On “The Ides of March”, or March 15th, a great Roman man called Julius Caesar was
assassinated when he was stabbed an estimated 23 times.
Many more influential people around the world would meet a similar fate in the years to
come.
Those who fell to the hand of an assassin, or assassins, include the great Mahatma Gandhi,
John F Kennedy and the man suspected of killing him, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Then you have the assassination of the arch duke Franz Ferdinand, something blamed for
kicking off WW1.
President Abraham Lincoln took a bullet to the head, while Martin Luther King Jr was
also assassinated the American way, killed with a firearm.
Today we are going to introduce to you someone you might not have heard about, but you should
have.
His story is fascinating, and his death is intriguing.
This man known as Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth dynasty in Egypt,
and his reign lasted from 1186 to 1155 BC.
That’s a long time ago, but if you want to see what this guy vaguely looked like you
can, because you can search for images of his mummy online.
And you know what people are saying about those remains these days?
That it looks like old Ramesses had his throat slit.
But let’s rewind just a little bit.
From what we know about the man, he was a good if not great leader.
During his time as Pharaoh what’s known as The New Kingdom, or the Egyptian Empire,
was coming to an end.
As empires always tend to do, it was heading towards decline.
After he was gone, the trouble really started.
But while he was in charge he was successful, having beat back Libyan armies twice and making
short shrift of the Sea Peoples.
These people didn’t get into Egypt, but they would attack again.
It’s said in all, our hero today and his armies fought them off three times.
As one historian points out, these fights were big deals.
He writes, “It should be stressed that the invasions were not merely military operations,
but involved the movements of large populations, by land and sea, seeking new lands to settle.”
Let’s just say that Ramesses, having won a trio of invasions, likely won over a lot
of people.
How do we even know what went down more than 3,000 years ago?
We don’t really, not exactly, but historians partly rely on what the inscriptions say at
Ramesses III’s Medinet Habu mortuary temple.
You can also hear this in something called the Harris Papyrus, “As for those who reached
my frontier, their seed is not, their heart and their soul are finished forever and ever.
As for those who came forward together on the seas, the full flame was in front of them
at the Nile's mouths, while a stockade of lances surrounded them on the shore, prostrated
on the beach, slain, and made into heaps from head to tail.”
Yep, he messed them up.
Ok, so he won battles, but when empires go into decline it always starts with a lot of
in-fighting, usually peppered with decadence and many bad decisions.
We also have to take into account that some of the people he had defeated were settled
nearby and this might have led to new states being formed that would lead to the empire’s
downfall.
Egypt had been fighting on land and in the sea, and as you know, especially if you check
out our cost of defence shows, constantly being a warlike nation or defending yourself
means spending a ton of cash.
No empire in the past has ever survived over-spending when fighting on too many fronts.
This economic turmoil took it’s toll on the normal people, and they had to put up
with the ancient form of austerity, which basically meant less grain.
When the people suffer, when it looks like there is no way out, usually a bunch of other
powerful people get together and start machinating about how to get rid of the failing leader.
This is where our conspiracy comes in.
We are told that for a long time no one really knew how exactly Ramesses had been assassinated.
Papyrus court documents were found that indeed tell us that a coup had been planned.
This is known as the Harem conspiracy, because the key figures behind the murder were said
to be one of Ramesses’ second wives and her co-conspirators, because she wanted to
put her son, Pentawere, in charge.
This is how the tale goes.
It was just a normal night in Ramasses harem, but little did he know that one of his many
wives was planning to take him out as well as his son Ramesses IV, and give power to
her child.
She had before this enlisted various officials, who it’s said were in on the plan, doubtless
worried by the state of the empire.
She needed a lot of help, though, and even got kitchen staff and other servants in on
the action.
It’s said the most important ally in this assassination was a pantry chef called Pebekkamen.
You see, not just anyone could walk right into the harem.
To get in, Pebekkamen had to enlist a few helpers himself, and it was all looking rather
like an ancient Egyptian version of Ocean’s Eleven.
But given the time, the conspirators also employed those who were able to use black
magic, to weaken both the Pharaoh and the guards around him.
It’s said that while the actual assassination was in play someone was casting spells and
performing incantations.
We cannot verify if this part of the killing process worked, but with modern science we
are sure skeptical.
It seems that the attack was successful, but there has always been a shade of mystery as
to how he actually died.
We will get around to that, but we can say that the assassination did work.
We might also add that Ramesses IV was not felled, and this spelled trouble for the gang
of murderous usurpers.
In a document called the Judicial Papyrus of Turin, it’s written that people were
put on trial, and names were revealed.
It’s also said a number of officials in on the plot had been blackmailed, but that
didn’t save all of them.
That document reads that in all 27 men and 6 women were convicted of high treason and
another 5 of corruption.
It also reads that most of them should be killed, with the document saying that the
court was not killing them, but their actions had killed them.
It’s not known exactly how they were put to death, but we are told that a number of
them took their own lives.
Three of them got off lightly, too, and they were merely disfigured.
Another got an ancient slap on the wrist.
The son who would be king, Pentawere, may have killed himself.
No one knows for sure, but some documents seem to infer that he was forced to take his
own life.
The empire was a mess, the Pharaoh had been slaughtered, the other main players had either
been killed or were perhaps worried about the state things were in.
This was the beginning of the great descent that led towards the end of empire.
But how did Ramesses die?
Did he actually have his throat slit?
Live Science tells us that researchers had for a long time been mulling over the actual
cause of death, with some people saying he was stabbed, slashed and he died immediately,
but other people saying he was hurt but lasted another three days.
So, scientists got hold of the mummy but this time they were armed with a computed tomography
machine and they performed what are known as CT scans.
“The large and deep cut wound in his neck must have been caused by a sharp knife or
other blade,” said the scientists.
They added that it was quite the deep wound, and whoever got Ramesses neck had severed
his large blood vessels as well as his trachea and oesophagus.
Their conclusion was that there was no way in hell that the great pharaoh did much after
this as such a vicious cut would have killed him almost instantly.
That also had another surprise, they found an amulet buried in his throat.
This had been buried by bandages and no one had ever seen it before.
“Most probably, the ancient Egyptian embalmers tried to restore the wound during mummification
by inserting the amulet and by covering the neck with a collar of thick linen layers,”
wrote the researchers.
The amulet no doubt was to give him some good luck as he passed into the underworld.
But they went even further, and went to inspect a mummy they believed was Pantawere.
This mummy is known as “unknown man E.” So, did he really kill himself?
They don’t really know, but they did say genetic analysis made them feel pretty sure
they had got their mummy.
It was the son, and all they could say about his death is that his utterly horrific contorted
expression likely means he died horribly.
They said he might not have actually killed himself, stating he may have been poisoned
or even buried alive.
Pentawere didn’t get an amulet either, he got a goat skin.
In ancient Egypt this was regarded as a really dirty, impure thing, so in modern terms it
was like he got buried with a mangy old sock or a used toothbrush.
They likely wanted him to suffer as much as possible during his eternal journey in the
underworld.
This all sounds a bit grim, but you just have look at the photo of this mummy going through
the CT scan machine.
Talk about old world meets the modern world.
It’s thought that the great leader was around 62 years old when he died, which is quite
the run for someone in those days.
What’s perhaps more amazing is Ramesses II, who reigned for 62 years, lived until
the ripe old age of either 91 or 92.
That’s the end of this ancient tale.
What do you think, do you know anything you can add to this show?
Tell us in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video Thief Who Hijacked A Plane and Stole A Million
Dollars.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.