Necho IIThomas Dobson. Encyclopædia: Or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature. Stone house, no. 41, South Second street, 1798. Page 785 (sometimes Nekau,A History of Egypt, from the XIXth to the XXXth Dynasties. By Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie. p. 336. Neku,The Historians' History of the World: Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia. Edited by Henry Smith Williams. p183. Nechoh,United States Exploring Expedition: Volume 15. By Charles Wilkes, United States. Congress. p. 53. or Nikuu;The Bibliotheca Sacra, Volume 45. Dallas Theological Seminary., 1888. Greek: Νεκώς Β';Essay on the Hieroglyphic System of M. Champollion, Jun., and on the Advantages which it Offers to Sacred Criticism. By J. G. Honoré Greppo. p128Herodotus 2,152. 2.W. Pape, "Wörterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen", 1911 ) of Egypt was a king of the 26th Dynasty (610–595 BC), which ruled from Sais., citing Manetho, the high priest and scribe of Egypt, being by birth a Sebennyte, who wrote his history for Ptolemy Philadelphus (266 BCE – 228 BCE). Necho undertook a number of construction projects across his kingdom.The history of Egypt By Samuel Sharpe. E. Moxon, 1852. Part 640. p138. In his reign, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, Necho II sent out an expedition of Phoenicians, which in three years sailed from the Red Sea around Africa to the Strait of Gibraltar and back to Egypt.Herodotus (4.42) His son, Psammetichus II, upon succession may have removed Necho's name from monuments.The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible. Edited by Norman L. Geisler, Joseph M. Holden. p. 287.
Necho played a significant role in the histories of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah. Necho II killed Josiah, and replaced Josiah's chosen successor with his own nominee. The aim of the second of Necho's campaigns was Asiatic conquest,The temple of Mut in Asher. By Margaret Benson, Janet A. Gourlay, Percy Edward Newberry. p276. (cf. Nekau's chief ambition lay in Asiatic conquest).Egypt Under the Pharaohs: A History Derived Entireley from the Monuments. By Heinrich Brugsch, Brodrick. p. 444. (cf. Neku then attempted to assert the Egyptian supremacy in Asia.) to contain the westward advance of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and cut off its trade route across the Euphrates. However, the Egyptians were defeated by the unexpected attack of the Babylonians and were eventually expelled from Syria.
The Egyptologist Donald B. Redford observed that Necho II was "a man of action from the start, and endowed with an imagination perhaps beyond that of his contemporaries, [who] had the misfortune to foster the impression of being a failure."Redford, Donald B., Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), p. 447-48.
Biography
Lineage and early life Necho II was the son of Psammetichus I by his Great Royal Wife Mehtenweskhet. His prenomen or royal name Wahem-Ib-Re means "Carrying out [the] Heart (i.e., Wish) [of] Re."Peter Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, Thames and Hudson, 1994. p. 195. 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.
Military campaigns
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 proceeded through the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon. At Megiddo (according to 2 Kings 23) he engaged the Judean king, Josiah, and had the Judean king killed Bernd Schipper, 2010, Egypt and the Kingdom of Judah under Josiah and Jehoiakim, p. 218. (an alternative version, in 2 Chronicles 35, of a battle in Megiddo also exists.)
Herodotus reports the campaign of the pharaoh in his Histories, Book 2:159:
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.II. Chronicles by Philip_Chapman_Barker. p447–448 He brought Jehoahaz back to Egypt as his prisoner, where Jehoahaz ended his days (2 Kings 23:31–34; 2 Chronicles 36:1–4).
Second campaign
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 gathered another army, which camped at Qurumati on the Euphrates. However, Nabopolassar's poor health forced him to return to Babylon in 605 BC. In response, in 606 BC the Egyptians attacked the leaderless Babylonians (probably then led by the crown prince Nebuchadnezzar) who fled their position.
At this point, the aged Nabopolassar passed command of the army to his son Nebuchadnezzar II, who led them to a decisive victory over the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 BC, and pursued the fleeing survivors to Hamath. Necho's dream of restoring the Egyptian Empire in the Middle East as had occurred under the New Kingdom was destroyed as Nebuchadnezzar conquered Egyptian territory from the Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt (Jeremiah 46:2; 2 Kings 24:7) down to Judea. Although Nebuchadnezzar spent many years in his new conquests on continuous pacification campaigns, Necho was unable to recover any significant part of his lost territories. For example, 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 did repel the Babylonian attack, Necho managed to capture Gaza while pursuing the enemy. Necho turned his attention in his remaining years to forging relationships with new allies: the Carians, and further to the west, the Greeks.
Ambitious projects
At some point during his Syrian campaign, Necho II initiated but never completed the ambitious project of cutting a navigable canal from the Pelusiac branch of the Nile to the Red Sea. Necho's Canal was the earliest precursor of the Suez Canal.Redmount, Carol A. "The Wadi Tumilat and the "Canal of the Pharaohs"" Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 54, No. 2 (April 1995), pp. 127-135 It was in connection with a new activity that Necho founded a new city of Per-Temu Tjeku which translates as 'The House of Atum of Tjeku' at the site now known as Tell el-Maskhuta,Shaw, Ian; and Nicholson, Paul. The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt. The British Museum Press, 1995. p. 201. 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.Peter Clayton, Chronicle of the Pharaohs, Thames and Hudson, 1994, p.196 The navy which Necho created operated along both the Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts.Herodotus 2.158; Pliny N.H. 6.165ff; Diodorus Siculus 3.43 Necho II constructed warships,The Cambridge Ancient History. Edited by John Boardman, N. G. L. Hammond. p49 including questionably triremes.Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization. By Richard Miles. Penguin, Jul 21, 2011. p1781
Phoenician expedition
At some point between 610 and before 594 BC, Necho reputedly commissioned an expedition of Phoenicians,Unlikely with the intent of circumnavigating Africa, but for finding an alternative route to Asia than through the area near the Levant. Also, such voyages were undertaken for trading with more southern African cities; thereafter being blown off-course, if not tasked to sail around the lands. who it is said in three years sailed from the Red Sea around Africa back to the mouth of the Nile, stopping every Autumn to sow seeds and wait for the harvest. This would thereby be the first completion of the Cape Route.Israel, India, Persia, Phoenicia, Minor Nations of Western Asia. Edited by Henry Smith Williams. p. 118.Anthony Tony Browder, Nile valley contributions to civilization, 1. (1992) (cf. In the Twenty Fifth Dynasty, during the reign of Necho II, navigational technology had advanced to the point where sailors from Kemet successfully circumnavigated Africa and drew an extremely accurate map of the continent.) Herodotus' account was handed down to him by oral tradition,Cary, M. J. The Ancient Explorers. Penguin Books, 1963. p. 114. but is seen as potentially credible since he states, with disbelief, that the Phoenicians had seen the sun on their right-hand side as they made their journey round.As for Libya, we know it to be washed on all sides by the sea, except where it is attached to Asia. This discovery was first made by Necos, the Egyptian king, who on desisting from the canal which he had begun between the Nile and the Arabian gulf (referring to the Red Sea), sent to sea a number of ships manned by Phoenicians, with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules, and return to Egypt through them, and by the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians took their departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraean sea, and so sailed into the southern ocean. When autumn came, they went ashore, wherever they might happen to be, and having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they again set sail; and thus it came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules, and made good their voyage home. On their return, they declared—I for my part do not believe them, but perhaps others may—that in sailing round Libya they had the sun upon their right hand. In this way was the extent of Libya first discovered. If the Phoenicians had, in fact, circumnavigated Africa clockwise, they would have seen the sun on their right while they were South of the Equator. This doesn't necessarily prove that they completed the journey, but it does suggest that Phoenician sailors had sailed South of the Equator before and were aware of the phenomenon.