and governors as far south as Thebes were compelled to become their vassals and pay tribute. 'Under one of our kings,' says a native writer of later days,[1] in a fragment that has been preserved, 'it came to pass that God was angry with us, and men came from the East, who subdued our country by force, though we never ventured on a battle with them. When they had gotten our governors under their power, they burnt down our cities and demolished the temples of the gods. Their king lived at Memphis, and made the upper and the lower country pay tribute, and he left garrisons in fitting places. He strengthened Avaris greatly, building walls around it and filling it with armed men. These people and their descendants kept possession of Egypt for 511 years.'
The Egyptians might well have said, to use their favourite phrase, 'Never had the like been seen since the days of Ra.' There had been wars on the frontiers, and there had been one
- ↑ Manetho, the Egyptian priest, who, in the days of the Ptolemies, wrote a history of his country in Greek. It is, unfortunately, lost, excepting his list of kings and dynasties, and a few fragments quoted by later writers.
