ied off a number of prisoners. Two other campaigns, which
cannot be traced in detail, belong to the period between his
twenty-fourth and his twenty-ninth year. Thenceforward to his fortieth
year his military expeditions scarcely knew any cessation. At one time
he would embark his troops on board a fleet, and make descents upon the
coast of Syria, coming as unexpectedly and ravaging as ruthlessly as the
Normans of the Middle Ages. He would cut down the fruit trees, carry off
the crops, empty the magazines of grain, lay hands upon all valuables
that were readily removable, and carry them on board his ships,
returning to Egypt with a goodly store of gold and silver, of lapis
lazuli and other precious stones, of vases in silver and in bronze, of
corn, wine, incense, balsam, honey, iron, lead, emery, and male and
female slaves. At another, he would march by land, besiege and take the
inland towns, demand and obtain the sons of the chiefs as hostages,
exact heavy war contributions, and bring back with him horses and
chariots, flocks and herds, strange animals, trees, and plants.

Of all his expeditions, that undertaken in his thirty-third year was
perhaps the most remarkable. Starting from the country of the Rutennu,
he on this occasion directed the main force of his attack upon the
Mesopotamian region, which he ravaged far and wide, conquering the
towns, and "reducing to a level plain the strong places of the miserable
land of Naharain," capturing thirty kings or chiefs, and erecting two
tablets in the region, to indicate its subjection. It is possible that
he even crossed the Tigris into Adiabene or the Zab country, since he
relates that on his return he passed through the town of Ni or Nini,
which many of the best historians of Egypt identify with Nineveh.
Nineveh was not now (about B.C. 1500) the capital of Assyria, which was
lower down the Tigris, at Asshur or Kileh Sherghat, but was only a
provincial town of some magnitude. Still it was within the dominions of
the Assyrian monarch of the time, and any attack upon it would have been
an insult and a challenge to the great power of Upper Mesopotamia, which
ruled from the alluvium to the mountains. It is certain that the king of
Assyria did not accept the challenge, but preferred to avoid an
encounter with the Egyptian troops. Both at this time and subsequently
he sent envoys with rich presents to court the favour of Thothmes, who
accepted the gifts as "tribute," and counted