Page 222 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

6 Across1 the isthmus of Suez and by the coastal road over the

desert of Sinai the army of the pharaoh, still mainly of spear- and
mace-armed infantry, though now equipped with captured

chariots, pursued the enemy. But the Hyksos army gained in

safety the gateway fortress of Palestine, the embattled city of

Sharuhen (not far from modern Gaza).
Amose’s by now siege-trained army settled down to belea­

guer the city, while the pharaoh returned to Egypt.

Here there was much to do. A whole new machinery of gov­

ernment had to be constructed to take the place of the Hyksos
organization; his army must be reorganized and re-equipped,

and the southern frontier towards Nubia strengthened; there were

comrades of the liberation to be rewarded, and traitors punished;
there was even another abortive revolt in the south to put down;

and there was a foreign policy to be devised and implemented,

and diplomatic contacts with the outside world to re-establish.

But first Amose must return to Thebes, officially and in triumph,
to give thanks to his father Amon for his victories.

The ceremony surpassed by far in magnificence the corona­

tion of three years before—though in afteryears the children

who were taken to both could never really distinguish them in
their recollections. And this time the jubilation of the assembled

crowds was unrestrained by fears for the future.

But the wildest outburst of joy came three years later when,

following the fall of Sharuhen and a demonstration campaign
in Palestine, the army came home. By now the new model army

was a reality, and the old comrades of the resistance could be

brought back to Thebes and disbanded.

Many of the veterans settled down on their tenant farms
again, or bought a small business or a workshop with their

gratuity, and their children, now six years old and more, grew

gradually to accept the strangers as their fathers. Others were
restless after their years of campaigning. They could not settle