Ramses II. was, in his youth, the handsomest man of his time, and old age and death did not succeed in marring his face sufficiently to disfigure it, as may be seen in his mummy to-day.  Ramses the Great, who was thus the glory of the XIXth Dynasty, reigned sixty-eight years, and lived to the age of 100, when he passed away peacefully at Thebes.  Under his successors, Minephtah, Seti II., Amenemis and Siphtah, the nation became decadent, though there were transient gleams of prosperity, as when Minephtah won a great victory over the Libyans.  But after the death of Siphtah, there were many claimants for the Crown, and anarchy prevailed from one end of the Nile valley to the other.

V.—­The Rise of the Assyrian Empire

Ramses III., a descendant of Ramses II., was the founder of the last dynasty which was able to retain the supremacy of Egypt over the Oriental world.  He took for his hero Ramses the Great, and endeavoured to rival him in everything, and for a period the imperial power revived.  In the fifth year of his reign he was able to repulse the confederated Libyans with complete success.  Victories over other enemies followed, and also peace and prosperity.

The cessation of Egyptian authority over those countries in which it had so long prevailed did not at once do away with the deep impression it had made on their constitution and customs.  Syria and Phoenicia had become, as it were, covered with an African veneer, both religion and language being affected by Egyptian influence.  But the Phoenicians became absorbed in commercial pursuits, and failed to aspire to the inheritance which the Egyptians were letting slip.  Coeval with the decline of the power of the latter was that of the Hittites.

The Babylonian Empire likewise degenerated under the Cossaean kings, and gave way to the ascendancy of Assyria, which came to regard Babylon with deadly hatred.  The capitals of the two countries were not more than 185 miles apart.  The line of demarcation followed one of the many canals between the Tigris and Euphrates.  It then crossed the Tigris and was formed by one of the rivers draining the Iranian table-land—­the Upper Zab, the Radanu, or the Turnat.  Each of the two states strove by every means in its power to stretch its boundary to the farthest limits, and the narrow area was the scene of continual war.

Assyria was but a poor and insignificant country when compared with that of her rival.  She occupied, on each side of the middle course of the Tigris, the territory lying between the 35th and 37th parallels of latitude.  This was a compact and healthy district, well watered by the streams running from the Iranian plateau, which were regulated by a network of canals and ditches for irrigation of the whole region.  The provinces thus supplied with water enjoyed a fertility which passed into a proverb.  Thus Assyria was favoured by nature, but she was not well wooded.  The most important of the cities were Assur, Arbeles, Kalakh and Nineveh.