From this time forward her political power was at an end. To be sure, Ethiopian kings took on Egyptian civilization—as a matter of fact, their country had long been Egyptianized. They tried to rule as pharaohs before them had done, worshipping Egyptian gods and keeping temples in repair. To the average citizen, life was no doubt much as it had been in former periods. But the old ideas were steadily falling away. The Assyrians invaded the country, and later, the Persians under Cambyses conquered it. Now and then a native prince would temporarily get control and repulse the Libyans and Ethiopians on the west and Asiatic peoples on the east. Such reactions and returns to the old order were short-lived, and like the sudden glow of dying embers, bespoke an approaching end.
Foreign people and foreign influences pushed into the valley. Especially did they come from Greece. We have seen that rapid change and quick assimilation were alien to the nature of the Egyptian. While the Greeks gained much by this contact, their coming served but to make briefer the remaining years of Egyptian life. Greek learning was taught and Greek religion spread into the valley. Finally with the conquest of Alexander in 331 B.C., the prevailing element in the land became Greek and so remained until Rome extended her sway over all the ancient world.
When we think that each succeeding invasion was the occasion for destruction; when plunder and fire vied with each other in despoiling the conquered land; when later the few temples which had withstood these experiences were robbed of their contents, and obelisks, monuments and statues were scattered among the nations of the earth, to satisfy personal gratification, we can no longer wonder that so little remains of that Egypt we have been studying.
After the period of the priest-kings, the history of Egypt belongs to the history of Assyria, Babylonia, Greece and Rome, and no longer concerns us in our attempt to become acquainted with the "earliest nations."
We feel some way that the end of Egypt's political power should have been more splendid than it was—more worthy of her former dignity and strength, and almost regret that the masses of her citizens had not met their final repulse in some desperate rally to drive invaders from their borders. But the end had been long drawn out. Generations of alien rule had accustomed the people to accept this as a natural condition. Rawlinson puts it well: "As it was, Egypt sank ingloriously at the last—her art, her literature, her national spirit decayed and almost extinct—paying, by her early disappearance from among the nations of the earth, the penalty of her extraordinarily precocious greatness."[7]
Such being a brief survey of her political achievements, we turn now to the life and customs of her people.
[1] 1350-1205 B.C.
[2] Records of the Past, ed. Dr. Burch. The author is unknown, but the poem is known by the name of a scribe who once copied the production.
[3] Edwards: A Thousand Miles Up the Nile, 262