had left a posterity out of which some at least might have the requisite ability and zeal, if not to save the empire, at least to lengthen its duration, and once more give to Thebes days of glorious prosperity.  Egypt had set out some five centuries before this for the conquest of the world, and fortune had at first smiled upon her enterprise.  Thutmosis I., Thutmosis III., and the several Pharaohs bearing the name of Amenothes had marched with their armies from the upper waters of the Nile to the banks of the Euphrates, and no power had been able to withstand them.  New nations, however, soon rose up to oppose her, and the Hittites in Asia and the Libyans of the Sudan together curbed her ambition.  Neither the triumphs of Ramses II. nor the victory of Minephtah had been able to restore her prestige, or the lands of which her rivals had robbed her beyond her ancient frontier.  Now her own territory itself was threatened, and her own well-being was in question; she was compelled to consider, not how to rule other tribes, great or small, but how to keep her own possessions intact and independent:  in short, her very existence was at stake.

CHAPTER III—­THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE

RAMSES III.—­THE THEBAN CITY UNDER THE RAMESSIDES—­MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

Nalthtasit and Ramses III.:  the decline of the military spirit in Egypt—­The reorganisation of the army and fleet by Ramses—­The second Libyan invasion—­The Asiatic peoples, the Pulasati, the Zakleala, and the Tyrseni:  their incursions into Syria and their defeat—­The campaign of the year XL and the fall of the Libyan kingdom—­Cruising on the Red Sea—­The buildings at Medinet-Habu—­The conspiracy of Pentauirit—­The mummy of Ramses III.

The sons and immediate successors of Ramses III.—­Thebes and the Egyptian population:  the transformation of the people and of the great lords:  the feudal system from being military becomes religious—­The wealth of precious metals, jewellery, furniture, costume—­Literary education, and the influence of the Semitic language on the Egyptian:  romantic stories, the historical novel, fables, caricatures and satires, collections of maxims and moral dialogues, love-poems.

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CHAPTER III—­THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE

Ramses III.—­The Theban city under the Ramessides—­Manners and customs.

As in a former crisis, Egypt once more owed her salvation to a scion of the old Theban race.  A descendant of Seti I. or Ramses II., named Nakhtusit, rallied round him the forces of the southern nomes, and succeeded, though not without difficulty, in dispossessing the Syrian Arisu.  “When he arose, he was like Sutkhu, providing for all the necessities of the country which, for feebleness, could not stand, killing the rebels which were in the Delta, purifying the great throne of Egypt; he was regent of the two lands in the place of Tumu, setting himself to reorganise that which had been overthrown, to such good purpose, that each one recognised as brethren those who had been separated from him as by a wall for so long a time, strengthening the temples by pious gifts, so that the traditional rites could be celebrated at the divine cycles."*