and endeavoured to rival him in everything.  This spirit of imitation was at times the means of leading him to commit somewhat puerile acts, as, for example, when he copied certain triumphal inscriptions word for word, merely changing the dates and the cartouches,* or when he assumed the prenomen of Usirmari, and distributed among his male children the names and dignities of the sons of Sesostris.  We see, moreover, at his court another high priest of Phtah at Memphis bearing the name of Khamoisit, and Maritumu, another supreme pontiff of Ra in Heliopolis.  However, this ambition to resemble his ancestor at once instigated him to noble deeds, and gave him the necessary determination to accomplish them.

     * Thus the great decree of Phtah-Totunen, carved by Ramses
     II. in the year XXXV. on the rocks of Abu Simbel, was copied
     by Ramses III. at Medinet-Habu in the year XII.

He began by restoring order in the administration of affairs; “he established truth, crushed error, purified the temple from all crime,” and made his authority felt not only in the length and breadth of the Nile valley, but in what was still left of the Asiatic provinces.  The disturbances of the preceding years had weakened the prestige of Amon-Ra, and the king’s supremacy would have been seriously endangered, had any one arisen in Syria of sufficient energy to take advantage of the existing state of affairs.  But since the death of Khatusaru, the power of the Khati had considerably declined, and they retained their position merely through their former prestige; they were in as much need of peace, or even more so, than the Egyptians, for the same discords which had harassed the reigns of Seti II. and his successors had doubtless brought trouble to their own sovereigns.  They had made no serious efforts to extend their dominion over any of those countries which had been the objects of the cupidity of their forefathers, while the peoples of Kharu and Phoenicia, thrown back on their own resources, had not ventured to take up arms against the Pharaoh.  The yoke lay lightly upon them, and in no way hampered their internal liberty; they governed as they liked, they exchanged one prince or chief for another, they waged petty wars as of old, without, as a rule, exposing themselves to interference from the Egyptian troops occupying the country, or from the “royal messengers.”  These vassal provinces had probably ceased to pay tribute, or had done so irregularly, during the years of anarchy following the death of Siphtah, but they had taken no concerted action, nor attempted any revolt, so that when Ramses III. ascended the throne he was spared the trouble of reconquering them.  He had merely to claim allegiance to have it at once rendered him—­an allegiance which included the populations in the neighbourhood of Qodshu and on the banks of the Nahr el-Kelb.  The empire, which had threatened to fall to pieces amid the civil wars, and which would indeed have succumbed had they continued a few years longer, again revived now that an energetic prince had been found to resume the direction of affairs, and to weld together those elements which had been on the point of disintegration.