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Necho II
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Necho II (sometimes Nekau) was a king of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt (610 BC - 595 BC), and the son of Psammetichus I by his Great Royal Wife Mehtenweskhet. His prenomen or royal name Wahemibre means "Carrying out the Wish of Re Forever." Necho played a significant role in the histories of the Assyrian Empire, Babylonia and the Kingdom of Judah. The Egyptologist Donald B. Redford observed that although he was "a man of action from the start, and endowed with an imagination perhaps beyond that of his contemporaries, Necho had the misfortune to foster the impression of being a failure." Yet, he penetrated deeper into Asia than any other pharaoh before or after him.
his ascension, Necho was faced with the chaos created by the raids of the Cimmerians and the Scythians, who had not only ravaged Asia west of the Euphrates, but had also helped the Babylonians shatter the Assyrian Empire.
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Necho II (sometimes Nekau) was a king of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt (610 BC - 595 BC), and the son of Psammetichus I by his Great Royal Wife Mehtenweskhet. His prenomen or royal name Wahemibre means "Carrying out the Wish of Re Forever." Necho played a significant role in the histories of the Assyrian Empire, Babylonia and the Kingdom of Judah. The Egyptologist Donald B. Redford observed that although he was "a man of action from the start, and endowed with an imagination perhaps beyond that of his contemporaries, Necho had the misfortune to foster the impression of being a failure." Yet, he penetrated deeper into Asia than any other pharaoh before or after him.
Biography
Upon his ascension, Necho was faced with the chaos created by the raids of the Cimmerians and the Scythians, who had not only ravaged Asia west of the Euphrates, but had also helped the Babylonians shatter the Assyrian Empire. That once mighty empire was now reduced to the troops, officials, and nobles who had gathered around a general holding out at Harran, who had taken the throne name of Ashur-uballit II. Necho attempted to assist this remnant immediately upon his coronation, but the force he sent proved to be too small, and the combined armies were forced to retreat west across the Euphrates.
Foreign policy
The war campaigns of Necho were initially very successful, and it appeared that Egypt would attain the military glory which it enjoyed under Thutmose III. Unfortunately, however, after a few disastrous defeats by the Babylonians, he lost all his conquests in Asia. A thin basalt fragment showing what appears to be a royal figure holding a staff and mace with the legs of a bird at the bottom of a cartouche was reportedly found at Sidon. This relic has been taken as evidence that Necho II was in Syria to wage war. His wars and battles were also mentioned by Herodotus and the Bible.
First campaign
In the spring of 609 BC, Necho personally led a sizable force to help the Assyrians. At the head of a large army, consisting mainly of his mercenaries, Necho took the coast route Via Maris into Syria, supported by his Mediterranean fleet along the shore, and proceeding through the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon. He prepared to cross the ridge of hills which shuts in on the south the great Jezreel Valley, but here he found his passage blocked by the Jewish army. Their king, Josiah, sided with the Babylonians and attempted to block his advance at Megiddo, where a fierce battle was fought and Josiah was killed (2 Kings 23:29, 2 Chronicles 35:20-24).
Herodotus reports the campaign of the pharaoh in his Histories:
Necho soon captured Kadesh on the Orontes and moved forward, joining forces with Ashur-uballit and together they crossed the Euphrates and laid siege to Harran. Although Necho became the first pharaoh to cross the Euphrates since Thutmose III, he failed to capture Harran, and retreated back to northern Syria. At this point, Ashur-uballit vanished from history, and the Assyrian Empire was conquered by the Babylonians.
Leaving a sizable force behind, Necho returned to Egypt. On his return march, he found that the Judeans had selected Jehoahaz to succeed his father Josiah, whom Necho deposed and replaced with Jehoiakim. He brought Jehoahaz back to Egypt as his prisoner, where Jehoahaz ended his days (2 Kings 23:31; 2 Chronicles 36:1-4).
Second campaign
Meanwhile, the Babylonian king was planning on reasserting his power in Syria. In 609 BC, King Nabopolassar captured Kumukh, which cut off the Egyptian army, then based at Carchemish. Necho responded the following year by retaking Kumukh after a four month siege, and executed the Babylonian garrison. Nabopolassar brought forth another army, which he encamped at Qurumati on the Euphrates, but his health forced him to return to Babylon in January of 605 BC; the Egyptians sallied forth in 606 BC and attacked the leaderless Babylonians (probably then led by the crown prince Nebuchadrezzar) who fled their position.
At this point, the aged Nabopolassar, passed command of the army to his son Nebuchadrezzar II, who led them to a decisive victory over the Egyptians at Carchemish, and pursued the fleeing survivors to Hamath. Necho's dream of restoring the Egyptian Empire in Asia that had occurred under the New Kingdom was destroyed as Nebuchadrezzar conquered their territory from the Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt (Jeremiah 46:2; 2 Kings 23:29) down to Judea. Although Nebuchadrezzar spent many years in his new conquests on continuous pacification campaigns, Necho was offered no opportunity to recover any significant part of his lost territories: when Ashkalon rose in revolt; despite repeated pleas the Egyptians sent no help, and were barely able to repel a Babylonian attack on their eastern border in 601 BC. When he repelled the attack, Necho managed to capture Gaza while pursuing the enemy. Necho turned his attention in his remaining years to forging up relationships with new allies: the Carians, and further to the west, the Greeks.
Ambitious projects
At some point during his Syrian campaign, over the next three years, Necho II initiated the ambitious project of cutting a navigable canal from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile to the Red Sea, the earliest precursor of the Suez Canal. A canal was cut along the Wadi Tumilat thereby linking the Pelusiac branch of the Nile with the northern end of the Red Sea. It was in connection with this new activity that Necho founded the new entrepot city of Per-Temu Tjeku which translates as 'The House of Atum of Tjeku' at the site now known as Tell el-Maskhuta, about 15 km west of Ismailia. The waterway was intended to facilitate trade between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean; Necho also formed an Egyptian navy by recruiting displaced Ionian Greeks. This was an unprecedented act by the pharaoh since most Egyptians had traditionally harboured an inherent distaste for and fear of the sea. The navy which Necho created served to operate along both the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts.
Herodotus (4.42) also reports that Necho sent out an expedition of Phoenicians, who in three years sailed from the Red Sea around Africa back to the mouth of the Nile. Many current historians tend to believe Herodotus' account, primarily because he stated with disbelief that the Phoenicians had the sun on their right hand all the time -- in Herodotus' time it was not known that Africa extended south past the equator. However, Egyptologists also point out that it would have been extremely unusual for an Egyptian Pharaoh to carry out such an expedition. For instance, Alan Lloyd wrote "Given the context of Egyptian thought, economic life, and military interests, it is impossible for one to imagine what stimulus could have motivated Necho in such a scheme and if we cannot provide a reason which is sound within Egyptian terms of reference, then we have good reason to doubt the historicity of the entire episode."
Necho II died in 595 BC and was succeeded by his son, Psamtik II, as the next pharaoh of Egypt. Psamtik II, however, later removed Necho's name from almost all of his father's monuments for unknown reasons.
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