THE PHARAOHS OF TANIS, BUBASTIS, AND NAPATA.
At the close of the fourteenth century B.C. Ramses III. had secured
Egypt against the attacks of the Libyans, Syrians, and Arabians. His
successors of the same name remained peacefully within the borders of
their land. Neither tradition nor monuments tell us of their campaigns.
Two or three sepulchres in the rocks of Biban el Moluk and some
inscriptions give us their names, and inform us that these Ramessids
built at the temple of Chon at Thebes, that they maintained the dominion
of Thebes up the Nile as far as Mt. Barkal down to the year 1100
B.C.[127] Of more importance is the fact that under the successors of
Ramses VI., the last rulers of the name of Ramses, who sat on the throne
from the year 1200 to 1074 B.C., the high-priests of Thebes obtained a
position which formed a strong counterpoise to the power of the kings,
and at length threw it into the back-ground, if it did not altogether
remove it. In inscriptions in the temple of Chon, Herhor, the
high-priest at the time of Ramses XIII., receives the title of prince
(_si suten_, king's son) of Cush, a title borne by the viceroys of
Napata since Ramses II. They call him "Commander-in-chief of the army in
Upper and Lower Egypt;" and finally, "Si-Amun" and "Si-Ra," and with
these titles, which were borne by the Pharaohs, Herhor receives also the
symbols of the king. It is also thought that the inscriptions speak of
tribute of the Retennu, _i.e._ the Syrians, which he received.[128] It
may be that Herhor rose to the throne after the death of Ramses XIII.,
or that he reigned during his lifetime, or that he absolutely deposed
him. Pianchi, the son of Herhor, is called in the monuments "High-priest
of Ammon, Prophet of Mut, Commander of the cavalry of the king of Upper
and Lower Egypt;" but the king, whose officer Pianchi was, is not
mentioned. On the other hand, Pinotem, the son of this Pianchi, like
Herhor, bears on the monuments the addition of a divine name "Miamun,"
after the manner of the Pharaohs, and royal symbols. A memorial stone of
Thebes tells us that Mencheper-Ra, general-in-chief of the army of Upper
and Lower Egypt, son of king Miamun Pinotem, marched out in the
twenty-fifth year, _i.e._ in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of
Pinotem, to Patores, _i.e._ Upper Egypt, in order to "restore peace in
the land and punish the enemy." The families of Thebes received him with
songs of joy; on the fourth intercalary day, on the feast of the birth
of Isis, the majesty of Ammon, the king of the gods, was brought forth
in procession; Mencheper-Ra implored the sanction of Ammon, that the
banished--there were myriads of them--might be brought back, and the god
gave his sanction. It seems then that the supremacy of the family of
Herhor met with a violent resistance, and that Pinotem nevertheless
found himself strong enough in the twenty-fifth year of his reign to
publish an act of amnesty. Whether Pinotem's son, Mencheper-Ra, came to
the throne, whether and how the race of the Ramessids became extinct, we
do not know.[129] But the period of the extinction of the Ramessids and
of the priests of Thebes who contended with them for power, or shared it
with them, we may place about the year 1074 B.C.
In Manetho's list the Ramessids are succeeded by a dynasty of seven
princes, who belonged to the canton of Tanis (Zoan). Together they are
said to have reigned over Egypt 114 years. The first prince of this
house, Smendes, must have ascended the throne about 20 years before the
time when the people of Israel raised up Saul to be king. The chronology
of the Hebrews allows us to establish the fact that the last prince of
this house must have come to an end at least ten years before the middle
of the tenth century.[130] From this point (960 B.C.), the period
already mentioned as the length of the dynasty of the Tanites, carries
us back to the year 1074 for the date of the accession of Smendes.
Since the expulsion of the Hyksos the central point of the kingdom had
remained for more than 500 years at Thebes. With the accession of the
Tanites it was removed to the Delta. Henceforth it was never restored to
Upper Egypt or to Thebes. After a reign of 26 years Smendes was
succeeded by Psusennes, who sat on the throne for 46 years (1048-1002
B.C.). If it was Psusennes, who took into his protection the young son
of the king of Edom, who was saved from David and Joab by the servants
of his father, and gave him the sister of his wife in marriage,[131] it
is the daughter of Amenophtis, the fourth prince of this house (998-989
B.C.), which Solomon took to wife, whom he honoured above his other
wives, and for whom he built a special house near his new palace (II.
185). Solomon remained on good terms with the successors of Amenophtis.
Only a few shields have been preserved from the monuments of this
dynasty in the ruins of Tanis; in these we can recognise the name of
Smendes in the form of Si-Mentu, of Psusennes I. in the form Psiuncha,
of Amenophtis in the form Amenemenkam, and lastly of Psusennes II. in
the form Hor Psiuncha.[132]
The last prince of this house, Psusennes II., was succeeded in the year
960 B.C. by Sesonchis, the Ssheshonk of the monuments, the Shishak of
the Hebrews. With him begins a new dynasty, which, according to
Manetho's list, belonged to the canton of Bubastis. In the Western Delta
a considerable part of the population, at any rate since the time of the
shepherd kings, was of a Semitic character. But families belonging to
the nation of the shepherds were not all that remained from those
periods; Semitic elements remained in the language and manners of the
Egyptians, and these certainly increased in importance owing to the
campaigns of the Tuthmosis and Amenophis in Syria, the long settlement
of the Hebrews in this district, the relations of Ramses II. to the
Hittites; lastly, to the trade of the Phenicians, the friendly relation
and lively intercourse which the Tanites maintained since Solomon's time
with the kingdom of Israel. The names of the forefathers and descendants
of Ssheshonk show that he belonged to a Semitic family living in the
canton of Bubastis. His forefathers had risen under the Pharaohs of
Tanis; his grandfather, whose name the grandson bore, had married a lady
of distinction. The offspring of this marriage, Nemrut (Nimrod), was
captain of the body-guard (Mashawasha), and bore the Semitic title,
_Ser a mat_, _i.e._ sovereign; at any rate he is so named by his son
Ssheshonk on a granite block at Abydus, which enumerates the funds
supplied by the son for the libations poured to his father who is buried
here--unless we have rather to recognise in this title as well as in the
addition to it, "prince of princes," titles of distinction subsequently
transferred from the son to the father.[133] In another inscription the
same Ssheshonk calls his predecessor Psusennes II. king of Upper
Egypt;[134] a memorial stone of Selsilis mentions a double accession of
Ssheshonk; the inscription on a statue of the Nile in the British Museum
states that king Hor Psiuncha married his daughter Rakamat to Osorkon,
the son of Ssheshonk.[135] Hence we may assume that Ssheshonk, the son
of Nemrut, became a rival for the throne; that Psusennes II. was perhaps
compelled to retire to Upper Egypt, whither Ssheshonk could not
penetrate; that a compromise took place with Psusennes, the possessor of
the throne, by means of this marriage, which secured the succession to
Ssheshonk and his family; and that Ssheshonk subsequently described his
rebellion as his first accession, and his accession after the death of
Psusennes II. as his second.[136]
However this may be, whether Ssheshonk in the first instance obtained
the power over Lower Egypt only, whether he afterwards lost it, or
whether he did not obtain the supremacy till after the death of Hor
Psiuncha,[137] he took up a different position towards the kingdom of
Judah from that occupied by the dynasty of Tanis since the accession of
Amenophtis. When flying from Solomon, Jeroboam found refuge and
protection with Ssheshonk. When after Solomon's death the ten tribes
made Jeroboam their king, as against Rehoboam, Ssheshonk in the year
B.C. 949 undertook the campaign against Judah which secured Jeroboam; he
confirmed the division, carried away spoil from Judah, and exhibited
Israel in dependence on Egypt. The results of this campaign Ssheshonk
caused to be set forth in the most splendid manner on the walls of the
temple of Karnak, westward of the building which Ramses III. had here
erected in the circuit-wall, (I. 177). The picture displays the
victorious Pharaoh, and the taxed places as bound figures in a long row
(II. 233). Over the row of vanquished places we read that "the good god
(the king) returned in peace, after defeating the nations of the North
and South; that he led home captive nations who had never seen Egypt,
that he spread the terror of his name as far as the four pillars of the
heavens." Ammon says to the king: "My heart is glad, that I have seen
thy victories. I have granted that the nations of the South shall be
defeated and come to thee, and the nations of the North shall be subject
to the greatness of thy name. Their kings throw themselves on the belly,
for they are stricken to the ground in their vallies. I have known the
splendour of thy thoughts; thou hast carried out the work of my temple
at Thebes, the brilliant place, which my heart loves; thou hast begun to
build in Hermonthis and Heliopolis."[138] We see what achievements the
inscriptions of the Pharaohs can make out of a plundering excursion into
the south of Syria: the nations of the North and of the South are
overcome; the terror of Ssheshonk is spread to the pillars of the sky.
Besides this picture of his victories on the outer wall, Ssheshonk
erected a kind of entrance porch to the southern court of the great
temple at Karnak. The inscriptions on the architrave of this porch tell
us that Ssheshonk had given command to enlarge the temple of Ammon; that
he had made the city of Thebes to live again.[139] On a memorial stone
in the quarries of Selsilis, the goddess Mut places the king, "the great
conqueror of all nations," accompanied by his son Aupoth,[140] before
Ammon of Thebes, Ra-Harmachu of Heliopolis, and Ptah of Memphis. The
inscription says: "That is the divine benefactor; Ra wears his shape; he
is the image of Harmachu. Ammon has placed him on the throne, in order
to complete what he had begun, in the occupation of Egypt for the second
time. This is king Ssheshonk; he caused a new quarry to be opened for
the beginning of a structure. Of such a nature is the kindness which he
has shown to his father, Ammon Ra." Then Ssheshonk himself says: "It is
a beautiful thing to work for Ammon. Grant me a long reign for that
which I have done. I have caused a new quarry to be opened for him for
the beginning of a work. The high priest of Ammon has carried it out,
Aupoth the highest captain of the most famous army, the first of all the
warriors of Patores, the son of Ssheshonk."[141] The architect also, who
had to erect the portico, Horemsaf, mentions this task in an inscription
at Selsilis. In the twenty-first year, _i.e._ in the twenty-first year
of the reign,[142] Ssheshonk had commanded him to obtain the best stones
of Selsilis, in order to erect buildings for the king of the gods, and
to surround them with a strong wall.[143]
Ssheshonk was succeeded by his son Osorkon, the husband of the daughter
of Psusennes II., the last king of the preceding dynasty. It is supposed
that in him we may discover the Cushite Serach, who, according to the
Books of Chronicles, invaded the kingdom of Judah in the fifteenth year
of king Asa, _i.e._ in 918 B.C., but was defeated by him at Maresa (II.
233). The monuments of Egypt only mention to us the names of the two
wives of Osorkon. Osorkon was followed by Takeloth, Osorkon II.,
Ssheshonk II., Takeloth II., Ssheshonk III., Pimai, and Ssheshonk IV. No
monuments of these kings have come down to us except memorial stones in
the tombs of the Apis on the plateau of Memphis. These memorials show
that the regulations of Ssheshonk I. to give to one of his sons the
office of high priest at Thebes, and with this office to combine the
command of divisions of the army, and to put other divisions of the army
in the hands of other members of the royal house--regulations obviously
intended to strengthen the power of the throne--were observed by his
successors. We find the sons of his successors as high priests of Thebes
and Memphis, as commanders of the troops of Thebes, Hermopolis, and
Heracleopolis, as "princes (_i.e._ leaders) of the Mashawasha."[144] We
remember the struggles which the earliest successors of Ramses II. had
to carry on against the Libyans, especially against the Mashawasha, or
Maxyians. From the time of Ramses III. the body-guard of the Pharaohs
seems to have consisted mainly of Libyans, especially of Mashawasha; the
warrior caste of Egypt appears to have been chiefly kept up and
supplemented by Libyans. The father of Ssheshonk was, as observed, the
captain of the Mashawasha. Ssheshonk, the son of Osorkon II. (afterwards
Ssheshonk II.), as high priest of Memphis buried in the twenty-third
year of the reign of his father an Apis, who had died in that year.
Takeloth, the son of this Ssheshonk II. (afterwards Takeloth II.), was
high priest of Ammon of Thebes. In the fifteenth year of the reign of
his father a rebellion broke out in the cantons of the South and North.
He fought without ceasing for many years at the side of his father, and
gained victories over the rebels.[145] According to the Apis-stones,
Ssheshonk III. reigned more than 50 years. In the twenty-eighth year of
his reign an Apis was born, which lived 26 years, and was buried in the
second year of king Pimai under the superintendence of Petise, the son
of the high priest of Memphis, Takeloth, and the royal princess
Thisbastir. The successor of this Apis, which was discovered in the same
year of king Pimai, died in the fourth year of Ssheshonk IV., a third
in the eleventh, and a fourth in the thirty-seventh year of the same
reign.[146]
According to Manetho's list, the nine princes of this dynasty of
Bubastis reigned altogether 120 years; but the sum of the reigns,
according to the items in the list, only reaches 116 years. The years of
the reigns given on special occasions, on the monuments mentioned, give
at least 150 years for six alone of these nine princes. If we maintain
the assertion of Manetho, the dynasty of the Bubastites reigned from the
year 960 B.C. to the year 840 B.C.; if we calculate the length of the
rule of this dynasty according to the generations of the princes, then,
even if the length of each generation is taken only at 20 years, they
must at least have reigned 180 years, _i.e._ from 960 to 780 B.C.[147]
That the rule of the Bubastites ended about the year 780 B.C., at any
rate in the minds of the chronographers who have preserved Manetho's
list in the excerpt, follows from the fact that our excerpts put the
celebration of the first Olympian festival in the reign of Petubastis,
the prince who immediately succeeds the Bubastites. We may therefore
assume that the Bubastites reigned over Egypt from the year 960 to about
the year 780 B.C.
The successors of Petubastis of Tanis, whose date thus falls about the
year 775 B.C., are, according to Manetho, Osorkon (the third of this
name), Psammus, and Zet. Diodorus tells us of a Tnephachtus, king of
Egypt, who carried on war with the Arabs. One day, when in the desert,
there was a lack of the means of subsistence, and Tnephachtus after a
day of fasting enjoyed so highly a scanty meal, that he abominated
luxury, and cursed the king who first introduced it. So earnest was he
with this curse that he had it engraved in sacred characters in the
temple of Zeus at Thebes.[148] Plutarch also tells us: On a campaign
against the Arabs the baggage was left behind, and Technactis
(Tnephachtus) gladly satisfied himself with the food which was at hand,
and when he subsequently fell into a deep sleep on the straw, he was so
pleased with this simple mode of life that he cursed Menes who first
seduced the Egyptians from a simple and parsimonious mode of life, and
caused this curse to be engraved on a memorial stone, with the sanction
of the priests.[149] The son of this Tnephachtus is called Bocchoris by
Diodorus and Plutarch; Manetho's list puts a king Bocchoris after Zet,
and describes him as belonging to the district of Sais. The date of
Bocchoris is fixed by the fact that the seventh celebration of the
Olympian games,_ i.e._ the year 752, occurred during his reign.[150] If
Petubastis reigned, as we saw, about the year 775 B.C., and Bocchoris
ascended the throne about 753 B.C., the date of his father Tnephachtus,
who is not mentioned in Manetho's list (he must be meant by the Zet of
the list), will fall in the period between 770 and 753 B.C. We can only
assume that Tnephachtus, in the time of Petubastis or Osorkon III. who
succeeded Petubastis, rebelled against the reigning Pharaoh, and
obtained the power, and that the list of Manetho has passed him over as
the opponent of the legitimate princes. As a fact we shall find that
other usurpers beside Tnephachtus rose up beside and against Petubastis
and Osorkon; that Osorkon was restricted to Bubastis, and as the
inscriptions of Thebes mention Psammus (Psimut) we may further suppose
that he retired from Tanis, where Manetho's list places him, to Upper
Egypt.
The extinction of the military vigour of Egypt under the later
Ramessids, the formation of the body-guard and army of Libyan
mercenaries, bore its natural fruit. The disruption of the state-power,
which thus begun as early as the later Bubastites, led under Petubastis
and Osorkon III. to the complete ruin of the kingdom. The commanders of
the army in the districts, and no doubt other men of great position and
ambition, threw off obedience, made themselves independent, and
supported by their soldiers gained an independent power. Nine hundred
years after the expulsion of the shepherds the ancient kingdom broke up
into a series of separate dominions. A memorial stone discovered in the
remains of Napata, near Mount Barkal, displays to us quite a different
picture of the condition of Egypt about the middle of the eighth century
from that which we should imagine when we read in Manetho an apparently
unbroken succession of Pharaohs. On that stone Osorkon is indeed
mentioned, but only as king of the city of Bubastis. Beside him we find
Petisi of Athribis (west of Bubastis), Anchor of Sesennu (Hermopolis
minor), Nimrod (Nemrut) of Sesennu (Hermopolis major, now Ashmunein),
Ssheshonk of Busiris, Pefabast of Chnensu (Heraclea major), Pithenef of
Pisabtu; fourteen or fifteen princes, and among them Tafnecht
(Tnephachtus) of Sais. It is clear from this that Petubastis and Osorkon
were not able to maintain the royal authority; that Osorkon was limited
to Bubastis; the chiefs of the rest of the land stood beside him with
equal right and equal power. The same memorial teaches us that
Tnephachtus of Sais gained Memphis; that he undertook to subjugate the
remaining princes to his supremacy. He succeeded in forcing king
Osorkon and the chiefs of Upper Egypt into obedience; they recognised in
him their superior; and he attempted to make even the princes of Upper
Egypt, _i.e._ the Begs of the Mamelukes in that region, his vassals.
The Amenemha and Sesurtesen had once carried the southern border of
Egypt to Semne and Kumne. After them the Tuthmosis and Amenophis forced
their way as far as Mount Barkal; Lower as well as Upper Nubia became a
province of Egypt. The Ramessids had maintained this province, and
governed it by viceroys. Amenophis III. and Ramses II. filled Nubia as
far as Mount Barkal with their temples; thus the worship observed in
Egypt became dominant in Nubia also, especially the worship of the god
Ammon, whom Upper Egypt and the Pharaohs of Thebes regarded as the
highest deity. With the religious worship, and the government of
Egyptian magistrates, the language, alphabet, and manners of Egypt
became current in Nubia, although the people retained their ancient
tongue. After a continuance of 500 years, when the Egyptian power began
to sink under the later Ramessids, and the high priests of Ammon at
Thebes rose against them,--before the year 1100 B.C. the supremacy of
Egypt over the South became extinguished. The high priest Herhor is the
last who bears the title of "King's son of Cush;" under the Tanites,
Smendes and his successors, the monuments no longer mention any viceroy
of Cush.[151] We may, therefore, assume that Nubia was an independent
state from the year 1100 B.C. onwards. Yet the long continuance of the
Egyptian rule had caused the style and civilisation of Egypt to strike
firm roots here. The city, which was adorned by Amenophis III. and
Ramses II. with splendid buildings; the Neb (Napata) of the
hieroglyphics, the Merua or Berua of the native language, was the seat
of the princes of the new state, in which, before as after, the style,
worship, and writing of Egypt was predominant; the language also, which
the new monarchy used in its documents, was the language of Egypt. The
name of the first independent ruler of Napata, the king of Ethiopia, as
the Greeks call him, whom we know, is mentioned in the memorial stone
already spoken of. The name and attribute are Egyptian: Pianchi
Miamun.[152] In the twenty-first year of his reign, in the month Thot,
so the memorial tells us, it was announced to king Pianchi that
Tnephachtus of Sais and Memphis had possessed himself of the whole of
the land of the West. "The princes and lords of the cities are like dogs
before his feet. All princes who recognise his power, these he allows to
remain, each in his own canton, as lords and princes of the cities." The
princes in Upper Egypt who were not yet subject to Tafnecht, sent to
Pianchi "messages continually, whether he also would wish to know
nothing of the land of the South," _i.e._ whether he also was inclined
to abandon Upper Egypt to Tafnecht.
The condition of Egypt was thus inviting enough to induce a power,
strongly established in the South, to extend its dominion to the North,
at least over Upper Egypt. Upper Egypt was naturally from an ancient
period in closer relation to Nubia and Napata than Lower Egypt. The
removal of the residence and centre of the kingdom to Lower Egypt at the
time of the Tanites and Bubastites must have contributed to awaken anew
the old opposition between the upper and lower land: and in its turn,
when Tafnecht had got the upper hand in Lower Egypt, and forced his way
to Upper Egypt, this opposition strengthened the wish to seek support
and protection on the upper Nile, before submitting to a Saite, a prince
of Lower Egypt.
King Pianchi sent his army to aid the princes of Upper Egypt. According
to the memorial stone Tafnecht, who with his vassals awaited the
Ethiopians at Chnensu (Heracleopolis major), was defeated. The
Ethiopians then turned upon Ashmunein, which was defended against them
by its prince, Nemrut. Here, however, as the stone admits, they suffered
a severe defeat. At the beginning of the next year, Pianchi himself set
forth, celebrated the festival of Ammon at Thebes, commenced the regular
siege of Ashmunein by throwing up a wall of circumvallation, and then
for three days bombarded the city. Then Nemrut besought Pianchi to
receive him among his servants and accept his tribute. Pianchi marched
into the city, sacrificed to the god and lord of the city, "to his
father Thot," bulls, calves, and birds; and the people of Ashmunein
sang: "Beautiful is the Horus, who dwells in his city, the son of Ra,
Pianchi; and Pianchi repaired to the house of king Nemrut, to his
treasury and the house of his possessions." When Nemrut had surrendered
to Pianchi, Pefabast of Chnensu also appeared with gifts, with gold,
silver, precious stones, and horses, threw himself on the ground before
Pianchi, and said: "Hail to thee, Horus, mighty Bull! I am sunken in
darkness; give clearness to my countenance; I will be a servant together
with my subjects, who will bring presents." When four other cities had
opened their gates, Pianchi appeared with his ships before Memphis, and
promised to spare the inhabitants of the city: "the children should not
weep" if they opened the gates to him; he would merely sacrifice to Ptah
and the gods of Memphis. Tafnecht threw 8000 of his warriors into the
city. Yet Pianchi succeeded in taking the city from the harbour in open
battle; "many were slain, many captured alive;" Pianchi caused the
temples to be protected; purified himself, and offered a great sacrifice
"to his father Ptah." Then Aupoth and all the princes of Lower Egypt
submitted, and Pianchi marched to On (Heliopolis); and on the height
near On, in the sight of Ra at his rising, he offered a great sacrifice,
and went into the temple to behold the god in the Benben chamber. "He
was alone; he undid the bars, and opened the doors, and beheld his
father Ra, and the morning barque of Ra, and the evening barque of Tum.
Then he closed the doors and sealed them." After this, Osorkon (of
Bubastis) and Petise (of Athribis) submitted. Tafnecht himself sent a
messenger to Pianchi; he could not stand before his fire; Pianchi may
receive his possessions for his treasury. Pianchi on his part sent the
"leader of the prayers" and his chief captain, and Tafnecht took the
oath: "he would not transgress Pianchi's commands, nor disregard his
words; he would do no harm to any prince against his will; he would do
according to the words of Pianchi." Then the ships were laden with
silver, gold, copper, and other good things of Lower Egypt, and Pianchi
went up the stream, and the dwellers on the bank sang: "O royal
conqueror, thou hast come, and hast smitten Lower Egypt; thou makest the
men to be women. Thy work will continue, thou king and friend of
Thebes."[153]
This campaign of Pianchi from Napata, the first attempt of a ruler of
Ethiopia to possess himself of Egypt, must be placed about the year 760
B.C.[154] We can hardly contest the successes which the memorial stone
ascribes to Pianchi. Pianchi as a fact took Chnensu and Memphis; he
reached Heliopolis; most of the vassals of Tnephachtus paid homage to
him. But Pianchi's own narrative does not maintain that he took Sais,
and that Tnephachtus appeared before him. He makes a treaty with
Tnephachtus; he is contented that Tnephachtus recognises his supremacy,
and at once turns back to Ethiopia with the presents or tribute of the
vassals of Tnephachtus. From this it follows that Tnephachtus maintained
the Lower Delta; that Pianchi either made no vigorous attempt to conquer
this district, or was unable to conquer it; that he did not believe that
he could maintain his position permanently in Egypt, and therefore was
content with a recognition of his supremacy. In any case, after
Pianchi's retirement, Tnephachtus re-established his power over the
princes of these districts; he must even have extended it further to the
south, than was the case before Pianchi's campaign, if, as Diodorus
states, he set up inscriptions in the temple of Zeus, _i.e._ of Ammon,
at Thebes, and could bequeath the sovereignty over Egypt to his son. The
position which Manetho's list and the accounts of Western nations give
to his son Bocchoris, is in favour of the assertion, that Tnephachtus
succeeded in subjugating all Egypt to his power. It is easily
conceivable that to such a vigorous and indomitable warrior the
ceremonial and the splendour of the Pharaohs' table and kitchen, the
royal bed-chambers and couches, were highly distasteful.
Of Bocchoris, the son of Tnephachtus, "the wise, the celebrated in
song," who succeeded his father in the year 753 B.C., Athenæus tells us
that he lived as simply as his father.[155] Diodorus narrates that he
was of a very weak body, but surpassed all his forefathers in acuteness
of mind: his decisions were so excellent that many were quoted even in
his day. The Egyptians reckoned the wise Bocchoris as their fourth
law-giver; he founded the laws of the monarchy, and from him proceeded
the rules about debt and contract.[156] Any one who borrowed money
without a written contract was to be free of the debt if he swore that
he owed nothing; any one who advanced money on a written document could
not receive back more than the capital and an equal value in interest.
Only the property, not the person, of the debtor could be claimed by the
creditor.[157] A decision of Bocchoris is preserved in Plutarch. An
Egyptian youth was seized with love for the courtezan Thonis, who
demanded a great sum of money. Then he dreamt that he had enjoyed her
love, and his desire ceased; but she claimed the hire agreed upon before
a court of law. When Bocchoris heard the plaint he ordered the defendant
to put the sum of money demanded into a jar, to take this in his hand,
and carry it backwards and forwards. The courtezan was to cling to the
shadow: fancy was the shadow of reality.[158] In another passage
Plutarch narrates that when Bocchoris was in an angry mood, Isis sent
him an adder, that he might wind it round his head, and when
overshadowed by it, give just judgment; an anecdote which obviously
contains the explanation given by the Greeks of the Uræus-diadem of the
Pharaohs; though the connection of the story with Bocchoris speaks for
his fame as a judge, a fame which he enjoyed among the Greeks, even at
the time of Alexander, on the ground of Egyptian tradition. All these
statements show that the "much sung" Bocchoris[159] was in the
recollection of the Egyptians a ruler who again restored the royal
power, fixed its conditions and preserved them by his judicial
decisions; who brought about order and justice in all the transactions
of life during a period of disturbance and confusion. This description
is not belied by the statement which is also made, that he was covetous
of money.[160] The crown was certainly not in a position to dispense
with means, when mercenaries had become of such prime importance in
Egypt.
We know nothing of any deeds of Bocchoris in war. We only find that he
looked inactively on the great change which took place in Syria in the
last decade of his reign. When Assyria planted her foot ever more firmly
in Syria (p. 38), the eyes of Israel were directed to Egypt. When Gaza,
the most southern fortress of Palestine, fell into the hands of the
Egyptians, and the prince sought protection in Egypt (p. 48), we hear
nothing of any arrangements of Bocchoris. No doubt he found himself
threatened by a neighbour nearer and more dangerous. There are no
monuments of Bocchoris in existence, with the exception of the
sarcophagus of an Apis, which stood in the same chamber in which was
placed the Apis which died in the thirty-seventh year of Ssheshonk IV.
The name of the king is here Bokenranef.[161] This burial of the sacred
bull of Memphis in the traditional manner contradicts the narratives of
the Western writers, that Bocchoris did not observe the prescripts of
religion, and caused the sacred white bull of Ra at Heliopolis to fight
against a wild bull, a proceeding which caused a rebellion among the
Egyptians.[162] Statements of this kind, like the stories of portents,
which happened in his time,--that a goat spoke, that a lamb was born
with eight feet, two tails, two heads, and two horns, and
spoke,[163]--are intended no doubt to supply a motive for and prepare
the blow which fell upon Egypt and Bocchoris, and which the king's
wisdom and justice could not prevent.
What Pianchi was unable to carry out was accomplished by his second
successor, Sabakon.[164] From the books of Manetho nothing has been
preserved beyond the observation, that Sabakon the Ethiopian took
Bocchoris prisoner in war, and caused him to be burnt alive; Herodotus
tells us that Sabakon, the king of the Ethiopians, marched through Egypt
with a mighty army of his people, and the king of Egypt (Herodotus calls
him Anysis) fled into the marshes. Sabakon was a mild ruler, and did not
punish any Egyptian with death. Those who had committed an offence, he
condemned to raise the dams which Sesostris had caused to be thrown up
round the cities, according to the measure of the offence, and thus the
cities of Egypt became far higher; "and highest of all, in my opinion,"
Herodotus adds, "was the city of Bubastis."[165] "Though by birth an
Ethiopian," says Diodorus of Sabakon, "he surpassed his predecessors in
piety and gentleness. Of this it is sufficient proof that he did away
with the severest penalty, the penalty of death, and caused those who
were condemned to death to perform task-work in chains in the cities,
since he was of opinion that the reduction of the punishment would not
only be an advantage to the condemned persons, but also bring great
advantage to the cities." By these task-labourers he caused many dams to
be raised, and many needful canals to be cut.[166] With the gentleness
of Sabakon, thus praised by Herodotus and Diodorus, the statement of
Manetho, that he burnt Bocchoris alive, and the statement of Herodotus,
that he put to death Necho of Sais, do not very well agree.
The last Bubastites, Petubastis and Osorkon, had not been able to
maintain the power of the crown against the lords of the districts, and
the brave and skilful attempt to restore the power of the Pharaohs made
by Tnephachtus and Bocchoris was wrecked. After Bocchoris succumbed to
the Ethiopians in the year 730 B.C.[167] Egypt obeyed a foreign ruler.
The king of Napata was also the Pharaoh of Egypt; Egypt and Meroe were
united. The chief importance of the change thus accomplished lay in the
fact that the valley of the Nile, from the mouths as far as Dongola,
was united into one state; that the warlike power of Egypt, which had
become extinct under the later Ramessids, and then was replaced by
Libyan mercenaries to the ruin of Egypt, was now replaced by the unspent
vigour of the Ethiopians; and the combination of the latter with the
rich means and resources of Egypt availed to strengthen the country
considerably, and restore her to her previous position. For the internal
condition of Egypt the new sovereignty brought hardly any other change
than this, that the rulers now found a strong point of support in their
own land. The dynasties which, so far as we can see, Tnephachtus and
Bocchoris overcame or removed, we find again at the head of their
districts under the Ethiopians. It is possible that oppressed or
expelled families among these invited or supported Sabakon's invasion of
Egypt, just as in the preceding generation the princes of Upper Egypt
summoned Pianchi to support them against the father of Bocchoris. That
sovereigns and hereditary lords were at the head of the districts of
Egypt under Sabaka and his successors of Meroe is beyond a doubt. Thus
the rule of Sabakon and his Ethiopian successors might appear as a
restoration of the old state of affairs in contrast to the innovations
of Tnephachtus and Bocchoris, and the more so, as these rulers jealously
adopted the national worship. We saw how earnest Pianchi was in visiting
the temples of Egypt; how he offered sacrifice to his father Thot, his
father Ptah, his father Ra, and saw the last in his shrine at
Heliopolis; the memorial stone even assures us that of the princes who
submitted to him he allowed those only to come into his presence at that
time who had eaten no fish, _i.e._ who strictly observed the rules of
purification. It was the reverence of the priests, the participation in
the worship, the correct behaviour, in which Sabakon and his Ethiopian
successors come forward as genuine followers of the Pharaohs, which
appear to have won for Sabakon--who is to the Greeks the representative
of the Ethiopian dynasty--that reputation for gentleness and justice
which Herodotus and Diodorus repeat from the tradition of the Egyptians.
At the temples at Memphis,[168] at Luxor, and Karnak, Sabakon undertook
works of restoration. His name and title here are Raneferka Shabaka. On
the pillars of the main gateway at Karnak the goddess Hathor embraces
him; the inscription on this gate describes him as "the good god, the
giver of life for ever, like the sun," and declares that he has received
the tribute of the negroes, and the tribute of the Chalu, _i.e._ the
inhabitants of Palestine. How the latter statement is to be explained
will become clear afterwards; we shall see that Sabakon had much better
reason to be silent about the events in Syria than to boast of them.
Sabakon died in the year 717 B.C.,[169] and left the empire over Napata
and Egypt to his own son Sebichus, as Manetho calls him; Shabataka as
the name is given on monuments at Memphis.[170] His successor was
Tirhaka, the Taharka of the monuments. The list of Manetho describes him
as not being the son of his predecessor. We do not know in what way he
came to the throne of Egypt; it appears that he got the crown by force;
we can only establish the fact that he obtained the sovereign power in
the year 703 B.C.[171] Considerable relics of his buildings remain in
his native land at Napata. Among them are especially prominent the ruins
of a great temple, just as all the buildings there are wholly in
Egyptian style.[172] In Egypt Tirhaka's name occurs frequently on the
walls of Karnak. On the portals of the temple of Medinet Habu, we see
him before the face of Ammon brandishing his war-club over ten bearded
forms. The inscription tells us that he overcame the black land (Kemi,
Egypt), and the red land; on a memorial stone of Dongola the names of
the regions and tribes are given, which he subjugated there in the
distant south; names quite unknown and inexplicable to us.[173] With
Megasthenes it is the Ethiopian Tearkon (Tirhaka), a mighty warrior, who
subjugated Libya, advanced as far as the Pillars of Hercules, and even
crossed into Europe.[174] We shall see that as soon as he ascended the
throne his attention was occupied in the East, and that he fought with
success in Syria at this time. What he may have afterwards accomplished
against the negroes, and perhaps against tribes of Libya, in almost
thirty years we cannot ascertain accurately. The severest struggles
awaited him in the last decade of his reign, in which a mighty opponent
rose up against him, with whom he wrestled stubbornly but without
success.
FOOTNOTES:
[127] Vol. i. 179.
[128] Lepsius, "Abh. Berl. Akad." 1856, s. 258; Brugsch, "Hist. of
Egypt," II. p. 193.
[129] It ends in Brugsch, _loc. cit._ II. 198, with Ramses XVI.
[130] II. 229, _note_.
[131] II. 155.
[132] Maspero reads Psiuncha; Brugsch, Pisebkhan.
[133] In the unpublished inscription of Abydus in Brugsch, "Hist. of
Egypt," II. p. 199.
[134] Brugsch, _loc. cit._ II. p. 204.
[135] According to Brugsch, Rakamat, or Karamat, was not the wife of
Osorkon, but of Ssheshonk, _loc. cit._, p. 204.
[136] To make Pithut, Ssheshonk, Nemrut, and Ssheshonk II., as well as
Panrechnes or Pallash-Nisu, kings of Assyria, and place a conquest of
Egypt by Assyria at the end of the twenty-first dynasty (Brugsch, "Hist.
of Egypt," II. p. 198), because Nemrut or Nemaroth is called on the
stone of Abydus "_Ser a mat_," and "prince of princes," appears to me
absolutely impossible. How could one of the kings of Asshur, who, in the
service of Asshur, Samas, and Bin, overthrew the nations, allow himself
to be buried near Osiris of Abydus?--how could his son perform Egyptian
funeral rites for him there? The Books of the Hebrews must have
preserved some knowledge of a conquest of Egypt in the time of David and
Solomon, in the first half of the tenth century--how could the armies of
Assyria have come to Egypt except through Syria? Tiglath Pilesar I.,
about 1100 B.C., touched northern Syria merely in passing; not till the
ninth century did Assurnasirpal again come as far as Mount Amanus and
the coast of the Phenicians, and Shalmanesar as far as Damascus. A
hundred years later Tiglath Pilesar II. first planted a firm foot in
Syria. The Semitic (?) character of the names of the princes of the
twenty-second dynasty, who are also distinguished as eager worshippers
of the gods of Egypt, as well as the Semitic nationality of the six or
eight servants, who, according to the stone of Abydus, were allotted to
the plots of ground for the funeral service of Nemaroth at Abydus, are
sufficiently explained by what we know of the mingling of the population
in the Western Delta, and of other Semitic influence in Egypt.
[137] It ought perhaps to be observed that Shishak (1 Kings xi. 40), is
not called Pharaoh, but Melek Mizraim.
[138] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 227.
[139] Brugsch, "Hist. d'Egypte," p. 222.
[140] Others read Shuput.
[141] Brugsch, "Hist. of Egypt," II. 212.
[142] According to Manetho's list, Sesonchis reigned 21 years.
[143] Brugsch, _loc. cit._ II. p. 198.
[144] _Sera en mashush._
[145] Chabas, "Mélanges," Ser. 2, pp. 73-107.
[146] Lepsius, "Abh. Berl. Akad. Phil. Hist. Klasse," 1856, s. 264.
Mariette, "Bull. Archéolog. Athen. Franc." 1855, pp. 93, 98-100.
[147] Cp. Von Gutschmid, "Beiträge zur Geschichte des alten Orients," s.
104, _seqq._
[148] Diod. 1, 45.
[149] Plut. "de Isid." c. 8; cf. Athenæus, p. 418.
[150] Joseph. "c. Apionem," 2, 2, 6.
[151] Mariette, "Revue Archéolog." 1865, 12, 178.
[152] Pianchi is also called the son of the high priest Herhor (p. 51).
But this coincidence does not compel us to explain the kings of Napata
as descendants of that Herhor who lived 400 years before Pianchi of
Napata.
[153] De Rougé, "Mémoire sur une inscript. de Piankhi;" Brugsch, "Hist.
of Egypt," I. 129; II. 243, 247.
[154] I have shown above that Petubastis came to the throne about the
year 775 B.C., and Bocchoris, the son of Tnephachtus, about 753 B.C.;
Tnephachtus, therefore, must be placed in the time between 770-753 B.C.
Thus the time of the campaign of Pianchi is fixed. To throw back the
campaign nearly 100 years is not possible, owing to the mention of
Osorkon, the names of Nemrut, Ssheshonk, Petise, which belong to the
house of the Bubastites, and the date of Tnephachtus. If the lists of
Assurbanipal mention a Ssheshonk of Busiris, a Tafnecht--not of Sais,
but of Buni or Bunubu; a Pefabast, not of Chnensu but of Zoan--the
reappearance of these names can be explained by the fact that these
dynastic families have also been preserved among the Ethiopians (p. 72).
[155] Athenæus, p. 418; Diod. 1, 74.
[156] Diod. 1, 94.
[157] Diod. 1, 79.
[158] Plut. "Demetr." c. 27.
[159] Ælian. "Hist. An." 12, 3.
[160] Diod. 1, 94.
[161] Mariette, "Bab. Athen. Franc." p. 58-62.
[162] Ælian. "Hist. An." 11, 11.
[163] Ælian. _loc. cit._ 12, 3.
[164] De Rougé, "Mélanges d'Archéol." 1, 37, concludes from the
monuments of Tirhaka and the statue of Ameniritis, that Kashta succeeded
Pianchi, that Sabakon and the others are children of Kashta (?)
According to Brugsch the -ka in Shabaka and Shabataka is the attached
article of the Barabra language. Hence it is explained how Saba(ka) can
become Seveh among the Hebrews, or Sabhi among the Assyrians. Cf.
Oppert. "Mémoire sur les rapports de l'Egypte et de l'Assyrie," p.
12-14.
[165] Herod. 2, 137-141.
[166] Diod. 1, 45, 65.
[167] I have already been able to fix the end of the Ramessids, the date
of the Tanites and Bubastites, by the date of the accession of Shishak
in the Hebrew reckoning; the length of the dynasty of the Tanites in
Manetho; and the length of the Bubastites as corrected by the monuments,
and the synchronism of the first Olympiad for Petubastis. For the period
from the end of the Bubastites to the accession of Sabakon, the
important points are the seventh Olympiad for Bocchoris, and the
sarcophagus of the Apis of Bokenranef. If Bocchoris came to the throne
in the year 753 B.C., Ssheshonk IV. died in the year 780 B.C.; if this
was the thirty-seventh or thirty-eighth of his reign, the successor of
the Apis buried in the thirty-seventh year of Ssheshonk might certainly
live to the year 748, the sixth year of Bocchoris according to my
reckoning. It is decisive for Sabakon's accession in Egypt that Hoshea
of Israel undoubtedly ascended the throne in 734 B.C. (p. 16, note; 48).
Shalmanesar IV. of Assyria marched against Israel in the year 726 B.C.,
when he had discovered the conspiracy of Hoshea with Seveh (Sabakon, p.
69). Hoshea must, therefore, have negotiated with Seveh in 727 B.C. at
the latest, and probably earlier. Sabakon must have been previously
established on the throne of Egypt. He cannot, therefore, have conquered
Egypt later than 730 B.C. Bocchoris therefore reigned 23 years (753-730
B.C.); the time which Manetho allots to Bocchoris, six years, is too
short for the completion of his legislation and the attainment of that
fame as a legislator which he left behind him, according to the account
of the Greeks. That Tirhaka reigned over Meroe and Egypt in the year 702
at the latest, is proved by the battle of Eltekeh, which was fought in
701 B.C. (p. 125). If Seveh, who negotiated with Hoshea, is supposed to
be Sabataka, the conquest of Egypt by Sabakon must be put in the year
739. The Apis discovered in the twenty-sixth year of Tirhaka and buried
in the twentieth year of Psammetichus, shows that according to the
chronology of that period, Psammetichus was regarded as the immediate
successor of Tirhaka. According to the reign of 54 years allotted to him
by Herodotus and Manetho, Psammetichus begins in 664 B.C., since his
death is fixed with certainty in 610 B.C. If Tirhaka's reign over Egypt
began in the year 703 B.C., the year 678 would be the twenty-sixth of
his reign; the Apis lived down to the twentieth year of the reign of
Psammetichus, _i.e._ down to the year 645 B.C.--consequently 30 years,
an age (the number on the inscription is illegible), which even a less
carefully tended bull might attain. Tirhaka reigned from 703 to 664
B.C., _i.e._ 39 years. If the lists of Manetho, according to our
excerpts, allow him only 18 years (Syncellus gives 20), this is
obviously due to the fact that the reigns of Stephinates, Nechepsus, and
Necho, who ought to stand side by side with Tirhaka, with seven, six,
and eight years, _i.e._ with 21 years in all, are deducted from the
reign of Tirhaka, in order to place these three princes after him. To
the predecessors of Tirhaka, Sabakon and Sebichus, Manetho allows eight
and fourteen years. The monuments of Egypt show that Sabakon reigned at
least 12 years; Sabakon must, therefore, according to these dates, have
begun to reign in Egypt not later than 729 B.C. (664 + 39 + 26). The
Assyrian monuments show that Sabakon fought with Sargon at Raphia in the
year 720 B.C., and his successor negotiated with him; that Tirhaka
fought with Sennacherib in Syria in 701 B.C., and that he was at war
with Assurbanipal about the year 666 B.C.
[168] Goodwin in Chabas, "Mélanges," 1, 249 ff.
[169] Among the Hebrews, the king with whom Hoshea of Israel (734-722
B.C.), negotiates is called Seveh (So). Sargon's inscriptions name the
opponent against whom he fought at Raphia in the year 720 B.C. "Sabhi,
Sar of the land of Muzur," and also "Sabhi Siltannu of Muzur." The
inscription of Karnak gives Sabakon's (Shabaka's) twelfth year; we must,
therefore, although Manetho's list allows him only eight years, assume
that Sabakon was the opponent of Sargon at Raphia, as stated in a
preceding note. If Sabakon died immediately after his twelfth year, he
died in 717 B.C. The ruler of Egypt who pays tribute to Sargon in the
year 716, is repeatedly called by the Assyrian inscriptions, "Pirhu
(Pharaoh), Sar of Muzur." So in the cylinder of G. Smith ("Disc." p.
295), the ruler of Egypt, who unites with Ashdod in the year 711 B.C.,
is called "Pirhu Sar of Muzur;" finally, the prince who delivers up
Yaman, when it has been mentioned that Yaman fled beyond Egypt into the
border land of Miluhhi, is called by Sargon "Sar Miluhhi." The Pharaoh,
Sar Muzur, whom we find on the throne of Egypt in 716 to 711 B.C., and
the Sar Miluhhi, who gives up Yaman, can only be Shabataka-Sebichus, the
successor of Sabakon.
[170] Mariette, "Monuments," pl. 29 e.
[171] Not much weight could be laid on the observation in the Palatine
codex of Hieronymus (Jerome); Tarachus (ab Æthiopia duxit exercitum),
Sebico interfecto Ægyptiis regnavit annis xx.; but in the inscription of
Medinet Habu Tirhaka calls himself conqueror of Kemi, _i.e._ of Egypt.
[172] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 239, 275.
[173] Brugsch, "Geogr." 1, 163.
[174] Strabo, p. 61, 686, 687. Büdinger's view ("Ægypt. Forschung.
Herodots," 2, 32), that we must recognise Tirhaka in the Etearchus of
Herodotus might be adopted if the narrative did not too definitely point
out travelling Cyrenæans as the source; and the founding of Cyrene
cannot be carried back to the time of Tirhaka.