ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲣⲏ.....) ⲡⲓⲕⲁ) ⲥⲓⲣⲏ (Ⲁⲙⲛⲙ (ⲁⲓ) Ϣⲃⲧⲕ), “King (Sun ..... of the Offerings), Son of the Sun, (the beloved of Amun Shabatok).” This name is evidently different from the preceding, there being not only a change in the prænomen, but also in the other oval. Besides the title of Beloved of Amun, the addition of the third hieroglyphic, the phonetic sign for T, changes completely the sound. There is as much difference in the names of Shabako and Shabatok, who therefore are as clearly two persons, as the Sabbakon and Sevechus of Eusebius. The Venetian edition of Eusebius calls the latter king Sebichos. When we consider the remote period, the difference of the dialect, the errors of copyists, &c., it is not surprising that so much discrepancy should exist. This name is found on the ruins to the south-east of the great temple at Carnak; and that the king was an Ethiopian is evident from his costume. The style is similar to that of Shabak; but the drawings of Signor Rosellini, which I could have wished to insert, are clearly the portraits of two different kings. I will presently state the learned Italian’s reasons for supposing that both these names allude to the god Seb or Sevek.
ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ (Ⲣⲏ-Ⲁⲧⲙⲟⲩⲛⲟϥⲣⲉ, ⲱϥⲉ ⲥⲓⲣⲏ) (Ⲧϩⲣⲕ), “King Sun Atmou beneficent, Corrector, Son of the Sun (Tirhaka).” The name of this king is found on the columns and sides of the temple excavated out of the rock at Gibel el Birkel: it occurs ten times in the inscriptions which I copied there. It is also on the small altar in the great temple; but Major Felix[63] appears to me mistaken in supposing that Tirhaka built that splendid edifice, for his name occurs in that instance only. Whereas the name of ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀ Ⲡⲓⲱⲛϩⲉⲓ, “King Pionchei (the living),” is on the large altar, and also a fragment of it on the western wall of the temple; but the claim even of the latter may be disputed, for [Vignette A.] is the prænomen on the only column which is now standing; and the name on the pillars is usually that of the king who erected the edifice. We have the authority, then, of the monuments of Ethiopia, that Tirhaka was king over that country, and his name, fortunately, still remains on a pylon of a temple at Medenet Abou, and other places at Thebes, to corroborate the testimony of Manetho, that he was also King of Egypt. In the latter instance, his name is written exactly as I have given it, except that the two last hieroglyphics of the prænomen are represented, figuratively I conceive, by an arm and a lash in the hand. I found, also the name of his queen, in the first chamber excavated out of the temple of Gibel el Birkel ([Vignette A]). ⲥⲟⲩⲧⲛ̀-ϩⲓⲙⲉ Ⲁⲙⲛϯⲕϯϩ,, “royal bride, Amentakatah.” Mr. Wilkinson found two princesses of this family: the first, B, is ⲧⲛⲣ ⲥⲓⲟⲩ, or ⲧ. ⲧⲏⲣ Ⲁⲙⲛⲁⲧⲥ, “the Divine Star, or the Divine Amenates;” and C, is ⲧⲏⲣ ϩⲓⲙⲉ ⲦⲙⲁⲩϢⲛⲓⲛⲟϥⲣⲉ, “the Divine Bride, Mutsheninofra, the Mother, Mistress of Good.” Signor Rosellini states, that there is a date, at Gibel el Birkel, of the year XX. of this king’s reign, confirming the accuracy of Eusebius. I did not perceive it, though, I believe, I copied every hieroglyphic which remains there.
The third king of this dynasty is the Tirhaka of Holy Writ: the narrative there given, is, I conceive, of sufficient importance to justify my noticing it somewhat in detail.[64]
In the third year of King Hoshea, the son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz began to reign; and, for his zeal in rooting out the idolatry of his people, he was described as one who “trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him.” Hezekiah rebelled against the Assyrians, and smote the Philistines; and in the fourth year of his reign, the king of Assyria, Shalmaneser, besieged Samaria, and, after three years, took it, and carried away the Israelites prisoners. In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, who had succeeded to Shalmaneser, went up against all the “fenced cities of Judah, and took them.” Hezekiah agreed to purchase a peace for three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold; and gave to him, for that purpose, all the treasures in the temples and palaces; but Sennacherib, faithless to this agreement, sent up a great host against Jerusalem, and the three chiefs of the army of the king of Assyria, Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh, had a conference with three of the officers of Hezekiah-Eliakim, who was over the household of Judah, Shebni, the scribe, and Joab the son of Asaph the recorder. Rabshakeh asked him, “Now, on whom doest thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?” and taunted them with trusting upon Egypt. “Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.” And he begged them to give pledges to the King of Assyria, and not trust on Egypt for chariots or for horsemen. Hezekiah was comforted by the prophet Isaiah, and Rabshakeh returned and told Sennacherib that Tirhaka, king of Ethiopia, was coming up to fight against him. The titles which are given to Tirhaka, in these passages, are most important. In 2 Kings, xix. 9., he is called king of Ethiopia, and in xviii. 21. and 24., Pharaoh of Egypt, which is exactly saying that he was ruler over both countries, as we have seen that Manetho and the monuments prove him to have been.
This name, according to Signor Rosellini, is written in Hebrew (תרחקח םלך־כוש) “Tarhaka, Melek Cush,” translated correctly Θαρακα Βασιλευς Αιθιοπων, “Tarhaka, king of the Ethiopians.” The perfect resemblance of the name, which neither upon the monuments nor in the lists is given to any other king of Egypt; the correspondence of the epoch, and the title of king of Ethiopia, given to a sovereign of an Ethiopian dynasty, who by force of arms had annexed Egypt to their paternal kingdom, are circumstances which prove, beyond all doubt, as the learned Italian[65] says, the identity of the Tarhaka of the monuments, with the Tirhaka of holy writ. If, according to Eusebius, we allow 163 years for the 26th dynasty, that is, the one which succeeded to the Ethiopians in Egypt, that number, added to the date of the invasion by Cambyses, 525, will make 688, which, added to the 20 years’ reign of Tirhaka, would make the accession of that king to the throne to be in 708, nearly the exact time assigned by the Scripture chronologists for the relief of Hezekiah and Tirhaka; but Signor Rosellini, principally on the authority of a stela which he obtained at Alexandria, makes the total of the reigns of that dynasty 150 years, which would cause the accession of Tirhaka to the dominion of the Nile to happen in 695. Following exactly the chronology of Scripture, it must have been in the first year of the king’s reign that the destruction of the Assyrian army took place. “Then the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword.”[66]
I will here introduce an event related by Herodotus[67], which, notwithstanding many discrepancies, is evidently the same:—“After Sabaco, the Ethiopian, returned into the country, and the blind king Anysis was dead, there reigned,” he says, “a priest of Vulcan, named Sethos. This king treated with contempt the warriors of Egypt, despising them, as if he never would have occasion for them; and, besides other injuries he committed against them, deprived them of the ground which, under the preceding kings, had been granted to each, in portions of twelve fields of a hundred cubits. But afterwards Sennacherib, king of the Arabs and of the Assyrians, having invaded Egypt with a great host, none of the warriors were willing to assist him: then the priest, reduced to extremity, entered into the sanctuary, bewailed before the figure of the divinity the danger to which he was exposed. Thus weeping, he fell asleep, and the divinity appeared unto him in a vision, and exhorted him to take courage, for he would have nothing to dread in going against the army of the Arabians, since he himself would send assistance. Animated by this dream, and having assembled those Egyptians who were willing to follow him, he fixed his camp in Pelusium, since that city forms the entrance into the country. He was followed by none of the warriors, but only by merchants, artificers, and labourers. When they were arrived there, a multitude of field mice were scattered among their adversaries, ate the bands of their armour, of their bows and shields, so that, next day, naked and disarmed, they fled, and many perished.”