Page:The Pharaohs and their people; scenes of old Egyptian life and history (IA pharaohstheirpeo00berkiala).pdf/134

 there was no lack, at any rate, of a certain splendour at their kings' courts. They were graciously received by the young conqueror, and laid rich gifts at his feet, gold, silver, and lapis lazuli—wheat, wine, and wool,—besides many suits of brazen armour and chariots plated with gold.

The capture of Megiddo opened the way to the more distant field of Mesopotamia. In former ages that country had been the seat of civilised and highly cultivated states, but these kingdoms had fallen, probably before some foreign conquerors, about the time that the twelfth dynasty was ruling in Egypt. About the period of the Hyksos supremacy there seems to have been an empire established at Babylon which included Assyria as a province; but this again had passed away, and the country was broken up into a number of petty principalities, which it was no hard task for Thothmes to subdue and reduce to some sort of vassalage. Among the Asiatic princes who brought him tribute are named those of Assur and of Babilu.