Egypt (in which case
the former, stationed at Thebes, had the precedence). The duties of the
vizier and the procedure in his court are detailed in a long inscription
which is repeated in three tombs of the XVIIIth Dynasty at Thebes
(Breasted, _Records_, ii. S 663 et seqq.). The strictest impartiality
was enjoined upon him, and he was advised to hold aloof from the people
in order to preserve his authority. The office of vizier was by no means
a sinecure. All the business of the country was overlooked by
him--treasury, taxation, army, law-courts, expeditions of every kind.
Egypt was the vast estate of Pharaoh, and the vizier was the steward of
it.

_Army._--The youth of Egypt was liable to be called upon for service in
the field under the local chiefs. Their training consisted of gymnastic
and warlike exercises which developed strength and discipline that would
be as useful in executing public works and in dragging large monuments
as in strictly military service. They were armed in separate companies
with bows and arrows, spears, daggers and shields, and the officers
carried battle-axes and maces. The army, commanded in chief by Una under
the VIth Dynasty for raids in Sinai or Palestine, comprised levies from
every part of Egypt and from Nubia, each under its own leader. Under the
New Empire, when Egypt was almost a military state, the army was a more
specialized institution, the art of war in siege and strategy had
developed, divisions were formed with special standards, there were
regiments armed with battle-axes and scimitars, and chariots formed an
essential part of the host. Egyptian cavalry are not represented upon
the monuments, and we hear little of such at any time. Herodotus divides
the army into two classes, the Calasiries and the Hermotybies; these
names, although he was not aware of it, mean respectively horse- and
foot-soldiers, but it is possible that the former name was only
traditional and had characterized those who fought from chariots, a mode
of warfare that was obsolete in Herodotus's own day: as a matter of fact
both classes are said to have served on the warships of Xerxes' fleet.

_Arms and Armour._--From the contents of graves and other remains, and
the sculptured and painted scenes, an approximate idea can be obtained
of the weapons of the Egyptians at all periods from the prehistoric age
onwards. Only a few points are here noted. Stone mace-heads are found in
the earliest cemeteries, together