Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1162

 113S TIIEBAE AEGYPTI. the gnardianship of this deity, since she was believed to receive the sun in her arms as lie sank behind the western hills. This quarter, again, in the age of the Ptolemies, was termed " the Libyan suburb," which was subdivided also into particular districts, such as' the Jlemnoneia (ra M-fyLvovna, Young, Hieroglyph. Literature, pp. 69, 73) and Thyna- bunum, where the priests of Osiris were interred. (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians, vol. v. p. 387.) The power and prosperity of Thebes arose from three sources — trade, manufactures, and religion. Its position on the Nile, near the great avenues through the Arabian hills to the Red Sea, and to the interior of Libya through the western desert, render- ing it a common entrepot for the Indian trade on the one side, and the caravan trade with the gold, ivory, and aromatic districts on the other, and its com- parative vicinity to the mines which intersect the limestone borders of the Red Sea, combined to make Thebes the greatest emporium in Eastern Africa, until Alesandreia turned the stream of commerce into another channel. It was also celebrated for its linen manufacture — an important fabric in a country where a numerous priesthood was interdicted from the use of woollen garments (Plin. ix. 1. s. 4). The glass, pottery, and intaglios of Thebes were also in high repute, and generally the number and magnitude of its edifices, sacred and secular, must have attracted to the city a multitude of artisans, who were employed in constructing, decorating, or repairing them. The priests alone and their attend- ants doubtless constituted an enormous population, for, as regarded Aegypt, and for centuries Aethiopia also, Thebes stood in the relation occupied by Rome in medieval Christendom, — it was the sacer- dotal capital of all who worshipped Amnion from Pelusium to Axume, and from the Oases of Libya to tiie Red Sea. The history of Thebes is not entirely the same with that of Aegypt itself, since the predominance of the Upper Kingdom implies a very different era in Aegyptian annals from that of the lower, or the Delta. It may perhaps be divided into three epochs: 1. The period which preceded the occupation of Lower Aegypt by the Assyrian nomades, when it is doubtful whether Memphis or Thebes were the ca- pital of the entire country, or whether indeed both the Thebaid and the Delta were not divided into se- veral smaller states, such as that of Heliopolis in the N., and Abydus in the S., the rivals respec- tively of ]Iemphis and Thebes. 2. The interval between the expulsion of the Assyrians by Thou- tmosis, and the 2 1st dynasty of Tanite kings. Dur- ing all this period, Thebes was unquestionably the capital of all the Nile-valley, fi-om the Mediterranean to the island of Argo in lat. 19° 31' N. 3. The pe- riod of decadence, when the government of Aegypt was centered in the Delta, and Thebes was probably little more than the head-quarters of the sacerdotal caste and the principal refuge of old Aegyptian life and manners. And this threefold division is ren- dered the more ] robable by the consideration that, until the Assyrian empire became formidable, and Phoenicia important from its maritime power, Aethio- pia, rather than Arabia or Syria, was the formidable neighbour of Aegypt. Under the Old Monarchy there is no trace of Aegyptian dominion extending beyond the peninsula of Sinai, the northern shores of the Red Sea. or the Libyan tribes adjoining the Delta. During this }ii-Tiud invasion was apprehended almost exclusively TIIEBAE AEGYPTL from the S. The Aethiopians were no less war- like, and perhaps as civilised, as the Acgyptians: the Nile afforded them direct ingress to the re- gions north of the Cataracts, and they were then, as the Syrians and north-eastern states became after- wards, the immediate objects of war, treaties, or in- termarriages with the Pharaohs of Thebes. When the Theban state was powerful enough to expel the As.syrian nomades, it must have already secured the alliance or the subjection of Aethiopia; and the at- tention of its rulers was thenceforward directed to the eastern frontier of the Lower Kingdom. Accord- ingly we find that while only one nome in the The- baid and one in Middle Aegypt were assigned to the native militia, the bulk of the Calasirians and Hermo- bytians was permanently quartered in the Delta. The greatness of Thebes commences with the 18th dynasty of the Pharaohs, and the immediate cause of it appears to have been the collective efforts of the Upper Country to expel the Assyrian shepherds from the Delta. The Thebaid and its capital were, probably, at no period occupied by these invaders; since, according to Manetho's ac- count of the 17th dynasty, there were then two con- temporaneous kingdoms in Aegypt — the Delta go- verned by the Hyksos, and the Thebaid by native monarchs. Thoutmosis, king of Thebes, was the principal agent in the expulsion of the intruders, and his exploits against them are commemorateil on the temples at Karnah. Memphis and the Delta, to- gether with the lesser states, such as Xois, delivered from the invaders, thenceforward were under the do- minion of the kings of Thebes. Its flourishing era lasted nearly eight centuries, i. e. from about 16UU to 800 B. c. During this period the most conspicuous monarchs were Amenopbis I., who appears, from the monu- ments, to have received divine honours after his decease, and to have been regarded as the second founder of the monarchy. He probably carried his arms beyond the north-eastern frontier of the Delta into Syria, and his presence in Aethiopia is recorded in a grotto at Ibrim near Aboosimbel. The victories or conquests of Amenophis in the N. and S. are inferred froin the circumstance that in the sculp- tures he is represented as destroying or leading cap- tive Asiatic and Aethiopian tribes. Next in succes- sion is Thothmes I., with whose reign appears to have begun the series of Theban edifices which ex- cited the wonder of the Greeks, who beheld them almost in their original magnificence, and of all sub- sequent travellers. The foundations, at least, of the palace of the kings were laid by this monarch. Thothmes also, like his predecessors, appears, from the monuments, to have made war with Assyria, and to have extended his dominion as high up the Nile as the island of Argo in upper Nubia. Thothmes II. maintained or even enlarged the realm which he in- herited, since his name has been found at Gebel-el- BirM. the Xapata of the Romans, lat. 18° 30' N. At this period Aetiiiopia was apparently an appanage of the Theban kingdom, and its rulers or viceroys seem to have been of the blood royal of Aegypt, since now for the first time, and until the reign of Setei Jlencphthah (Rosellini,jVo7i.i?e<7. tab.xsxi. — iv.), we meet with the title of the royal son or prince of Aethiopia. The records of this reign have nearly perished; the great obelisks of Karnak, however, attest the flouri;>liing condition of contemporary art. They were erected by Nemt Amen, the sister of Thothmes II., who appears, like the Nitocris of the