Kingdom of Kush Army

The army of the Kingdom of Kush, the Nubian civilization centered along the Nile south of Egypt, relied above all on archery, with bowmen described by historians as the most important component of the Kushite military, using one-piece bows six to seven feet long that required such draw strength some archers braced them with their feet, as well as composite bows firing cane arrows that were sometimes poison-tipped. Kushite forces under King Piye invaded and conquered Lower Egypt around 728 to 716 BC, founding the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, and during the siege of Hermopolis and operations at Ashmunein Piye's army built siege towers to give its archers and slingers an advantage over fortified positions. In 701 BC Kushite pharaoh Taharqa's forces marched to aid King Hezekiah of Judah against the besieging Assyrian army of Sennacherib, though historians debate exactly what role the Kushite intervention played in the siege's outcome. Centuries later, around 27 to 22 BC, Kushite forces under the warrior queen Kandake Amanirenas fought Roman Egypt directly, sacking the border town of Aswan and pulling down statues of the emperor at Philae before Kushite and Roman negotiators reached a peace favorable to Kush, a rare instance of a Roman frontier war ending on largely equal terms.