Books on Egypt and Chaldaea A HISTORY OF EGYPT FROM THE END OF THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD TO THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA VII. B.C. 30 VOL. V. EGYPT UNDER RAMESES THE GREAT EGYPT UNDER RAMESES THE GREAT BY E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, M.A., LITT.D., D.LIT. KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK HENRY FROWDE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH 1902 C PREFACE THE period of Egyptian History treated of in the present volume begins with the reign of Rameses I., the first king of the XIXth Dynasty, and ends with that of Rameses XII., the last king of the XXth Dynasty, and the narrative describes the principal events which took place in Egypt and the various portions of her Nubian and Asiatic Empire from about B.C. 1400 to B.C. 1130. This period is one of great interest, for in it are included the reigns of Seti I., and Rameses II., and Rameses III., and Menephthah, under which Egypt attained to a very high state of prosperity, and became the mistress of the trade of the Red Sea and of the Mediterranean Sea. The country was not given up to the making of military expeditions and raids, as under the great kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty, but it has been truly said that the general wealth of the country was greater during the reign of Rameses III. than during that of Thothmes III., although the hold of Egypt upon her Syrian, Libyan, and Nubian possessions was less strong and less secure. The additions |