A race so endowed with wisdom was, indeed, destined to triumph over its neighbours, and the latter would have no chance of resisting such a nation unless they borrowed from it its manners, customs, industry, writing, and all the arts and sciences which had brought about their superiority.  Chaldaeann civilization spread into Elam and took possession of the inhabitants of the shores of the Persian Gulf, and then, since its course was impeded on the south by the sea, on the west by the desert, and on the east by the mountains, it turned in the direction of the great northern plains and proceeded up the two rivers, beside whose lower waters it had been cradled.  It was at this very time that the Pharaohs of the XIIIth dynasty had just completed the conquest of Nubia.  Greater Egypt, made what she was by the efforts of twenty generations, had become an African power.  The sea formed her northern boundary, the desert and the mountains enclosed her on all sides, and the Nile appeared the only natural outlet into a new world:  she followed it indefatigably from one cataract to another, colonizing as she passed all the lands fertilized by its waters.  Every step which she made in this direction increased the distance between her capitals and the Mediterranean, and brought her armies further south.  Asia would have practically ceased to exist, as far as Egypt was concerned, had not the repeated incursions of the Bedouin obliged her to make advances from time to time in that direction; still she crossed the frontier as seldom as possible, and recalled her troops as soon as they had reduced the marauders to order:  Ethiopia alone attracted her, and it was there that she firmly established her empire.  The two great civilized peoples of the ancient world, therefore, had each their field of action clearly marked out, and neither of them had ever ventured into that of the other.  There had been no lack of intercourse between them, and the encounter of their armies, if it ever really had taken place, had been accidental, had merely produced passing results, and up till then had terminated without bringing to either side a decisive advantage.

[Illustration:  354.jpg MAGIC NAIL OF TERRA COTTA]

[Illustration:  355.jpg EGYPTIAN CORNICE BEARING THE CARTOUCHES OF RAMSES I.]

APPENDIX—­THE PHARAOHS OF THE ANCIENT AND MIDDLE EMPIRES

(Dynasties I.-XIV.)

The lists of the Pharaohs of the Memphite period appear to have been drawn up in much the same order as we now possess them, as early as the XIIth dynasty:  it is certain that the sequence was definitely fixed about the time of the XXth dynasty, since it was under this that the Canon of Turin was copied.  The lists which have come down to us appear to follow two traditions, which differ completely in certain cases:  one has been preserved for us by the abbreviators of Manetho, while the other was the authority followed by the compilers of the tables of Abydos and Saqqara, as well as by the author of the Turin Papyrus.