Page:The Pharaohs and their people; scenes of old Egyptian life and history (IA pharaohstheirpeo00berkiala).pdf/271



Shishak and the Twenty-second (Bubastite) Dynasty—The Ethiopian Kings—The Assyrians in Egypt—Sack of Thebes. (Circa 970-666 )

It might seem as though the name of Rameses had power sufficient to hold together the fabric of the state so long as the twentieth dynasty was on the throne. With the dethronement and exile of the Ramessid kings, all unity was at an end. Her-hor had claimed the sovereignty of all Egypt, but his successors ruled over a diminishing territory, and the dominion of the last of the priest-kings did not probably extend much, if at all, beyond the Thebaid. Whilst they had been reigning at Thebes, an independent dynasty (regarded indeed by Manetho as the twenty-first), ruled in the Delta, having its seat at Tanis, i.e. Zoan. But the Delta had long been the home of naturalised foreigners of different nationalities, and amongst them were settlers bearing Assyrian names—warlike and