Chapter III: The Close of the Theban Empire (1)

_Ramses III.--The Theban city under the Ramessides--Manners and customs._

As in a former crisis, Egypt once more owed her salvation to a scion of the old Theban race. A descendant of Seti I. or Ramses II., named Nakhtûsît, rallied round him the forces of the southern nomes, and succeeded, though not without difficulty, in dispossessing the Syrian Arisû. When he arose, he was like Sûtkhû, providing for all the necessities of the country which, for feebleness, could not stand, killing the rebels which were in the Delta, purifying the great throne of Egypt; he was regent of the two lands in the place of Tûmû, setting himself to reorganise that which had been overthrown, to such good purpose, that each one recognised as brethren those who had been separated from him as by a wall for so long a time, strengthening the temples by pious gifts, so that the traditional rites could be celebrated at the divine cycles. *

* The exact relationship between Nakhtûsît and Ramses II. is
not known; he was probably the grandson or great-grandson of
that sovereign, though Ed. Meyer thinks he was perhaps the
son of Seti II. The name should be read either Nakhîtsît,
with the singular of the first word composing it, or
Nakhîtûsît, Nakhtûsît, with the plural, as in the analogous
name of the king of the XXXth dynasty, Nectanebo.

Many were the difficulties that he had to encounter before he could restore to his country that peace and wealth which she had enjoyed under the long reign of Sesostris. It seems probable that his advancing years made him feel unequal to the task, or that he desired to guard against the possibility of disturbances in the event of his sudden death; at all events, he associated with himself on the throne his eldest son Ramses--not, however, as a Pharaoh who had full rights to the crown, like the coadjutors of the Amenemhâîts and Usirtasens, but as a prince invested with extraordinary powers, after the example of the sons of the Pharaohs Thûtmosis and Seti I. Ramses recalls with pride, towards the close of his life, how his father had promoted him to the dignity of heir-presumptive to the throne of Sibû, and how he had been acclaimed as the supreme head of Qimît for the administration of the whole earth united together. * This constituted the rise of a new dynasty on the ruins of the old--the last, however, which was able to retain the supremacy of Egypt over the Oriental world. We are unable to ascertain how long this double reign lasted.

* The only certain monument that we as yet possess of this
double reign is a large stele cut on the rock behind
Medinet-Habû.

Nakhtûsît, fully occupied by enemies within the country, had no leisure either to build or to restore any monuments;* on his death, as no tomb had been prepared for him, his mummy was buried in that of the usurper Siphtah and the Queen Tausirît.

* Wiedemann attributes to him the construction of one of the
doors of the temple of Mût at Karnak; it would appear that
there is a confusion in his notes between the prenomen of
this sovereign and that of Seti II., who actually did
decorate one of the doorways of that temple. Nakhûsît must
have also worked on the temple of Phtah at Memphis. His
cartouche is met with on a statue originally dedicated by a
Pharaoh of the XIIth dynasty, discovered at Tell-Nebêsheh.

He was soon forgotten, and but few traces of his services survived him; his name was subsequently removed from the official list of the kings, while others not so deserving as he--as, for instance, Siphtah-Minephtah and Amenmesis--were honourably inscribed in it. The memory of his son overshadowed his own, and the series of the legitimate kings who formed the XXth dynasty did not include him. Ramses III. took for his hero his namesake, Ramses the Great, and endeavoured to rival him in everything. This spirit of imitation was at times the means of leading him to commit somewhat puerile acts, as, for example, when he copied certain triumphal inscriptions word for word, merely changing the dates and the cartouches,* or when he assumed the prenomen of Usirmârî, and distributed among his male children the names and dignities of the sons of Sesostris. We see, moreover, at his court another high priest of Phtah at Memphis bearing the name of Khâmoîsît, and Marîtûmû, another supreme pontiff of Râ in Heliopolis. However, this ambition to resemble his ancestor at once instigated him to noble deeds, and gave him the necessary determination to accomplish them.

* Thus the great decree of Phtah-Totûnen, carved by Ramses
II. in the year XXXV. on the rocks of Abu Simbel, was copied
by Ramses III. at Medinet-Habû in the year XII.

He began by restoring order in the administration of affairs; he established truth, crushed error, purified the temple from all crime, and made his authority felt not only in the length and breadth of the Nile valley, but in what was still left of the Asiatic provinces. The disturbances of the preceding years had weakened the prestige of Amon-Râ, and the kings supremacy would have been seriously endangered, had any one arisen in Syria of sufficient energy to take advantage of the existing state of affairs. But since the death of Khâtusaru, the power of the Khâti had considerably declined, and they retained their position merely through their former prestige; they were in as much need of peace, or even more so, than the Egyptians, for the same discords which had harassed the reigns of Seti II. and his successors had doubtless brought trouble to their own sovereigns. They had made no serious efforts to extend their dominion over any of those countries which had been the objects of the cupidity of their forefathers, while the peoples of Kharu and Phoenicia, thrown back on their own resources, had not ventured to take up arms against the Pharaoh. The yoke lay lightly upon them, and in no way hampered their internal liberty; they governed as they liked, they exchanged one prince or chief for another, they waged petty wars as of old, without, as a rule, exposing themselves to interference from the Egyptian troops occupying the country, or from the royal messengers. These vassal provinces had probably ceased to pay tribute, or had done so irregularly, during the years of anarchy following the death of Siphtah, but they had taken no concerted action, nor attempted any revolt, so that when Ramses III. ascended the throne he was spared the trouble of reconquering them. He had merely to claim allegiance to have it at once rendered him--an allegiance which included the populations in the neighbourhood of Qodshû and on the banks of the Nahr el-Kelb. The empire, which had threatened to fall to pieces amid the civil wars, and which would indeed have succumbed had they continued a few years longer, again revived now that an energetic prince had been found to resume the direction of affairs, and to weld together those elements which had been on the point of disintegration.

One state alone appeared to regret the revival of the Imperial power; this was the kingdom of Libya. It had continued to increase in size since the days of Mînephtah, and its population had been swelled by the annexation of several strange tribes inhabiting the vast area of the Sahara. One of these, the Mashaûasha, acquired the ascendency among these desert races owing to their numbers and valour, and together with the other tribes--the Sabati, the Kaiakasha, the Shaîû, the Hasa, the Bikana, and the Qahaka*--formed a confederacy, which now threatened Egypt on the west. This federation was conducted by Didi, Mashaknû, and Mâraîû, all children of that Mâraîû who had led the first Libyan invasion, and also by Zamarû and Zaûtmarû, two princes of less important tribes.** Their combined forces had attacked Egypt for the second time during the years of anarchy, and had gained possession one after another of all the towns in the west of the Delta, from the neighbourhood of Memphis to the town of Qarbîna: the Canopic branch of the Nile now formed the limit of their dominion, and they often crossed it to devastate the central provinces.***

* This enumeration is furnished by the summary of the
campaigns of Ramses III. in _The Great Harris Papyrus_. The
Sabati of this text are probably identical with the people
of the Sapudiu or Spudi (Asbytse), mentioned on one of the
pylons of Medinet-Habû.

** The relationship is nowhere stated, but it is thought to
be probable from the names of Didi and Mâraîû, repeated in
both series of inscriptions.

*** The town of Qarbîna has been identified with the Canopus
of the Greeks, and also with the modern Korbani; and the
district of Gautu, which adjoined it, with the territory of
the modern town of Edkô. Spiegel-berg throws doubt on the
identification of Qarbu or Qarbîna, with Canopus. Révillout
prefers to connect Qarbîna with Heracleopolis Parva in Lower
Egypt.

Nakhtûsîti had been unable to drive them out, and Ramses had not ventured on the task immediately after his accession. The military institutions of the country had become totally disorganised after the death of Mînephtah, and that part of the community responsible for furnishing the army with recruits had been so weakened by the late troubles, that they were in a worse condition than before the first Libyan invasion. The losses they had suffered since Egypt began its foreign conquests had not been repaired by the introduction of fresh elements, and the hope of spoil was now insufficient to induce members of the upper classes to enter the army. There was no difficulty in filling the ranks from the fellahîn, but the middle class and the aristocracy, accustomed to ease and wealth, no longer came forward in large numbers, and disdained the military profession. It was the fashion in the schools to contrast the calling of a scribe with that of a foot-soldier or a charioteer, and to make as merry over the discomforts of a military occupation as it had formerly been the fashion to extol its glory and profitableness. These scholastic exercises represented the future officer dragged as a child to the barracks, the side-lock over his ear.--He is beaten and his sides are covered with scars,--he is beaten and his two eyebrows are marked with wounds,--he is beaten and his head is broken by a badly aimed blow; he is stretched on the ground for the slightest fault, and blows fall on him as on a papyrus,--and he is broken by the stick. His education finished, he is sent away to a distance, to Syria or Ethiopia, and fresh troubles overtake him. His victuals and his supply of water are about his neck like the burden of an ass,--and his neck and throat suffer like those of an ass,--so that the joints of his spine are broken.--He drinks putrid water, keeping perpetual guard the while. His fatigues soon tell upon his health and vigour: Should he reach the enemy,--he is like a bird which trembles.--Should he return to Egypt,--he is like a piece of old worm-eaten wood.--He is sick and must lie down, he is carried on an ass,--while thieves steal his linen,--and his slaves escape. The charioteer is not spared either. He, doubtless, has a moment of vain-glory and of flattered vanity when he receives, according to regulations, a new chariot and two horses, with which he drives at a gallop before his parents and his fellow-villagers; but once having joined his regiment, he is perhaps worse off than the foot-soldier. He is thrown to the ground among thorns:--a scorpion wounds him in the foot, and his heel is pierced by its sting.--When his kit is examined,--his misery is at its height. No sooner has the fact been notified that his arms are in a bad condition, or that some article has disappeared, than he is stretched on the ground--and overpowered with blows from a stick. This decline of the warlike spirit in all classes of society had entailed serious modifications in the organisation of both army and navy. The native element no longer predominated in most battalions and on the majority of vessels, as it had done under the XVIIIth dynasty; it still furnished those formidable companies of archers--the terror of both Africans and Asiatics--and also the most important part, if not the whole, of the chariotry, but the main body of the infantry was composed almost exclusively of mercenaries, particularly of the Shardana and the Qahaka. Ramses began his reforms by rebuilding the fleet, which, in a country like Egypt, was always an artificial creation, liable to fall into decay, unless a strong and persistent effort were made to keep it in an efficient condition. Shipbuilding had made considerable progress in the last few centuries, perhaps from the impulse received through Phoenicia, and the vessels turned out of the dockyards were far superior to those constructed under Hâtshopsîtû. The general outlines of the hull remained the same, but the stem and stern were finer, and not so high out of the water; the bow ended, moreover, in a lions head of metal, which rose above the cut-water. A wooden structure running between the forecastle and quarter-deck protected the rowers during the fight, their heads alone being exposed. The mast had only one curved yard, to which the sail was fastened; this was run up from the deck by halyards when the sailors wanted to make sail, and thus differed from the Egyptian arrangement, where the sail was fastened to a fixed upper yard. At least half of the crews consisted of Libyan prisoners, who were branded with a hot iron like cattle, to prevent desertion; the remaining half was drawn from the Syrian or Asiatic coast, or else were natives of Egypt. In order to bring the army into better condition, Ramses revived the system of classes, which empowered him to compel all Egyptians of unmixed race to take personal service, while he hired mercenaries from Libya, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, and wherever he could get them, and divided them into regular regiments, according to their extraction and the arms that they bore. In the field, the archers always headed the column, to meet the advance of the foe with their arrows; they were followed by the Egyptian lancers--the Shardana and the Tyrseni with their short spears and heavy bronze swords--while a corps of veterans, armed with heavy maces, brought up the rear.* In an engagement, these various troops formed three lines of infantry disposed one behind the other--the light brigade in front to engage the adversary, the swordsmen and lancers who were to come into close quarters with the foe, and the mace-bearers in reserve, ready to advance on any threatened point, or to await the critical moment when their intervention would decide the victory: as in the times of Thûtmosis and Ramses II. the chariotry covered the two wings.

* This is the order of march represented during the Syrian
campaign, as gathered from the arrangement observed in the
pictures at Medinet-Habu.

It was well for Ramses that on ascending the throne he had devoted himself to the task of recruiting the Egyptian army, and of personally and carefully superintending the instruction and equipment of his men; for it was thanks to these precautions that, when the confederated Libyans attacked the country about the Vth year of his reign, he was enabled to repulse them with complete success. Didi, Mashaknû, Maraîû, together with Zamarû and Zaûtmarû, had strongly urged them to attack Egypt and to carry fire before them from one end of it to the other.--Their warriors confided to each other in their counsels, and their hearts were full: We will be drunk! and their princes said within their breasts: We will fill our hearts with violence! But their plans were overthrown, thwarted, broken against the heart of the god, and the prayer of their chief, which their lips repeated, was not granted by the god. They met the Egyptians at a place called Kamsisû-Khasfi-Timihû (Ramses repulses the Timihû), but their attack was broken by the latter, who were ably led and displayed considerable valour. They bleated like goats surprised by a bull who stamps its foot, who pushes forward its horn and shakes the mountains, charging whoever seeks to annoy it. They fled afar, howling with fear, and many of them, in endeavouring to escape their pursuers, perished in the canals. It is, said they, the breaking of our spines which threatens us in the land of Egypt, and its lord destroys our souls for ever and ever. Woe be upon them! for they have seen their dances changed into carnage, Sokhît is behind them, fear weighs upon them. We march no longer upon roads where we can walk, but we run across fields, all the fields! And their soldiers did not even need to measure arms with us in the struggle! Pharaoh alone was our destruction, a fire against us every time that he willed it, and no sooner did we approach than the flame curled round us, and no water could quench it on us. The victory was a brilliant one; the victors counted 12,535 of the enemy killed,* and many more who surrendered at discretion. The latter were formed into a brigade, and were distributed throughout the valley of the Nile in military settlements. They submitted to their fate with that resignation which we know to have been a characteristic of the vanquished at that date.

* The number of the dead is calculated from that of the
hands and phalli brought in by the soldiers after the
victory, the heaps of which are represented at Medinet-Habu.

They regarded their defeat as a judgment from God against which there was no appeal; when their fate had been once pronounced, nothing remained to the condemned except to submit to it humbly, and to accommodate themselves to the master to whom they were now bound by a decree from on high. The prisoners of one day became on the next the devoted soldiers of the prince against whom they had formerly fought resolutely, and they were employed against their own tribes, their employers having no fear of their deserting to the other side during the engagement. They were lodged in the barracks at Thebes, or in the provinces under the feudal lords and governors of the Pharaoh, and were encouraged to retain their savage customs and warlike spirit. They intermarried either with the fellahîn or with women of their own tribes, and were reinforced at intervals by fresh prisoners or volunteers. Drafted principally into the Delta and the cities of Middle Egypt, they thus ended by constituting a semi-foreign population, destined by nature and training to the calling of arms, and forming a sort of warrior caste, differing widely from the militia of former times, and known for many generations by their national name of Mashaûasha. As early as the XIIth dynasty, the Pharaohs had, in a similar way, imported the Mazaîû from Nubia, and had used them as a military police; Ramses III. now resolved to naturalise the Libyans for much the same purpose. His victory did not bear the immediate fruits that we might have expected from his own account of it; the memory of the exploits of Ramses II. haunted him, and, stimulated by the example of his ancestor at Qodshû, he doubtless desired to have the sole credit of the victory over the Libyans. He certainly did overcome their kings, and arrested their invasion; we may go so far as to allow that he wrested from them the provinces which they had occupied on the left bank of the Canopic branch, from Marea to the Natron Lakes, but he did not conquer them, and their power still remained as formidable as ever. He had gained a respite at the point of the sword, but he had not delivered Egypt from their future attacks.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion.

He might perhaps have been tempted to follow up his success and assume the offensive, had not affairs in Asia at this juncture demanded the whole of his attention. The movement of great masses of European tribes in a southerly and easterly direction was beginning to be felt by the inhabitants of the Balkans, who were forced to set out in a double stream of emigration--one crossing the Bosphorus and the Propontis towards the centre of Asia Minor, while the other made for what was later known as Greece Proper, by way of the passes over Olympus and Pindus. The nations who had hitherto inhabited these regions, now found themselves thrust forward by the pressure of invading hordes, and were constrained to move towards the south and east by every avenue which presented itself. It was probably the irruption of the Phrygians into the high table-land which gave rise to the general exodus of these various nations--the Pulasati, the Zakkala, the Shagalasha, the Danauna, and the Uashasha--some of whom had already made their way into Syria and taken part in campaigns there, while others had as yet never measured strength with the Egyptians. The main body of these migrating tribes chose the overland route, keeping within easy distance of the coast, from Pamphylia as far as the confines of Naharaim.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Champollion.

They were accompanied by their families, who must have been mercilessly jolted in the ox-drawn square waggons with solid wheels in which they travelled. The body of the vehicle was built either of roughly squared planks, or else of something resembling wicker-work. The round axletree was kept in its place by means of a rude pin, and four oxen were harnessed abreast to the whole structure. The children wore no clothes, and had, for the most part, their hair tied into a tuft on the top of their heads; the women affected a closely fitting cap, and were wrapped in large blue or red garments drawn close to the body.* The mens attire varied according to the tribe to which they belonged. The Pulasati undoubtedly held the chief place; they were both soldiers and sailors, and we must recognise in them the foremost of those tribes known to the Greeks of classical times as the Oarians, who infested the coasts of Asia Minor as well as those of Greece and the Ægean islands.**

* These details are taken from the battle-scenes at Medinet-
Habu.

** The Pulasati have been connected with the Philistines by
Champollion, and subsequently by the early English
Egyptologists, who thought they recognised in them the
inhabitants of the Shephelah. Chabas was the first to
identify them with the Pelasgi; Unger and Brugsch prefer to
attribute to them a Libyan origin, but the latter finally
returns to the Pelasgic and Philistine hypothesis. They were
without doubt the Philistines, but in their migratory state,
before they settled on the coast of Palestine.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

Crete was at this time the seat of a maritime empire, whose chiefs were perpetually cruising the seas and harassing the civilized states of the Eastern Mediterranean. These sea-rovers had grown wealthy through piracy, and contact with the merchants of Syria and Egypt had awakened in them a taste for a certain luxury and refinement, of which we find no traces in the remains of their civilization anterior to this period. Some of the symbols in the inscriptions found on their monuments recall certain of the Egyptian characters, while others present an original aspect and seem to be of Ægean origin. We find in them, arranged in juxtaposition, signs representing flowers, birds, fish, quadrupeds of various kinds, members of the human body, and boats and household implements. From the little which is known of this script we are inclined to derive it from a similar source to that which has furnished those we meet with in several parts of Asia Minor and Northern Syria. It would appear that in ancient times, somewhere in the centre of the Peninsula--but under what influence or during what period we know not--a syllabary was developed, of which varieties were handed on from tribe to tribe, spreading on the one side to the Hittites, Cilicians, and the peoples on the borders of Syria and Egypt, and on the other to the Trojans, to the people of the Cyclades, and into Crete and Greece. It is easy to distinguish the Pulasati by the felt helmet which they wore fastened under the chin by two straps and surmounted by a crest of feathers. The upper part of their bodies was covered by bands of leather or some thick material, below which hung a simple loin-cloth, while their feet were bare or shod with short sandals. They carried each a round buckler with two handles, and the stout bronze sword common to the northern races, suspended by a cross belt passing over the left shoulder, and were further armed with two daggers and two javelins. They hurled the latter from a short distance while attacking, and then drawing their sword or daggers, fell upon the enemy; we find among them a few chariots of the Hittite type, each manned by a driver and two fighting men. The Tyrseni appear to have been the most numerous after the Pulasati, next to whom came the Zakkala. The latter are thought to have been a branch of the Siculo-Pelasgi whom Greek tradition represents as scattered at this period among the Cyclades and along the coast of the Hellespont;* they wore a casque surmounted with plumes like that of the Pulasati. The Tyrseni may be distinguished by their feathered head-dress, but the Shaga-lasha affected a long ample woollen cap falling on the neck behind, an article of apparel which is still worn by the sailors of the Archipelago; otherwise they were equipped in much the same manner as their allies. The other members of the confederation, the Shardana, the Danauna, and the Nashasha, each furnished an inconsiderable contingent, and, taken all together, formed but a small item of the united force.**

* The Zakkara, or Zakkala, have been identified with the
Teucrians by Lauth, Chabas, and Fr. Lenormant, with the
Zygritse of Libya by linger and Brugsch, who subsequently
returned to the Teucrian hypothesis; W. Max Millier regards
them as an Asiatic nation probably of the Lydian family. The
identification with the Siculo-Pelasgi of the Ægean Sea was
proposed by Maspero.

** The form of the word shows that it is of Asiatic origin,
Uasasos, Uassos, which refers us to Caria or Lycia.

Their fleet sailed along the coast and kept within sight of the force on land. The squadrons depicted on the monuments are without doubt those of the two peoples, the Pulasati and Zakkala. Their ships resembled in many respects those of Egypt, except in the fact that they had no cut-water. The bow and stern rose up straight like the neck of a goose or swan; two structures for fighting purposes were erected above the dock, while a rail running round the sides of the vessel protected the bodies of the rowers. An upper yard curved in shape hung from the single mast, which terminated in a top for the look-out during a battle. The upper yard was not made to lower, and the top-men managed the sail in the same manner as the Egyptian sailors. The resemblance between this fleet and that of Ramses is easily explained. The dwellers on the Ægean, owing to the knowledge they had acquired of the Phoenician galleys, which were accustomed to cruise annually in their waters, became experts in shipbuilding.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Petrie.

They copied the lines of the Phoenician craft, imitated the rigging, and learned to manoeuvre their vessels so well, both on ordinary occasions and in a battle, that they could now oppose to the skilled eastern navigators ships as well fitted out and commanded by captains as experienced as those of Egypt or Asia.

There had been a general movement among all these peoples at the very time when Ramses was repelling the attack of the Libyans; the isles had quivered, and had vomited forth their people at once. *

* This campaign is mentioned in the inscription of Medinet-
Habu. We find some information about the war in the _Great
Harris Papyrus_, also in the inscription of Medinet-Habu
which describes the campaign of the year V., and in other
shorter texts of the same temple.

They were subjected to one of those irresistible impulses such as had driven the Shepherds into Egypt; or again, in later times, had carried away the Cimmerians and the Scyths to the pillage of Asia Minor: no country could hold out against their arms, neither Khâti, nor Qodi, nor Carchemish, nor Arvad, nor Alasia, without being brought to nothing. The ancient kingdoms of Sapalulu and Khâtusaru, already tottering, crumbled to pieces under the shock, and were broken up into their primitive elements. The barbarians, unable to carry the towns by assault, and too impatient to resort to a lengthened siege, spread over the valley of the Orontes, burning and devastating the country everywhere. Having reached the frontiers of the empire, in the country of the Amorites, they came to a halt, and constructing an entrenched camp, installed within it their women and the booty they had acquired. Some of their predatory bands, having ravaged the Bekâa, ended by attacking the subjects of the Pharaoh himself, and their chiefs dreamed of an invasion of Egypt. Ramses, informed of their design by the despatches of his officers and vassals, resolved to prevent its accomplishment. He summoned his troops together, both indigenous and mercenary, in his own person looked after their armament and commissariat, and in the VIIIth year of his reign crossed the frontier near Zalu. He advanced by forced marches to meet the enemy, whom he encountered somewhere in Southern Syria, on the borders of the Shephelah,* and after a stubbornly contested campaign obtained the victory. He carried off from the field, in addition to the treasures of the confederate tribes, some of the chariots which had been used for the transport of their families. The survivors made their way hastily to the north-west, in the direction of the sea, in order to receive the support of their navy, but the king followed them step by step.

* No site is given for these battles. E. de Rougé placed the
theatre of war in Syria, and his opinion was accepted by
Brugsch. Chabas referred it to the mouth of the Nile near
Pelusium, and his authority has prevailed up to the present.
The remarks of W. Max Müller have brought me back to the
opinion of the earlier Egyptologists; but I differ from him
in looking for the locality further south, and not to the
mouth of Nahr el-Kelb as the site of the naval battle. It
seems to me that the fact that the Zakkala were prisoners at
Dor, and the Pulasati in the Shephelah, is enough to assign
the campaign to the regions I have mentioned in the text.

It is recorded that he occupied himself with lion-hunting _en route_ after the example of the victors of the XVIIIth dynasty, and that he killed three of these animals in the long grass on one occasion on the banks of some river. He rejoined his ships, probably at Jaffa, and made straight for the enemy. The latter were encamped on the level shore, at the head of a bay wide enough to offer to their ships a commodious space for naval evolutions--possibly the mouth of the Belos, in the neighbourhood of Magadîl. The king drove their foot-soldiers into the water at the same moment that his admirals attacked the combined fleet of the Pulasati and Zakkala.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

Some of the Ægean galleys were capsized and sank when the Egyptian vessels rammed them with their sharp stems, and the crews, in endeavouring to escape to land by swimming, were picked off by the arrows of the archers of the guard who were commanded by Ramses and his sons; they perished in the waves, or only escaped through the compassion of the victors. I had fortified, said the Pharaoh, my frontier at Zahi; I had drawn up before these people my generals, my provincial governors, the vassal princes, and the best of my soldiers. The mouths of the river seemed to be a mighty rampart of galleys, barques, and vessels of all kinds, equipped from the bow to the stern with valiant armed men. The infantry, the flower of Egypt, were as lions roaring on the mountains; the charioteers, selected from among the most rapid warriors, had for their captains only officers confident in themselves; the horses quivered in all their limbs, and were burning to trample the nations underfoot. As for me, I was like the warlike Montû: I stood up before them and they saw the vigour of my arms. I, King Ramses, I was as a hero who is conscious of his valour, and who stretches his hands over the people in the day of battle. Those who have violated my frontier will never more garner harvests from this earth: the period of their soul has been fixed for ever. My forces were drawn up before them on the Very Green, a devouring flame approached them at the river mouth, annihilation embraced them on every side. Those who were on the strand I laid low on the seashore, slaughtered like victims of the butcher. I made their vessels to capsize, and their riches fell into the sea. Those who had not fallen in the fight were caught, as it were, in the cast of a net. A rapid cruiser of the fleet carried the Egyptian standard along the coast as far as the regions of the Orontes and Saros. The land troops, on the other hand, following on the heels of the defeated enemy, pushed through Coele-Syria, and in their first burst of zeal succeeded in reaching the plains of the Euphrates. A century had elapsed since a Pharaoh had planted his standard in this region, and the country must have seemed as novel to the soldiers of Ramses III. as to those of his predecessor Thûtmosis.

The Khâti were still its masters; and all enfeebled as they were by the ravages of the invading barbarians, were nevertheless not slow in preparing to resist their ancient enemies. The majority of the citadels shut their gates in the face of Ramses, who, wishing to lose no time, did not attempt to besiege them: he treated their territory with the usual severity, devastating their open towns, destroying their harvests, breaking down their fruit trees, and cutting away their forests. He was able, moreover, without arresting his march, to carry by assault several of their fortified towns, Alaza among the number, the destruction of which is represented in the scenes of his victories. The spoils were considerable, and came very opportunely to reward the soldiers or to provide funds for the erection of monuments. The last battalion of troops, however, had hardly recrossed the isthmus when Lotanû became again its own master, and Egyptian rule was once more limited to its traditional provinces of Kharû and Phoenicia. The King of the Khâti appears among the prisoners whom the Pharaoh is represented as bringing to his father Amon; Carchemish, Tunipa, Khalabu, Katna, Pabukhu, Arvad, Mitanni, Mannus, Asi, and a score of other famous towns of this period appear in the list of the subjugated nations, recalling the triumphs of Thûtmosis III. and Amenothes II. Ramses did not allow himself to be deceived into thinking that his success was final. He accepted the protestations of obedience which were spontaneously offered him, but he undertook no further expedition of importance either to restrain or to provoke his enemies: the restricted rule which satisfied his exemplar Ramses II. ought, he thought, to be sufficient for his own ambition.

Egypt breathed freely once more on the announcement of the victory; henceforward she was as a bed without anguish. Let each woman now go to and fro according to her will, cried the sovereign, in describing the campaign, her ornaments upon her, and directing her steps to any place she likes! And in order to provide still further guarantees of public security, he converted his Asiatic captives, as he previously had his African prisoners, into a bulwark against the barbarians, and a safeguard of the frontier. The war must, doubtless, have decimated Southern Syria; and he planted along its coast what remained of the defeated tribes--the Philistines in the Shephelah, and the Zakkala on the borders of the great oak forest stretching from Oarmel to Dor.*

* It is in this region that we find henceforward the Hebrews
in contact with the Philistines: at the end of the XXIst
Egyptian dynasty a scribe makes Dor a town of the Zakkala.

Watch-towers were erected for the supervision of this region, and for rallying-points in case of internal revolts or attacks from without. One of these, the Migdol of Ramses III., was erected, not far from the scene of the decisive battle, on the spot where the spoils had been divided. This living barrier, so to speak, stood between the Nile valley and the dangers which threatened it from Asia, and it was not long before its value was put to the proof. The Libyans, who had been saved from destruction by the diversion created in their favour on the eastern side of the empire, having now recovered their courage, set about collecting their hordes together for a fresh invasion. They returned to the attack in the XIth year of Ramses, under the leadership of Kapur, a prince of the Mashauasha.*

* The second campaign against the Libyans is known to us
from the inscriptions of the year XI. at Medinet-Habu.

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Beato. The first
prisoner on the left is the Prince of the Khâti (cf. the cut
on p. 318 of the present work), the second is the Prince of
the Amâuru [Amoritos], the third the Prince of the Zakkala,
the fourth that of the Shardana, the fifth that of the
Shakalasha (see the cut on p. 304 of this work), and the
sixth that of the Tursha [Tyrseni].

Their soul had said to them for the second time that they would end their lives in the nomes of Egypt, that they would till its valleys and its plains as their own land. The issue did not correspond with their intentions. Death fell upon them within Egypt, for they had hastened with their feet to the furnace which consumes corruption, under the fire of the valour of the king who rages like Baal from the heights of heaven. All his limbs are invested with victorious strength; with his right hand he lays hold of the multitudes, his left extends to those who are against him, like a cloud of arrows directed upon them to destroy them, and his sword cuts like that of Montû. Kapur, who had come to demand homage, blind with fear, threw down his arms, and his troops did the same. He sent up to heaven a suppliant cry, and his son [Mashashalu] arrested his foot and his hand; for, behold, there rises beside him the god who knows what he has in his heart: His Majesty falls upon their heads as a mountain of granite and crushes them, the earth drinks up their blood as if it had been water...; their army was slaughtered, slaughtered their soldiers, near a fortress situated on the borders of the desert called the Castle of Usirmarî-Miamon. They were seized, they were stricken, their arms bound, like geese piled up in the bottom of a boat, under the feet of His Majesty. * The fugitives were pursued at the swords point from the _Castle of Usirmarî-Miamon_ to the _Castle of the Sands_, a distance of over thirty miles.**

* The name of the son of Kapur, Mashashalu, Masesyla, which
is wanting in this inscription, is supplied from a parallel
inscription.

* The Castle of Usirmarî-Miamon was on the mountain of the
horn of the world, which induces me to believe that we must
seek its site on the borders of the Libyan desert. The royal
title entering into its name being liable to change with
every reign, it is possible that we have an earlier
reference to this stronghold in a mutilated passage of the
Athribis Stele, which relates to the campaigns of Mînephtah;
it must have commanded one of the most frequented routes
leading to the oasis of Amon.

From a photograph by Beato.

Two thousand and seventy-five Libyans were left upon the ground that day, two thousand and fifty-two perished in other engagements, while two thousand and thirty-two, both male and female, were made prisoners. These were almost irreparable losses for a people of necessarily small numbers, and if we add the number of those who had succumbed in the disaster of six years before, we can readily realise how discouraged the invaders must have been, and how little likely they were to try the fortune of war once more. Their power dwindled and vanished almost as quickly as it had arisen; the provisional cohesion given to their forces by a few ambitious chiefs broke up after their repeated defeats, and the rudiments of an empire which had struck terror into the Pharaohs, resolved itself into its primitive elements, a number of tribes scattered over the desert. They were driven back beyond the Libyan mountains; fortresses* guarded the routes they had previously followed, and they were obliged henceforward to renounce any hope of an invasion _en masse_, and to content themselves with a few raiding expeditions into the fertile plain of the Delta, where they had formerly found a transitory halting-place. Counter-raids organised by the local troops or by the mercenaries who garrisoned the principal towns in the neighbourhood of Memphis--Hermopolis and Thinisl--inflicted punishment upon them when they became too audacious. Their tribes, henceforward, as far as Egypt was concerned, formed a kind of reserve from which the Pharaoh could raise soldiers every year, and draw sufficient materials to bring his army up to fighting strength when internal revolt or an invasion from without called for military activity.

* _The Great Harris Papyrus_ speaks of fortifications
erected in the towns of Anhûri-Shû, possibly Thinis, and of
Thot, possibly Hermopolis, in order to repel the tribes of
the Tihonu who were ceaselessly harassing the frontier.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken at Medinet-
Habu.

The campaign of the XIth year brought to an end the great military expeditions of Ramses III. Henceforward he never took the lead in any more serious military enterprise than that of repressing the Bedawin of Seîr for acts of brigandage,* or the Ethiopians for some similar reason. He confined his attention to the maintenance of commercial and industrial relations with manufacturing countries, and with the markets of Asia and Africa. He strengthened the garrisons of Sinai, and encouraged the working of the ancient mines in that region. He sent a colony of quarry-men and of smelters to the land of Atika, in order to work the veins of silver which were alleged to exist there.**

*The Sâîrû of the Egyptian texts have been identified with
the Bedawin of Seîr.

** This is the Gebel-Ataka of our day. All this district is
imperfectly explored, but we know that it contains mines and
quarries some of which were worked as late as in the time of
the Mameluk Sultans.

He launched a fleet on the Red Sea, and sent it to the countries of fragrant spices. The captains of the sailors were there, together with the chiefs of the _corvée_ and accountants, to provide provision for the people of the Divine Lands from the innumerable products of Egypt; and these products were counted by myriads. Sailing through the great sea of Qodi, they arrived at Pûântt without mishap, and there collected cargoes for their galleys and ships, consisting of all the unknown marvels of Tonûtir, as well as considerable quantities of the perfumes of Pûâtîn, which they stowed on board by tens of thousands without number. The sons of the princes of Tonûtir came themselves into Qîmit with their tributes. They reached the region of Coptos safe and sound, and disembarked there in peace with their riches. It was somewhere about Sau and Tuau that the merchants and royal officers landed, following the example of the expeditions of the XIIth and XVIIIth dynasties. Here they organised caravans of asses and slaves, which taking the shortest route across the mountain--that of the valley of Rahanû--carried the precious commodities to Coptos, whence they were transferred to boats and distributed along the river. The erection of public buildings, which had been interrupted since the time of Mînephtah, began again with renewed activity. The captives in the recent victories furnished the requisite labour, while the mines, the voyages to the Somali coast, and the tributes of vassals provided the necessary money. Syria was not lost sight of in this resumption of peaceful occupations. The overthrow of the Khâti secured Egyptian rule in this region, and promised a long tranquillity within its borders. One temple at least was erected in the country--that of Pa-kanâna--where the princes of Kharu were to assemble to offer worship to the Pharaoh, and to pay each one his quota of the general tribute. The Pulasati were employed to protect the caravan routes, and a vast reservoir was erected near Aîna to provide a store of water for the irrigation of the neighbouring country. The Delta absorbed the greater part of the royal subsidies; it had suffered so much from the Libyan incursions, that the majority of the towns within it had fallen into a condition as miserable as that in which they were at the time of the expulsion of the Shepherds. Heliopolis, Bubastis, Thmuis, Amû, and Tanis still preserved some remains of the buildings which had already been erected in them by Ramses; he constructed also, at the place at present called Tel el-Yahûdîyeh, a royal palace of limestone, granite, and alabaster, of which the type is unique amongst all the structures hitherto discovered. Its walls and columns were not ornamented with the usual sculptures incised in stone, but the whole of the decorations--scenes as well as inscriptions--consisted of plaques of enamelled terra-cotta set in cement. The forms of men and animals and the lines of hieroglyphs, standing out in slight relief from a glazed and warm-coloured background, constitute an immense mosaic-work of many hues. The few remains of the work show great purity of design and an extraordinary delicacy of tone.

All the knowledge of the Egyptian painters, and all the technical skill of their artificers in ceramic, must have been employed to compose such harmoniously balanced decorations, with their free handling of line and colour, and their thousands of rosettes, squares, stars, and buttons of varicoloured pastes.*

* This temple has been known since the beginning of the
nineteenth century, and the Louvre is in possession of some
fragments from it which came from Salts collection; it was
rediscovered in 1870, and some portions of it were
transferred by Mariette to the Boulaq Museum. The remainder
was destroyed by the fellahîn, at the instigation of the
enlightened amateurs of Cairo, and fragments of it have
passed into various private collections. The decoration has
been attributed to Chaldoan influence, but it is a work
purely Egyptian, both in style and in technique.

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Beato.

The difficulties to overcome were so appalling, that when the marvellous work was once accomplished, no subsequent attempt was made to construct a second like it: all the remaining structures of Ramses III., whether at Memphis, in the neighbourhood of Abydos, or at Karnak, were in the conventional style of the Pharaohs. He determined, nevertheless, to give to the exterior of the Memnonium, which he built near Medinet-Habu for the worship of himself, the proportions and appearance of an Asiatic Migdol, influenced probably by his remembrance of similar structures which he had seen during his Syrian campaign. The chapel itself is of the ordinary type, with its gigantic pylons, its courts surrounded by columns--each supporting a colossal Osirian statue--its hypostyle hall, and its mysterious cells for the deposit of spoils taken from the peoples of the sea and the cities of Asia. His tomb was concealed at a distant spot in the Biban-el-Moluk, and we see depicted on its walls the same scenes that we find in the last resting-place of Seti I. or Ramses II., and in addition to them, in a series of supplementary chambers, the arms of the sovereign, his standards, his treasure, his kitchen, and the preparation of offerings which were to be made to him. His sarcophagus, cut out of an enormous block of granite, was brought for sale to Europe at the beginning of this century, and Cambridge obtained possession of its cover, while the Louvre secured the receptacle itself.

These were years of profound tranquillity. The Pharaoh intended that absolute order should reign throughout his realm, and that justice should be dispensed impartially within it.

There were to be no more exactions, no more crying iniquities: whoever was discovered oppressing the people, no matter whether he were court official or feudal lord--was instantly deprived of his functions, and replaced by an administrator of tried integrity. Ramses boasts, moreover, in an idyllic manner, of having planted trees everywhere, and of having built arbours wherein the people might sit in the shade in the open air; while women might go to and fro where they would in security, no one daring to insult them on the way. The Shardanian and Libyan mercenaries were restricted to the castles which they garrisoned, and were subjected to such a severe discipline that no one had any cause of complaint against these armed barbarians settled in the heart of Egypt. I have, continues the king, lifted up every miserable one out of his misfortune, I have granted life to him, I have saved him from the mighty who were oppressing him, and have secured rest for every one in his own town. The details of the description are exaggerated, but the general import of it is true. Egypt had recovered the peace and prosperity of which it had been deprived for at least half a century, that is, since the death of Mînephtah. The king, however, was not in such a happy condition as his people, and court intrigues embittered the later years of his life. One of his sons, whose name is unknown to us, but who is designated in the official records by the nickname of Pentaûîrît, formed a conspiracy against him. His mother, Tîi, who was a woman of secondary rank, took it into her head to secure the crown for him, to the detriment of the children of Queen Isît. An extensive plot was hatched in which scribes, officers of the guard, priests, and officials in high place, both natives and foreigners, were involved. A resort to the supernatural was at first attempted, and the superintendent of the Herds, a certain Panhûibaûnû, who was deeply versed in magic, undertook to cast a spell upon the Pharaoh, if he could only procure certain conjuring books of which he was not possessed. These were found to be in the royal library. He managed to introduce himself under cover of the night into the harem, where he manufactured certain waxen figures, of which some were to excite the hate of his wives against their husband, while others would cause him to waste away and finally perish. A traitor betrayed several of the conspirators, who, being subjected to the torture, informed upon others, and these at length brought the matter home to Pentaûîrît and his immediate accomplices. All were brought before a commission of twelve members, summoned expressly to try the case, and the result was the condemnation and execution of six women and some forty men. The extreme penalty of the Egyptian code was reserved for Pentaûîrît, and for the most culpable,--they died of themselves, and the meaning of this phrase is indicated, I believe, by the appearance of one of the mummies disinterred at Deîr el-Baharî.* The coffin in which it was placed was very plain, painted white and without inscription; the customary removal of entrails had not been effected, but the body was covered with a thick layer of natron, which was applied even to the skin itself and secured by wrappings.

* The translations by Dévéria, Lepage-Renouf, and Erman
agree in making it a case of judicial suicide: there was
left to the condemned a choice of his mode of death, in
order to avoid the scandal of a public execution. It is also
possible to make it a condemnation to death in person, which
did not allow of the substitution of a proxy willing, for a
payment to his family, to undergo death in place of the
condemned; but, unfortunately, no other text is to be found
supporting the existence of such a practice in Egypt.