Sixthly: Herodotus, and even later writers, did not know how to distinguish between the historical and the mythical, the old and the new elements. SesostrisSesortōsis and Sethōsis-Ramesses were jumbled together.

Seventhly: The statements in Manetho are authentic

and decisive in the Old Empire as well as in the New. What he said about the campaigns and conquests of Sethos has come down to us; about Ramesses, nothing. We have no reason to believe that the independent high priest, who protested against Darius placing his own statue before that of "Sesostris," ever thought of the Ramessides, although the poetry and popular legends of the New Empire may at an early period have caused a confusion in the history.

Eighthly: The stela of Sesostris in Asia Minor, attributed by Hecatæus to Memnon, are probably not even Egyptian.

Ninthly: Ramesses was a ruler fond of display, and

cruel, who exhausted his kingdom, and left his tomb unfinished.

Of the condition in which he left his kingdom, the monuments, traditions, and events of world-historical importance furnish us the picture in all its revolting deformity.

FIRST REIGN (FOURTH OF THE DYNASTY).

MENOPHTHES (AMENOPHAT, MENOPHTHIES, Me-eN-PTeH_BA-ex-RA MERI-EN-AMN), SON OF THE GREAT RAMESSES.- - 20 YEARS. (Plate VIII. 42.)

SECOND REIGN.

SETHOS II. (RA SeseR KHеPER. U MERI AMEN. SETI MERI-EN-PTCH), SON OF MENOPHTHES.-5 YEARS. (Plate IX. 12.107)

THIRD REIGN.

PHUŌRIS (NILUS) (SeT-NEKIIT) MERER-RA RA-SeseR-SHAU. - 7 YEARS.

A.

ADJUSTMENT OF THE MONUMENTS WITH MANETHO'S STATEMENT ABOUT THE CONFUSION OF THIRTEEN YEARS' DURATION. FLIGHT AND RETURN OF MENOPHTHES, AND OF HIS SON, AFTERWARDS SETHOS II.

WE have given in the Third Book a translation of the remarkable passage in Manetho's historical work (or an extract from it) in Josephus, where it is stated that the son of the Great Ramesses, Amenōphis (Menophtis), succumbed to a revolt of the lepers who were grievously oppressed by him, under Osarsiph (or Osarōph) Moses and their allies who were called in from Palestine, and how he fled to Ethiopia with his son, then five years old, and how the latter recovered his kingdom at the end of thirteen years, by force of arms, and reigned as Sethos II.

107 The number 5 opposite to Siphtah belongs here (viii. 4.)

We have, in agreement with Lepsius, pointed out how the Menephthah and Seti II. of the monuments. correspond respectively with this Amenōphis (Menōphthes) and this Sethos. We find twenty years assigned to the former in the Lists, or, more properly, nineteen years and six months, which accords exactly with the account of the thirteen years' flight. For, if even the revolt broke out at an early period, the whole narrative implies that several years of persecution, rebellion, and revolt preceded the flight of the king. If we add these years to the thirteen of the flight, we shall approach in the most natural way to the date of nineteen or twenty years. The narrative also about the son and successor tallies well with it. Being five years old at the time of his father's flight, as a prince of eighteen he is in a condition to reconquer the kingdom for his father and himself.

Do the monuments furnish us any further confirmation of it? It is clear that, if the above account be correct, there will be no extant buildings of that reign of twenty years, nor shall we find any records of conquests and victories in those representations and inscriptions. It is true that this is merely a negative proof. It must, however, be admitted that if in the countless mass of buildings, sculptures, and other monuments, which extend down to the sixty-second year of Ramses, a sudden gap is found such silence would be eloquent testimony in behalf of some great calamity.

Now such is precisely the case. The only year of Menephthah mentioned on the monuments is the second, and Rosellini himself admits that, strictly speaking, no historical monuments of his exist at all. There is a stele at Silsilis, cut in the rock, which bears his name, but it is one of his sons who dedicates it. The third of the small rock-temples there met with, it is true, was constructed by Menephthah, but in the first year of his reign. (p. 301.) The subjects of the inscriptions are

merely religious. There is no allusion to exploits or victories, no term conveying either the idea of glory or promise. An inscription at Silsilis alludes to a building being commenced, for which a quarry was opened, where his second regnal year is mentioned. In all the rest of Egypt there is no trace of him, except his scutcheons, which he placed on the buildings of his father at Thebes (as the remains which have come to Europe testify), and then his tomb in Biban el Moluk.108 But even this was not finished either by him or his son. The introductory scene only is represented, which, according to custom, the king caused to be executed after his accession, in preparation for "the eternal house."

This connexion between his monuments and those of his father is unquestionably so striking, that we can scarcely explain it, except by the above historical representation.

But the monuments also give a positive corroboration of the fall of the empire, under the son of the great Ramesses. In the Lists Menephthah109 is succeeded by an Ammenemes, whom, in reference to the succession of the kings, it was difficult to identify on the monuments. Lepsius has discovered that in his reign there were two rival sovereigns. One was named Amen-Messu (Pl. v. 1.), who is clearly this king in the Lists; the other, Si-ptah (son of Ptah). The tomb of the second of these, in Biban el Moluk, exhibits him and his wife, Taseser, in possession of royal honours. He is also found in inscriptions at Silsilis. In one of them a prayer is offered that their children may inherit the throne a phraseology, as Rosellini rightly remarks, which is met with nowhere else in respect to the Pharaohs110, but which can easily be explained here by

108 M. R. cxviii. M. St. 306. seq. 109 See above, Sect. II. p. 108.

110 M. St. 328. seq.

the circumstances. His royal scutcheon is also found on the ruins of the palace at Gurnah. In that tomb Ammon gives him the highest power, in presence of his great ancestress Aahmes-Nefruari, Seti I., and the Great Ramesses.

There is no doubt that he or his wife, or both of them, were of royal race, and they endeavoured to hold the sovereignty of the Pharaohs at Thebes as rivals during that season of misfortune. There are no dates of years either of them or the other rival sovereigns.

We are enabled then, by the science of hieroglyphics, not only to explain, but also to complete, the historical tradition of Manetho, which Josephus, owing to the bitter controversy between the Alexandrian Hellenists and the execrated Jews, has preserved to us, and with which it has hitherto been difficult to deal. The cowardly flight of Menephthah to Ethiopia was an indication of the dissolution of the empire. Egyptian princes, probably offsets of the royal house, endeavoured to retain their power in the Thebaid.

SECOND REIGN: SETHOS II., THE SON OF MENŌPHTHES: 5 YEARS. (Plate IX. 12.)

WE can hardly venture to hope to learn much from the monuments about the short reign of Sethos II. Rosellini found a brief inscription of his with the second year of his reign, on a door-post of the rock-temple at Silsilis. But he erected buildings at Thebes. He it was who adorned the shafts of the columns of the great connecting hall of King Horus, at Luxor, with his scutcheons, by way of architectonic finishing. erected a small building in the fore court, which can still be traced on the ground-plan (9). One of the inner rooms is unfinished (p. 310.). Rosellini also found his scutcheon on the base of the Ramses colossus at Karnak. In the open space, where the obelisks of the

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