Aperu, . whom some have identified as Hebrews. He was entirely in the hands of the priesthood of Åmen and gave lavishly to their god. Rameses V reigned about 4 years, and the reigns of Rameses VI-VIII were unimportant. Rameses IX, who reigned about 18 years, instituted a prosecution of the robbers who were pillaging the royal tombs and breaking up their mummies; the papyrus giving an account of their doings is in the British Museum1 (Abbott Papyrus No. 10221). Rameses X continued the prosecution of the tomb robbers. Rameses XI is perhaps the king referred to in the Story of the Possessed Princess of Bekhten, and during the reign of Rameses XII the high priest of Amen, Her-Ḥer, sent Unuȧmen to Lebanon to fetch cedar wood to make a new barge for Åmen.2 As each of these Rameses kings reigned, more and more power passed into the hands of the priests of Amen, and when, after a reign of about 28 years, Rameses XII died, Ḥer-Her, the high priest of Amen, seized the throne and called himself king of all Egypt. But neither he nor his successors were acknowledged in the Delta, and the nobles there set up a dynasty of kings of their own. At the same time a great merchant prince in the Delta, called Nesibanebṭet, proclaimed himself king of Lower Egypt. Thus we have, for the XXIst dynasty, kings at Thebes and kings at Tanis, though Manetho only recognizes "seven Tanite kings." The Priest-kings of Thebes were: Her-Her, Pinetchem I, Menkheperrā, Pinetchem II and Pisebkhānu II; the kings of Tanis were Nesibanebtet, Pisebkhānu I, Amenemȧpt, Saȧmen and Her-Pisebkhānu.3 Her-Her and Nesibanebtet, the Smendes of Manetho, were contemporaries. Pinetchem I, the Nefercherês of Manetho, son of the high priest Piankh, married Maātkarā, daughter of Pisebkhānu I, the Psusenês of Manetho, and Pinetchem II and Saȧmen were contemporaries. Amenemȧpt is probably the Amenophthis of Manetho, but Osorchor and Psinaches are difficult to identify. Osorchor may represent Neterkheperra, a part of the prenomen of Saamen. The reigns of all these kings are historically unimportant, and the monuments afford little information about them. Our knowledge of the reigns of the Priest-kings at Thebes is derived chiefly from the dockets that they inscribed on the royal mummies, which they were compelled to remove from their tombs to hiding-places at Dêr al-Baharî and in the tomb of Amenḥetep II and elsewhere. The dockets supply the dates when the mummies were repaired or removed, and give, in each case, the name of the king who undertook this pious work. 1 See Birch, Select Papyri, Vol. II, pll. 1-8; Chabas, Mélanges, tom. II; Maspero, Une Enquête Judiciaire, Paris, 1871; and Newberry, Amherst Papyri, p. 24. 2 For the text and translations see Golénischeff in Vol. XXI of Maspero's Recueil, and Erman in Aeg. Zeit., Bd. XXXVIII, p. 1 ff. • It was probably a daughter of this king whom Solomon married. The Twenty-Second Dynasty. From Bubastis. On the death of Pisebkhānu II the throne was seized by Shashanq (I), or Sheshenq, a man of Libyan descent, whose grandfather had married Meḥtenusekh, high priestess of Amen. Shashanq made his son Auput high priest of Amen, and some think that the descendants of Her-Her then migrated to Napata, where they attempted to establish the cult of their god Amen on the lines which they had followed at Thebes. Auput continued the work of repairing and removing the royal mummies, a work pleasing to Amen of Thebes. Shashanq is the Shishak of Manetho and of I Kings xiv, 25, II Chron. xii, 2, 5, 7, 9, and the principal event in his life was his invasion of Palestine and the capture of Jerusalem, which took place probably in the 16th year of his reign and in the 5th year of the reign of Rehoboam. He carried off much gold and silver, and the shields and bucklers of Solomon, and the golden quivers which David had taken from the king of Zobah. He returned to Egypt in triumph and had an account of the campaign cut upon the walls of the second pylon at Karnak. Here he gives a list of 133 districts and towns in Palestine which he had conquered. Shashanq I was succeeded by his son Osorkon (I), the Osorthôn of Manetho, who married Maatkarā, the daughter of Pisebkhānu, the last king of the XXIst dynasty. Champollion identified him with "Zerah the Ethiopian," who invaded Palestine with one million men and 300 chariots (II Chron. xiv, 9 ff.) and was defeated by Asa, king of Judah. Of Teklet (I), the son and successor of Osorkon I, nothing of importance is known. Osorkon II built the great Festival Hall of the Temple of Bast at Bubastis (Pibeseth), on the site of the sanctuary of the temple which had been built there by Pepi I, a king of the VIth dynasty; it was excavated by Naville in 1887-89. The relations between Palestine and Egypt in the reign of Osorkon II were friendly, but he had no great authority anywhere outside Egypt. Some have identified him with Zerah the Ethiopian (II Chron. xiv, 9) and, relying on the statement made by Shalmaneser III (B.c. 859-824)1 that there were 1,000 men of the Musrai ( *KY N N N present at the Battle of Karkara (B.C. 854), have said that the king of Egypt sent a force to help the Khatti and their allies against the king of Assyria. But the "Musrai" were natives of a district near Khatti land, and not Egyptians. The reign of Osorkon II is memorable because of a very high inundation of the Nile, which in the third year of his reign flooded the temple of Karnak to the depth of several feet. The remaining kings of this dynasty, Shashanq II, III and IV (?), Teklet II and Pamai, were unimportant, and their correct order has not been satisfactorily decided. For the arguments see Gauthier, Livre des Rois, tom. III, p. 351. 1 See the King-List in Guide to the Assyrian and Babylonian Antiquities, 3rd edition, p. 254. The Twenty-Third Dynasty. From Bubastis. าง The first king of this dynasty was Peṭabast, the Petoubatês of Manetho, who reigned about 23 years. He ruled Upper Egypt and Thebes, for the descendants of the Priest-kings forsook Thebes when Shashanq I united the South and the North, and migrated to Napata, which had been the capital of Egypt's Nubian Kingdom since the time of Amenḥetep III, and began to reign as they had reigned at Thebes. Later Peṭabast seems to have appointed a viceroy, perhaps the high priest of Amen, over Thebes, called Auput-meriÅmen, who styles himself, "King of the South and the North," for in an inscription1 on the quay wall at Thebes the 16th year of the reign of Peṭabast is made equivalent to the 2nd year of the reign of this Auput. In the 19th year of Petabast the name of a high priest of Amen, and not that of Auput, is given. Peṭabast figures in a historical romance written in demotic which has been edited by Krall.2 Petabast was succeeded by Osorkon III, who reigned about 20 years, but his rule over Thebes was interrupted by a great invasion of Nubians, who were incited thereto by the priests of Amen at Napata. The king of Napata at that time was Piankhi, son of Kashta and the Egyptian princess Shepenupt, the daughter of Osorkon III. In the twenty-first year of his reign Piānkhi heard that Tafnekht, a great noble of Saïs, having overcome all the opposition of the chiefs in the Delta and part of Upper Egypt, had made himself, to all intents and purposes, King of Egypt. He was supported by the priesthoods of Ptaḥ of Memphis and Ra of Heliopolis; and his power was great, and Osorkon III was unable to suppress him. Piankhi, seeing that his authority and possessions in Upper Egypt, over which he claimed sovereignty so far north as Herakleopolis, were jeopardized, determined to reduce Tafnekht, and forthwith set out on his great expedition to Egypt. In less than one year the rebel chiefs submitted to him and paid him tribute, and even Tafnekht took an oath of allegiance to him, his gods being witnesses for the sincerity of his words. Piankhi returned to Napata laden with spoil, and set up in the temple of Amen a huge granite stele, on which was inscribed a detailed account of his expedition into Egypt, and of the splendid success which he had achieved. The narrative is usually clear and is couched in simple words, and it gives the impression that Piankhi, though a fierce fighter, was a generous foe and a man who would take no mean 1 Discovered and published by Legrain, Aeg. Zeit., Bd. XXXIV, P. 111 ff. 2 In Vol. VI of the Collection of the Archduke Rainer. The text was first published by Mariette, Monuments Divers, pll. 1-6; a handy edition of it, with an English translation, will be found in Budge, Annals of Nubian Kings, p. 1 ff. For other English translations see Breasted, Ancient Records, Vol. IV, p. 418; Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs, Vol. II, p. 240. advantage of a stricken enemy. His sincere reverence for his god, his respect for Nemlet's wives and daughters, and his royal rage when he found that his horses had suffered from want of food, proclaim the piety, courtesy and compassion of this great Nubian warrior. Osorkon III, who had submitted to Piankhi, was permitted to renew his rule over Thebes, and with one Teklet he founded a chapel there. Manetho includes in the XXIIIrd dynasty two kings called Psammus and Zêt, saying that they reigned 10 and 31 years respectively. These kings have not yet been identified from the monuments. Some think Psammus was the son of Osorkon III, which is possible. As to Zêt, several identifications have been proposed,1 and Lauth and Hall think he may be Kashta, the grandfather of Tirhakah.2 The Twenty-Fourth Dynasty. From Saïs. The only king of this dynasty was Bakenrenef, who assumed which the Greeks as his prenomen Uaḥkarā corrupted into Bocchoris; he was the son of Tafnekht of Saïs, whose revolt brought Piankhi into Egypt, and reigned six years. Diodorus says (I, 34) he was one of the six lawgivers of Egypt,3 with a powerful mind and a weak body; Aelian thought little of him.4 Manetho says that in his reign a sheep spoke, and Aelian says that this sheep had eight legs, two tails, two heads, and four horns. Krall found a reference to this sheep in a demotic papyrus. Eusebius says that Bocchoris was burnt alive (Mai and Zohrab, Chron. Armen., pp. 104, 318). The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. Nubians. The first of the three kings of this dynasty was Shabaka, the Sabbakôn of Manetho, who reigned about 12 years. He was a contemporary of Sargon II, king of Assyria (B.C. 722-705), and some think that Sib'e, YEY, the TURDAN, or Egyptian commander, and the Pi-ir-'u <m Q>Y ≤NY, i.e., Pharaoh, who paid tribute to Sargon II, and the So ND of II Kings xvii, 4, and Shabaka are one and the same person. But the Assyrians, at least in Ashurbanipal's time, were quite familiar with Shabaka's name, which they wrote Sha-ba-ku-u, E, and there seems no reason why it should appear as Sib'e." Shabaka must 1 They are summarized in my History of Egypt, Vol. VI, p. 116. 2 Hall, Ancient History, p. 491. 3 The other five being Mnevis, Sasyches, Sesostris, Amasis and Darius, the father of Xerxes. • De Nat. Animalium, XI, xi (ed. Didot, p. 191). 5 "A lamb with eight legs has been born on a South Wales farm."-Times, March 24th, 1916, p. 5. • See his Grundriss, p. 151, and his Festgaben für M. Büdinger, p. 3 ff. have had communications with Sargon II, for two seals stamped with his name were found at Nineveh.1 Shabaka was succeeded by his son Shabataka, who reigned 12 years. When Sennacherib, king of Assyria (B.c. 705-681), attacked Palestine in his third campaign, he scattered and put to flight at the Battle of Altaķu (the Eltekeh of Joshua xix, 44) the countless host of bowmen and chariots and horses, which the king of Milukhkhi had sent to oppose him. He captured the sons of the king of Egypt, took Altaku and Tamna, and then besieged and captured Jerusalem. Very little information about Shabataka is given by the monuments, and how he died is not known, but an ancient tradition says that after he had reigned 12 years he was murdered by Tirhâkâh because he had allowed his troops to be defeated at the Battle of Altaku. Taharqa, the Tirhâkâh of the Bible and Tarkos of Manetho, succeeded Shabataka, and reigned about 25 years (B.C. 689-663); some interesting details of his early life are given on a stele which he set up at Tanis. He built a rock-hewn temple at Jabal Barkal (Napata) about 120 feet long, with a porch and a courtyard, and several smaller sanctuaries in the "Holy Mountain." Two colossal statues of Bes decorate the pillars of the hypostyle hall. At Thebes he repaired and added to several of the old buildings. All the histories of Egypt state that during his reign Sennacherib set out to invade Egypt, and Josephus (Antiquities X, i, 4-5) says that he was engaged in besieging Pelusium, but that when he heard that Tirhâkâh was marching against him he departed from Egypt. Josephus goes on to say that when Sennacherib returned to Jerusalem he found that God had smitten his army with a pestilence, and that 185,000 men died on the first night. He also repeats the story of Herodotus to the effect that field mice ate up the bows and quivers and the leathern handles of the shields of the Assyrians, and that the next morning, when they were in full flight, many of them fell. It is clear that Josephus, relying on the Bible narrative, believed that Sennacherib's army of 185,000 men was miraculously destroyed in a single night. Now it is obvious that this disaster could not have happened to Sennacherib's host during the campaign when he captured Jerusalem and returned to Nineveh in triumph, for that campaign was highly successful. Therefore historians have been driven to assume that Sennacherib undertook a second campaign that was specially directed against Egypt, but thanks to the researches 3 of Mr. Sidney Smith, of the British Museum, we now know that Sennacherib never made this assumed second expedition, and that 1 See Bezold, Catalogue, p. 1784. 2 See Birch, Monuments of the Reign of Tirhakah, in Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., Vol. VII, p. 194 ff. 3 See Smith, Sidney, Babylonian Historical Texts, London, 1924, Section I, the Esarhaddon Chronicle, p. 1 ff., plates 1 and 2. |