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This conclusion is established by the evidence of monuments. There Amosis is again mentioned as king of Upper and Lower Egypt, and two inscriptions of the twenty-second year of Amosis (1662 B.C.), in the quarries of Massara, inform us that these quarries were opened to restore the temples at Memphis and the temple of Ammon at Thebes.¹⁸⁴ Hence by this time Amosis had again rescued the old capital, Memphis, from the shepherds; that he also forced his way beyond Memphis, and attacked the shepherds at Avaris, is proved by the inscription of a tomb at El Kab, in Upper Egypt. It is the tomb of Aahmes, the son of Abuna, the chief of the steersmen. The inscription tells us that, at the time of Amosis, Aahmes, with his father on the boat, had ministered to "the calf." He had not yet seen any woman, and wore the clothing of the young men, when Hauar was attacked. When he had won a hand, he received the king's commendation, and the golden necklace in token of his bravery. In a second and third battle at Hauar he had again won a hand, and made a prisoner, and he received the chain for the second and third time.¹⁸⁵

From the accounts given in Josephus and the excerpts of Africanus and Eusebius, Avaris lay eastward of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, in the province of Sethroe. Consequently we must look for this fortified camp of the shepherds on the eastern shore of the Lake Menzaleh, perhaps on the site of the later Pelusium. In the lists of kings Amosis is followed by Amenophis I., then follows Tuthmosis I., then Tuthmosis II. and III., under the regency of Misphra (1625-1591 B.C.). From this connection has arisen the king Misphragmuthosis, who, in Josephus, defeats the shepherds, drives them out of the rest of Egypt, and shuts them up in Avaris. Hence it must have been Tuthmosis III., after the rise of the independent monarchy (1591-1565), who led the great host of 480,000 men against the shepherds in Avaris, and failing to enter the place by storm, allowed them to depart unharmed, whereupon the strangers, to the number of 240,000, retired into the Syrian desert (1591 B.C.). Yet the inscriptions do not agree with this account. From the inscription of Aahmes already quoted, it seems more probable that Amosis had already taken Avaris, and that Tuthmosis I. had marched through Syria to Naharina, i. e. to Mesopotamia, a fact which is confirmed by the inscriptions of Tuthmosis III., though here also there are accounts of battles fought by Tuthmosis II. against the Schasu, or shepherds.¹⁸⁶

However this may be, after a long subjection to foreign rulers, and weary struggles against them, the whole land of Egypt was again governed by native kings. These battles must have invigorated the military strength of the Egyptians; and the happy result could not but increase the self-confidence of the new dynasty to which Egypt owed her liberation. The mighty impulse thus given carried the kingdom quickly to the height of its power and greatness. Tuthmosis III. caused an enumeration to be made of the conquests which he won from the twenty-second to the forty-second year of his reign, and the tribute which he received in this period. In this enumeration sixteen or seventeen campaigns are mentioned. In the twenty-third year the king marched against the Retennu (Syrians). From Kazatu (Gaza) beyond Taanaka (Taanach) he reached Maketi (Megiddo). Here, on the twenty-ninth of the month Pachor he defeated his enemies. The conflict was not sanguinary. Only eighty-three of the enemy were slain. The king made 340 prisoners, but took at the same time 924 chariots and 2,132 horses. Megiddo surrendered, and Tuthmosis was able to lead back 2,500 prisoners into Egypt. After this 117 cities and places in Syria surrendered, Kadeschu (Kades), Tevekhu (Tibshath on the Orontes), Maram (Merom), Tamesku (Damascus), Atara (Ataroth), Hamtu (perhaps Hamath), Kaanu (Kanah), Masaar (Misheal), Astartu (Astaroth Karnaim), Hutar (Hazor), Kennarut (Kinneroth), Aksap (Achshaph), Bar Semas (Beth Shemesh), Atuma (Adamah), Ranama (Rimmon), Japu (Joppa), Harar (Har El), Rabbau (Rabbah), Baratu (Berothai, Berytus), Sarta, &c.¹⁸⁷ Thus the coast of Syria and the mountain district as far as Damascus and Hamath on the Orontes would have become subject to the Pharaohs. This subjection, however, does not seem to have gone beyond payment of tribute. The following campaigns of the king were again for the most part directed against the Retennu; a battle was fought at Aratu (Aradus). The sums which Tuthmosis received in tribute from the Cheta (Hittites) are enumerated. Afterwards the king made repeated expeditions against Naharina (Arem Naharaim), i. e. against the land of the two rivers, Mesopotamia, and here also he levied tribute. Then the tribute is given in the list, which the king received from the Punt (the Arabians). That Lower Nubia, as far as the old boundary at Semne, was subject to Tuthmosis III. is beyond a doubt. An inscription found at Ellesieh in Nubia informs us that Nahi, the governor of Nubia, has sent the tribute of the lands of the south to the king in gold, ebony, and ivory,¹⁸⁸ and the list quoted mentions 115 tribes or places subdued by Tuthmosis in the south of Egypt.¹⁸⁹ Of Amenophis II., the successor of Tuthmosis III. (1565-1555 B.C.), inscriptions at Amada in Nubia declare that he fought against the Retennu (Syrians), and slew seven kings, and that in the south he forced his way as far as Napata, i. e. up the Nile as far as Mount Barkal.¹⁹⁰

His successor, Tuthmosis IV., appears on monuments of the island Konosso, near Philæ, as victorious over the negroes.¹⁹¹ And after him Amenophis III. (1524-1488 B.C.) again directed his arms in his first campaign against the negroes; a memorial stone at Semne tells us that he traversed Abha, the land of the negroes. That the power of Amenophis III. extended to the south far beyond Semne is proved by the ruins of a temple which he built at Soleb on the Nile, "to his image living upon earth," i. e. to the copy or manifestation of his divine nature, his own divinity,¹⁹² and inscriptions on certain scarabæi assure us that Amenophis ruled from Naharina, i. e. Mesopotamia, to the land of Karu in the south.¹⁹³

Thebes was the point from which the liberation of the land began. Here the new dynasty who had restored the kingdom, driven out the enemy, and carried the arms of Egypt far to the south and east, took up their lasting abode, and this city became the brilliant centre of the new kingdom. Here, also, the new Pharaohs glorified themselves by mighty works, as the old kings had done in the city of Memphis and the burial-place adjacent. And along with the warlike vigour displayed by the people, the art and civilisation of Egypt, under the series of kings extending from Amosis to Amenophis III. (1684-1488 B.C.), reached the highest perfection which the position and character of the nation permitted.

On the right bank of the Nile, on a terrace near the modern village of Karnak, the first Sesurtesen (2371-2325 B.C.), built a temple of moderate size to Ammon (p. 102). To this Tuthmosis I. (1646-1625 B.C.) added a splendid gateway, a lofty gate between two broad wings, which rise in the form of truncated pyramids, and behind this gateway he built an oblong court, encircled by a portico supported on pillars. Against these pillars leaned karyatids, images of Osiris, with the hands, in which is the cross with handles, crossed upon the breast. Of these four remain still uninjured. Before the entrance of the gateway he erected two obelisks of red granite, of which one, sixty-nine feet in height, is still standing. The inscription runs thus: – "The mighty Horus, the friend of truth, the king Tutmes, the mighty sun, which is given to the world, whom Ammon establishes, has erected this firm structure in honour of his father Ammon Ra, the protector of the world, and has placed two large obelisks before the double gates."¹⁹⁴ The queen Misphra (Ramake), who was regent for Tuthmosis II., and in the early years of Tuthmosis III. (1625-1591 B.C.), erected in the oblong court of Tuthmosis I. the two second largest obelisks known. Of these also one is still uninjured, and stands ninety feet high, the other has fallen, and lies on the ground. The inscription tells us that the queen whom Ammon himself had placed on the throne and chosen as the protectress of Egypt, had resolved in her heart to erect two great obelisks, the tops of which should reach to heaven, in honour of the god Ammon and in remembrance of her father Tuthmosis I., in order that her name might continue in the temple of Ammon for ever and ever. Each obelisk was to be of a single stone of red granite. Her holiness had commenced the work in her fifteenth year, and completed it in her sixteenth, seven months after the work was commenced in the mountain quarry.¹⁹⁵

To this court Tuthmosis III. added a gateway towards the south, and surrounded the ancient sanctuary of Sesurtesen with a circle of huge buildings. These consisted of two halls, each of twelve pillars, to the right and left of the entrance, on which abut chambers, great or small as the walls which surround the old temple allow. On the walls which close these halls and chambers towards the old building, the king recorded the events of his reign from the twenty-second to the forty-second year, from which everything has already been given which up to this time can be regarded as certain. The two largest obelisks also, of which the largest is now standing in Rome before the Lateran, and the other is destroyed, were erected by Tuthmosis III., and placed, as it would seem, before the entrance into the old temple of Sesurtesen. The obelisk now at Constantinople is also a work of this prince. The inscription says that Tuthmosis III. "extended his dominion from Mount Apta (in the south) to the uttermost habitations of Mesopotamia."¹⁹⁶ On the east side of the enlarged temple of Sesurtesen, he built a splendid hall, the roof of which is supported by fifty-six pillars. Besides this he built additions to the temple of Ra at Heliopolis, restored the temple at Dendera, apparently after a plan sketched on a goatskin, which, belonging to the time of Chufu (p. 94) was rediscovered under king Phiops (p. 101),¹⁹⁷ and finally he erected shrines to the sun-god Mentu at Hermonthis, near Thebes, the god Sebek at Ombos, Chnum at Letopolis (Esneh), and on the island of Elephantine. In Nubia he erected temples at Pselchis, Korte, Amada, and Semne. The temple at Semne he consecrated to Chnum and Sesurtesen III., who extended the borders of Egypt to this point (p. 105), in order that "the king might live again in this memorial."¹⁹⁸

Before the great sphinx, near the second pyramid, Tuthmosis IV. erected the memorial stone already mentioned (p. 94); it represents the king worshipping the sphinx. In the inscription the sphinx addresses the king, and says, "I, thy father Harmachu, give thee the dominion, the world in all its length and breadth, rich tribute from all nations, and a long life of many years."¹⁹⁹

The buildings of Amenophis III. are not inferior to those of Tuthmosis III. in extent or magnificence. Half an hour southward of the gateways, court, and porticoes of the temple at Karnak, close on the right bank of the Nile, at the modern village of Luxor, Amenophis built a second temple to Ammon, the god of Thebes. In a court surrounded by colonnades, the "court of sacrifice" joined the antechamber of the temple, or outer temple, then came the temple with the Holy of Holies, built in the form invariably used in Egypt after the restoration.²⁰⁰ Only the spacious antechamber, a hall with a roof supported on pillars and lighted by windows in the wall, or by the spaces between the front pillars, could be entered by laymen. The inner temple, reserved for the priests, to which a second gate led from the antechamber, was a smaller hall of the same kind, which received only a moderate light through openings made high up in the side walls. From this half-darkened room the Holy of Holies was again separated by a court, and the entrance was through a door. Two other doors led by means of a passage running round the Holy of Holies into the chamber surrounding it. The Holy of Holies, together with the chambers abutting upon it, was surrounded by a high wall and formed a separate temple of small dimensions. The masonry is heavy, and narrows toward the top. Here in the gloom dwelt the hidden spirit of the god. The heavy, solemn, mysterious character of the Egyptian temple naturally makes itself most strongly felt in these spaces or rooms. On the inner walls of the temple the sacrifices and worship rendered by the king are represented, on the outer walls we see his achievements in war. What still remains of the building of Amenophis – and it was subsequently enlarged – allows us only to conjecture upon the original plan. Yet about 200 pillars and shafts still rise out of the ruins. The reliefs on the outer walls of the temple, and in the chambers round the Holy of Holies, are in the best state of preservation. On the walls of one of these chambers we see the scribe of heaven, Thoth, announcing to Mutemua, the mother of Amenophis, the birth of her son. Then the ram-god and the goddess Hathor lead the queen into the lying-in chamber; another goddess supports the queen during the birth. Then four heavenly spirits, the two spirits of the south and the two spirits of the north, carry Amenophis, already grown into a youth, to a throne in the presence of Ammon Ra, who anoints him king. Then the gods promise gifts, honour, and power to the new king. They declare that the Retennu, the "nine nations," i. e. the nations bordering on Egypt, and all people, shall be subject to him.²⁰¹

Far fewer – not more than a great heap of ruins with a few pillars and memorial stones – are the remains of a second great work of Amenophis III., which he built opposite the temple of Karnak on the west bank of the Nile not far from the modern village of Medinet Habu. We learn from Pliny that it was a temple of Serapis, i. e. of Osarhapi, Osiris-Apis.²⁰² We have already mentioned the shrine of the same goddess, which was situated among the tombs near Memphis (p. 67), and we know that in the view of the Egyptians the west belonged to the setting sun, the sun of the under world. The statement of Pliny is also confirmed by two memorial stones among the ruins, from which we gather that Osiris and Ammon Ra were the lords of the temple; and it is not strange that the tutelary god of Thebes should be associated with Osiris. Before the entrance to this sanctuary Amenophis caused two statues to be erected, which still rise like steep cliffs above the flat level of the bank by the side of a palm forest. They are two seated figures, and the inscriptions tell us that both represent Amenophis. The king is in a quiet attitude, the hands rest on the knees. The front parts of the throne are formed by statues of the mother and wife of Amenophis, which reach up to the knees of the king. The statues were chiselled out of a single block, as also the bases. The height of the whole is towards sixty feet.²⁰³

The power to which Tuthmosis III. and Amenophis III. exalted Egypt appears to have declined under their successors, or at least it did not advance. The monuments prove to us that Amenophis IV. (1488-1476 B.C.) began certain religious innovations. He paid excessive or exclusive reverence to the sun-god, and attempted to found a new capital in the neighbourhood of the modern Amarna, in Central Egypt, which was no doubt intended to be the centre of the new cult. If, at the same time, as the monuments show, he was able, like his predecessor, to build at Soleb, in Dongola, it follows that the supremacy of Egypt was maintained, at any rate in the south.

CHAPTER VI.
THE HOUSE OF RAMSES

The Greeks inform us that Sesostris, or Sesosis, was the greatest warrior among the kings of Egypt. Herodotus was told by the priests that he was the first who set out with ships of war from the Arabian Gulf, and reduced the dwellers by the Red Sea, until he was checked by waters which were too shallow for navigation. On his return from this expedition, Sesostris, as the priests said, gathered together a great army, invaded the continent, and reduced every nation in his path. In the conquered lands he set up pillars, on which were inscribed his name and country, and that he had reduced the nation by his power. Wherever he found but little resistance he also caused female emblems to be engraved on the pillars. "So he passed from Asia into Europe, and reduced the Scythians and Thracians. Beyond these the Egyptian army did not, in my opinion, pass; for in the country of the Thracians the pillars of Sesostris are found, but not farther. The greater number of these pillars are no longer in existence; yet in Syrian Palestine I have myself seen them with the inscriptions and emblems. In Ionia also there are two images of this king hewn in the rock, one on the way from Ephesus to Phocæa, the other on the way from Sardis to Smyrna. At both places there is the figure of a man, 4½ cubits high, with a spear in the right hand and a bow in the left, armed partly as an Egyptian and partly as an Ethiopian. Across the breast, from one shoulder to the other, run Egyptian sacred letters, saying: 'I have conquered this land with my arms.' Who he is and from whence he comes, Sesostris does not tell us here, but on the other pillars. When Sesostris returned, he brought with him many prisoners from the tribes, and his brother, to whom Sesostris had entrusted Egypt, gave him a hospitable reception at Pelusium. But round the house in which Sesostris was with his wife and children he caused wood to be heaped, and set on fire. Then the queen cried out to Sesostris to take two of her six sons, throw them on the burning wood, and pass over their bodies as over a bridge. This was done. The two sons were burnt, but the others with their father escaped. After taking revenge on his brother, Sesostris employed the masses of prisoners in drawing enormous stones to the temple of Hephæstus, and in digging all the canals which now intersect Egypt. By these the land, hitherto an open field for chariots and horses, was made less accessible. The king's object in making them was that the cities which were not on the river should have more water at the time when the floods were not out. Then Sesostris is said to have divided the arable land of Egypt into equal rectangular portions, and to have allotted to every man an equal portion. And if the inundation washed away any part of this allotment, the king returned the owner a corresponding part of his tax. Sesostris was the only king of Egypt who also ruled over Ethiopia. As a memorial of his reign, he left six large statues before the temple of Hephæstus – images of himself, his wife, and his four sons; the two first are thirty, the four last twenty cubits high. Long after, when Darius wished to place his own statue in front of these, the priest of Hephæstus forbade him, because Darius had not achieved such mighty deeds as Sesostris. He had reduced the Scythians, whom Darius had failed to reduce. This indignity, they say, Darius pardoned."²⁰⁴

Diodorus assures us that Sesostris had surpassed the greatest and most glorious deeds of his predecessors. "But inasmuch as not only the Greek writers are far from agreeing in their accounts of this king, but even the Egyptian priests, and those who sing of his deeds are at variance, we shall attempt to give the most probable account and that which is most in agreement with the monuments still existing in Egypt." When Sesosis was born, his father gathered together all the boys born on the same day, more than 1700 in number, and caused them to be brought up in the same manner as his own son, in the impression that they would thus become his most loyal and bravest comrades in battle. With these companions he first despatched him against the Arabs, and Sesosis subjugated the whole country of the Arabs, which no one had ever subjugated before. In the next place, his father sent him against the tribes in the west, and Sesosis, although still quite young, subjugated a great part of Libya. On the death of his father, Sesosis, relying on the results of previous campaigns, formed the resolution of subjugating the whole earth. Having gained the good will of the Egyptians by gentleness, remission of punishments, and presents, he gathered together a great army of the mightiest men, an army of 600,000 infantry, 24,000 cavalry, and 27,000 chariots. The various divisions of this great host he placed under the command of those who had been educated with him, to whom at the same time he allotted the most fruitful lands in Egypt. With this host Sesosis first reduced the Ethiopians, who dwelt in the south, and imposed upon them a tribute of gold, ebony, and ivory. Then he sent a fleet of four hundred ships into the Red Sea – he was the first Egyptian to build ships of war – and by means of these he subjugated to his dominion all the islands and sea-coasts, as far as India. Meanwhile he marched out in person with his army, and reduced the whole of Asia. He crossed the Ganges and passed through India to the ocean. Then he subjugated the nations of Scythia as far as the Tanais, which divides Europe and Asia. In the same manner he reduced the rest of Asia, and then passed into Europe. But in Thrace he was in great danger of losing his army through want of food and the severity of the climate. So he put an end to the campaign in Thrace, after erecting pillars at many places in the countries he had subjugated. On these was engraved, in the character which the Egyptians called sacred, the following inscription: – "This land Sesosis, the king of kings and lord of lords, conquered with his arms." At some places also he set up his own statue in stone, with a bow and lance, four cubits and four hands high, for this was his own height. After completing these campaigns in nine years, Sesosis returned with his prisoners and untold spoil. When at Pelusium, his brother formed a plan for his destruction. He invited Sesosis to a banquet, and in the night, when all were asleep after their wine, he heaped up reeds round the king's tent and set them on fire. When the flames suddenly sprang up, the retinue, heavy with wine, could render little service, but Sesosis lifted up his hands and besought the gods to save his wife and children, and with them he happily escaped from the flames. In gratitude for this rescue he honoured the gods with dedicatory statues, more especially the god Hephæstus, as it was by him that he was saved. In his temple at Memphis he placed statues of himself and his wife, monoliths of thirty cubits high, and also statues of his four sons, twenty cubits in height. The princes whom he placed over the conquered nations, or allowed to retain their thrones, came with presents to Egypt at the appointed time. Sesosis received them with honour and distinction. But whenever he went into a temple or a city he caused his horses to be unyoked from his chariot, and in their place the princes and rulers were yoked four abreast, in order to show to all that he was the mightiest and had conquered the bravest, so that no one was his equal in valour. Having ended his wars, Sesosis began to erect great works for his own glory and the security of Egypt. In every city he erected a temple to the divinity chiefly worshipped there. On these works no Egyptian was employed; they were entirely completed by his prisoners. Moreover, for the cities which lay too low Sesosis caused many large dams to be made, to which he transferred the cities, so that they were secure from the inundations of the Nile. From Memphis downwards he carried a number of canals through the whole land, partly to facilitate commerce, partly to make invasion more difficult to the enemy. Up to this time the best part of Egypt was an open field for the movements of cavalry and chariots; after this it became almost impassable, owing to the number of canals. In addition the king built a wall 1,500 stades in length, from Pelusium to Heliopolis, as a security against inroads from Syria and Arabia. To the god held in chief honour at the city of Thebes he presented a ship of cedar wood, 280 cubits in length, of which the visible part was overlaid on the inside with silver and on the outside with gold, and in his honour he also erected two obelisks of hard stone, 120 cubits high, on which he caused to be inscribed the greatness of his power, the number of the subjugated nations, and the amount of his income. When he had reigned thirty-three years his eyesight began to fail, and he voluntarily put an end to his own life. Many generations after, when Darius wished to set up his own image in front of Sesosis, the high priest forbade him in the assembly of priests, and explained that Darius had not surpassed the deeds of Sesosis. So far from being enraged, Darius was pleased at his freedom, and said that he would henceforth make it his object, should an equal length of life be given him, to fall below Sesosis in no respect.²⁰⁵

Strabo says: Sesostris appears first of all to have conquered the land of the Ethiopians and Troglodytes; on the coast of the Arabian Gulf, between the harbour of the Protectress and the Elephant-hunt, there stood on a hill a temple built by Sesostris in honour of Isis. He succeeded in reaching the land of cinnamon, where pillars and inscriptions are shown as monuments of his campaign. Then he crossed over to Arabia, and it is said that in the narrow part of Ethiopia towards Arabia, on the promontory of Dirê, there was a pillar giving an account of his crossing. From Arabia he went on to invade the whole of Asia, and even forced his way into Europe. In many places ramparts and temples of the Egyptian style are shown as the work of Sesostris. In Egypt he undertook the construction of a canal from the Nile into the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea.²⁰⁶

When Germanicus, the son of Drusus, travelled in Egypt, he saw large remains of ancient Thebes. On the mighty walls, so Tacitus continues, the Egyptian inscriptions still remained, telling of their former magnificence. One of the older priests was bidden to translate the Egyptian inscriptions, and he informed them that once there had been 700,000 men of military age in the kingdom, and with this army Ramses had subjugated Libya and Ethiopia, the Medes, Persians, Bactrians, and Scythians, and in addition to these had ruled over the lands from the Bithynian to the Lycian Seas, which are inhabited by the Syrians, the Armenians, and their neighbours, the Cappadocians. The amount of tribute also imposed upon the nations was read, the weight of silver and gold, the number of weapons and horses, the presents of ivory and frankincense for the temples, and how much each nation had to contribute in corn and goods – an amount no less than that which is now imposed by the power of the Parthians or the Romans.²⁰⁷

Josephus, on the authority of Manetho's Egyptian History, tells us that Sethosis, who was called Ramesses, possessed a great force in cavalry and ships. After leaving his brother Armais as governor of Egypt, and placing the royal power in his hands, – with the restrictions that he was not to wear the crown, or do any injury to the queen-mother and her children, or approach the king's concubines, – he marched against Cyprus and the Phenicians, and afterwards against the Assyrians and the Medes, and subjugated them all, some by his arms, others by the fear of his great power. Fired with ambition by these successes, he pressed boldly onward to reduce the cities and lands of the east. Thus his absence was prolonged, and his brother Armais, without the least shame, disregarded all the restrictions laid upon him. He violated the queen, lay with the concubines of the king, allowed himself to be persuaded by his friends into wearing the crown, and rebelled against his brother. But the person who was in authority over the sanctuaries of Egypt wrote to the king and disclosed all that his brother had done against him. Sethosis at once turned back to Pelusium, and established himself again in possession of the dominion which belonged to him.²⁰⁸

Thus, according to the accounts of Tacitus and Josephus, the warrior whom Herodotus, Diodorus, and Strabo call Sesostris or Sesosis, was known to the Egyptians as Ramses, Ramesses, or Sethosis. Let us now inquire whether the monuments present us with princes and achievements which confirm the narratives of the Greeks, the account of Manetho, and the evidence of Tacitus. According to these it may be assumed that Horus (Hor, 1455-1443 B.C.) whom the sculptures of a temple hewn in the rock in the valley of the Nile at Selseleh represent as a conqueror over the negroes,²⁰⁹ was succeeded by Ramses I. (1443-1439 B.C.) who was followed by Sethos I. (1439-1388 B.C.). Of him we are told in the inscriptions on the outer wall of the great colonnade which he erected at Karnak (p. 169) that in the first year of his reign he had attacked the Schasu, from the fortress of Tar as far as Kanana;²¹⁰ his holiness had startled them like a lion, and made a great slaughter. On a mountain fortress to which the defeated enemy fled is read, "Fortress of the land of Kanana (Canaan)." After this there were expeditions against the Schasu, and the tribute which they paid to Sethos is mentioned. The Schasu are the nomad tribes in the desert between Egypt and Canaan, which had previously conquered and ruled over Egypt. The inscriptions also remark that Sethos had twice desolated the land of Cheta with fire, and had taken Kadeshu (Kades).²¹¹ The Cheta are the Chittim, or Hittites, who possessed the south of Canaan. Then the sculptures represent the victory of the king over the Retennu, i. e. over the tribes of Syria, and inscriptions celebrate the victories which Sethos had gained over the "nine nations,"²¹² i. e. over all the nations bordering on Egypt. On the Upper Nile also Sethos had fought and established his dominion, as is proved by the ruins of a temple on Mount Sese in Dongola above the buildings of Amenophis II. and III. at Soleb.²¹³ The representations of the achievements of Sethos at Karnak are brought to a close by the victorious return of the king with "innumerable" prisoners and rich booty, and by two enormous figures of the king, in each of which he is holding nine prisoners. The list of the conquered nations first mentions the tribes of Cush, i. e. of the south; then follow the Schasu, the Cheta, and Naharina (the inhabitants of Mesopotamia), and last of all the "Punt," i. e. the tribes of Arabia. These names are followed by the observation; – "This is the list of the nations of the south and the north, which his holiness has subdued: the number of prisoners conveyed into the temple of Ammon Ra cannot be given."²¹⁴ From these monuments we gather that Sethos carried on a number of successful campaigns which begin with battles against the nomad tribes on the eastern borders of Egypt, then extend to the south and north of Syria, and finally to Mesopotamia, while in the other direction he reduced the tribes of Arabia, and carried the sway of Egypt beyond Dongola, farther to the south than before.