The lords of Babylon had, ordinarily, a twofold function, the priest at first taking precedence of the soldier, but gradually yielding to the latter as the city increased in power.  Each ruler was obliged to go in state to the temple of Bel Merodach within a year of his accession, there to do homage to the divine statue.  The long lists of early kings contain semi-legendary names, including those of mythical heroes.  Towards the end of the twenty-fifth century, however, before the Christian era, a dynasty arose of which all the members come within the range of history.

The first of these kings, Sumuabim, has left us some contracts bearing the dates of one or other of the fifteen years of his reign.  Of the ten kings who followed during the period embraced between the years 2416 B.C. and 2112 B.C., the one who ruled for the longest term was the. famous and fortunate Khammurabi (son of Sinmuballit), who was on the throne for fifty-five years.

While thus the first Chaldean Empire was being established, Egypt, separated from her confines only by a narrow isthmus, loomed on the horizon, and appeared to beckon to her rival.  But she had strangely declined from her former greatness, and had been attacked and subdued by invaders appearing like a cloud of locusts on the banks of the Nile, to whom was applied the name Hiq Shausu, from which the Greeks derived the term Hyksos for this people.  Modern scholars have put forward many conflicting hypotheses as to the identity of this race of conquerors.  The monuments represent them with the Mongoloid type of feature.  The problem remains unsolved, and the origin of the Hyksos is as mysterious as ever.

About this time took place that entrance into Egypt of the Beni-Israel, or Israelites, which has since acquired a unique position in the world’s history.  A comparatively ancient tradition relates that the Hebrews arrived in Egypt during the reign of Aphobis, a Hyksos king, doubtless one of the Apopi.  The Hyksos were ousted by a hero named Ahmosis after a war of five years.  The XVIIIth Dynasty was inaugurated by the Pharaohs, whose policy was so aggressive that Egypt, attacked by enemies from various quarters, and roused, as it were, to warlike frenzy, hurled her armies across all her frontiers simultaneously, and her sudden appearance in the heart of Syria gave a new turn to human history.  The isolation of the kingdoms of the ancient world was at an end; and the conflict of the nations was about to begin.

II.—­Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest

The Egyptians had no need to anticipate Chaldaean interference when, forsaking their ancient traditions, they penetrated for the first time into the heart of Syria.  Babylonian rule ceased to exercise direct control when the line of sovereigns who had introduced it disappeared.  When Ammisatana died, about the year 2099 B.C., the dynasty of Khammurabi became extinct, and kings of the semi-barbarous Cossaean race gained the throne which had been occupied since the days of Khammurabi by Chaldaeans of the ancient stock.