Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading. George Park Fisher
armies, conquered the negroes of Nubia, and waged war against the nomads of the eastern desert. The interval from the sixth to the tenth dynasty was marked by usurpations and insurrections. The district governors sought to make themselves independent. Monarchs rose and fell. Syrian invaders appear to have seized the occasion to attack the country. Heliopolis, with Tum for its sun-god, is the center of the new symbolical lore of the priesthood. Power is transferred to Thebes, and Ammon becomes the embodiment of the monotheistic conception, the supreme deity.
The Theban ruling-house gradually extended its supremacy over the land. The kings of the twelfth dynasty have left their inscriptions everywhere, and of several of them gigantic portrait-statues remain. Amenemhat I. and his successors are prosperous sovereigns. They carry on a lively intercourse of trade with the small states of Syria, reaching possibly to Babylon. Under the twelfth dynasty, the valley of the upper Nile was conquered. Usurtasen III., in after times, was revered as the subduer of the Nubian land. By monarchs of this epoch, vast structures, like the temple of Ammon at Thebes and the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, were erected. Amenemhat III. built the immense artificial reservoir, Lake Moeris, to receive and dispense the waters of the Nile. Under the twelfth dynasty is the blossoming period of literature. The carving of hieroglyphics and the execution of the details of art reach their perfection. It is the culminating point of Egyptian culture.
THE MIDDLE EMPIRE (FROM ABOUT 2100 TO 1600 B.C.).—The season of prosperity under the twelfth dynasty was followed by anarchy and the downfall of the Theban rule. According to Manetho, it was under a king named Timaos that a horde of invaders—the Hyksos, or "shepherds"—came in from the north, devastated the country, and made themselves its rulers. They were probably of Semitic descent, but nothing more is known as to their origin. In connection with them, Semitic, and in particular Canaanite, elements penetrated into Egypt, and left their traces in its language. The residence of their kings was Tanis, on the eastern Delta, a splendid city, which they still more adorned. They conquered Memphis, but their power was not permanently established in Lower Egypt. The duration of their control was a number of centuries—how many can only be conjectured. It is believed by some scholars that either Apepi, or Nub, kings of the Hyksos line, was the sovereign who made Joseph his prime minister, and invited his family to settle in the land of Goshen. The elevation of a foreigner and a Semite to an exalted office is thought to be less improbable in connection with a Semitic dynasty.
The New Empire (from 1600 to 525 B.C.).—The expulsion of the Hyksos was effected by Aahmes I., first king of the eighteenth dynasty. It was accomplished, however, not all at once, but gradually. From this event Egypt enters on a new stage in its career. It becomes a military, an aggressive, and a conquering state. Notwithstanding the enormous sacrifice of life that must have been involved in the erection of pyramids and in other public works, the Egyptians had not been a cruel people: compared with most Semitic peoples, they had been disposed to peace. But now a martial spirit is evoked. A military class arises. Wars for plunder and conquest ensue. The use of horses in battle is a new and significant fact. The character of the people changes for the worse. The priestly class become more compact and domineering. Temples are the principal edifices, in the room of massive sepulchers.
Under Thothmes I. and his successors, especially Thothmes III., wars were successfully waged against the Syrians, and against the Ethiopians on the south. The palaces and temples of Thebes, including the gigantic structures at Karnak and Luxor, are witnesses to the grandeur of these monarchs. The Egyptian arms were carried through Syria, and as far even as Nineveh. During the reigns of Amenophis III. and Amenophis IV., that is, in the latter half of the fifteenth century B.C., the Amarna Letters (see p. 44) were written. Under the Ramessides, the conquests of Egypt reached their farthest limit.
RAMSES II.—Ramses II., or Ramses the Great (1340–1273 B.C.)—who was called by the Greeks Sesostris, a name with which they linked many fabulous narratives—is the most brilliant personage in Egyptian history. He is the first of the renowned conquerors, the forerunner of the Alexanders and Napoleons. His monuments are scattered over all Egypt. In his childhood he was associated on the throne with his father, himself a magnificent monarch, Seti I. In the seventh year of the sole reign of the son he had to encounter a formidable confederacy under the lead of the Syrian Hittites—the "Khita"—in the north-east, a powerful nation. How he saved himself by his personal valor, on the field of Kadesh, is celebrated in the Egyptian Iliad, the heroic poem of Pentaur. A subsequent treaty with this people is one of the most precious memorials of his reign.
THE HITTITES.—Recent explorations have shown that the Hittites of Scripture were families, or smaller communities, in Palestine, of a people whose proper seat was in northern Syria, especially the country lying along the Orontes; their territory being bounded on the east by the Euphrates, and extending westward into the Taurus Mountains. In one place they are spoken of as distant (Judg. i. 26). The "Khita" of the Egyptians, called "Khatti" by the Assyrians, were a civilized and powerful nation, whose sway was so extended that their outposts were at times on the western coast of Asia Minor. They were a non-Semitic people. The great victory of Ramses (1320 B.C.) was with difficulty won. The Hittites were also rivals of the Assyrians from an early period. At length Sargon captured their capital, Carchemish (717 B.C.), and broke down their power. Numerous Hittite inscriptions have been discovered, written in a hieroglyphic script which has not yet (1903) been deciphered.
Subsequently we find Ramses in Galilee, as it was called later: we find him storming the city of Askalon in Philistia, and in various military expeditions, in which he brought home with him multitudes of captives. The mighty temples which he built at Abydos, Thebes, and Memphis, and the gorgeous palace, "the House of Ramses," south of Karnak, were in keeping with other displays of his energy and magnificence.
THE BONDAGE OF THE ISRAELITES.—Ramses II. has been generally believed to be "the Pharaoh of the oppression," under whom the Hebrews suffered; and his son Menephthah, to be the Pharaoh under whom the exodus took place. Recent discoveries have rendered these conclusions very doubtful, however. It is also quite uncertain how long the Egyptian bondage lasted. According to the Hebrew Old Testament, its duration was 430 years; according to the Septuagint, or Greek version, half that period (as implied in Gal. iii. 17).
To THE PERSIAN CONQUEST.—From about 1500 to 1300 B.C., Egypt was the foremost nation in culture, arts, and military prowess. Under the later kings bearing the name of Ramses, the empire began to decay. The Ethiopians in the south revolted, and set up an independent kingdom, Meroe, of which Napata was the capital. Shishak (961–940 B.C.) aspired to restore the Egyptian rule in the East. He marched into Judæa, and captured and plundered Jerusalem. He made Rehoboam, king of Judah, a tributary, and strengthened Jeroboam, the ally of Egypt. He even led his forces across the valley of the Jordan. At length (730 B.C.) the Ethiopians gained the upper hand in Egypt. Their three kings form the twenty-fifth dynasty. As the power of Egypt was on the wane, the power of Assyria was more and more in the ascendant. Shabak joined hands with Hoshea, king of Israel, but was defeated by the Assyrians, under Sargon II., in a pitched battle at Raphia, in which the superiority of the Asiatic kingdom was evinced. Later (701 B.C.) Sennacherib defeated an Egyptian army, sent for the relief of Ekron, and made Hezekiah a tributary. Tirhakah, the ally of Hezekiah, continued the struggle. His army was saved from overthrow by the disaster which happened to Sennacherib's host in the neighboring camp on the eve of battle. Twenty years later, he was vanquished by an invading army under the son and successor of Sennacherib, Esarhaddon. The rule of the Ethiopian dynasty was subverted. The Assyrians intrusted the government to twenty governors, of whom the most were natives. Of these governors, one, then king of Sais, Psammeticus I. (663–616 B.C.), in alliance with Gyges, king of Lydia, and with the aid of Carians, Phoenicians, and Lycians, cast off the Assyrian yoke, and became sole ruler of Egypt. This epoch is marked by the introduction of numerous foreigners into the country, and by the exertion of a powerful and lasting Greek influence. Neku II.—the Necho of Scripture—(610–594 B.C.), the son of Psammeticus I., defeated Josiah, king of Judah, at Megiddo (608 B.C.); and Josiah fell in the battle. But, advancing to Carchemish