Egypt Exercise 7.1-"Power in Early State Societies"

Using Third Intermediate Period Egypt as a historical and geographic backdrop, each team will simulate the operation of one type of ancient regional government. The immediate goals of the simulation are to try to stay in office as long as possible without major mishap and to attempt to steer your region and your individual cities through at least 60-100 years of rule without succumbing to endemic famines, wars, or rebellions. Be forewarned that various environmental and social catastrophes such as invasion, pestilence, and low crop yields may occur!

The overall goals of the simulation are to compare notes on the relative success or failure of the various types of ancient government. Specific items to look for are:

1) the ability of the system as a whole to respond effectively to various local and regional problems that may arise, 2) any tendency in the various simulated situations for an evolutionary trend to occur, and the direction of that trend (e.g. in the case of independent city-states over time do the players end up building a kingdom or an empire as a result of individual greed or environmental or military necessity?)

The students acting as scribes have full responsibility for recording and reporting the events that transpire during the simulation. That includes specific events that occur, who the participants were, motivations leading to various acts of local or regional economic or political importance, changes in exchange rates for basic commodities, etc.

You are writing a history of the heroic and not-so-heroic deeds of your contemporaries for future generations to ponder. If you are a scribe, you have the most important role to play in the entire simulation!

General Play

Groups or individual players can choose between three different scenarios, the first simulates an integrated empire, the second a feudal state, and the third a collection of independent city-states. Egypt during the Third Intermediate Period actually went through these phases, transitioning from an integrated empire in the New Kingdom, to something like a feudal state based at Tanis, to a collection of competing city states based in the Nile delta, Thebes, and Napata, and back to an integrated empire when the Nubians took control. The teams should be divided as follows:

	Empire Team: 6 students
	1 Pharaoh 4 Mayors/Chief Priests 1 Imperial Scribe
	Feudal Team: 5 students
	4 Peers, one of whom is the king 1 Royal Scribe
	City-State Team: 5 students
	4 Petty Kings 1 Scribe

If a group has less than 4 members, then one of the members can double as a ruler and/or a team scribe, or even start in control of more than one city (eg, Thebes and Napata vs. Sais and Tanis).

Imperial Simulation Rules

• One student acts as Pharaoh. The Pharaoh's word is law and all of the other players must abide by the Pharaoh's decisions. Four players will serve as the mayors/ chief priests of four different cities. They will be responsible for the year to year operation of their cities, as well as carrying out the orders of the Pharaoh.
• While the mayor's principal obligation is to manage the resources of his/her own city, and try to keep their job, the Pharaoh's primary obligation is to manage the resources of the empire. The Imperial Scribe will serve to help keep the Pharaoh apprised of events in all parts of the empire. The Pharaoh also must ensure the greater glory of his/her reign. This may be accomplished in a number of ways. One is to be successful in foreign military exploits which requires raising an army, provisioning them, and hopefully winning some wars. Another way is to embark on some massive public building projects, either building a new temple or building one's own monument (i.e. pyramid complex). In any event, any of these efforts will require an expenditure of state resources, and will require the drafting of laborers or soldiers from the cities of the empire. The mayors are responsible for meeting the needs of the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh should be advised that jeopardizing the well-being of the people, or more to the point, the well being of the mayors may result in rebellion or possibly an assassination attempt. On the other hand, if the Pharaoh sits back and does nothing of note, he/she will be forgotten by history, and the empire may well settle into an economic and political decline from which there is no recovery.
• Finally, the Pharaoh must be in residence in one of the cities at any given point in time. Where the Pharaoh is, the Pharaoh's retinue of scribes, courtiers, body guards, cooks, and slaves will be also — about 600 people in all. It is the responsibility of the mayor of the town to ensure the comfort and well-being of the Pharaoh and his/her entourage for the duration of their stay.
• The simulation will end when either 100 years have passed, there is a general rebellion or civil war, or the Pharaoh is assassinated. If one of the mayors should meet an untimely end (either at the hands of the general populace or at the order of a displeased Pharaoh) one of the remaining mayors will be appointed governor to administer his/her native city and the city of the defunct mayor.

Feudal State Simulation Rules

• The four students acting as Royal Peers will come to a consensus as to which of them shall be king.
• The king will be responsible for the year to year administration of his/her city as well as watching over the well-being of the kingdom as a whole. The king's prerogatives include embarking on foreign wars, or undertaking monumental building projects. Although the other three Royal Peers owe fealty and allegiance to the king, they may disagree with the king's plans. Unless the king can accomplish his/her goals without assistance from any or all of the peers, the king must either convince the peers to aid him/her or force them by armed conflict. The Peers, for their part, can form alliances against the king if they deem it in their own best interests to do so. It is possible that a bad king be deposed, and one of the other Peers assume that position. All of the Peers are responsible for managing the affairs of their own cities, and all are susceptible to various environmental and social calamities.
• The simulation will end when either 100 years have passed, there is a general rebellion or civil war, or none of the peers remains alive. On the death of a peer his/her holdings may either be assumed by the king, shared by the remaining peers, or be made the sole responsibility of one of the remaining peers.

Independent City-State Simulation Rules

• Four students will be completely autonomous rulers of the four petty kingdoms. They are solely responsible for the year to year operation of their cities. They may resort to any means they deem necessary to ensure their own longevity on the throne and the prosperity of their own city. A city-state conquered in war becomes the sole responsibility of the conquering petty-king, and the defeated petty king is eliminated from the simulation.
• The simulation will end when either 100 years have passed, all of the players have been eliminated by one mechanism or another, or all four cities have come under the control of one player (forming an empire).

Mechanics of the Simulation

All of the players will work on one computer. At the beginning of the simulation they will each choose a city, and will select when prompted the preferred version of the simulation – Empire, Feudal, or City State. In turns each city ruler/administrator will see one yea r ' s effects of their administration on their city. They have the option of changing taxes, increasing land under cultivation, trading in commodities, engaging in public works projects, and manipulating the number and kind of subsidiary public servants. When one player is finished with his/her turn, they will return to the main map, and allow the next administrator to work on his/her city. Each complete turn of four players will constitute one year of game time. The simulation will continue in this way until the end conditions described above are met.

There are a number of operations available to players that require cooperation between players. The two most important of these operations are Trade and Warfare.

When one player wishes to conduct trade, they must first find another player willing to engage in trade. You then click on the "Trade " button to go to the regional market place. Here each party to the negotiations has a shielded summary of their assets. You may view your assets by clicking on the shield. It will disappear and reveal your assets. When you are ready to continue negotiations, click on your display field, and it will again be shielded. Letting the other party to the trade see your asset summary will give them an unfair advantage in the negotiations. When you have successfully negotiated a trade, just click on the "Do the Deal " button and follow the prompts. The computer will take care of the transfer of goods for you. You may then return to your city screen. If you cannot arrive at a satisfactory deal, just return to your city screen.

When you are contemplating war on another city you must first inform the ruler of that city that you are going to war with them. Then click on the "War " button to go to the field of combat. Once at the field of combat each side in the conflict will have a summary of their military capabilities. These include professional officers, professional soldiers, draftees, and the amount of defensive walls protecting the city in linear feet. The outcome of an actual attack depends on these variables as well as an dement of random chance. Note that defenders always have the advantage although it may not be decisive. The effects of the other variables are weighted, for example professional soldiers are always more proficient in combat than draftees, unless they are hopelessly out-manned, etc. lithe two parties can negotiate a settlement without resorting to combat, you simply return to the initiator's city screen, and possibly negotiate an economic settlement. If the only recourse is actual combat, the computer will weight the variables and determine a victor. The victor then has the option of either imposing a tribute payment that the conquered city must pay annually (to be worked out by the litigants) , or the victor may raze the city, destroying everything, and taking all of the booty back to his/her home city, in the process killing the resident ruler and either killing or enslaving the population. If this happens the vanquished city ceases to exist.

In the annual operation of your city, you should keep track of changes in population, changes in productivity, and changes in the stores available to the government of the city. Making timely adjustments in the amount of land under cultivation, the number of clerics or military, or engaging in trade to bolster stocks of some commodities can all enhance the survivability of your city. Also, do not neglect requests by the populace for the construction of temples , as they may revolt even if they are not starving. Also, do not forget to add to your cities defensive capability occasionally by building more defensive walls, or adding to the professional military. On the other hand, you should keep in mind that all of these things require the expenditure of city funds in the form of goods.

Let's Play

There are three versions of the simulation, one for MacOS X, MacOS 9 and Windows. Please download the version appropriate for the computer you are currently running.

MacOS X	Windows