Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/585

 APPENDIX nL 481 XIX. Dynattij: Tqebait. M. 1462. B. 1400. Ramses I. (Hameses). M. 1462, B. 1400. Sethi or Meeptaii I. (Setiios), a warlike princo who overran a large part of Westorn Asia, and oonstrucUHl the first canal between the Red Sea and the River Nile. Numerous monuments dating from his reign still exist at Karnak. Kumeh, Abydos, and other places, while of all the rriyal tombs on the left bank of the river at Thebes that of Sethi is in every respect the most remarkable. B. 13G6. Ramses II., surnamed the Groat, the Sesostris of whom so many fabulous events are related by the Greek historians. His triumphs are recorded not only on innumerable monuments in Egypt itself, but also on others raised by him in the countries winch he overran. Such is the rock tablet at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb, near Beyrut, in Syria. During his r<'ign of sixty- seven- years he erected many famous buildings in Egjpt, bchides appro- priating some of those built by his predecessors, which now bear his cartouche. B. 1333. The true character of Ramses II. is revealed in the numerous native documents of all kinds which survive from this period. Instead of extending the limits of the empire consolidated by Thothmes III., he scarcely succeeded in keeping it together. During his reigii the colossal power built up by tlio sovereigns of the eighteenth dynasty everywhere shows symptoms of approaching decay. South, north, and west all the nations reduced by the Thothmes and Amenhoteps break out in open revolt against their Egyptian masters. Nubia is ajfit^ited. and the walls of the temples are covered with representations of the many victories gain^nl by the viceroys of Ethiopia over the rebels in this region. At the same time the northern provinces are threateno 1 and sometimes hard pres.sed by the nomad Libyans from the west, and by other strangers with " blue eyes and liglit hair " descending on the African •x>ntinent from the i.slands of the Mediterranean. Tlio reaction against Egyptian supremacy also spreads to Asia, where the warlike Ilittites, who fight with chariots, form with many other nations a formidable alliance against Ramses. After eij^hteen years of inces-saut warfare Ramses is compelled to make a treaty with the allies, leaving them in jwssession of all their territories. The terms of the treaty, which is still extant, appear to bo much more favourable to the Ilittites than to the Egyptian monarch. The more his history becomes unravelled the less the kinj? shows him- self M'orthy of the si-rname of "Great" given to him by the early interjireters of the Egyptian records. Enough is already known of liis career to justify the conclusion of Lenormant thav ho was a commonplace individuality, an unbridled despot devoured by an overvaulting ambition, and carrying his vanity so far as, wherever possible, to efface from the monuments the names of their builders and substitute his own. During his whole reign he lived on the reputation gained by an exploit performeears continually in all the large battle-pieces sculptured on the buildings erected by him. It also forms the subject of a poem, which is the only specimen of Egyptian epic poetry that has survived to our times. 81— AF.