at Memphis were restored, and the inscriptions effaced by time were re-engraved.  Thebes, happy under the government of Amenertas and her husband Pionkhi, profited largely by the liberality of its Ethiopian rulers.  At Luxor Sabaco restored the decoration of the principal gateway between the two pylons, and repaired several portions of the temple of Amon at Karnak.  History subsequently related that, in order to obtain sufficient workmen, he substituted forced labour for the penalty of death:  a policy which, beside being profitable, would win for him a reputation for clemency.  Egypt, at length reduced to peace and order, began once more to flourish, and to display that inherent vitality of which she had so often given proof, and her reviving prosperity attracted as of old the attention of foreign powers.  At the beginning of his reign, Sabaco had attempted to meddle in the intrigues of Syria, but the ease with which Sargon had quelled the revolt of Ashdod had inspired the Egyptian monarch with salutary distrust in his own power; he had sent presents to the conqueror and received gifts in exchange, which furnished him with a pretext for enrolling the Asiatic peoples among the tributary nations whose names he inscribed on his triumphal lists.* Since then he had had some diplomatic correspondence with his powerful neighbour, and a document bearing his name was laid up in the archives at Calah, where the clay seal once attached to it has been discovered.  Peace had lasted for a dozen years, when he died about 703 B.C., and his son Shabitoku ascended the throne.**

* It was probably with reference to this exchange of presents that Sabaco caused the bas-relief at Karnak to be engraved, in which he represents himself as victorious over both Asiatics and Africans.

** One version of Manetho assigns twelve years to the reign of Sabaco, and this duration is confirmed by an inscription in Hammamat, dated in his twelfth year.  Sabaco having succeeded to the throne in 716-715 B.C., his reign brings us down to 704 or 703 B.C., which obliges us to place the accession of Shabi-toku in the year following the death of Sargon.

[Illustration:  011.jpg clay seal with cartouche of sabaco]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.

The temporary embarrassments in which the Babylonian revolution had plunged Sennacherib must have offered a tempting opportunity for interference to this inexperienced king.  Tyre and Judah alone of all the Syrian states retained a sufficiently independent spirit to cherish any hope of deliverance from the foreign yoke.  Tyre still maintained her supremacy over Southern Phoenicia, and her rulers were also kings of Sidon.* The long reign of Eth-baal and his alliance with the kings of Israel had gradually repaired the losses occasioned by civil discord, and had restored Tyre to the high degree of prosperity which it had enjoyed under Hiram.  Few actual facts are known which can enlighten us as to the activity which prevailed under Eth-baal:  we know, however, that he rebuilt the small town of Botrys, which had been destroyed in the course of some civil war, and that he founded the city of Auza in Libyan territory, at the foot of the mountains of Aures, in one of the richest mineral districts of modern Algeria.**