Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/38

 2 2 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judjea. intent upon the rich plunder. Pharaoh tried to storm the place, but lack of war-engines obliged him to raise the siege and graciously to pardon the kings, soothing his pride with laying waste the country that lay before him. The effect of each succes- sive expedition was to drive the confederates further north. In his sixth campaign, some years later, the Egyptian Pharaoh seems to have found no resistance in his onward progress until he reached Kadesh, behind whose walls a small remnant that had not lost all discipline were entrenched. Here they hoped to keep the Egyptians at bay, but the place had to surrender before the reinforcements which they expected enabled them to accept battle. The allies were dispersed, and the Egyptians, flushed with their victory and loaded with spoils, easily captured Hamath, Aleppo, Patina, and Batnse, whence only a short march divided them from Carchemish on the Euphrates. A tombal inscription, put up to one of the generals that fell in this siege, records, m^er alia, the stratagems resorted to by the besieged to retard the fall of the city into the hands of the enemy. The Hittites figure among those that were obliged to pay tribute, consisting of precious stones, gold, silver, cattle, chariots, and even men, native and negro, who were sold as slaves or enlisted in the Egyptian ranks. Syria enjoyed a respite during the last Pharaohs of this dynasty. Ramses I., founder of the nineteenth dynasty, again led his forces across the isthmus, when, doubtless to ensure possession of the southern provinces, he concluded a defensive and offensive treaty with Sapalil, king of the Hittites, on equal terms. It was broken by the latter, and hostilities began afresh under Seti, successor of Ramses. The chief episodes of this campaign are carved in the great hall at Karnac. Seti is represented with long processions of the tribes he has subdued ; the Hittite warriors, generally three in one chariot, are distinguished by lighter complexions from their swarthy Semite confederates. That no mistake, however, should occur as to their identity, the sculptor was careful to write, " This is the perverse race of the Kheta, whom the king has destroyed." But such official boasting and contemptuous epithets, applied to the Hittites, were scarcely borne out by actual events. Seti was obliged to enter into an alliance with Maura-Sira, son and successor of Sapalil, which was maintained during the life of the former. The Hittites were now at the height of their power ; their influence