For the Romans, too, keeping animals was of basic economic and social importance. Under their rule, stockbreeding was intensified and expanded throughout the empire, so that new domestic animals were also introduced north of the Alps, including donkeys, mules, peacocks, pheasants and cats. Moreover, stronger draught cattle and larger horses were bred, and poultry keeping was intensified. At the same time, however, as has been shown especially for pigs, sheep, goats, cattle and geese, suitable local breeds were retained in the conquered areas.

The Romans exploited animals not only for their economic but particularly also for their entertainment value. Animal parks and game enclosures (theriotropheia) had already been known under such Hellenistic rulers as Ptolemy II of Egypt (285–246 bc) in Alexandria (Strab. 3.36.3–4; Athen. 5.201b–c). Since the second century bc, animal enclosures (leporaria, vivaria), aviaries and fish ponds (piscinae) were also maintained on the estates of the Roman upper class. Deer and wild boar, goats and sheep were used both for purposes of show and representation, and for the hunt and food.

Tradition

The royal jubilee, or heb-sed, was a festival of renewal rooted in Egypt's most ancient history. One of its iconic images comes from Dynasty 3, a scene in Djoser's Step Pyramid complex at Sakkara. It shows Djoser in full stride running a footrace to demonstrate his fitness to rule, an important feature of the jubilee because the kingdom's own strength, health, and fertility depended on that of the ruler himself. The sed festival traditionally took place during the thirtieth year of the reign. Most kings, of course, died long before reaching this goal, and some celebrated early. Amenhotep III was one of a small percentage who survived to celebrate as prescribed.

Considering the amount of treasure spent in preparation, Amenhotep III's heb-sed must have been the most lavish in history. Temples and colossal sculptures had been erected the length of the Nile Valley; jewelry and ornaments were produced in the thousands at the royal workshops; and the new palace compound, the “House of Rejoicing,” with its huge, gleaming lake, was readied on the west bank of Thebes. The main celebration would occur here at Malkata and in its surrounding area, including the vast memorial temple nearby at Kom el Hettan.

Great Royal Wife, Tiy

No Eighteenth Dynasty woman was more lavishly attired than Amenhotep III's Great Royal Wife Tiy. Statues show her wearing exquisitely pleated linen robes, ornate jewelry, and complex headdresses (Figure 19). She was more than a fashion plate, however. She must have been highly intelligent, multilingual, and politically adept to reach the level of international trust and esteem that was hers by the end of the reign. A tiny, naturalistic portrait of her made toward the end of her life depicts a daunting and determined facial expression revealing a woman of indomitable strength of mind and purpose (see Figure 48).

Tiy's husband was devoted to her and introduced her to the world in an unprecedented manner: by commissioning an entire series of commemorative scarabs dedicated solely to her (see Figure 9). They read,

This is the only set of commemorative scarabs not dated with a year of Amenhotep's reign, suggesting that Tiy had entered his life while he was still a prince. Rather than date their union to his father's reign, he used no date at all. He then included her in the inscriptions of all of his other great scarabs as though she had been there all the time.

Hundred-Gated Thebes: “The Like Had Never Been Made”

Thanks to the countless captives and heaps of gold Amenhotep III hauled back from his Nubian campaign, Karnak Temple received a grand new gateway facing the Nile (Figures 14 and 15). Part of the text carved on a stela from his mortuary temple acknowledges the source of the structure's construction funds: “His Majesty brought the gold for it out of the country of Karoy on the first campaign of victory of massacring the wretched Kush.” This new gateway, called a “pylon” in Egyptian architecture, has two wide wings with broad bases and walls slanting inward to narrower tops. Between them, an enormous bivalve, richly decorated cedar door once swung on bronze hinges pinned into granite sockets.

Amenhotep himself described the pylon on a stela in his memorial temple and now in the Cairo museum:

Drill holes for securing the silver flooring sheets are still visible on the passageway. Its original finished height is unknown since its top has obviously broken away, but it must have been huge because it was said to have had eight flagpoles, each 130 feet tall, their pennants waving only slightly above the walls, according to near-contemporary representations.

THE FAIYUM OASIS

The Faiyum oasis, the once-idyllic birthplace of Amenhotep III, lies southwest of ancient Memphis in the Libyan desert (Map 1). At 40 miles wide, it is Egypt's second broadest stretch of arable land after the Nile Delta. On its northern edge, 150 feet below sea level, is its largest feature – the shrunken, brackish inland sea called Lake Qarun (Horn). In the past, connecting streams and canals made Qarun a catch basin for the Nile's annual floodwaters when they were especially high. Herodotus wrote that the lake (called “Moeris” in his day) was actually man-made, which, considering what we shall see of Amenhotep III's projects, is not entirely impossible, and that water flowed into it from the Nile six months of the year but reversed itself the other six months.

Waterfowl, fish, and other aquatic life were abundant there – so much so, according to the Greek historian, that taxes were paid to the royal treasury on their account. The perch was worshiped as a local god, as was its nemesis, the crocodile, Sobek, the principal god of the Faiyum's administrative seat, Shedet (Greek Crocodilopolis). The surrounding land was rich, producing wheat, barley, flax, hemp, figs, pomegranates, and grapes. Uncultivated wild heath was home to game animals such as gazelles, feral cattle, and hare as well as their predators, foxes and jackals.

The Burial of Thutmose IV

“The falcon has flown to heaven and Nebmaatra Amenhotep Ruler of Thebes is arisen in his place.” Such was the announcement for every New Kingdom monarch. Prince Amenhotep succeeded to the throne at his father's death, sometime around 1391 B.C., the latter's reign having been rounded out by scholars to ten years. As mentioned previously, there is evidence that Thutmose IV had made some plans or an attempt at having a jubilee festival, and Melinda Hartwig has suggested that he deified himself, both of which seem at best premature in such a short reign. Had he become mortally ill, or was he fatally wounded in battle? In this case, a quickly planned fete or self-deification might have been hoped to revive him. Obviously, it was futile.

Like Senwosret in Sinuhe's tale, if our Amenhotep was viceroy of Nubia, he must have returned urgently to Memphis, or at least Thebes, to secure his transition to the throne. There is no evidence that he had rivals, but even Senwosret, despite having been named years earlier as his father's coregent, worked under Amenemhet's orders, suggesting a de facto secondary status. At word of the old man's death, Senwosret rushed back to the capital to officially claim the seat and crowns already due him.

The Second Jubilee and Plans for a Third

Amenhotep III's Second Jubilee, held in Year 34, would be lost to history had it not been for all the rubbish left at Malkata (see Figure 43). The royal trash heap contained 404 jar labels, more for that event than for any other. Tiy's steward, Kheruef, who carefully documented and dated scenes from the First and Third jubilees in his tomb, depicted nothing of the Second, although he did present food to the palace that year. Granary official Khaemhet, now known to us for 14 years since his days as royal scribe attending Nebnufer's promotion in Year 20, illustrated the First Jubilee in his tomb and sent gifts in Year 34 but did not actually mention this Second Jubilee by name in his tomb. Old Amenhotep son of Hapu was still alive and sent gift jars of wine, meat, and fat.

Eighty-three percent of the jars from the Second Jubilee held meat, as distinct from the First Jubilee, when the theme was ale. Some of the meat came from the private stockyards of an Egyptian official and are specified as the product of a breed of bulls named for the “Meshwesh” tribe of Libya, the earliest mention of a relationship with these people. The prominence of ale at the First Jubilee and beef at the Second may have resulted from the successful harvests of the late 20s, which had apparently forced the enlargement of Karnak's granary, and which would have provided plenty of barley for the ale and plenty of feed for Egypt's cattle.

Parents of the Future King

The infant Amenhotep was born at Mi-wer to Prince Thutmose, a son of Pharaoh Amenhotep II, who was in the fifteenth year of his reign, about 1412–1411 B.C. by modern reckoning. The little boy was not perfect: he had a clubfoot, but that was a relatively common feature of this family, judging by the mummies thought to be theirs. This malformation would never appear in any of his portraits, nor was there a hint of it in his inscriptions.

The new father, Prince Thutmose, was, at least in his own eyes, as handsome as a god. A pillar from the hall built during his reign at Karnak shows this quite literally as now King Thutmose IV faces a mirror image of himself in the form of the god Amun, the two of them distinguished from each other only by their crowns (Figure 2).

Trouble in Upper Egypt and Nubia

In Year 5 of Thutmose IV's reign, according to an economically worded stela of poor and provincial style, Amenhotep III's father, Thutmose IV, gave a land grant to Medamud Temple, just a few miles north of Thebes (Map 3). Medamud, ancient Madu, was the cult city of war god Montu, the second most important god after Amun for the founders of the Middle Kingdom, several of whom were named “Mentuhotep.” According to the stela, Montu had helped in a “restoration of order,” the details of which are unknown.

Some of Thutmose IV's more important inscriptions from these years deal with troubles much farther south in Nubia, modern Sudan (Map 2). Nubia was the source of most of Egypt's gold during the New Kingdom, and many scholars derive the classical name “Nubia” from noob, the ancient Egyptian word for “gold.” Additional luxury materials and chattel came from there, just as in more recent times. These included slaves, cattle, exotic pets (monkeys, giraffes, unusual types of antelope), ivory, and rare woods. Ebony came from deeper Africa via Nubia, and our word for this black wood probably stems from the ancient Egyptian hbny.

Out of all these decades of triumph and disaster, one new god did manage to rise up and survive for centuries. Two thousand years after the collapse of the ancient Egyptian empire and culture, traces of his influence survive today. The god's name is “Amenhotep son of Hapu,” the once-humble priest, and his divinity was by his own design.

Normally the king was the only intermediary between ordinary folk and the deities as high priest of all the cults. However, at Karnak's Tenth Pylon, Amenhotep son of Hapu's statues, which he placed there himself, claimed special powers to convey prayers to Amun in return for offerings of food and drink. One of the inscriptions reads,