i.e. killed an enemy, and cut off his hand and carried it to camp as proof of his exploit-how a second time he did the same-how, in a third engagement, he made a prisoner, and 'brought him off through the water'— and how finally, at the actual taking of the town, he made prisoners of one man and three women, who were all given to him for slaves.1 The narrator is so occupied with himself and his own adventures that he has no words to spare for any general account of the siege operations, or any connected narrative of the war. We gather incidentally from his autobiographical sketch that there was no capitulation, such as Manetho spoke of 2-no voluntary evacuation of the city by the Hyksos army-but that the place was taken by storm; and we can perceive that the beaten enemy drew off in the direction of Palestine, whither the Egyptians pursued them, and where after a time they captured a Hyksos city called Sharhana, probably the Sharuhen of the Hebrews. With this event the Hyksos war appears to have terminated, and Egypt, relieved for ever from this hated

enemy, entered a career of progress, conquest, and glory.

upon

It is stated by George the Syncellus, a writer whose extensive learning and entire honesty are unquestionable, that the synchronism of Joseph with Apepi, the last king of the only known Hyksos dynasty, was ' acknowledged by all.' The best modern authorities accept this view, if not as clearly established, at any

1 Records of the Past, vol. vi. pp. 7,8.

2 Ap. Joseph. Contr. Apion. 1.s.c. Records of the Past, vol. vi. p.

8, § 14.

4 Josh. xix. 6.

• Chronographia, vol. i. p. 62, в :

Ἐπὶ πᾶσι συμπεφώνηται ὅτι ἐπὶ ̓Απώφεως ἦρξεν Ἰωσὴφ τῆς Alyvrov. Bunsen limits this to 'all Christian chronographers' (Egypt's Place, vol. ii. p. 438); but quite arbitrarily.

CH. XIX.] JOSEPH THE MINISTER OF APEPI.

203

rate as in the highest degree probable, and believe that it was Apepi who made the gifted Hebrew his prime minister, who invited his father and his brethren to settle in Egypt with their households, and assigned to them the land of Goshen for their residence. The elevation of a foreigner, and a Semite, to so exalted an office is thought to be far more likely under Hyksos than under native Egyptian rule, the marriage with the daughter of the high-priest of Heliopolis to be less surprising, and the Egyptian words and names connected with the history to point to this period.2 If the view be allowed, a great additional interest will attach to Apepi himself, and great additional light will be thrown on the ultimate character of the Hyksos rule, which has been shown already to have been much modified and softened by contact with the old civilisation of the country.3

For the Pharaoh of Joseph is no rude and savage nomad, but a mild, civilised, and somewhat luxurious king. He holds a grand court in a city not named, has a number of cupbearers and confectioners, sits upon a throne or rides in a chariot, wears a ring on his hand, has vestures of fine linen and collars of gold to bestow on those whom he favours, uses the Egyptian language, and is in fact undistinguishable from a native Egyptian monarch. He does not oppress any of his subjects. On the contrary, he sustains them in a time of scarcity, when he becomes their landlord, takes

1 Birch, Ancient Egypt, p. 76; Lenormant, Manuel d'Histoire Ancienne, vol. i. p. 363; Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. i. pp. 260-70, 1st ed.

2.Brugsch, p. 265. See above, p. 194. 4 Gen. xl. 2.

5 Ib. xli. 40.

Ib. verse 43. This fact, and Joseph's 'chariots and horsemen' (Gen. 1. 9), sufficiently prove that Joseph was not anterior to the Hyksos.

* Ib. xli. 42.

6

a moderate rent,' is especially lenient to the priests,2 and, when he receives the Israelites, even concedes to his subjects' prejudice against shepherds.' If he is by birth and descent one of the Hyksos, he has adopted all the ordinary habits and mode of life of the Egyptians ; he is even, it would seem, tolerant of their religion. This toleration may perhaps be only within certain limits; but it extends apparently to the entire priestly order.

1 Gen. xlvii. 26.

2 Ib. xlvii. 22.

3 Ib. xlvi. 34.

CH. XX.]

THE EIGHTEENTH DYNASTY.

205

CHAPTER XX.

THE NEW EMPIRE-EGYPT UNDER THE EIGHTEENTH

DYNASTY (ABOUT B.C. 1600-1400).

Reign of Aahmes—his War with the Hyksos-his Expedition against the South-his Buildings—his Wife, Nefert-ari-Aahmes. Reign of Amenhotep I. Reign of Thothmes I.—his Nubian Conquests-his Syrian and Mesopotamian War—his Monuments. Short Reign of Thothmes II. Accession of Hatasu-her Buildings and other Monuments-her Fleet sails to Punt-her Association of Thothmes III., and Death. Glorious Reign of Thothmes III. His Invasion of Asia. Enemies with whom he came into contact-the Kharu, the Zahi, the Khita, the Ruten, the Nahiri. Reduction of Syria. Success in Mesopotamia— Elephant Hunts. Booty carried off. Inscriptions set up by Thothmes III. His Buildings, Statues, and Obelisks. His Employment of forced Labour. Condition of the Israelites under him. His Southern Wars. His supposed Maritime Empire. Summary of his Character. Reign of Amen-hotep II. His Wars and Buildings. Reign of Thothmes IV. His Temple to the Sphinx. His Wars. His Lion Hunts. Reign of Amen-hotep III. His Wife Taia. Commencement of the Disk Worship. His Wars. His Buildings and Statues. His Love of Field Sports-Personal Appearance and Character. Reign of Amenhotep IV., or Khuenaten. His strange Physiognomy. His Establishment of the Disk Worship. His new Capital. His Wars. Reigns of Sa'a-nekht, Ai, and Tutankh-amen. Restoration of the Old Religion. Reign of Hor-em-heb. Close of the Dynasty.

'EK σKÓTOUS Tód' és páos.—ÆSCHYL. Ætn. Fr. 1.

THE native Egyptian monarch who drove out the Hyksos, and became the founder of the eighteenth dynasty, bore the name of Aahmes, , which signifies child of the moon.' He is thought to have been the son of Kames (Uot-khepr-ra) and of his wife Aah-hotep, , whose coffin and mummy are

1

1 Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. i. p. 273, 1st ed.

among the treasures of the museum of Boulaq.1 Aahmes took the throne name of Neb-pehti-ra, •, and reigned twenty-five years, more gloriously than any Egyptian monarch since Usurtasen III. He probably inherited the great war, which he brought to a happy conclusion mainly by his own individual energy, but in part by the courage and conduct of his generals. It is especially to be noted of this war, that it was carried on as much by water as by land, the first step towards success being the creation of a flotilla upon the Nile, which held the command of the river, and was used in the rapid and safe transport of troops to any part of the Nile valley where they were needed. Aahmes, the king's namesake and favourite general, relates how he served on board one of these Nile vessels, and, descending the stream from Thebes, carried his master's arms into the Eastern Delta, and in a short time won back to his authority the entire region. As the vessels descended the river, the land force, now no more a mere infantry, but comprising certainly a body of trained chariots, and perhaps a certain amount of cavalry, occupied the river bank; and Aahmes from time to time had to quit his vessel and to march on foot beside the chariot of his sovereign. Memphis must have been captured before any attack

1 Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. i. pp. 252-3, 1st ed.; Lenormant, Manuel d'Histoire Ancienne, vol i. p. 369.

2 See especially the inscription on the tomb of his officer, Aahmes, son of Abana (Records of the Past, vol. vi. pp. 7-9).

3 Birch, Ancient Egypt, p. 78. That the Hyksos kings introduced the horse and chariot into Egypt is generally admitted. No

wheeled vehicles appear in the monuments prior to the eighteenth dynasty. The employment of chariots in the war of liberation appears in the Records of the Past, vol. vi. p. 7. The use of cavalry at this time is uncertain.

5 This capture may have been the work of Ra-Sekenen IIl. There is no allusion to it in the inscription of Aahmes.