Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/639

 ETHIOPIA

567

ETHIOPIA

ries, soon became one of the most important in the State, and the custom arose at court of nominating to it the heir presumptive to the throne, with the title of Prince of Cush. The glorious reigns of Rameses II, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, and of Rameses III, of the Twentieth Dynasty, served to consolidate this con- quest for a time, but for a time only. Egypt, worn out, was weary of war, and even of victory, and the era of her campaigns ended with the Rameseid dy nasty. Ethiopia, always alert to note the doings of her enemy, profited by this respite to recover her strength. She collected her forces, and soon, having won back her independence, an unexpected event left her mistress of her former conqueror.

The descendants of the royal priesthood of Amun- Ra, exiled from Thebes to Ethiopia by the Pharaohs of the Twenty-second Dynasty, had infused a new life into the land of their exile. They had reorganized its political institutions and centralized them at

sor, was defeated by Esarhaddon, and forced to re- treat as far as Napata, pursued by the Ninevite hosts. The victory, however, was dearly bought by the Assy- rians, and the Ethiopians, even in retreat, proved so dangerous that the pursuit was abandoned. Taharqa, encouraged by the fear he inspired in his enemies, tried to win back the Nile Valley. He assumed the offen- sive a few years after this, and soon entered Memphis almost without striking a blow. But the princes of the Delta, of whom Nechao was the most powerful, far from extending him a welcome, joined forces with the King of Nineveh. Asurbanipal, who had now suc- ceeded his father, Esarhaddon, straightway attacked Taharqa, and the King of Ethiopia fell back once more towards the Cataracts. His son-in-law, Tanuat- Amen, once more victorious, went up as far as Mem- phis, where he defeated the Delta princes, allies of the Assyrians, but a fresh expedition under Asurbanipal completely broke his power. Thereafter Tanuat-

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Napata, which city, in the hands of its new lords, be- came a sort of Ethiopian Thebes modelled on the Thebes of Egypt. With the co-operation of the na- tive peoples Napata was soon reckoned among the great political powers. While Ethiopia was develop- ing and flourishing, Egypt, so disintegrated as to be a mere collection of feudal States, was being more and more weakened by incessant revolutions. Certain Egyptian princes having at this period appealed to the King of Napata for help, he crossed over into the The- baid, and established order there ; then, to the surprise of those who had appealed to him, he continued his way northwards and went as far as Memphis, nor did he halt until he had subjugated the country and pro- claimed the suzerainty of Ethiopia over the whole Nile Valley. Piankhy, to whom belongs the honour of this achievement, caused an account of it to be engraved at Jebel-Barkal, near Napata. After his reign the throne passed to a native family, anfl during the Twenty- fourth and Twenty-fifth Dynasties Ethiopia had the glory of giving birth to the Pharaohs who ruled all the land from Abyssinia to the shores of the Mediterran- ean.

But at the very time when the Ethiopian armies were advancing from the .South to subdue the North, the victorious .\ssyrian armies of the King of Niiioveli were already ciicaniped on the borders of Phcenici.'i. Menaced by Sargon II in the days of Shahaka, Egypt was invaded for the first time by Sennacherib's army during the reign of Shabataka. Taharqa, his succes-

Amen remained in his Kingdom of Napata; and thus Ethiopian sway over Egypt was brought to a close.

Restricted to its natural limits, the Ethiopian king- dom did not cease to be a powerful State. Attacked by Psamettichus I and Psamettichus II, it was able to maintain its independence and break the ties which bound it to the northern kingdom. In the following century Cambyses, the conqueror of Egypt, attracted by the marvellous renown of the countries along the Upper Nile, set on foot an expedition against Ethiopia, but in spite of the numbers and prowess of his troops, he was obliged to retreat. W'hen Artaxerxes II, sur- named Ochus, invaded the Delta, Nectanebo II, King of Egypt, could find no safer refuge than Ethiopia, and in the days of the Ptolemies one of its kings, Arq- Amen (the Ergamenes of Diodorus Siculus), was pow- erful enough to commemorate his exploits in the deco- rations of the temple at Philip. Nevertheless these last rays of glory were to fade quickly. Abandoned to itself, removed from the civilizing influences of the North, the country fell back step by step into its prim- itive barbarism, and defeat is written upon the last page of its hi.story. The last invasion of Ethiopia was by Roman legions; led by Petronius, they advanced .•IS far as Napata, where a (|ueen occupied the throne, and the city was destrnycd. ,\fter this, darkness falls upon all these countries of the Upper Nile, and ancient lOthiopia disappears — to appear again transformed by a new civilization which begins with the history of modern Nubia.