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reigns of these kings were uneventful. During the reign of Thekeleth II. a rebellion broke out among the peoples to the south and north of Egypt, and it is stated that on the 25th of Mesori, in the fifteenth year of his reign, an eclipse of the moon took place. Shashanq III. made great gifts to the temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes. He reigned fifty-two years; and an Apis bull which had been born in his twenty-eighth year, died in the second year of the reign of his successor Pamȧi. During the reign of Shashanq IV. three Apis bulls died, the last in the thirty-seventh year of his reign.

THE TWENTY-THIRD DYNASTY.

Death of Apis bulls.

pian.

B.C.

766

Of the history of Peța-Bast, its first king, nothing is known from Egyptian monuments, and for the events of the reign of his successor, Usarken III., we have to rely upon the information supplied by a stele recording the invasion Conquest of Egypt and conquest of Egypt by Pianchi, king of Ethiopia. When by Pianchi the kings of Egypt sent to that country in the VIth dynasty, the Ethiono opposition was offered by the natives to their felling trees, but in the XIIth dynasty the Egyptians found it necessary to guard against them at the first cataract by lightly-armed, swift soldiers. From the XIIth to the XXth dynasty Egypt maintained her authority over Ethiopia, and her kings built magnificent temples there, and ruled the country by a staff of officers under the direction of the "Prince of Cush." In the unsettled times which followed the death of Rameses II., the Ethiopians saw that the power of Egypt to maintain her supremacy abroad was becoming less and less. For many years they paid their customary tribute to his feeble successors, but at the same time they looked forward to a time Defection when they could cast off the yoke of Egypt. They had adopted Egyptian civilization, the hieroglyphic form of writing, and the language and religion of Egypt; they seem to have wished to make a second Egypt in Ethiopia. When during the reigns of the kings of the XXIst and XXIInd dynasties they saw that the power of Egypt continued to decrease, they boldly resolved to found a kingdom of their own, and they chose Napata, now called Gebel Barkal, as the site of their capital. Brugsch thinks (Egypt under the

of Ethiopians.

Ethiopians

found a

kingdom.

Pianchi's

expedition

Pharaohs, 2nd ed., 1881, Vol. II., p. 235) that the founder of the kingdom was one of the descendants of Her-Heru, the priest-king of the XXIst dynasty, and he points out that many of them bore the name of Pianchi. Early in the eighth century before Christ Pi-ānchi was king of Napata, and his rule probably extended at least as far north as Thebes. In the twenty-first year of his reign news was brought to him that Tafnecht, prince of Saïs and Memphis, had revolted, that a league formed chiefly of governors of towns had placed him at its head, and that all Lower Egypt was in his hands. Pianchi at once sent troops against the rebels, and on their to Egypt. way down the Nile they met a number of soldiers belonging to the army of Tafnecht, and these they defeated. The Ethiopian troops seem not to have been unvaryingly successful, for it was necessary for Pianchi himself to come to Thebes; thence he marched to Hermopolis, which surrendered after a three days' siege. Nimrod, who had defended it, delivered up to Pianchi his wives, palace, horses and everything he had. Pianchi set out once more for the north, and every city opened its gates to him until he reached Memphis. Here he met with strong opposition, for Tafnecht had brought several thousands of soldiers into the city, and every part of the wall was guarded by them. Pianchi, Capture of however, brought his boats up to the very walls of the city, and after a vigorous assault captured it; there was a mighty slaughter, and it would seem that some thousands of men were slain. The rebel princes came in one by one, and tendered their submission to the Ethiopian, and thus Pianchi became master of Egypt. At Memphis, Heliopolis and Thebes he offered sacrifices to the great gods of Egypt, and no acts of wanton destruction of cities or buildings are recorded of him.

Thebes, Memphis and Saïs.

B.C.

733

Bocchoris

burnt alive.

THE TWENTY-FOURTII DYNASTY.

This dynasty is represented by a single king called Baken-ren-f (Bocchoris), who reigned but a very few years; many legends concerning him are extant in classical writers, but the Egyptian monuments scarcely mention him. According to Manetho he was burnt alive by Sabaco the first king of the XXVth dynasty.

THE TWENTY-FIFTH DYNASTY.

B.C.

700

Hoshea

The kings of this dynasty were Ethiopians, who following up the success of Pianchi, made themselves masters of all Alliance of Egypt. The first king, Shabaka, is known from the Egyptian and inscriptions to have beautified the temple of Karnak, and his Sabaco. name is found on many buildings there to which he made additions or repairs. He is best known as being the king of Egypt to whom Hoshea (2 Kings xvii. 4), having ceased to send his customary tribute to the king of Assyria, went for help. Some think that Shabaka (Hebrew Nio, which Schrader would point ) was not king of all Egypt, because Sargon, king of Assyria (B.C. 721-705) styles him simply shiltauna, "prince."1 Sabaco seems to have been known in Nineveh, for among the ruins of the palaces at Kouyunjik Egyptian were found two impressions from his seal or scarab, in which found at he appears wearing the crown of Lower Egypt; in his right Nineveh. hand he holds a stick or club, and he is in the act of slaughtering enemies. His cartouche stands above, together with his titles and the legend recording the speech of some god, “I give to thee all foreign lands." 2

་་

scarabs

Sabaco was succeeded by his son Shabataka, concerning whom the Egyptian inscriptions tell us very little. During the reign of this king Sargon of Assyria died, and was succeeded by Sennacherib, who within a few years set out to suppress the rebellion which had broken out in Syria and Phoenicia. The prince of Ekron, Padi, who had been set upon the throne by Sargon, was seized by a crowd of rebels, who had obtained help from Hezekiah, king of Judah, and Hezekiah, made prisoner; Hezekiah himself likewise appealed to the king of Egyptian king for assistance. Sennacherib marched on provokes Judæa, and at Altekeh he met the allied forces of Jews and of the Egyptians. The battle was short and decisive, the Assyrians Assyrians. were victorious, and Sennacherib having wasted the country with fire, and destroyed the towns, captured and plundered Defeat of Jerusalem, where Hezekiah had shut himself up "like a bird Hezekiah in a cage." Padi was restored to the throne of Ekron, and capture of Jerusalem.

1 See Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, 1883, p. 269. A full description of these fragments is given in the chapter on scarabs.

Judah,

the wrath

and

Assyrian army destroyed.

B.C.

693

Judæa became an Assyrian province. Sennacherib, hearing of the advance of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, determined to march on the Delta, and it was during this march that an epidemic broke out among his troops, and a catastrophe destroyed nearly all of them; he returned to Nineveh without having performed upon Hezekiah the vengeance which he had threatened. The ultimate failure of his expedition probably caused his sons to despise him, and shortly afterwards two of them, Adrammelech and Sharezer, smote him with the sword, and he died (2 Kings xix. 37). Shabataka reigned twelve years, and was put to death by Tirhakah, who succeeded him.

Taharqa, or Tirhakah, shortly after his accession to the throne, made an offensive and defensive alliance with Alliance of the Phoenicians under Baal king of Tyre, and probably also Hezekiah with the people of Cyprus; Hezekiah king of Judah also Tirhakah. joined in the league. Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib,

and

by Esarhaddon.

marched to Palestine by way of Beyrût, where on his return to Assyria he set up a memorial slab at the head of the Nahr el-Kelb side by side with those of Rameses II. Without difficulties other than those caused by thirst and heat his army marched into Egypt, and Tirhakah having fled, Capture of Memphis fell into the hands of the Assyrian king. From Memphis Memphis he marched to Thebes, and having plundered the city, and placed the rule of the whole country under twenty governors, some Assyrian, some Egyptian, he returned to Assyria laden with spoil. On the death of Esarhaddon, after a reign of thirteen years (B.C. 681-668), Tirhakah returned to Egypt and entered Memphis boldly; he drove out the Assyrians that were there, and openly attended the burial of an Apis bull in the twenty-fourth year of his reign. As soon Assurbani- as the news of the return of Tirhakah to Egypt reached pal's expe- Assurbanipal, the son of Esarhaddon, in Nineveh, he set out with his army for Egypt; he came up with the Egyptian troops at Karbanit, and completely defeated them, and Tirhakah, who had remained in Memphis, was obliged to flee to Thebes; when Assurbanipal followed him thither, he fled into Nubia. When the Assyrian king had reappointed governors over the chief towns of Egypt, and established

dition to

Egypt.

garrisons there, he returned to Nineveh. Soon after this Nikû, governor of Memphis, headed a rebellion against the Assyrian rule, but he was promptly sent to Nineveh in chains; Assurbanipal so far forgave him, that when he heard of new successes of Tirhakah in Egypt, he sent Nikû back to his country to rule over all Egypt under the direction of Assyria; soon after his arrival Tirhakah died. Tirhakah Tirhakah's built a large temple at Gebel Barkal, and restored temples in Nubia. buildings and other buildings at Thebes.

Rut-Amen, son of Sabaco (?), succeeded Tirhakah, and

in consequence of a dream, set out to regain for Ethiopia the rule over Egypt. Without very much difficulty he captured Thebes, and advanced on Memphis, where he was opposed by the Assyrian governor; in the fight which ensued RutAmen (the Urdamanah of Assurbanipal's inscriptions) was victorious, and again Memphis fell into the hands of the Ethiopians again Ethiopians. Once more Assurbanipal marched to Egypt, capture where he defeated Rut-Amen's army, and advanced on Memphis. Thebes, whither the rebel king had fled. Having arrived there, the sack and pillage of the city by the Assyrians followed. A stele found at Gebel Barkal relates that Nut-Åmen, a king "Stele of of Ethiopia, had a dream, in consequence of which he set out Dream." to regain the rule over Egypt, and that having gained authority over Thebes and Memphis and the Delta, he returned to Ethiopia; in the Nut-Amen of this stele, and the Urdamanah of the cuneiform inscriptions, we have probably one and the same king.

THE TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY.

Psammetichus I., the first king of this dynasty, was the son of a governor (Nikû?) of Memphis and Saïs in Lower Egypt, and had been associated with Nut-Amen in the rule of the country. When the Ethiopian king retired to his own land, Psammetichus became king of Egypt. He married Shep-en-ȧpt, a daughter of Pianchi, and thus secured himself from any attack by the Ethiopians; and by the help of the Ionian and Carian soldiers whom Gyges king of Lydia sent to him, he was able to overcome the Assyrian governors who, one after another, made war upon him, and resisted his

the

B. C.

666

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