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Ptolemy II and Arsinoe were also the first full siblings to be married in a new practice that continued throughout the dynasty’s existence. The marriage was not exclusive and kings were still polygamous, but the primary queens were most often full sisters of the kings.
Rameses II in Battle of Qadesh
No officer was with me, no charioteer.
No soldier of the army, no shield bearer;
My infantry, my chariotry yielded before them,
Not one of them stood firm to fight with them.
His Majesty spoke: “What is this, my father Amun?
Is it right for a father to ignore his son?"
With its conquest of Nubia Egypt gained access to rich gold deposits. The country had a monopoly on the metal, which other kings much desired. Thus many letters deal with gold, often griping about its quality and quantity. The Assyrian Assur-uballit wrote, for example: “Is such a present that of a great king? Gold in your country is like dust; one simply gathers it up. Why must it stay in your sight?"
Herodotus relates that a Phanes of Halicarnassus deserted to Cambyses and advised an attack through the desert with the help of Arabs. When the battle lines were drawn Phanes’s former colleagues in the Egyptian army cut his sons’ throats in his sight and drank the blood mixed with wine.
The Greek historian Herodotus stated that Sesostris (his rendering of the name Senusret) subdued tribes in Europe, sailed the Indian Ocean, and ruled Ethiopia. A tale possibly composed in the third century AD makes Sesonchosis (another Greek rendering of Senusret) second only to Alexander of Macedon in military accomplishments. Other kings likely contributed to this grossly exaggerated image, but the fact that the Greeks called Senusret Egypt’s greatest warrior attests to the Middle Kingdom ruler’s reputation.
Whereas Hatshepsut had been represented as a woman in earlier statues and relief sculptures, after her coronation as king she appeared with male dress and gradually became represented with male physique. Her breasts did not show and she stood in a traditional man’s posture rather than a woman’s. Some reliefs were even re-carved to adjust her representation to appear more like a man.
In the first centuries of its existence the elaboration of Christian creed and its fusion with Greek philosophical concepts, especially Neo-Platonic ideas, occupied many thinkers, and Egypt’s Alexandria as a center of intellectual activity played a major role in these developments.