heroic poem of Pentaour, and which Ramesses himself recorded over and
over again upon the walls of his magnificent constructions, must no
doubt be regarded as a fact; but it is not likely to have continued for
more than a few minutes. The minutes may have seemed as hours to the
king; and there may have been time for him to perform several exploits.
But we may be sure that, when his companions found that he was lost to
their sight, they at once made frantic efforts to recover him, dead or
alive; they forced openings in the first Hittite chariot line, and sped
to the rescue of their sovereign. He had, perhaps, already emptied many
chariots of the second line, which was paralysed by his audacity; and
his companions found it easy to complete the work which he had begun.
The broken second line turned and fled; the confusion became general; a
headlong flight carried the entire host to the banks of the Orontes,
into which some precipitated themselves, while others were forced into
the water by their pursuers. The king of Khirabu (Aleppo) was among
these, and was with great difficulty drawn out by his friends, exhausted
and half dead, when he reached the eastern shore. But the great bulk of
the Hittite army perished, either in the battle or in the river. Among
the killed and wounded were Grabatasa, the charioteer of Khitasir;
Tarakennas, the commander of the cavalry; Rabsuna, another general;
Khirapusar, a royal secretary; and Matsurama, a brother of the Hittite
king.
On the next day the battle was renewed; but, after a short time,
Khitasir retired, and sent a humble embassy to the camp of his adversary
to implore for peace. Ramesses held a council of war with his generals,
and by their advice agreed to accept the submission made to him, and,
without entering into any formal engagement, to withdraw his army and
return to Egypt. It seems probable that his victory had cost him dear,
and that he was not in a condition to venture further from his
resources, or to affront new dangers in a difficult, and to him unknown,
region.
Experience tells us that it is one thing to gain a battle, quite another
to be successful in the result of a long war. Whatever glory Ramesses
obtained by the battle of Kadesh, and the other victories which he
claims to have won in the Syrian campaigns of several succeeding years,
it is certain that he completely failed to break the power of the
Hittites, and that he was led in course of time to confess his failure,
and to adopt a policy of conciliation towards the people which he found
himself unable to subdue. Sixteen years after the battle of Kadesh he
concluded a solemn treaty with Khitasir, which was engraved on silver
and placed under the most sacred sanctions, whereby an exact equality
was established between the high contracting powers. Each nation bound
itself under no circumstances to attack the other; each promised to give
aid to the other, if requested, in case of its ally being attacked; each
pledged itself to the extradition both of criminals flying from justice
and of any other subjects wishing to change their allegiance; each
stipulated for an amnesty of offences in the case of all persons thus
surrendered. Thirteen years after the conclusion of the treaty the close
alliance between the two powers was further cemented by a marriage,
which, by giving the two dynasties common interests, greatly
strengthened the previously existing bond. Ramesses requested and
received in marriage a daughter of Khitasir in the thirty-fourth year of
his sole reign, when he had borne the royal title for forty-six years.
He thus became the son-in-law of his former adversary, whose daughter
was thenceforth recognized as his sole legitimate queen.
A considerable change in the relations of Egypt to her still remaining
Asiatic dependencies accompanied this alteration in the footing upon
which she stood with the Hittites. "The bonds of their subjection
became much less strict than they had been under Thothmes III.;
prudential motives constrained the Egyptians to be content with very
much less--with such acknowledgments, in fact, as satisfied their
vanity, rather than with the exercise of any real power." From and after
the conclusion of peace and alliance between Ramesses and Khitasir,
Egyptian influence in Asia grew vague, shadowy, and discontinuous. At
long intervals monarchs of more enterprize than the ordinary run
asserted it, and a brief success generally crowned their efforts; but,
speaking broadly, we may say that her Asiatic dominion was lost, and
that Egypt became once more an African power, confined within nearly her
ancient limits.
If, from a military point of view, the decline of Egypt is to be dated
from the reigns, partly joint reigns, of Seti I. and Ramesses II., from
the stand-point of art the period must be pronounced the very apogee of
Egyptian greatness. The architectural works of these two monarchs
transcend most decidedly all those of all other Pharaohs, either earlier
or later. No single work, indeed, of either king equals _in mass_ either
the First or the Second Pyramid; but in number, in variety, in beauty,
in all that constitutes artistic excellence, the constructions of Seti
and Ramesses are unequalled, not only among Egyptian monuments, but
among those of all other nations. Greece is, of course, unapproachable
in the matter of sculpture, whether in the way of statuary, or of high
or low relief; but, apart from this, Egypt in her architectural works
will challenge comparison with any country that ever existed, or any
people that ever gave itself to the embodiment of artistic conceptions
in stone or marble. And Egyptian architecture culminated under Seti and
his son Ramesses. The greatest of all Seti's works was his pillared hall
at Karnak, the most splendid single chamber that has ever been built by
any architect, and, even in its ruins, one of the grandest sights that
the world contains. Seti's hall is three hundred and thirty feet long,
by one hundred and seventy feet broad, having thus an internal area of
fifty-six thousand square feet, and covers, together with its walls and
pylons, an area of eighty-eight thousand such feet, or a larger space
than that covered by the Dom of Cologne, the largest of all the
cathedrals north of the Alps. It was supported by one hundred and
sixty-four massive stone columns, which were divided into three
groups--twelve central ones, each sixty-six feet high and thirty-three
feet in circumference, formed the main avenue down its midst; while on
either side, two groups of sixty-one columns, each forty-two feet high
and twenty-seven round, supported the huge wings of the chamber,
arranged in seven rows of seven each, and two rows of six. The whole was
roofed over with solid blocks of stone, the lighting being, as in the
far smaller hall of Thothmes III., by means of a clerestory. The roof
and pillars and walls were everywhere covered with painted bas-reliefs
and hieroglyphics, giving great richness of effect, and constituting the
whole building the most magnificent on which the eye of man has ever
rested. Fergusson, the best modern authority on architecture, says of
it: "No language can convey an idea of its beauty, and no artist has yet
been able to reproduce its form so as to convey to those who have not
seen it an idea of its grandeur. The mass of its central piers,
illumined by a flood of light from the clerestory, and the smaller
pillars of the wings gradually fading into obscurity, are so arranged
and lighted as to convey an idea of infinite space; at the same time the
beauty and massiveness of the forms, and the brilliancy of their
coloured decorations, all combine to stamp this as _the greatest of
man's architectural works_, but such a one as it would be impossible to
reproduce, except in such a climate, and in that individual style, in
which and for which it was created."[24]
As Seti constructed the most wonderful of all the palatial buildings
which Egypt produced, so he also constructed what is, on the whole, the
most wonderful of the tombs. The pyramids impose upon us by their
enormity, and astonish by the engineering skill shown in their
execution; but they embody a single simple idea; they have no
complication of parts, no elaboration of ornament; they are taken in at
a glance; they do not gradually unfold themselves, or furnish a
succession of surprises. But it is otherwise with the rock-tombs,
whereof Seti's is the most magnificent The rock-tombs are "gorgeous
palaces, hewn out of the rock, and painted with all the decorations that
could have been seen in palaces." They contain a succession of passages,
chambers, corridors, staircases, and pillared halls, each further
removed from the entrance than the last, and all covered with an
infinite variety of the most finished and brilliant paintings. The tomb
of Seti contains three pillared halls, respectively twenty-seven feet
by twenty-five, twenty-eight feet by twenty-seven, and forty-three feet
by seventeen and a half; a large saloon with an arched roof, thirty feet
by twenty-seven; six smaller chambers of different sizes; three
staircases, and two long corridors. The whole series of apartments, from
end to end of the tomb, is continuously ornamented with painted
bas-reliefs. "The idea is that of conducting the king to the world of
death. The further you advance into the tomb, the deeper you become
involved in endless processions of jackal-headed gods, and monstrous
forms of genii, good and evil; and the goddess of Justice, with her
single ostrich feather; and barges carrying mummies, raised aloft over
the sacred lake; and mummies themselves; and, more than all, everlasting
convolutions of serpents in every possible form and
attitude--human-legged, human-headed, crowned, entwining mummies,
enwreathing or embraced by processions, extending down whole galleries,
so that meeting the head of a serpent at the top of a staircase, you
have to descend to its very end before you reach his tail. At last you
arrive at the close of all--the vaulted hall, in the centre of which
lies the immense alabaster sarcophagus, which ought to contain the body
of the king. Here the processions, above, below, and around, reach their
highest pitch--meandering round and round--white, and black, and red,
and blue--legs and arms and wings spreading in enormous forms over the
ceilings; and below lies the sarcophagus itself."[25]
The greatest of the works of Ramesses are of a different description,
and are indicative of that inordinate vanity which is the leading
feature of his character. They are colossal images of himself. Four of
these, each seventy feet in height, form the façade of the marvellous
rock-temple of Ipsambul--"the finest of its class known to exist
anywhere"--and constitute one of the most impressive sights which the
world has to offer. There stands the Great King, four times repeated,
silent, majestic, superhuman--with features marked by profound repose
and tranquillity, touched perhaps with a little scorn, looking out
eternally on the grey-white Nubian waste, which stretches far away to a
dim and distant horizon. Here, as you sit on the deep pure sand, you
seem to see the monarch, who did so much, who reigned so long, who
covered, not only Egypt, but Nubia and Ethiopia with his memorials. "You
can look at his features inch by inch, see them not only magnified to
tenfold their original size, so that ear and mouth and nose, and every
link of his collar, and every line of his skin, sinks into you with the
weight of a mountain; but those features are repeated exactly the same
three times over--four times they once were, but the upper part of the
fourth statue is gone. Look at them as they emerge--the two northern
figures--from the sand which reaches up to their throats; the
southernmost, as he sits unbroken, and revealed from the top of his
royal helmet to the toe of his enormous foot"[26] Look at them, and
remember that you have here portrait-statues of one of the greatest of
the kings of the Old World, of the world that was "old" when Greece and
Rome were either unborn or in their swaddling clothes; portrait-statues,
moreover, of the king who, if either tradition or chronology can be
depended on, was the actual great oppressor of Israel--the king who
sought the life of Moses--the king from whom Moses fled, and until whose
death he did not dare to return out of the land of Midian.
According to the almost unanimous voice of those most conversant with
Egyptian antiquities, the "great oppressor" of the Hebrews was this
Ramesses. Seti may have been the originator of the scheme for crushing
them by hard usage, but, as the oppression lasted close upon eighty
years (Ex. ii, I; vii. 7), it must have covered at least two reigns, so
that, if it began under Seti, it must have continued under his son and
successor. The bricks found at Tel-el-Maskoutah show Ramesses as the
main builder of Pithom (Pa-Tum), and the very name indicates that he was
the main builder of Raamses (Pa-Ramessu). We must thus ascribe to him,
at any rate, the great bulk of that severe and cruel affliction, which
provoked Moses (Ex. ii, 12), which made Israel "sigh" and "groan" (ib.
23, 24), and on which God looked down with compassion (ib. iii. 7). It
was he especially who "made their lives bitter in mortar, and in brick,
and in all manner of service in the field"--service which was "with
rigour." Ramesses was a builder on the most extensive scale. Without
producing any single edifice so perfect as the "Pillared Hall of Seti,"
he was indefatigable in his constructive efforts, and no Egyptian king
came up to him in this respect. The monuments show that he erected his
buildings chiefly by forced labour, and that those employed on them were
chiefly foreigners. Some have thought that the Hebrews are distinctly
mentioned as employed by him on his constructions under the term
"Aperu," or "Aperiu"; but this view is not generally accepted. Still,
"the name is so often used for foreign bondsmen engaged in the very work
of the Hebrews, and especially during the oppression, that it is hard
not to believe it to be a general term in which they are included,
though it does not actually describe them."[27]
[Illustration: HEAD OF SETI]
[Illustration: BUST OF RAMESSES II.]
The physiognomies of Seti I. and Ramesses II., as represented on the
sculptures,[28] offer a curious contrast Seti's face is thoroughly
African, strong, fierce, prognathous, with depressed nose, thick lips,
and a heavy chin. The face of Ramesses is Asiatic. He has a good
forehead, a large, well-formed, slightly aquiline nose, a well-shaped
mouth, with lips that are not too full, a small delicate chin, and an
eye that is thoughtful and pensive. We may conclude that Seti was of the
true Egyptian race, with perhaps an admixture of more southern blood;
while Ramesses, born of a Semitic mother, inherited through her Asiatic
characteristics, and, though possessing less energy and strength of
character than his father, had a more sensitive temperament, a wider
range of taste, and a greater inclination towards peace and
tranquillity. His important wars were all concluded within the limit of
his twenty-first year, while his entire reign was one of sixty-seven
years, during fifty of which he held the sole sovereignty. Though he
left the fame of a great warrior behind him, his chief and truest
triumphs seem to have been those of peace--the Great Wall for the
protection of Egypt towards the east, with its strong fortresses and
"store-cities," the canal which united the Nile with the Red Sea, and
the countless buildings, excavations, obelisks, colossal statues, and
other great works, with which he adorned Egypt from one end to the
other.
FOOTNOTES:
[24] "History of Architecture," vol. i. pp. 119, 120.
[25] Adapted from Dean Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine," Introduction, p.
xl.
[26] Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," p. xlvii.
[27] Stuart Poole, "Cities of Egypt," p. 105
[28] The mummy of Seti I. has been recently uncovered. It was in good
condition, and is said to have revealed a face very closely resembling
that of Ramesses II., with fine delicate features, and altogether of an
elevated type. "The nose, mouth, chin, in short all the features," says
M. Maspero, "are the same; but in the father they are more refined, more
intelligent, more spiritual, than when reproduced in the son. Seti I.
is, as it were, the idealized type of Ramesses II." (Letter of M.
Maspero in _The Times_ of July 23, 1886.) It may perhaps be doubted
whether the shrunken mummy, 3300 years old, is better evidence of the
living reality than the contemporary sculptures.
CHAPTER XVI.
MENEPHTHAH I., THE PHARAOH OF THE EXODUS.
Menephthah, the thirteenth son and immediate successor of Ramesses II.,
came to the throne under circumstances which might at first sight have
seemed favourable. Egypt was on every side at peace with her neighbours.
The wail of Ramesses, and his treaty with the Hittites, cemented as it
had been by a marriage, secured the eastern frontier. No formidable
attack had ever yet fallen upon Egypt from the west or from the south,
and so no danger could well be apprehended from those quarters. Internal
tranquillity might not be altogether assured, so long as there was
within the limits of Egypt a large subject population, suffering
oppression and bitterly discontented with its lot. But this population
was quite unwarlike, and had hitherto passively submitted itself to the
will of its rulers, without giving any indication that it might become
actively hostile. Menephthah, who was perhaps not more than five and
twenty, may have been justified in looking forward to a long, quiet, and
uneventful reign, during which he might indulge the natural apathy of
his temper, or dream away life, like his fabled neighbours, the
Lotus-Eaters.
Menephthah's features were soft and womanly. He had a full but sleepy
eye, a slightly aquiline nose an extremely short upper-lip, a broad
cheek, and a rounded chin. In character he was weak, irresolute, wanting
in physical courage, yet, as so often happens with weak characters,
harsh, oppressive, and treacherous. The monuments depict him as neither
a soldier nor an administrator, but as "one whose mind was turned almost
exclusively towards the chimeras of sorcery and magic," which he
regarded as of the utmost importance. Still, had the times been quiet,
had the prospect of tranquillity which seemed to lie before him on his
accession been realized, he might perhaps have so conducted affairs as
to bring neither discredit nor injury upon his country. But the
circumstances of the period were against him. The unclouded prospect of
his early years gave place, after a brief interval, to storm and tempest
of the most fearful kind; a terrible invasion carried fire and sword
into the heart of his dominions; and he had scarcely escaped this danger
by meeting it in a way not very honourable to himself, when internal
troubles broke out: a subject race, highly valued for services which it
was compelled to render, insisted on quitting the land; a great loss was
incurred in an attempt to compel it to remain; then open rebellion broke
out in the weakened state; and the reign, which had commenced under such
fair auspices, terminated in calamity and confusion. Menephthah was
quite incompetent to deal with the difficulties and complications
wherewith he found himself surrounded; he hesitated, temporized, made
concessions, retracted them, and finally conducted Egypt to a
catastrophe from which she did not recover for a generation.
[Illustration: HEAD OF MENEPHTHAH.]
The first great trouble which disturbed the tranquillity of his reign
was an invasion of his territories from the north-west. Hitherto, though
no serious danger had ever threatened from this quarter, there had been
frequent raids into Egypt on the part of the native Africans, and most
of the more warlike of the Egyptian monarchs had regarded it as
incumbent on them to lead from time to time expeditions into the region,
for the purpose of weakening the wild tribes, Tahennu, Maxyes, and
others, and inspiring them with a wholesome dread of the Egyptian power.
Ramesses II. had on one occasion warred in this quarter, as already
related, and had met with a certain amount of success. But since that
time many years had passed. A new generation had grown up, which the
Egyptians had allowed to remain unmolested, and which felt no fear of
its quiet, peaceful, and industrious neighbours. Population had probably
multiplied in the region, and the tribes began to feel stinted for room.
Above all, new relations had been contracted between the old inhabitants
of the tract and some other races, now for the first time heard of in
authentic history, who had been brought into contact with them. A league
of nations had become possible; and the force of the united league must
have been considerable. Might not an actual conquest be effected, and
the half-starved nomads of Marmarica and the Cyrenaica become the lords
and masters of the rich plain, so long coveted, which adjoined upon
their eastern frontier?
The leading spirit of the combination was a native African prince,
Marmaiu, the son of Deid. Having determined on a serious invasion of
Egypt, for the purpose of conquest, not of plunder, he first of all
collected his native forces, Lubu, Tahennu, Mashuash, Kahaka, to the
number of twenty-five or thirty thousand, and then purchased the
services of a number of auxiliaries, who raised his force probably to a
total of thirty-five or forty thousand men. A peculiar interest attaches
to these auxiliaries. They consisted of contingents from five nations,
whose names are read as Akausha, Luku, Tursha, Shartana or Shardana, and
Sheklusha, and whom most modern historians of Egypt identify with the
Achæans Laconians, Tyrsenians, Sardinians, and Sicilians. If these
identifications are accepted--- and they are at least plausible--we
shall have to suppose that, as early as the fourteenth century B.C., the
nations of Southern Europe were so far advanced as to launch fleets upon
the Mediterranean, to enter into a regular league with an African
prince, and in conjunction with him to make an attack on one of the
chief civilized monarchies of the world, the old kingdom of the
Pharaohs. We shall have to imagine the Achæans of the Peloponnese, a
century before the time of Agamemnon, braving the perils of the Levant
in their cockle-shells of ships, and not merely plundering the coasts,
but landing large bodies of men on the North African shore to take part
in a regular campaign. We shall have to picture to ourselves the
Laconians--the people of Menelaüs--about the time of his grandfather,
Atreus, or his great-grandfather, Pelops, similarly employed, and
contending with the Pharaoh of the Exodus on the soil of the Delta. Nay,
we shall have to antedate the rise of the Tyrsenians to naval greatness
by about seven hundred years, and to suppose that the Sicels and Sardi,
whom the Greeks and Romans found living the life of savages in Sicily
and Sardinia, when they first visited their shores, about B.C. 750-600,
were flourishing peoples and skilful navigators half a millennium
earlier. The picture which we thus obtain of the ancient world is very
surprising, and quite unlike anything that could be gathered from the
literature of the Greeks; but it is not to be regarded as beyond the
range of possibility, since nations are quite as apt to lapse from
civilization into barbarism as to emerge out of barbarism into
civilization. It is quite conceivable that the nations of South-Eastern
Europe were more advanced in civilization and the arts of life about
B.C. 1400-1300 than they are found to have been six centuries later, the
false dawn having been succeeded by a time of darkness before the true
dawn came.