IKAYTA (IKAYTJA). Nubian territory, probably in the gold-mining regions of the southern part of the Eastern Desert, the Wadis Allaqi and Cabgaba. It was the focus of the military action of Akhenaten, which ended with the capture of 145 live Nubians and 361 cattle. The dead numbered 80, some killed in battle, some executed by impalement.
INAROS (fl. 463–454 BC). Ruler of Marea in the western Delta who lead a rebellion against the Persian pharaoh Artaxerxes I. He was probably son of Psamtik IV, who rebelled against Xerxes. The name is the Greek form of the Egyptian Iretenhorru. Inaros allied himself with Amyrtaios (1) the ruler of Sau (Sais). Inaros appealed to Athens for help (c. 460 BC) and an Athenian fleet was diverted from Cyprus (459 BC). This appears to have sailed along one of the Delta branches of the river, probably the Canopic, to Memphis. The city itself was captured, but the White Castle Fortress was held by the Persians and loyal Egyptians. A battle was fought at Papremis in the Delta, where the satrap Achaimenes was killed. Before invading Egypt, the Persians tried to instigate a war in Greece itself, by encouraging Sparta to invade Attika. The Persian army was sent to Egypt under the command of Megabyxus, satrap of Syria (perhaps in 456 BC). Memphis was recaptured and Inaros and his Greek support blockaded at Pro-sopitis in the Delta. The siege lasted for 18 months, ending with the complete destruction of the 200 Athenian vessels. A few Greeks managed to escape and made their way back to Athens via Cyrene. An Athenian relief expedition of 50 ships was destroyed by the new satrap of Egypt in the Mendesian Branch of the Delta (454 BC). Inaros himself was captured and crucified, but the Persians installed his son Thannyras in his place. The rebellion itself seems to have been confined to the Delta, and evidence from Upper Egypt suggests that it remained loyal.
INFANTRY. The bulk of the Egyptian army was, at all times, infantry (menfat or menfyt). In the Old and Middle Kingdoms, the army was entirely infantry. They came in contingents armed with self-bows or with spears, and with axes for hand-to-hand combat. With the introduction of horses and chariots from western Asia at the beginning of the New Kingdom, an elite chariotry corps was formed. The chariotry played a significant role in the battles of the New Kingdom, but the infantry retained their importance coming into play after the initial confrontation of the chariotry. The army of the Old Kingdom was mainly levies, with some mercenaries (often Nubian archers). The army of the later New Kingdom had large contingents of mercenary infantrymen: Libyans, Shekelesh, Peleset, and Shardana. These brought their own types of weapons and armor.
IREM. Kushite kingdom, perhaps located in the Dongola Reach of the Nile around Kerma, or, as more recently advocated, much farther south, in the Bayuda Desert or the Berber-Shendi Reach of the river. Irem is documented from the 18th to 20th Dynasties as a significant power and potential threat to the security of southern Nubia. Campaigns were sent against Irem in the reigns of Sety I, Ramesses II, and Ramesses III. See also KUSH.
IRON. The earliest surviving iron weapon from Egypt is the dagger from the tomb of Tutankhamun, but an almost identical item is described in the Amarna Letters as a gift from Tushratta of Mitanni to Amenhotep III. The same letter includes some other iron weapons: a mace, arrowheads, and spearheads. Iron did not become common until the first millennium BC. The ascendancy of the Late Assyrian Empire has often been attributed to the use of iron weapons, but might have been as much because of superior military organization and training. A group of iron tools and weapons was found by Flinders Petrie at Thebes—in association with what appears to be an Assyrian helmet—and was attributed by him to the Assyrian sack of the city in 663 BC.
ISHKHUPRI (671 BC). Site of a battle between the invading armies of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, and the Egyptian-Kushite forces under Taharqo. It is recorded only in the Assyrian records, where its location appears to be somewhere in the Eastern Delta or on the Ways of Horus. It might perhaps be identified with a place on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, near Faqus.
ISIDOROS. Priest, leader of the rebellion of the Boukoloi (also known as the “Bucolic War”) during the reign of Marcus Aurelius (c. 172 AD). Isidoros supposedly gave the flesh of a Roman centurion to his followers. The rebellion eventually spread to cover the greater part of the country and lasted for several years. During it, Roman troops were defeated and Alexandria nearly fell. The governor of Syria, Caius Avidius Cassius, brought troops to crush the rebellion but was unable to engage in battle. He did, however, manage to bring the rebellion to an end.
ISRAEL. Kingdom of western Asia at first under the rule of Saul, David, and Solomon, united with Judah, but following the schism, ruled from the new capital of Samaria. The only reference to Israel in Egyptian texts is in the “Israel Stela” of Merenptah, actually a record of that pharaoh’s repulse of a Libyan invasion. Under Solomon, Israel was important in the trade in horses. The kingdom came to an end when Samaria fell to Assyria in the reign of Shalmaneser V or Sargon II (722/721 BC).
“ISRAEL STELA” OF MERENPTAH. Monumental stela (now in Cairo Museum 34025) originally carved for Amenhotep III, but later removed to the temple of Merenptah, where its verso was inscribed with a text recounting the defeat of an invasion of Egypt by a large force of Libyans. A second stela set up in the temple of Karnak carries a duplicate text; a prose version was also inscribed in the temple. The text is poetic and highly laudatory. The stela acquired its name because it carries the only reference to Israel in any Egyptian text. This reference is, however, in the final hymn of praise in which Israel appears simply as one of a list of defeated states, including Canaan, Gezer, Ashkelon, and Yanoam.
IULIUS AEMILIANUS (fl. 262 AD). The prefect of Egypt in the reign of Gallienus. He was proclaimed emperor by the mob in Alexandria. The principal account of the rebellion is contained in the notoriously unreliable Historia Augusta. Aemilianus struck his own coinage in Alexandria. He was successful against the Blemmyes in Upper Egypt, but loyalist forces landed in Alexandria and warfare in the city caused considerable devastation. Shortly afterward, the Palmyrene forces of Zenobia occupied Egypt.
IULIUS ALEXANDER, TIBERIUS (fl. c. 46–70 AD). From an affluent Jewish family of Alexandria, Tiberius Iulius Alexander abandoned Judaism and rose in the ranks of the Roman provincial administration. He was procurator of Judaea (c. 46–48 AD) and then served in Armenia, before being appointed prefect of Egypt. A Jewish rebellion in Palestine in 66 AD led to widespread trouble and there were clashes between Greeks and Jews in Alexandria. Iulius Alexander sent the army into the Jewish quarter to suppress the violence. In the crisis following the death of the emperor Nero (68 AD), Iulius Alexander supported Vespasian who was in the east, proclaiming him emperor at Alexandria on 1 July 69 AD.
IULIUS CAESAR, GAIUS (100–44 BC). Roman politician, general, and dictator. Following early political and military successes, Caesar rose to a position of supreme power shared with Pompey and Crassus. Crassus was killed in Parthia in 53 BC, and in 49 BC Caesar invaded Italy, thereby provoking the Roman Civil War. The following year, Pompey fled to Greece and Caesar went in pursuit, defeating him at Pharsalus. Pompey now fled to Egypt, where the young king Ptolemy XIII had him murdered. On his arrival, Pompey’s head was offered to Caesar. Caesar now took decisive action in the dispute between Ptolemy and his sister, Kleopatra VII, whom Caesar chose to support. This resulted in the Alexandrian War. Following the restoration of Kleopatra, Caesar left Egypt, advancing through the eastern provinces before returning to Rome, where he was murdered in 44 BC.