Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/586

 482 APPENDIX IH. The Book of Exodus stigmatises Kamses as a tyrant in consequence of the persecutions which he inflicted on the Hebrews. But the same judgment will bo contirmed 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 sufferings, especially of the rural populations, in vivid colours. Sethi (Mekexpiitaii, 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 Egj-pt by Moses. His reig^ began with a formidable invasion of Libyans and their allies, the Achasans 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 Merenphtah 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 IIL XX. Dynady : Thebax. M. 1288, B. 1200. Ramses III. (the Ehampsinitus of Herodotus), last of the great Egj'ptian 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. Ramses 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 Ramses III. Eg^^i)tian 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 tuUs 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 Ramses. But with the exception of Ramses VI. and Ramses IX.. none i