here's a snapshot of the creeping territorial ambitions that brought the Hititte and Egyptian realms nose-to-nose in central Retenu:

15th c BC: Pharoah Tuthmosis III conquers southern Retenu (roughly modern Palestine) for Egypt then rides to the River Mala (Euphrates) and erects victory stele.14th c BC: Hittite King Suppiluliuma I crushes the Mittani to take much of northern Retenu (roughly modern Syria), including Gargamis (Carchemish) and Kadesh. The latter of these spoils was most important, for Kadesh lay right at the heart of central Retenu, controlling much of the inland trade and military routes.Attempts to defuse the growing tensions are made when the widowed Egyptian Queen Dakhamunzu suggests marriage to Suppiluliuma's son, Zannanza. But on his journey to Egypt to wed the enemy queen, Zannanza is killed in suspicious circumstances. Many suspect this was the Egyptian plan all along.Enraged, Suppiluliuma orders his forces to raid Egyptian border settlements. His Hittite soldiers return with Egyptian prisoners of war in tow.... and a plague! This plague kills Suppiluliuma and ravages Hittite lands for 20 years.Mursili II becomes the new Labarna of the Hittites. A tense lull in hostility is observed between the Hittites and Egyptians at first... until Tetti, a Hittite ambassador on a visit to Egypt, is imprisoned by Pharaoh Horemheb. Resentment broils once more. Threats fly back and forth.13th c BC1294 BC:Pharaoh Seti I is bent on hurting the Hittites and seizing their holdings in northern Retenu for himself. He marches north, conquers the Hittite vassal lands of Kadesh and Amurru and destroys a Hittite vassal army, leading thousands off in captivity.Hittite King Muwatalli II (Muwa) and his brother Prince Hattusili (Hattu) are powerless to retaliate - for the mighty Hittite Army is beset by troubles on the western edge of Hittite lands where Ahhiyawan (Greek) raiders are pillaging.1279 BC:Ramesses II takes the Egyptian throne and sets about building up Egypt's already-huge armies, determined to complete his father Seti's unfinished conquest of the Hittites.1275/1274 BC (estimated):Kadesh defects back to the Hittite fold.Pharaoh Ramesses is enraged.Despite gaining Kadesh once again, King Muwa is still angered by the continuing Egyptian 'occupation' of the equally vital Amurru. More, his Hittite armies are now free of plague and western troubles and he has carefully nurtured strong oaths of military support from his vassals.Ramesses declares he will retake Kadesh, Muwa swears he will defend it.After all these centuries, there is no other path left.The stage is set for war!

Stay tuned for The Battle of Kadesh Part 2: The Road to War ! Hope you enjoyed the read. Any questions? Leave a comment below or get in touch - I'd be delighted to hear from you. The Battle of Kadesh Part 1 (this page) The Battle of Kadesh Part 2 - coming soon! The Battle of Kadesh Part 3 - coming soon! Buy 'Thunder at Kadesh' Now!