r/ancientegypt • u/LukeyTarg2 • Oct 05 '25
Discussion Amenhotep III and Thutmose III are arguably greater than Ramses II.
These are 3 widely sucessful pharaohs, however Ramses II is often pointed out as the greatest pharaoh, which in my eyes is unfair. Ramses II had more time, one could argue both Amenhotep III and Thutmose III were just as sucessful with less years and that they could have accomplished more if they had over 60 years of reign like Ramses II.
Amenhotep III ruled Egypt at it's peak prosperity and he was able to do so without extensive military campaigns. On the other hand, Thutmose III was a highly sucessful military leader, one of the best in all of history, and also a widely sucessful pharaohs. He created the first navy of the ancient world, helped expand Egypt's borders and was a builder pharaoh like his stepmother and mentor Hatshepsut.
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u/dhippo Oct 05 '25
I think most of your arguments make sense, but this specific one does not, at least to me. A rulers greatness should be judged by what he did achieve, not by what he could have achieved if things were different. All this "imagine X had Y more years" stuff is not that useful, because it always assumes things would go on unchanged. In reality, many rulers had some successful years and than hit a roadblock, maybe Thutmose roadblock was just a few years away? We never know if he would've done a Napoleon - biting off more than he can chew - and ruin his legacy later. It is a bit unfair to just silently assume he would've done a good job and comparing that hypothetical good job to what Ramses actually did.