xnanicuB in A. d. 1 6, " was stricUj an historical and statistical document. Its dates are precise; and though we may be unable to identify the countries nam^, the exactness with which thej are enume- rated, with the weights and numbers of the objects which they bring, proves that we have before us an authentic record, at least of the tribute enjoined upon the nations." About this time the southern frontier of Egypt extended beyond the Second Cata- ract: to the west the power of Thothmes or Ra- meses reached over the negro tribes of the interior: the east was guarded by strong fortresses: while by the north tiie Egyptian monarch went forth as a conqueror, and, proceeding along the Syrian coast, passed into Asia Minor, and planted his standard on the frontiers of Persia, and upon the shores of the Caspian Sea. His campaigns required the coopera- tion of a fleet; and Egypt became, for the first time in history, a maritime power. It is probable in- deed that its navy was furnished by its subjects, the inhabitants of the coast of Western Asia. The period of time assigned to this dynasty is about two centuries and a hdf. Rameses III., there is every reason to think, is the Sesostris or Sesortasen of Herodotus and Diodorus. The names of the monarchs of the 18th dynasty are obtained from two important monuments, the Tablet of Abydos and the Tablet of Kamak. The 19th dynasty is probably a continuation of its predecessor, and its details are extremely con- fused and uncertain. The 20th was composed entirely of kings bearing tiie name of Rameses (Ra- meses IV. — ^XIII.), of whom Rameses IV. alone maintained the military renown of his illustrious precursors. The 21st is uninteresting. But in the 22nd we come upon the first ascertained synchro- nism with the annals of the Hebrews, 'and conse- quently at this point Egyptian chronology begins to blend with that of the general history of the world. There is no doubt that Abraham and his son visited ^STPt; that the Kile-vall^ had at one era a He- brew prime minister, who married a daughter of the high priest of Heliopolis; or that the most il- lustrious of the Hebrew monarchs maintained close political and commercial relations with Egypt, and allied himself witii its royal funily. But although the facts are certiun, the dates are vague. Now, however, in the 22nd dynasty, we can not only identify the Shishak who took and plundered Je- rusalem with the Sesonchis or Sesonchosis of the Greeks and the Sheshonk of the native monuments, but we can also assign to him contcmporaneily with Rehoboam, and fix the date of his capture of Jeru- salem to about the year b. c. 972. By the esta- blishment of the date of Sheshonk^s plundering of Jerusalem, we also come to the knowledge that the Pharaoh whose daughter was espoused to Solomon, and the sister of whose queen Tahpenes was, in the reign of David, married to Hadad the Edomite, was a monarch of the 2 1st dynasty (1 Kings^ ix. 16; xi. 19, seq.). Osorthen or Osorcho, Sheshonk's successor, is probably the Zerah of Scripture (2 Kings, xvii. 4. ; 2 Chron, xiv. 9). The Sesoetrid kingdom was now on the decline, and at the close of the 24th dynasty Egypt was subjugated by the Ethiopians, and three longs of that nation, Sdbaco, Sefnchot or Sevekos, and Tarhu, reigned for 44 years, and composed the 25th dynasty. Sevckos is obviously the Seva, king of Egypt, with wh(nn Hoshea, king of Israel, in B.C. |
while Tarkus is Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, the enemy of Assyria and Sennacherib {Iscuahj xxxviL 9). Herodotus indeed makes no mention of any Ethiopian king except Sabaco (Sebichos), who, according to his account, reigned for half a century, and then voluntarily withdrew into his own KubiaB dominions. (Herod, ii. 139.) The Aethiopian dynasty was the second foreign occupation of Egypt, but it differed materially from .the earlier usurpation of the land by the Hyksos. The 25th dynasty does not appear to have been regarded by the Egyp- tians themselves as a period of particular woe or oppression. The alliance between the country above and the oountiy below Elephantine and the Second Cataract was apparentiy, at all times, very close: the religion and manners of the adjoining kingdoms differed but little from one another: and the Aethio- pian sovereigns perhaps merely exchanged, during their tenure of Egypt, a less civilised for a mcare civilised realm. On the retuement of the Ethio- jnans, tiiere was an apparent re-action, since Sethos, a priest of Phtah, made himself master of the throne. His power seems to have been exercised tyrannically, if Herodotus (ii. 147) is correct in saying that after the death or deposition of this " priest of Hephaestos " the Egyptians were " set free." One important change, indicating a decay of the andoit constitution, occurred in this reign. The military caste was degraded, and the crown even attempted to deprive ^em of their lands. It is probable that this was a revolutionary phase common to all countries at certain eras. E|^^ had become in some degree a naval power. The com- mercial classes were rivalling in power the agricul- tural and mOitary, and the priest-king, for his own interests, took part with the former. Sethoe was succeeded (b. c. 700 — 670) by the dodecarchy, or twelve contemporaneous kings; whether this number were the result of convention, or whether the twelve reguliwerethe headsof the twelve Greater Names, can- not be ascertained. From the commencement of this period, however, we enter upon a definite chronology. Histoiy is composed of credible &cts, and the lists of the kings are conformable with the monuments. PsAHMETiCHUS I., who reigued 54 years, b. c. 671 — 61 7, supplanted the dodecarchy by the aid of Greek and Phoenician auxiliaries, and in Lower Egypt at least founded a cosmopolite kingdom, such as tiie Ptolemies established three centuries aft«r- wards. (Diod. i. 66; Herod, i. 171; Polyaen. StraL vii. 3.) His Ionian and Carian or Milesian auxilia- ries he settied in a district on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, between the Mediterranean and the Bubastite Nome; while the Phoenicians who had helped him to the throne were probably located near Memphis, in an allotmoit called tiie Tyrian camp. (Herod, ii. 112.) The native militia were now superseded by Hellenic regular soldiers, and a por- tion at least of the war-caste migrated, in dudgeon at this preference, to Aethiopia. Historians have too readily taken for granted that this was a ]iii> gration of the whole body of the Hermotybians and Calasirians. It was more probably a revolt of the southern garrisons on the Nubian frontier. In the roign of Psammetichus was also instituted the caste of interpreters or dragomans between the natives and foreigners; and it strikingly marks the decline of the ancient system that Psammetichus caused his own sons to bo instructed in the learning of the Greeks (Diod. i. 67). |
Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/60
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