482 APPENDIX III. 



The Book of Exodus stigmatises Eamses as a tyrant in consequence of 

 the persecutions which he inflicted on the Hebrews. But the same 

 judgment will be confirmed by history as soon as all the documents have 

 been interpreted which throw light upon his reign. The Egyptians 

 themselves were heavily oppressed by him, and some contemporary 

 records depict the suflerings, especially of the rui-al populations, in 

 vivid colours. 



Sethi (Merenphtah, or Meneptah) II., son and successor of Ramses II., and 

 identified by most Egyptologists with the Pharaoh of the Bible, in whose 

 time the Israelites were led out of Egypt by Moses. His reign began 

 with a formidable invasion of Libyans and their allies, the Achœans 

 Tyrrhenians (Etruscans), Laconians. Sards, and other Mediterranean 

 populations, who entered Egypt from the north-west, wasted a large 

 portion of the Delta, and attempted to establish an independent state in 

 that region. But they were completely defeated near Prosopis, and 

 thenceforth Merenj)htah reigned in peace. But after his death fresh 

 complications arose, and were continued during the reigns of all his suc- 

 cessors till the close of the nineteenth dynasty. The so-called Harris 

 Papyrus, now in the British Museum, gives numerous details regarding 

 these intestine and foreign troubles, which were not concluded till the 

 accession of Eamses III. 



XX. Dynasty: Theban. 



M. 1288. B. 1200. 



Eamses III. (the Ehampsinitus of Herodotus), last of the great Egyptian warrior kings, 

 whose famous deeds are commemorated on the walls of the sumptuous 

 edifice erected by him at Medinet-Abu, Thebes. But his own wars were 

 mainly defensive, his efforts being directed against the flood of barbaric 

 invasion dashing with ever-increasing fury against all the frontiers of 

 the empire, and hastening its approaching ruin. The Hittites again 

 succeed in forming a fresh confederation, including even the Teucrians of 

 Troy, besides the Pelasgians of the islands, the Philistines of Cyprus, and 

 the Western Libyans. The empire is now attacked simultaneously from 

 the north, west, and east, the Libyans falling upon the Delta, the Hittites 

 overrunning Syria, while the fleets of the Pelasgians and Teucrians ravage 

 the coast of Palestine. Eamses triumphed by land and sea ; nevertheless 

 numerous Libyan tribes secure a permanent footing in the Delta, while 

 the Philistines settle in the districts of Gaza and Ascalon, where a hundred 

 years later the Book of Judges described them as powerful enough to 

 resist the Hebrews advancing from the Jordan. 



From the time of Eamses III. Egyptian chronology acquires a sort of 

 mathematical certainty. An astronomical date recorded on a calendar 

 engraved on the walls of Medinet-Abu, and calculated by Biot, fixes the 

 accession of this king in the year 1212 b.c. For the subsequent reigns 

 the inscriptions discovered by Mariette in the tomb of the sacred bulls at 

 Apis determine the number of years, months, and days during which 

 each sovereign occupied the throne. 



All the remaining kings of this dynasty appear to have borne the name 

 of Eamses. But with the exception of Eamses VI. and Eamses IX.. none 



