The Egyptian pharaoh got his title by declaring it was so, as Toby Wilkinson’s new book shows
If greatness is attached to Ramesses II’s name, it is in large part because he insisted on telling the world—repeatedly and on a massive scale—just how great he was. Over the course of his 66-year reign he excelled both as a builder and as a self-promoter, which amounted to much the same thing.
His efforts left an impression on both contemporaries and future generations. He not only enlarged the magnificent temples dedicated to the gods at Karnak and Luxor, but initiated vast new complexes, including the memorial temple known as the Ramesseum and the temple complex at Abu Simbel, carved deep into sandstone cliffs. Whether appropriating an earlier pharaoh’s project or initiating one of his own, Ramesses’s busy sculptors advertised their employer’s piety and achievements.
In fact, Ramesses was probably overcompensating. It is thought that his grandfather, Ramesses I, had been a lowly stablemaster before he rose through the military ranks to become the chosen successor of Pharaoh Horemheb. Given these plebeian origins, Ramesses calculated that ostentatious displays were necessary to remind his subjects that he was not only divinely appointed, but a god incarnate.
Ramesses apparently regretted the fact that his résumé included no clear-cut military triumph—the frequency with which the battle of Kadesh was cited on his monuments suggests a nagging sense of martial potential unfulfilled. But it reflects well on his statesmanship that he managed to turn stalemate into profit, his greatest deficit contributing to his greatest success.
The author succeeds in bringing this distant age to life through telling detail and insightful analysis, though the man at the centre inevitably remains something of an enigma. Whenever he can, the author takes advantage of opportunities to peer beneath the mask. The “attention lavished by Ramesses on his chief wives suggests a genuine fondness,” he says, and offers a rare glimpse “of his true character and personality”.
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