Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Great at Kadesh: Exposing the Propaganda
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked about Kadesh a couple of times, the build-up, the chariot charge, the aftermath with the treaty. But today I want to actually look at the battle itself as a piece of storytelling — because Ramses had a very specific version of what happened, and it's a masterpiece of spin. Luna: Spin? You mean he lied about it? Lucas: Well, let's say he curated. The battle took place in year five of his reign, around 1274 BCE, near the city of Kadesh on the Orontes River. Ramses marched with four divisions — Amun, Ra, Ptah, and Seth — and he thought the Hittite king Muwatalli II was far away. But Muwatalli was actually waiting just beyond the city with a massive coalition, including allies from all over Anatolia and Syria. And Ramses walked right into it. Lucas: The Egyptian camp was caught completely off guard. The Hittite chariots smashed into the division of Ra, then hit the camp itself. Ramses was nearly captured. The whole army was on the verge of collapse. Luna: So how did he survive? Lucas: He fought. The inscriptions tell us he personally rallied his guard and charged into the Hittite lines, and it's likely he did — pharaohs did lead from the front. But the real save came from the Ne'arin, a contingent of troops stationed on the coast that arrived just in time to hit the Hittites from the side. That turned the tide, and the Hittites withdrew. But here's the thing: the Egyptians didn't take Kadesh. The battle was a tactical draw, strategically it was a failure for Ramses — he had to retreat back to Egypt. Luna: But that's not what he told everyone, is it. Lucas: Exactly. What we know about the battle comes almost entirely from Egyptian sources — the so-called Poem of Pentaur, which is a long heroic poem carved on temple walls, and the Bulletin, a shorter, more factual-sounding account. Both are heavily propagandistic. They present Ramses as a lone hero who defeated the entire Hittite army single-handedly, thanks to Amun-Re. The poem even has Ramses praying to Amun in the middle of the battle, and the god answers, promising victory. Lucas: But here's the kicker: we also have Hittite records, and they tell a completely different story. They claim the battle was a decisive Hittite victory. The truth, as historians piece it together, is that Ramses managed to avoid total disaster, but he certainly didn't win. And yet he had these accounts carved all over Egypt — at Karnak, Luxor, Abu Simbel — hundreds of copies. That's how powerful this narrative was. Luna: So he created his own reality. Lucas: In a very real sense. And that raises a fascinating question: why did he do it, and did anyone believe him? The Kadesh inscriptions were not just for public consumption; they were for the gods, for the priesthood, for the elites. It was a way to reinforce his divine mandate, his role as the protector of Ma'at. A pharaoh who loses a battle is a problem. A pharaoh who turns a near-defeat into a glorious victory is a legend. Lucas: And the propaganda worked. For centuries, Ramses was remembered as the greatest warrior-king of Egypt. The Kadesh narrative overshadowed the actual outcome. It's only in modern times, when we compare the Egyptian and Hittite sources, that we can see the gap between the story and the reality. Luna: It's kind of scary how effective that was. Lucas: It's a lesson in the power of narrative. And speaking of narratives, I want to pause for a second. You know we don't run ads on this show. We keep it that way because we believe in sharing history without interruptions, without a corporate sponsor shaping what we say. If that matters to you, and you want to support that, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to help keep this going, and we're grateful for anyone who does. Luna: Yeah, it's one of the things I love about working on this show. No ads, just the story. Lucas: Okay, back to Ramses. So the Kadesh inscriptions give us this incredible window into how ancient kings used media to shape their image. But they also tell us something about the actual battle, if you read between the lines. For example, the Poem of Pentaur names the divisions, the units, the very chariots Ramses rode. Those details are so specific that historians believe they're grounded in real events — even if the outcome is exaggerated. Luna: So it's not all fiction. Lucas: Right. There's a core of truth, but it's been reshaped to fit the royal narrative. And that's what makes it so valuable to historians. We don't just learn about the battle; we learn about the mindset of the pharaoh, the court, the culture of ancient Kemet. It's a double-edged sword. Luna: I wonder what the regular soldiers thought. Did they know it was spin? Lucas: That's a great question, and we don't really have the answer. The common soldiers left no records. But later Egyptian literature, like the tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, shows an awareness of the power of storytelling — the idea that a good story can be more valuable than the truth. So maybe they had a certain skepticism. But for the most part, they probably accepted the official version, because it gave them a sense of pride and purpose. They had fought at Kadesh, and even if they knew it wasn't a total victory, they were part of something monumental. Lucas: And that's the thing about Ramses — he was a master of creating that sense of monumental purpose. The Kadesh propaganda was just one piece of a much larger program of self-presentation that included the temples he built, the statues he erected, even the way he had his name carved larger than any other pharaoh's. He was constantly shaping his own legend. Luna: Do you think any other pharaoh before him did that? Lucas: Thutmose III, for sure. He also carved his military campaigns on temple walls. But Ramses took it to a new level. He had a longer reign, more resources, and he was operating in a world where the great powers were increasingly connected — Egypt, Hatti, Babylon, Assyria. He knew that his image would be seen not just by his own people, but by foreign envoys, by the Hittites themselves. So the Kadesh narrative was also a diplomatic weapon. It sent a message: don't mess with Egypt, because even when we're outnumbered, we win. Lucas: And in a way, it worked. After Kadesh, the Hittites were more willing to negotiate. The treaty they signed some fifteen years later — the first known peace treaty in world history — was on Egyptian terms, at least in the Egyptian version. The Hittite version is similar, but each side claimed to be the one who initiated it. Either way, Ramses got what he wanted: a stable border, a prestigious marriage with a Hittite princess, and a legacy as the peacemaker pharaoh. Luna: So the propaganda eventually became real. Lucas: In a sense, yes. But it's a cautionary tale too. When you base your legacy on a glorified version of events, you risk being judged by it later. Today, we look at Ramses and see both the great king and the spinner of tales. He's not just a historical figure; he's a case study in how power and memory work. Lucas: And that's what I find so compelling about Kadesh. It's not just a battle; it's a prism through which we can see the whole of ancient Egyptian culture — their religion, their politics, their love of order and harmony, their fear of chaos. Ramses went to Kadesh to impose ma'at on the chaotic Hittites, and when he didn't quite manage it, he wrote a story that made it so. And that story has outlasted the battle itself. Luna: It makes you wonder what our own era will be remembered for. Lucas: Probably a lot of spin too. But that's a conversation for another episode. For now, I think we've given Ramses his due — both the warrior and the storyteller. Next time, maybe we'll dig into the treaty itself, the actual negotiations, and what it meant for the wider ancient Near East.