Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1164

 1140 THEBAE AEGYPTI. the name of Itameses II. and III., the latter of whom is the Sesostris of Herodotus, and wlio may tlierefore he regarded as a clearly liistorical personage. There can be no doubt of the greatness of Thebes under his sceptre. In tliis, as in many other in- stances where Aegypt is concerned, the monuments of the country enable us to approach the truth, while the credulity of the Greek travellers and his- torians in accepting the narrations of the Aegyptian priests — naturally eager, after their subjection by the Persians, to exalt their earlier condition — only tends to bewilder and mislead. Thus, for example, Diodorus (i. 54) was informed that Sesostris led into the field 600,000 infantry, 24,000 cavalry, and 27,000 chariots; and he appeals to the passage already cited from Homer to show that Thebes sent so many chariots out of its hundred gates. There is no evidence that the Aegyptians then possessed a fleet in the Mediterranean; yet Diodorus numbers among his conquests the Cyclades, and Dicaearchus (Schol. in Apoll. Rhod. iv. 272) assigns to him " llie greater part of Europe." The monuments, on the contrary, record nothing so incredible of this monarch; although if we may infer the extent of his conquests and the number of his victories from the space occupied on the monuments by their pictorial records, he carried the arms of Aegypt beyond any previous boundaries, and counted among his subjects races as various as those which, nearly 17 centuries later, were ruled by Trajan and the Antonines. The reign of Kameses was of 60 years' duration, that is nearly of equal length with his life, for the first of his victories — that recorded on the propylaea of the temple of Lvxor, and much more fully on those of Ahoosimbel — was gained in his fifth year. We must refer to works professedly dealing with Ae- gyptian annals for his hisotry: here it will be sufficient to observe of Kameses or Sesostris that he added to Thebes the Rameseion, now gene- rally admitted to be the " monument of Osyman- dyas," upon the western bank of the Nile; that he was distinguished from all his predecessors by the extent of liis conquests and the wisdom of his laws; and among his subjects for his strength, comeliness, and valour. The very pre-eminence of IJameses III. has, indeed, obscured liis authentic history. To him were ascribed many works of earlier and of later monarchs, — such as the canal of the Pharaohs, be- tween the Nile and the Red Sea; the dykes and embankments which rendered the Delta habitable; the great wall, 1500 stadia in length, between Pe- lusium and Heliopolis, raised as a barrier against the Syrians and Arabians; a re-partition of the land of Aegypt; the law of hereditary occupation (Aristot. Pol. vii. 10); and foreign conquests, or at least expeditions into AVestern Asia, which rendered tributary to him even the Colchians and tlie Bac- trians. (Tacit. Ann. ii. 60.) With the 21st dynasty appear the traces of a revolution affecting the Upper Kingdom. Taniteand Bubastite Pharaohs are now lords of the Nile-valley : and these are succeeded by an Aethiopian dynasty, marking invasion and occupation of the Thebaid by a foieigner. Perhaps, as Aegypt became more in- volved with the aftairs of Asia — a result of the con- quests of the house of Rameses— it may have proved expedient to remove the seat of government nearer to the Syrian frontier. The dynasty of Sethos, the Aethiopian, however, indicates a revolt of the pro- vinces S. of the cataracts; and even after the Ae- thiopians had withdrawn, tlie Lower Kingdom re- THEBAE AEGYPTI. tained its pre-eminence. The Saite Pharaohs feared or despised the native mihtia, and surrounded themselves with foreign mercenaries. Greek co- lonies were established in the Delta ; and Aegypt maintained a fleet - an innovation extremely preju- dicial to Thebes, since it implied that the old isola- tion of the land was at an end, and that the seat of power was on the Syrian, and not on the Aethiopian frontier. The stages of its decline cannot be traced ; but Thebes seems to have offered no opposition, after the fall of Memphis, to the Per.^ians, and certainly, after its occupation by Cambyses, never resumed its place as a metropolitan city. That Thebes was partially restored uitex the destruction of at least its secular buildings by the Persians, admits of no doubt, since it was strung enough in b. c. 86 to hold out against the forces of Ptolemy Lathyrus. But although the circuit of its walls may have been undiminished, it seems never again to have been filled as before with a dense population. The found- ation of Alexandreia was more fatal to Thebes than even the violence of Cambyses ; and its rebellion against the Macedonians was perhaps promjjted by jealousy of Greek commerce and religion. The hand of Lathyrus lay heavy on Thebes ; and from this epoch probably dates the second stage of its decline. From the glimpses we gain of it through the writings of the Greeks and Romans, it appears to have remained the head-quarters of the sacerdotal order and of old Aegyptian life and manners. As a Macedonian or Roman prefecture, it took little or no part in the affairs of Aegypt ; yet it profited by the general peace of the world under the Caesars, and employed its wealth or labour in the repair or deco- ration of its monuments. The names of Alexander and some of the Ptolemies, of the Caesars from Ti- berius to the Antonines, are inscribed on its monu- ments ; and even in the fourth century a. d. it was of sufficient importance to attract the notice of his- torians and travellers. Perhaps its final ruin was owing as much to the fanaticism of the Christians of the Thebaid, who saw in its sculptures only the abominations of idol-worship, as to its occupation by the Blemmyes and other barbarians from Nubia and Arabia. When the Saracens, who also were icono- clasts, broke forth from Arabia, Thebes endured its final desolation, and for many centuries its name almost disappears : nor can its monuments be said to have generally attracted the notice of Europeans, until the French expedition to Aegypt once again disclosed its monuments. From that period, and especially since the labours of Belzoni, no ancient city has been more frequently visited or described. The growth of Thebes and the additions made to it by successive monarchs or dynasties have been partly traced in the foregoing sketch of its political history. A few only of its principal remains can here be noticed, since the ruins of this city tbrm the subject of many works, and even the most condensed account of them, would almost demand a volume for itself. Ancient Thebes, as has already been observed, occupied both the eastern and western banks of the Nile; and four villages, two, on each side of the river, now occupy a portion of its original area. Of these villages two, Luxor and Karniih, are on the eastern bank, and two, Gourneh and Medinet-Abou, on the western. There is some difference in the cha- racter and purpose of the structures in the opposite quarters of the city. Those on the western bai]k Ibrnied part of its vast necropolis; and here are found the rock-hewn painted tombs, — " the tombs