B.C.

The correspondence and despatches from kings of Babylon, Mesopotamia, and Phoenicia were found in 1887 at Tell el-Amarna, and large portions of them are now preserved in the Museums of London, Berlin, and Gîzeh.

Åmen-ḥetep IV. or Chu-en-Åten ("brilliance, or glory

of the solar disk"), the founder of the city Chuåten, the ruins of which are called Tell el-Amarna, and of the heresy of the disk-worshippers. He was succeeded by a few kings who held the same religious opinions as himself.

Dynasty XIX, from Thebes.

1400. Rameses I.

1366. Seti I. conquered the rebellious tribes in Western Asia, and built the Memnonium at Abydos. He was famous as a builder, and attended with great care to the material welfare of his kingdom. He is said to have built a canal from the Nile to the Red Sea.

1333. Rameses II. undertook many warlike expeditions, and brought Nubia, Abyssinia, and Mesopotamia under the rule of Egypt. He was a great builder, and a liberal patron of the arts and sciences; learned men like Pentaurt were attached to his court.

He

is famous as one of the oppressors of the Israelites. 1300. Seti Meneptaḥ II. is thought to have been the Pharaoh

of the Exodus.

NEW EMPIRE.

Dynasty XX, from Thebes.

1200. Rameses III. was famous for his buildings, and for the splendid gifts which he made to the temples of Thebes, Abydos and Heliopolis. His reign represented an era of great commercial prosperity.

1166-1133. Rameses IV.-XII.

Dynasty XXII, from Bubastis (Tell-Basta).

966. Shashanq (Shishak) I. (see 1 Kings, xiv. 25-28; 2 Chron., xii. 2-13) besieged Jerusalem.

933. Uasarken I. 900. Takeleth I.

866. Uasarken II. 833. Shashanq II. Takeleth II. Shashanq III.

800. Pamai

Shashanq IV.

These kings appear to have been of Semitic origin; their names are Semitic, as, for example, Uasarken Babylonian Sarginu (Sargon); Takeleth = Tukulti (Tiglath).

Dynasty XXIII, from Tanis

766. Petā-Bast.

Uasarken III.

Dynasty XXIV, from Saïs (Sâ el-Ḥager).

733. Bak-en-ren-f (Bocchoris).

Dynasty XXV, from Ethiopia.

700. Shabaka (Sabaco).

Shabataka.

693. Taharqa (Tirhakah, 2 Kings, xix. 9) is famous for having conquered Sennacherib and delivered Hezekiah; he was, however, defeated by Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, the son and grandson respectively of Sennacherib. Tirhakah's son-in-law, Urdamanah, was also defeated by the Assyrians.

B.C.

Dynasty XXVI, from Saïs.

666. Psemthek I. (Psammetichus) allowed Greeks to settle in the Delta, and employed Greek soldiers to fight for him.

612. Nekau II. (Necho) defeated Josiah, king of Judah, and was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar II. son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon.

596. Psammetichus II.

591. Uaḥ-ab-Rā (Hophra of the Bible, Gr. Apries) marched to the help of Zedekiah, king of Judah, who was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar II. His army rebelled against him, and he was dethroned; Amāsis, a general in his army, then succeeded to the throne.

572. Àāḥmes II. favoured the Greeks, and granted them many privileges; in his reign Naucratis became a great city.

528. Psammetichus III. was defeated at Pelusium by Cambyses the Persian, and taken prisoner; he was afterwards slain for rebelling against the Persians.

Dynasty XXVII, from Persia.

527. Cambyses marched against the Ethiopians and the inhabitants of the Oases.

521. Darius Hystaspes endeavoured to open up the ancient routes of commerce; he established a coinage, and adopted a conciliatory and tolerant system of government, and favoured all attempts to promote the welfare of Egypt.

486. Xerxes I.

465. Artaxerxes I., during whose reign the Egyptians revolted, headed by Amyrtæus.

B. C.

425. Darius Nothus, during whose reign the Egyptians revolted successfully, and a second Amyrtæus became king of Egypt.

405. Artaxerxes II.

Dynasty XXVIII, from Saïs.

Amen-rut (Amyrtæus), reigned six years.

Dynasty XXIX, from Mendes.

399. Naifaaurut I.

393. Hakar.

380. P-se-mut.

379. Naifaauruț II.

Dynasty XXX, from Sebennytus.

378. Necht-Heru-heb (Nectanebus I.) defeated the Persians at Mendes.

360. T'e-her surrendered to the Persians.

358. Necht-neb-f (Nectanebus II.) devoted himself to the pursuit of magic, and neglected his empire; when Artaxerxes III. (Ochus) marched against him, he fled from his kingdom, and the Persians again ruled Egypt.

PERSIANS.

340. Artaxerxes III. (Ochus).

338. Arses.

336. Darius III. (Codomannus) conquered by Alexander the Great at Issus.

MACEDONIANS.

332. Alexander the Great founded Alexandria. He showed his toleration of the Egyptian religion,

by sacrificing to the god Amen of Libya.

C

B. C.

PTOLEMIES.*

305. Ptolemy I. Soter, son of Lagus, became king of Egypt after Alexander's death. He founded the famous Alexandrian Library, and encouraged learned Greeks to make Alexandria their home; he died B.C. 284.

285. Ptolemy II. Philadelphus built the Pharos, founded Berenice and Arsinoë, caused Manetho's Egyptian history to be compiled, and the Greek version of the Old Testament (Septuagint) to be made. 247. Ptolemy III. Euergetes I. The stele of Canopus f was set up in the ninth year of his reign; he obtained possession of all Syria, and was a patron of the arts and sciences.

222. Ptolemy IV. Philopator defeated Antiochus, and founded the temple at Edfû.

205. Ptolemy V. Epiphanes. During his reign the help of the Romans against Antiochus was asked for by the Egyptians. Coelesyria and Palestine were lost to Egypt. He was poisoned B.C. 182, and his son Ptolemy VI. Eupator, died in that same year. The Rosetta Stone was set up in the eighth year of the reign of this king.

* For the chronology of the Ptolemies see Lepsius, Königsbuch, Synoptische Tafeln 9.

This important stele, preserved at Gizeh, see page 284, is inscribed in hieroglyphics, Greek and demotic with a decree made at Canopus by the priesthood, assembled there from all parts of Egypt, in honour of Ptolemy III. It mentions the great benefits which he had conferred upon Egypt, and states what festivals are to be celebrated in his honour and in that of Berenice, etc., and concludes with a resolution ordering that a copy of this inscription in hieroglyphics, Greek and demotic shall be placed in every large temple of Egypt. Two other copies of this work are known.