thing of this kind which led Hecatæus at a later date, as mentioned in Diodorus, to tell the story about the tomb of Osymandyas? There is a remarkable and striking resemblance between that fabulous tomb and the Ramesseum, which is still in existence, and was probably built upon a similar plan to the two above mentioned.

IV. CONJECTURES AS TO THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THIS PERIOD.

THERE is, however, a more important question, namely, What was the condition of Egypt and its people in this gloomy conclusion of the great and brilliant period of more than two hundred years? How rapid a downfall after soaring so high! It commenced with victorious struggles and a glorious restoration of the power of the Pharaohs in Memphis and the Delta. The fourth king recovered almost the whole of the old northern frontier of the empire by pushing the Hyksos into a corner at Avaris. His younger brother, Tuthmosis III., the grandson of Amos, ascended the throne in the 82nd year of the dynasty, and after an unsuccessful siege induced the foreigners to evacuate the country.

In the reign of Tuthmosis II., also, the splendour and number of the temples and palaces began to increase considerably, in both which respects Tuthmosis III. surpassed all his predecessors.

The empire extended to Ethiopia as far as Meroe, to the Copper-land of Arabia in the Peninsula of Sinai, and northwards as far as Mesopotamia. It is authentically recorded that these were its limits under Tuthmosis III. and Amenōphis III., -a fresh proof of the impossibility of the Jews having at that time any thoughts of returning to Palestine.

Shortly after this, however, internal disturbances shook the foundations of the dynasty and the state.

Schisms in the royal family sprung up in the shape of rivalry between Memphis and Ethiopia, the elements of hostility being of a religious character.

But, if we inquire into the particular history of the period, we must admit that it is for the most part lost. The only records we possess of the state of popular life are the works of art, and the products of industry in all its branches, which the ruins of that age exhibit. It would seem from these to have been a prosperous period-an Augustan age, the culminating point of high historical art in architecture and sculpture. All travellers are agreed that the style of the 19th Dynasty is not so grand, although more gorgeous. The works of Sethos alone are in pure taste. All that we know at present of the literature is that the writing in the papyri is most beautiful. All traces of the weal and the woes of the people, as well as of the wisdom and characters of their priests, have disappeared. The form of government had already probably become a stereotyped despotism, although under popular masters.

SECTION IV.

THE RISE AND MERIDIAN OF THE HOUSE OF RAMESSES:

RAMESSES I. AND THE TWO GREAT CONQUERORS, SETHOS AND RAMESSES II.

85 YEARS.

A.

THE FIRST REIGN OF THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY: RAMES

SES I. (RAMESSU RAMEN PEH), SON OF ATHÔTIS AND GRANDSON OF AMENŌPHIS III.

(Plate VIII. 31.)

(Lepsius, Hist. Mon. vol. vi. Pl. 123, 124.)

WE possess no monuments of Ramesses I., the chief of the 19th Dynasty. There is at Wadi-Halfa (BEHNI in Egyptian), at the Second Cataract, a stele erected by his son Seti I. commemorative of the presents made by him there to the temple of Hor-Ammon. Similar honorary monuments were set up in other places by his son or posterity.

Strangely enough his tomb in Biban el Moluk has no ornaments at all, nor has the granite sarcophagus still standing in the rock-chamber. It is only on the walls of the sepulchral chamber that some of the ordinary scenes representing the destiny of the soul are painted, clearly in the king's lifetime.

It appears that his mother, the youngest daughter of Amenōphis III. and wife of the priest AI (the Skhai of Champollion), was not called Teti, but TII. We are not in a condition to determine how many years of the 12 or 9, which are ascribed to Athôtis, belong to the independent reign of Ramesses. If, however, we follow the

contemporary royal tablets, and omit Athôtis, it is necessary to give the son more than one year, which Lepsius seems to assign to him.

B.

THE SECOND REIGN OF THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY: SE

THOS I. (SETHÔSIS, SETI MERI-EN-PTеH RA-MEN-MA), SON

THIS great king, still most uncritically styled by some Menephthah, contrary to the correct reading of the hieroglyphics on the royal scutcheons, is one of the most remarkable and most glorious Pharaohs of the empire, both on account of his contests and victories and the magnificence of his palaces at Thebes, as well as the gorgeous and important representations on his tomb. He was, indeed, perhaps the most illustrious and celebrated hero of the New Empire. This glorious reign cannot have lasted very long, not merely according to the Lists when properly understood, but because his edifices. as well as his tomb itself, were completed by his son and successor. The only one of his regnal years recorded on his monuments is the first. It is mentioned on an inscription of a rock-temple in the Heptanomis, dedicated by Sethos to Pacht, known as the SPEOS ARTEMIDOS.

In order to obtain a solid foundation for our historical restoration, let us first examine what the monuments say about him.

"The house of Sethos" in Western Thebes, commonly known as Gurnah, was erected by him in honour of his father. The Great Ramesses adorned it with sculptures. He continued the buildings of Horus in Luxor. In Karnak he erected the vast hall supported by pillars (7), although it was his great son who completed and dedicated it.

This gorgeous building and his tomb are the two classic monuments for his history, and the evidence of the high character of art during his reign.

I. REPRESENTATION OF SETI'S EXPLOITS IN THE GREAT HYPOSTYLE AT KARNAK.

(Plan of Karnak, 7.)

HERE, on the external wall of the enclosure to the north-east, the exploits of Sethos I. are represented, and they are, upon the whole, in good preservation. Rosellini describes their surpassing beauty in enthusiastic terms, which we give below in his own harmonious language.

77

77 M. St. iii. A. 320. seq.: "Nè io presumo di poter con parole, e nè anco col mezzo dei disegni, comecchè fatti con molto sapere e diligenza, far concepire ai miei lettori la stupenda bellezza di quelle sculture. Solo dirò che come desse agguagliano in magistero d'arte tutto ciò che di più perfetto produssero gli egiziani scalpelli, così considerato il numero, i movimenti, l'estensione delle figure e le gigantesche forme di quelle che sopra le masse grandeggiano, niuna nazione mai al mondo, antica o moderna, ciascuna secondo l'indole e il carattere dell' arte sua, osò di operare con tanto ardimento, o pervenne a imprimere alle sue opere maggior vita, e dirò quasi maggior prestigio, di quello che in queste nostre sculture rifulge, a comprendere di alta maraviglia li occhi e la mente di chi le riguarda. Tutte le durezze di contorno, i difetti di prospettiva, i mancamenti infine che può riconoscervi l'arte del disegno nella perfezione che acquistò poscia per l'ingegno dei Greci, sono altrettanti caratteri che rendono quelle egiziane opere di una originalità inimitabile; che costituiscono un' arte singolare, la quale non può paragonarsi a quella di niun altro. popolo; che ti rapisce infine col magico effetto delle sue masse e con una certa ingenuità dei particolari, senza lasciarti riflettere a tutto quanto è difetto secondo le regole dell' arte nostra."