The History of Antiquity Volume I Part 9

CHAPTER VI.

THE HOUSE OF RAMSES.

The Greeks inform us that Sesostris, or Sesosis, was the greatest warrior among the kings of Egypt. Herodotus was told by the priests that he was the first who set out with s.h.i.+ps of war from the Arabian Gulf, and reduced the dwellers by the Red Sea, until he was checked by waters which were too shallow for navigation. On his return from this expedition, Sesostris, as the priests said, gathered together a great army, invaded the continent, and reduced every nation in his path. In the conquered lands he set up pillars, on which were inscribed his name and country, and that he had reduced the nation by his power. Wherever he found but little resistance he also caused female emblems to be engraved on the pillars. "So he pa.s.sed from Asia into Europe, and reduced the Scythians and Thracians. Beyond these the Egyptian army did not, in my opinion, pa.s.s; for in the country of the Thracians the pillars of Sesostris are found, but not farther. The greater number of these pillars are no longer in existence; yet in Syrian Palestine I have myself seen them with the inscriptions and emblems. In Ionia also there are two images of this king hewn in the rock, one on the way from Ephesus to Phocaea, the other on the way from Sardis to Smyrna. At both places there is the figure of a man, 4-1/2 cubits high, with a spear in the right hand and a bow in the left, armed partly as an Egyptian and partly as an Ethiopian. Across the breast, from one shoulder to the other, run Egyptian sacred letters, saying: 'I have conquered this land with my arms.' Who he is and from whence he comes, Sesostris does not tell us here, but on the other pillars. When Sesostris returned, he brought with him many prisoners from the tribes, and his brother, to whom Sesostris had entrusted Egypt, gave him a hospitable reception at Pelusium. But round the house in which Sesostris was with his wife and children he caused wood to be heaped, and set on fire. Then the queen cried out to Sesostris to take two of her six sons, throw them on the burning wood, and pa.s.s over their bodies as over a bridge. This was done. The two sons were burnt, but the others with their father escaped.

After taking revenge on his brother, Sesostris employed the ma.s.ses of prisoners in drawing enormous stones to the temple of Hephaestus, and in digging all the ca.n.a.ls which now intersect Egypt. By these the land, hitherto an open field for chariots and horses, was made less accessible. The king's object in making them was that the cities which were not on the river should have more water at the time when the floods were not out. Then Sesostris is said to have divided the arable land of Egypt into equal rectangular portions, and to have allotted to every man an equal portion. And if the inundation washed away any part of this allotment, the king returned the owner a corresponding part of his tax.

Sesostris was the only king of Egypt who also ruled over Ethiopia. As a memorial of his reign, he left six large statues before the temple of Hephaestus--images of himself, his wife, and his four sons; the two first are thirty, the four last twenty cubits high. Long after, when Darius wished to place his own statue in front of these, the priest of Hephaestus forbade him, because Darius had not achieved such mighty deeds as Sesostris. He had reduced the Scythians, whom Darius had failed to reduce. This indignity, they say, Darius pardoned."[204]

Diodorus a.s.sures us that Sesostris had surpa.s.sed the greatest and most glorious deeds of his predecessors. "But inasmuch as not only the Greek writers are far from agreeing in their accounts of this king, but even the Egyptian priests, and those who sing of his deeds are at variance, we shall attempt to give the most probable account and that which is most in agreement with the monuments still existing in Egypt." When Sesosis was born, his father gathered together all the boys born on the same day, more than 1700 in number, and caused them to be brought up in the same manner as his own son, in the impression that they would thus become his most loyal and bravest comrades in battle. With these companions he first despatched him against the Arabs, and Sesosis subjugated the whole country of the Arabs, which no one had ever subjugated before. In the next place, his father sent him against the tribes in the west, and Sesosis, although still quite young, subjugated a great part of Libya. On the death of his father, Sesosis, relying on the results of previous campaigns, formed the resolution of subjugating the whole earth. Having gained the good will of the Egyptians by gentleness, remission of punishments, and presents, he gathered together a great army of the mightiest men, an army of 600,000 infantry, 24,000 cavalry, and 27,000 chariots. The various divisions of this great host he placed under the command of those who had been educated with him, to whom at the same time he allotted the most fruitful lands in Egypt. With this host Sesosis first reduced the Ethiopians, who dwelt in the south, and imposed upon them a tribute of gold, ebony, and ivory. Then he sent a fleet of four hundred s.h.i.+ps into the Red Sea--he was the first Egyptian to build s.h.i.+ps of war--and by means of these he subjugated to his dominion all the islands and sea-coasts, as far as India. Meanwhile he marched out in person with his army, and reduced the whole of Asia.

He crossed the Ganges and pa.s.sed through India to the ocean. Then he subjugated the nations of Scythia as far as the Tanais, which divides Europe and Asia. In the same manner he reduced the rest of Asia, and then pa.s.sed into Europe. But in Thrace he was in great danger of losing his army through want of food and the severity of the climate. So he put an end to the campaign in Thrace, after erecting pillars at many places in the countries he had subjugated. On these was engraved, in the character which the Egyptians called sacred, the following inscription:--"This land Sesosis, the king of kings and lord of lords, conquered with his arms." At some places also he set up his own statue in stone, with a bow and lance, four cubits and four hands high, for this was his own height. After completing these campaigns in nine years, Sesosis returned with his prisoners and untold spoil. When at Pelusium, his brother formed a plan for his destruction. He invited Sesosis to a banquet, and in the night, when all were asleep after their wine, he heaped up reeds round the king's tent and set them on fire. When the flames suddenly sprang up, the retinue, heavy with wine, could render little service, but Sesosis lifted up his hands and besought the G.o.ds to save his wife and children, and with them he happily escaped from the flames. In grat.i.tude for this rescue he honoured the G.o.ds with dedicatory statues, more especially the G.o.d Hephaestus, as it was by him that he was saved. In his temple at Memphis he placed statues of himself and his wife, monoliths of thirty cubits high, and also statues of his four sons, twenty cubits in height. The princes whom he placed over the conquered nations, or allowed to retain their thrones, came with presents to Egypt at the appointed time. Sesosis received them with honour and distinction. But whenever he went into a temple or a city he caused his horses to be unyoked from his chariot, and in their place the princes and rulers were yoked four abreast, in order to show to all that he was the mightiest and had conquered the bravest, so that no one was his equal in valour. Having ended his wars, Sesosis began to erect great works for his own glory and the security of Egypt. In every city he erected a temple to the divinity chiefly wors.h.i.+pped there. On these works no Egyptian was employed; they were entirely completed by his prisoners. Moreover, for the cities which lay too low Sesosis caused many large dams to be made, to which he transferred the cities, so that they were secure from the inundations of the Nile. From Memphis downwards he carried a number of ca.n.a.ls through the whole land, partly to facilitate commerce, partly to make invasion more difficult to the enemy. Up to this time the best part of Egypt was an open field for the movements of cavalry and chariots; after this it became almost impa.s.sable, owing to the number of ca.n.a.ls. In addition the king built a wall 1,500 stades in length, from Pelusium to Heliopolis, as a security against inroads from Syria and Arabia. To the G.o.d held in chief honour at the city of Thebes he presented a s.h.i.+p of cedar wood, 280 cubits in length, of which the visible part was overlaid on the inside with silver and on the outside with gold, and in his honour he also erected two obelisks of hard stone, 120 cubits high, on which he caused to be inscribed the greatness of his power, the number of the subjugated nations, and the amount of his income. When he had reigned thirty-three years his eyesight began to fail, and he voluntarily put an end to his own life. Many generations after, when Darius wished to set up his own image in front of Sesosis, the high priest forbade him in the a.s.sembly of priests, and explained that Darius had not surpa.s.sed the deeds of Sesosis. So far from being enraged, Darius was pleased at his freedom, and said that he would henceforth make it his object, should an equal length of life be given him, to fall below Sesosis in no respect.[205]

Strabo says: Sesostris appears first of all to have conquered the land of the Ethiopians and Troglodytes; on the coast of the Arabian Gulf, between the harbour of the Protectress and the Elephant-hunt, there stood on a hill a temple built by Sesostris in honour of Isis. He succeeded in reaching the land of cinnamon, where pillars and inscriptions are shown as monuments of his campaign. Then he crossed over to Arabia, and it is said that in the narrow part of Ethiopia towards Arabia, on the promontory of Dire, there was a pillar giving an account of his crossing. From Arabia he went on to invade the whole of Asia, and even forced his way into Europe. In many places ramparts and temples of the Egyptian style are shown as the work of Sesostris. In Egypt he undertook the construction of a ca.n.a.l from the Nile into the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea.[206]

When Germanicus, the son of Drusus, travelled in Egypt, he saw large remains of ancient Thebes. On the mighty walls, so Tacitus continues, the Egyptian inscriptions still remained, telling of their former magnificence. One of the older priests was bidden to translate the Egyptian inscriptions, and he informed them that once there had been 700,000 men of military age in the kingdom, and with this army Ramses had subjugated Libya and Ethiopia, the Medes, Persians, Bactrians, and Scythians, and in addition to these had ruled over the lands from the Bithynian to the Lycian Seas, which are inhabited by the Syrians, the Armenians, and their neighbours, the Cappadocians. The amount of tribute also imposed upon the nations was read, the weight of silver and gold, the number of weapons and horses, the presents of ivory and frankincense for the temples, and how much each nation had to contribute in corn and goods--an amount no less than that which is now imposed by the power of the Parthians or the Romans.[207]

Josephus, on the authority of Manetho's Egyptian History, tells us that Sethosis, who was called Ramesses, possessed a great force in cavalry and s.h.i.+ps. After leaving his brother Armais as governor of Egypt, and placing the royal power in his hands,--with the restrictions that he was not to wear the crown, or do any injury to the queen-mother and her children, or approach the king's concubines,--he marched against Cyprus and the Phenicians, and afterwards against the a.s.syrians and the Medes, and subjugated them all, some by his arms, others by the fear of his great power. Fired with ambition by these successes, he pressed boldly onward to reduce the cities and lands of the east. Thus his absence was prolonged, and his brother Armais, without the least shame, disregarded all the restrictions laid upon him. He violated the queen, lay with the concubines of the king, allowed himself to be persuaded by his friends into wearing the crown, and rebelled against his brother. But the person who was in authority over the sanctuaries of Egypt wrote to the king and disclosed all that his brother had done against him. Sethosis at once turned back to Pelusium, and established himself again in possession of the dominion which belonged to him.[208]

Thus, according to the accounts of Tacitus and Josephus, the warrior whom Herodotus, Diodorus, and Strabo call Sesostris or Sesosis, was known to the Egyptians as Ramses, Ramesses, or Sethosis. Let us now inquire whether the monuments present us with princes and achievements which confirm the narratives of the Greeks, the account of Manetho, and the evidence of Tacitus. According to these it may be a.s.sumed that Horus (Hor, 1455-1443 B.C.) whom the sculptures of a temple hewn in the rock in the valley of the Nile at Selseleh represent as a conqueror over the negroes,[209] was succeeded by Ramses I. (1443-1439 B.C.) who was followed by Sethos I. (1439-1388 B.C.). Of him we are told in the inscriptions on the outer wall of the great colonnade which he erected at Karnak (p. 169) that in the first year of his reign he had attacked the Schasu, from the fortress of Tar as far as Kanana;[210] his holiness had startled them like a lion, and made a great slaughter. On a mountain fortress to which the defeated enemy fled is read, "Fortress of the land of Kanana (Canaan)." After this there were expeditions against the Schasu, and the tribute which they paid to Sethos is mentioned. The Schasu are the nomad tribes in the desert between Egypt and Canaan, which had previously conquered and ruled over Egypt. The inscriptions also remark that Sethos had twice desolated the land of Cheta with fire, and had taken Kadeshu (Kades).[211] The Cheta are the Chittim, or Hitt.i.tes, who possessed the south of Canaan. Then the sculptures represent the victory of the king over the Retennu, _i.e._ over the tribes of Syria, and inscriptions celebrate the victories which Sethos had gained over the "nine nations,"[212] _i.e._ over all the nations bordering on Egypt. On the Upper Nile also Sethos had fought and established his dominion, as is proved by the ruins of a temple on Mount Sese in Dongola above the buildings of Amenophis II. and III. at Soleb.[213] The representations of the achievements of Sethos at Karnak are brought to a close by the victorious return of the king with "innumerable" prisoners and rich booty, and by two enormous figures of the king, in each of which he is holding nine prisoners. The list of the conquered nations first mentions the tribes of Cush, _i.e._ of the south; then follow the Schasu, the Cheta, and Naharina (the inhabitants of Mesopotamia), and last of all the "Punt," _i.e._ the tribes of Arabia. These names are followed by the observation;--"This is the list of the nations of the south and the north, which his holiness has subdued: the number of prisoners conveyed into the temple of Ammon Ra cannot be given."[214] From these monuments we gather that Sethos carried on a number of successful campaigns which begin with battles against the nomad tribes on the eastern borders of Egypt, then extend to the south and north of Syria, and finally to Mesopotamia, while in the other direction he reduced the tribes of Arabia, and carried the sway of Egypt beyond Dongola, farther to the south than before.

Sethos was followed by his son Ramses II. (1388-1322 B.C.).[215] We learnt from Herodotus that Sesostris had set up pillars in the conquered lands in remembrance of his campaigns: in Syrian Palestine Herodotus had himself seen such pillars, and in Ionia there were two figures of this king hewn in the rock. As a fact a rock half way between Smyrna and Sardis to this day presents a relief of an armed warrior. In style and att.i.tude it is certainly not Egyptian, and therefore cannot have been the work of a Pharaoh. On the other hand, the rocks on the Phenician coast which run into the sea at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb, near the ancient Berytus, the modern Beyrout, have Egyptian sculptures upon them.

These are three figures of Ramses II. In one he is carrying an enemy into the presence of Ammon. In the two others he is striking down an enemy before the G.o.ds Ptah and Ra. Though to a great extent destroyed, the inscriptions still show that the achievements, of which these sculptures are intended to immortalise the memory, belonged to the second and fourth year of Ramses II. His arms had therefore reached the coast of Phenicia, northward of Tyre and Sidon, and he maintained his ground so far or so long, that he could set up this memorial of his victory. In the ruins of a temple built or restored by Ramses at Tanis (San), we find an inscription which ascribes to him the subjugation of the land of Kaft, _i.e._ of Phenicia, of Nebinai, which is explained to be Cyprus, and lastly of the Upper Retennu, _i.e._ of eastern Syria.[216] Inscriptions on the building of Ramses II. at Karnak, near Medinet Habu (the so-called Ramesseum), and in his rock temple at Abu Simbel in Nubia, inform us that he again fought in Syria in the fifth year of his reign. Eighteen nations, tribes, or cities are mentioned which were opposed to the Egyptians. Here, also, the Cheta, _i.e._ the Hitt.i.tes, are first mentioned, then the Karkisa (perhaps the Girgasites),[217] Kadeshu (Kades, either Kadesh Barnea in the south, or Kadesh in the north of Canaan), Aratu (Aradus), Chirbu (perhaps Chelbon, Aleppo), Kirkamisha (Karchemish), and Naharina (Mesopotamia). At Kadesh Ramses was victorious and thence he returned to Egypt.[218] In the eighth year of his reign he was again in Canaan. He took Maram (Merom), Dapurr (perhaps Debir), in the land of the Amari (Amorites), and Salam,[219] and on the walls of the Ramesseum, as also on a large memorial stone in the ruins of Karnak, there is a treaty of the twenty-first year of Ramses II., between "Ramses, the son of the great prince Sethos the brave, the son of the great prince Ramses I." and "Chetasar (_i.e._, the prince of the Cheta), son of the great prince Maursar the brave, son of the great prince Sepalulu." It is concluded "on good terms for eternal peace and friends.h.i.+p, that this may be a beginning for all eternity according to the intention of the great king of Egypt." After reference to former treaties, the great king of the Cheta pledges himself never to invade Egypt to inflict injury, and a similar promise is made by Ramses. Both kings are to send back those of their subjects who wish to take service with the other. Either is to help the other when attacked by enemies. The treaty is ratified by oaths on either side; and Sutech (Baal) appears as the tutelary G.o.d of the Cheta.[220]

Such is the information we can gain from monuments of the achievements of Ramses II. in Syria. His campaigns in the south appear to have been attended by more important results. Sculptures in the temple at Abu Simbel display the king sitting on his chariot, and leading back as prisoners red figures, which here are probably Nubians, and negroes with ropes round their necks: both tribes have no other garments but the skins of wild animals. In another temple hewn in the rock of the western bank at Beth-el-Walli, a little above Syene, we see Ramses II. standing alone upon his war chariot, rus.h.i.+ng with drawn bow on a crowd of negroes, who are armed with very long bows, but clothed only with skins.

They fall before the horses of the king. Thus defeated, they fly to their villages, which lie in a valley shadowed by cocoa-palms, in the tops of which apes are climbing. Women and children come forth in distress to meet the fugitives. The prisoners and the booty are brought before the king, chieftains in fetters, and negroes carrying elephants'

tusks and ebony; others lead lions, panthers, antelopes, gazelles, ostriches, and a giraffe, the animal of Central Africa.[221] Besides this Ramses II. founded the furthest monument of Egyptian dominion up the stream of the Nile, so that he must have ruled further to the south than his father Sethos. Beyond Soleb, under the steep spur of Mount Barkal, 400 miles or more above Syene, lie the ruins of a temple which Ramses built in honour of Ammon.[222] Symbolical representations of the temple already mentioned at Abu Simbel on the right and left of the entrance collect all the victories which Ramses won. Before the G.o.d Ammon, who hands to the king the scythe of battle, Ramses is brandis.h.i.+ng his club upon a crowd of kneeling enemies, whom he has seized by the forelock. Among these are three negroes, three red and beardless men, and four forms which are yellow and bearded. Ammon speaks thus: "I give thee the scythe, slay with it; I give thee the south for subjection, and the north for conquest, and to put to flight all the tribes of the perverse nations, and to extend the fabric of thy dominion to the pillars of the sky."[223]

On this evidence we find that the narratives of the Greeks of the deeds of Sesostris, with whom tradition has amalgamated Sethos and Ramses II., and also Manetho's account of the exploits of Ramses, and what the priest read about them to Germanicus at Thebes, are all violent exaggerations. Of the battles in the north-east and in Asia, we find in the inscriptions only the battles fought by Sethos against the shepherds, between Egypt and Syria, against the Schasu, against the Hitt.i.tes, against the Retennu, and finally a campaign to Mesopotamia, or at least battles against princes of the Euphrates. Of Ramses II. we find that he forced his way as far as Berytus in Syria, and fought against Syrian tribes and cities, with whom Karchemish on the Euphrates, and other princes of the Euphrates (Naharina) are said to have been united.

Even as early as Tuthmosis I. and III., and Amenophis III., the inscriptions mention campaigns to Mesopotamia. They tell us that Tuthmosis III. forced his way into the interior of Mesopotamia, and enumerate the regions which he compelled to pay tribute. With regard to Ramses II. the monuments prove no more than that he temporarily reduced Syria, including the Phenician cities and the island of Cyprus, which was probably already dependent upon them. The subsequent battles and the treaty of Ramses II. with the Cheta, prove how slight were the successes so highly extolled in the inscriptions. If the Hitt.i.tes were never reduced to obedience, all the more distant campaigns into Syria, and all attempts against Mesopotamia had only a momentary result, and could hardly have been more than mere raids. In the inscriptions, every Pharaoh, from Amosis onward, is found fighting against the same nations, the Schasu, the Cheta, the Retennu, the Punt, the Cus.h.i.+tes, &c., and each time we are a.s.sured that the "eight" or "nine nations," "the lands of the north and south," the earth from one end to the other has been subdued. It is by no means remarkable that the recollections of the campaigns of the third Tuthmothis and Amenophis, of the achievements of Sethos, and of Ramses II. and of Ramses III., of which we have still to speak, supported as they were by the flattery and exaggeration of the inscriptions, should combine in the tradition of the Egyptians into a monarch who subdued the whole earth, of whom certain accounts and these, as Diodorus says, by no means accordant, pa.s.sed to the Greeks. And Diodorus observes expressly that these contradictions were not due to the Greeks, but to the Egyptian priests and those who sang of the exploits of Sesostris.

As we have seen, this tradition lays especial weight on the achievements of Sesostris in Ethiopia, in the Red Sea, and in Arabia. Herodotus tells us that the priests a.s.sured him that the king--at first sailing with s.h.i.+ps of war out of the Arabian Gulf--had subjugated the inhabitants of the Red Sea. He was, they said, the only king who had ruled at once over Egypt and Ethiopia. In Diodorus we find that he first reduces the whole of Arabia, which had never before been conquered, and the greater part of Libya, and the Ethiopians in the south of Egypt.

Afterwards he--first of the Egyptians--built s.h.i.+ps of war, and sent them into the Red Sea, and with these reduced all the coasts and islands as far as India. In Strabo Sesostris first marches against Ethiopia, forces his way as far as the land of Cinnamon, then crosses the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, reduces Arabia, and commences the digging of a ca.n.a.l from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf. The monuments confirm the statement that Sethos fought with the Punt, _i.e._ the Arabs, that he pushed farther than his predecessors into the territory of the negroes, and that Ramses II. (in whose reign the monuments mention governors of Ethiopia)[224]

established a lasting supremacy as far as Mount Barkal.

Thus it is established that the dominion of Egypt under Ramses II.

extended beyond Nubia and Dongola, and reached the territory of the negroes, while at the same time the tribes of the Arabian peninsula may have been to a great extent reduced to pay tribute; and from this we may draw the conclusion that the attention of Sethos and Ramses was mainly directed to these regions. The products which they could obtain by tribute or by trade with these tribes--slaves, gold, ebony, ivory, frankincense, spices, gum--were of great value for Egypt, and s.h.i.+ps of war were needed both to keep in submission the tribes which may have been subjugated on the coasts of Arabia, and to maintain the trading stations settled on the east coast of Africa. For the fleet of Ramses Herodotus refers to the evidence of the priests. Such a fleet is, as a fact, exhibited on the monuments of Ramses III., and the tradition of the Hebrews tells us of trading s.h.i.+ps which, about the year 1000 B.C., sailed from Elath out of the Arabian Sea, and reached the mouth of the Indus, no doubt on routes the Egyptian trade had already laid down to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and the southern coast of Arabia. In connection with these efforts, directed towards the establishment of trade and authority on the Arabian Sea, it seems intelligible that Sethos and his son Ramses should have entertained the idea of establis.h.i.+ng a water communication between the Nile and this sea, and should have actually commenced the work. Remains of a ca.n.a.l, beginning on the Nile at Bubastis, above the city, ran through the valley of Tumilat, a depression of the Arabian hills towards the east, in the direction of the Lake of Crocodiles and the Bitter Lakes. On these remains at Tel-el-Kebir and Abu Kesheb are the ruins of Egyptian buildings. At the second place an image of Ramses II. has been found, wors.h.i.+pping Tum and Ammon. We may a.s.sume that the ruins at Tel-el-Kebir are those of the city of Pithom (Patumos, _pa-tum_, _i.e._ habitation of Tum), which we learn from Herodotus lay on this ca.n.a.l, and those at Abu Kesheb are the ruins of the city of Ramses (_pa-rameses_), names preserved to us in the tradition of the Hebrews, and that Sethos and Ramses II. had built both these cities.[225] The Hebrews, whose forefathers had broken off from the Edomites, the settlers on Mount Seir, which runs from the north-east point of the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, and pastured their flocks on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile under Egyptian protection, have a tradition that it was they who were compelled to build Pithom and Ramses for the Pharaoh. The ca.n.a.l remained unfinished; at that time it apparently reached only to the Lake of Crocodile. Seven hundred years later Necho carried it as far as the Bitter Lakes; it was finished by King Darius and the Ptolemies, who completed what the Pharaohs were unable to carry out.

The tradition of the mighty deeds of Sesostris in Asia contradicts itself in the most glaring manner, inasmuch as it likewise tells us that he dug a number of ca.n.a.ls from Memphis downwards to the sea, in order to fortify the land and make the approach difficult for enemies. The eastern side of Egypt also he fortified against the inroads of Arabians and Syrians, by building a wall of about 1,500 stades long through the desert from Pelusium to Heliopolis. And the inscriptions on the building of Sethos at Karnak are believed to tell us that this prince had erected "the double walls against the lands of the impure."[226] No line of fortification was required against the nomads on the eastern border, if these were sufficiently held in check by the Egyptian arms, or had been thoroughly subjugated. This great fortification which pa.s.sed beyond the protecting arm of the Nile from Bubastis in a slanting direction through the desert, from the sea to Heliopolis, along a line of about 1,500 stades, may very likely have been connected with the making of the ca.n.a.l. The trade on the ca.n.a.l would be protected against predatory attacks, and the territory rescued from the desert by its construction, and the cities adjacent would be protected. The city which Ramses built on the ca.n.a.l and named by his own name apparently belonged to those fortifications. It was a border fortress against the desert and the attacks of Syrian tribes.

Of Menephta, _i.e._ beloved of Ptah (1322-1302 B.C.), the son and successor of Ramses II., Josephus, following Manetho, gives us the following account:--"Like Horus, who had been king before him, Menephta desired to see the G.o.ds. This wish he confided to a wise prophet, the son of Papius. The prophet told him that he would see the G.o.ds if he cleared the whole land of leprous and unclean persons. Then the king collected out of Egypt all who were diseased in their bodies, to the number of 80,000, and threw them into the stone quarries east of the Nile, that they might labour there along with the other Egyptians condemned to similar toil. But as among the diseased persons were certain men of learning and priests who had been attacked by leprosy, the son of Papius feared the anger of the G.o.ds would descend upon himself and the king if holy men were forced into slavish tasks, and he foresaw that others would come to the aid of these impure persons, and rule over Egypt for thirteen years. He did not venture to tell this to the king, but wrote it down, and then put an end to his own life. Filled with anxiety, when the lepers had suffered long enough in the stone quarries, the king gave them Avaris, the city abandoned by the shepherds, as a refuge and protection. But according to the old mythology this city belonged to Typho. When the unclean persons came to Avaris, and were in possession of a centre to support any disaffection, they chose Osarsiph, one of the priests at Heliopolis, as their leader, and swore to obey him in everything. The first law he gave them was to offer prayer to no G.o.d, and to abstain from no animal held sacred in Egypt, but to sacrifice them all and eat them, and to hold communion with none but those who had taken the oath. After giving these and many other laws, diametrically opposed to the Egyptian customs, Osarsiph bade them fortify the city, and arm themselves against Menephta, while he took counsel with certain priests and infected persons, and sent an emba.s.sy to Jerusalem, to the shepherds driven out by Tuthmosis. He told them what an outrage had been done to him and his a.s.sociates, and called on them to march against Egypt with the same intentions as himself.

Avaris, the city of their forefathers, would first open its gates to them and give freely whatever they needed, and whenever necessary he would fight at their head and easily subdue the land for them. Delighted at the message, the shepherds all set out with eagerness, about 200,000 strong, and were soon in Avaris. When Menephta heard of their approach, he was seized with alarm, for he bethought him of the prophecy of the son of Papius. It is true he gathered together about 300,000 of the flower of the Egyptian army, but when the enemy met him, he would not join battle, fearing to fight against the G.o.ds. After taking counsel with his officers, he gave orders for the sacred animals, which were held in especial honour, to be brought to him, and bade the priests secure the images of the G.o.ds with the greatest care; and when he had placed his son Sethos, now five years old, in security with a friend, he turned back to Memphis. Then he took Apis and the other sacred animals, which the priests had brought to Memphis, with him, and retired with his army and the bulk of the Egyptians to Ethiopia. The king of Ethiopia, who was under a debt of grat.i.tude to Menephta, received him and the mult.i.tude with him, provided for the Egyptians, and allotted them cities and villages sufficient to support them for the thirteen years, and caused the Ethiopian army to keep watch on the borders of Egypt. But the men of Jerusalem and the unclean invaded Egypt, and displayed such impious rage against the Egyptians, that to those who witnessed their wickedness their dominion seemed the worst of all. They were not content with burning cities and villages, with plundering the sanctuaries, and destroying the images of the G.o.ds, they even compelled the priests and prophets to sacrifice and strangle the sacred animals, and then they thrust them naked out of the temples, and ate the animals if at all good for food. But in time Menephta returned with a great host from Ethiopia, and his son Ramses also with an army. Both attacked the unclean and the shepherds, and overcame them. Many they slew, and the rest they pursued as far as the borders of Syria. It is said that the priest who gave them their const.i.tution and laws, a native of Heliopolis, and called Osarsiph, from Osiris, the G.o.d wors.h.i.+pped there, changed his name from Osarsiph to Moses."[227]

From the tradition of the Hebrews we learn that their ancestors, after pasturing their flocks for a long time, under Egyptian protection, on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, in the land of Goshen, became weary of the task-work imposed upon them, and set forth out of Egypt, in order to feed their flocks in freedom in the peninsula of Sinai, to the east of the Dead Sea. The oppression of these shepherds by Egypt may, of course, be connected with the fortification of the border towards Syria, the construction of the ca.n.a.l, and the erection of the cities for trade, and the border fortresses on this ca.n.a.l. Accordingly there seems no reason to contest the tradition of the Egyptians that the exodus of the Hebrews took place under Menephta. That the Egyptian tradition regards these Hebrews as leprous and unclean Egyptians is of no importance. The cession of Avaris and invitation of the Hyksos is mere imagination, arising from the somewhat a.n.a.logous event of former times. The most improbable fact is the voluntary departure of Menephta to the allied king of the Ethiopians, and the abandonment of Egypt without a struggle to her fiercest foe. Under Ramses II., as we have seen, Ethiopia, as far as Mount Barkal, became an Egyptian province. Far more credible is the tradition of the Hebrews that the army of the Pharaoh met with a heavy reverse in the attempt to check the exodus of the Hebrews, and their union with the hostile tribes of the desert. It is possible that, in consequence of this disaster, a king was set up in opposition to Menephta, and that Menephta retired before him to Ethiopia, from whence he afterwards recovered Egypt. In the excerpt of Eusebius we find, after the name Menephta, a king Amenemes, and on the monuments Amenemessu, whose s.h.i.+elds, though chiselled out, can still be recognised.[228]

Of all these things the monuments of Menephta know nothing. On the contrary, a long inscription in the small court, on the southern wall of the temple at Karnak, tells us of a victory which Menephta had obtained over the Libyan tribes. These are the Lubu (Libyans), Maschawascha (who may be explained as the Maxyans, a tribe which, as Herodotus tells us, dwelt near Lake Triton, on the north coast of Africa), the Kesak, and from the "regions on the sea," the Tuirscha, Sakalascha, Schardaina, Akaiwascha, and Leku. They had crossed the western border and forced their way, not into the land only, but down to the river, and had pitched their camp in the territory of the city Paali. The king was obliged to protect the city of Tum and the sanctuary of Ptah Tatamen (perhaps Memphis). On the first of Epiphi--the year of the reign of Menephta was not given, or at any rate is not found now--a battle took place. Of the Lubu 6,359 were slain; of hands belonging to the Sakalascha 250 were counted, and 790 belonging to the Tuirscha. Fourteen pairs of horses were taken, belonging to the chief of the Leku and his sons, and 9,111 swords of the Maschawascha.[229]

Menephta was succeeded by Sethos II. and Menephta II. Then followed Ramses III. (1269-1244 _B.C._). The warlike exploits which this king has commemorated on his temple at Medinet Habu appear from the inscriptions to have been hardly inferior to those of Sethos I. and Ramses II. In the reliefs of this temple is seen an Egyptian fleet and the engagement with the s.h.i.+ps of the enemy. On a picture on a wall are collected all the campaigns of the king; the chiefs of the conquered tribes are represented by fourteen figures, and the accompanying hieroglyphics give us the names of their tribes. Two of these names are destroyed, and a third is illegible. The first figure is the chief of the "evil land of Cush." Two of the figures are negroes, and their tribes are mentioned.

Then follow the lord "of the hostile Schasu," _i.e._ the shepherds of the Syrian border, the "evil chief of the Cheta," against whom the inscription observes that he was taken alive, the "evil chief of the Amari" (Amorites), the sovereign of the Lubu (Libyans), the sovereign of the Maschawascha, the coast-land Tuirscha, the coast-land Schardaina, and the "lord of the hostile Zakkarj."[230] The first Menephta, as we have seen, had been compelled to fight against the Lubu, Maschawascha, Tuirscha, and Schardaina. The remaining figures prove that Ramses III.

carried on war on the Upper Nile against the Nubians and Negro tribes, and in the north-east he had to contend with the Schasu, _i.e._ the descendants of the Hyksos, the Hitt.i.tes, and the Amorites, the old enemies against whom his forefathers took the field. To these the Pulista, _i.e._ the Philistines, who are here mentioned for the first time, are added in a list of the nations reduced by the king in the eighth and ninth years of his reign, inscribed on the right wing of the gateway which leads into the second court of the temple. In the second court four pictures represent the achievements of the king in the fifth year of his reign against the Lubu (Libyans), and ten pictures on the outer side of the north wall give the achievements of the eighth and ninth years. First there is a great slaughter of the Temhu, apparently the general name under which the Egyptians comprehended the Libyan tribes. The enumeration of hands and members gives a total of 12,535 for each, and the scribe on the picture is taking this down. On the eighth picture the Egyptian s.h.i.+ps, with beaks ending in lions' heads, and mastheads manned by archers, are manoeuvring with sails and oars to thrust the enemy's s.h.i.+ps upon the sh.o.r.e, on which is drawn up the Egyptian army with arrows also directed against the hostile s.h.i.+ps. The inscriptions tell us that these are the s.h.i.+ps of the Zakkarj. At a fortress over which is written Magadil (Migdol?) the captive Zakkarj are brought before the king. This is on the ninth picture; on the tenth the king celebrates his return to Thebes.[231]

Ramses III. was followed by eleven kings of the same name (1244-1091 _B.C._). But the days of warlike expeditions were over. The inscriptions which have come down to us from these rulers only prove that their sovereignty was maintained over Nubia, and tell us of certain buildings which these princes also erected at Memphis.[232] Of Ramses XII. a memorial stone found in the temple of the moon-G.o.d Chunsu at Karnak--a deity to whom the house of Ramses paid especial honour--informs us that he elevated the daughter of the lord of the land of Buchten (or Bachtan) to be Queen of Egypt. When afterwards another daughter of the chief fell ill, he besought the king of Egypt for a wise man to cure her. The priest, whom Ramses sent, found the king's daughter possessed by a spirit, but he was too weak to contend with it. Then the chief of Buchten besought Ramses to send him a G.o.d to overcome the spirit. And Ramses sent the image of the G.o.d Chunsu from the temple at Thebes in a large boat, accompanied by five small boats and a chariot. The spirit gave way before the G.o.d, and the chieftain was in great joy, and refused to allow the G.o.d to return to Egypt, until in a dream he saw a golden hawk, which spread out its wings to fly to Egypt. On awaking he found himself seized by an illness. So he allowed the G.o.d to return to Egypt after he had kept him three years and nine months, and gave him many rich presents for the journey.[233]

FOOTNOTES:

[204] Herod. 2, 102-110.

[205] Diod. 1, 53, 58.

[206] Strabo, pp. 38, 686, 769, 770, 790, 804.

[207] Tac. "Annal." 2, 60.

[208] Joseph. "C. Apion." 1, 15; Euseb. "Arm." ed. Aucher, p. 230; "Sethos qui et Rameses."

[209] Brugsch, _loc. cit._ p. 124.

[210] Ebers, "aegypten," s. 78.

[211] Brugsch, _loc. cit._ p. 132.

[212] Rosell. "Mon. Stor." 3, 1, 320 ff.

[213] Brugsch, _loc. cit._ p. 136.

[214] Rosell. "Mon. Stor." 3, 1, 315 ff.; Bunsen, "aegypten," 4, 171; Brugsch, _loc. cit._ p. 128 ff.; cf. Brugsch, "Recueil," p. 59.

[215] The lists allow him a reign of 61, 66, or 68 years. According to a memorial-stone discovered by Mariette at Abydus he reigned 67 years; cf.

p. 160, note 1.

[216] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 373, and "Monatsberichte des Berl. Akad."

1866, s. 294, 297 ff.

[217] Gen. 10, 16; Joshua 24, 11.

[218] De Rouge, "Revue archeolog." 1867, 16, 36.

[219] Brugsch, _loc. cit._ pp. 145, 146.

[220] De Rouge, "Revue archeolog." 1866, 13, 269; Brugsch, "Hist.

d'Egypte," p. 147.

[221] Rosell. "Mon. Stor." 3, 2, 10-12, 24.

[222] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 239.

[223] Rosell. "Mon. Stor." 3, 2, 1, 93, 94.

[224] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 151.

[225] Herod. 2, 158; Aristot. "Metereol." 1. 14; Lepsius, "Chronolog."