RAMESES II.
The lateral columns of hieroglyphics on the London Obelisk are the work of
Rameses II., who lived about two centuries after Thothmes III., and
ascended the throne about 1300 B.C. Rameses II. was the third king of the
XIXth dynasty; and for personal exploits, the magnificence of his works,
and the length of his reign, he was not surpassed by any of the kings of
ancient Egypt, except by Thothmes III.
His grandfather, Rameses I., was the founder of the dynasty. His father,
Seti I., is celebrated for his victories over the Rutennu, or Syrians, and
over the Shasu, or Arabians, as well as for his public works, especially
the great temple he built at Karnak. Rameses II. was, however, a greater
warrior than his father. He first conquered Kush, or Ethiopia; then he led
an expedition against the Khitæ, or Hittites, whom he completely routed at
Kadesh, the ancient capital, a town on the River Orontes, north of Mount
Lebanon. In this battle Rameses was placed in the greatest danger; but his
personal bravery stood him in good stead, and he kept the Hittites at bay
till his soldiers rescued him. He thus commemorates on the monuments his
deeds;
"I became like the god Mentu; I hurled the dart with my right hand; I
fought with my left hand; I was like Baal in his time before their sight;
I had come upon two thousand five hundred pairs of horses; I was in the
midst of them; but they were dashed in pieces before my steeds. Not one of
them raised his hand to fight; their courage was sunken in their breasts;
their limbs gave way; they could not hurl the dart, nor had they strength
to thrust the spear. I made them fall into the waters like crocodiles;
they tumbled down on their faces one after another. I killed them at my
pleasure, so that not one looked back behind him; nor did any turn round.
Each fell, and none raised himself up again."[6]
Rameses fought with and conquered the Amorites, Canaanites, and other
tribes of Palestine and Syria. His public works are also very numerous; he
dug wells, founded cities, and completed a great wall begun by his father
Seti, reaching from Pelusium to Heliopolis, a gigantic structure, designed
to keep back the hostile Asiatics, thus reminding one of the Great Wall of
China. Pelusium was situated near the present Port Saïd, and the wall must
therefore have been about a hundred miles long. In its course it must have
passed near the site of Tel-el-Kebir. It is now certain that Rameses built
the treasure cities spoken of in Exodus: "Therefore they did set over them
taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh
treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses" (Exod. i. 11). According to Dr.
Birch, Rameses II. was a monarch of whom it was written: "Now there arose
up a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph."
He enlarged On and Tanis, and built temples at Ipsambul, Karnak, Luxor,
Abydos, Memphis, etc.
"The most remarkable of the temples erected by Rameses is the building at
Thebes, once called the Memnonium, but now commonly known as the Rameseum;
and the extraordinary rock temple of Ipsambul, or Abu-Simbel, the most
magnificent specimen of its class which the world contains.
"The façade is formed by four huge colossi, each seventy feet in height,
representing Rameses himself seated on a throne, with the double crown of
Egypt upon his head. In the centre, flanked on either side by two of these
gigantic figures, is a doorway of the usual Egyptian type, opening into a
small vestibule, which communicates by a short passage with the main
chamber. This is an oblong square, sixty feet long, by forty-five, divided
into a nave and two aisles by two rows of square piers with Osirid
statues, thirty feet high in front, and ornamented with painted sculptures
over its whole surface. The main chamber leads into an inner shrine, or
adytum, supported by four piers with Osirid figures, but otherwise as
richly adorned as the outer apartment. Behind the adytum are small rooms
for the priests who served in the temple. It is the façade of the work
which constitutes its main beauty."[7]
[Illustration: COLOSSAL HEAD OF RAMESES II.]
"The largest of the rock temples at Ipsambul," says Mr. Fergusson, "is
_the finest of its class known to exist anywhere_. Externally the façade
is about one hundred feet in height, and adorned by four of the most
magnificent colossi in Egypt, each seventy feet in height, and
representing the king, Rameses II., who caused the excavation to be made.
It may be because they are more perfect than any other now found in that
country, but certainly nothing can exceed their calm majesty and beauty,
or be more entirely free from the vulgarity and exaggeration which is
generally a characteristic of colossal works of this sort."[8]
A great king Rameses was, undoubtedly; but he showed no disposition to
underrate his greatness. The hieroglyphics on Cleopatra's Needles are
written in a vaunting and arrogant strain; and in all the monuments
celebrating his deeds the same spirit is present. His character has been
well summarized by Canon Rawlinson:--
"His affection for his son, and for his two principal wives, shows that
the disposition of Rameses II. was in some respects amiable; although,
upon the whole, his character is one which scarcely commends itself to our
approval. Professing in his early years extreme devotion to the memory of
his father, he lived to show himself his father's worst enemy, and to aim
at obliterating his memory by erasing his name from the monuments on which
it occurred, and in many cases substituting his own. Amid a great show of
regard for the deities of his country, and for the ordinances of the
established worship, he contrived that the chief result of all that he did
for religion should be the glorification of himself. Other kings had
arrogated to themselves a certain qualified dignity, and after their
deaths had sometimes been placed by some of their successors on a par with
the real national gods; but it remained for Rameses to associate himself
during his lifetime with such leading deities as Ptah, Ammon, and Horus,
and to claim equally with them the religious regards of his subjects. He
was also, as already observed, the first to introduce into Egypt the
degrading custom of polygamy and the corrupting influence of a harem. Even
his bravery, which cannot be denied, loses half its merit by being made
the constant subject of boasting; and his magnificence ceases to appear
admirable when we think at what a cost it displayed itself. If, with most
recent writers upon Egyptian history, we identify him with the 'king who
knew not Joseph,' the builder of Pithom and Raamses, the first oppressor
of the Israelites, we must add some darker shades to the picture, and look
upon him as a cruel and ruthless despot, who did not shrink from
inflicting on innocent persons the severest pain and suffering."
[Illustration]