Figures of goddesses stand at the four angles and extend their winged arms along its sides, as if to embrace the mummy of the sovereign. Tûtankhamon and Aï were obeyed from one end of Egypt to the other, from Napata to the shores of the Mediterranean. The peoples of Syria raised no disturbances during their reigns, and paid their accustomed tribute regularly;* if their rule was short, it was at least happy. It would appear, however, that after their deaths, troubles arose in the state. The lists of Manetho give two or three princes—Râthôtis, Khebres, and Akherres—whose names are not found on the monuments.** It is possible that we ought not to regard them as historical personages, but merely as heroes of popular romance, of the same type as those introduced so freely into the history of the preceding dynasties by the chroniclers of the Saite and Greek periods. They were, perhaps, merely short-lived pretenders who were overthrown one by the other before either had succeeded in establishing himself on the seat of Horus. Be that as it may, the XVIIIth dynasty drew to its close amid strife and quarreling, without our being able to discover the cause of its overthrow, or the name of the last of its sovereigns.***
* Tûtankhamon receives the tribute of the Kûshites as well
as that of the Syrians; Aï is represented at Shataûi in
Nubia as accompanied by Paûîrû, the prince of Kûsh.
** Wiedemann has collected six royal names which, with much
hesitation, he places about this time.
*** The list of kings who make up the XVIIIth dynasty can be
established with certainty, with the exception of the order
of the three last sovereigns who succeed Khûniatonû. It is
here given in its authentic form, as the monuments have
permitted us to reconstruct it, and in its Greek form as it
is found in the lists of Manetho:
Manetho’s list, as we have it, is a very ill-made extract,
wherein the official kings are mixed up with the legitimate
queens, as well as, at least towards the end, with persons
of doubtful authenticity. Several kings, between Khûniatonû
and Harmhabi, are sometimes added at the end of the list;
some of these I think, belonged to previous dynasties, e.g.
Teti to the VIth, Râhotpû to the XVIIth; several are heroes
of romance, as Mernebphtah or Merkhopirphtah, while the
names of the others are either variants from the cartouche
names of known princes, or else are nicknames, such as was
Sesû, Sestûrî for Ramses II. Dr. Mahler believes that he can
fix, within a few days, the date of the kings of whom the
list is composed, from Ahmosis I. to Aî. I hold to the
approximate date which I have given in vol. iv. p. 153 of
this History, and I give the years 1600 to 1350 as the
period of the dynasty, with a possible error of about fifty
years, more or less.
Scarcely half a century had elapsed between the moment when the XVIII’s dynasty reached the height of its power under Amenôthes III. and that of its downfall. It is impossible to introduce with impunity changes of any kind into the constitution or working of so complicated a machine as an empire founded on conquest. When the parts of the mechanism have been once put together and set in motion, and have become accustomed to work harmoniously at a proper pace, interference with it must not be attempted except to replace such parts as are broken or worn out, by others exactly like them. To make alterations while the machine is in motion, or to introduce new combinations, however ingenious, into any part of the original plan, might produce an accident or a breakage of the gearing when perhaps it would be least expected. When the devout Khûniatonû exchanged one city and one god for another, he thought that he was merely transposing equivalents, and that the safety of the commonwealth was not concerned in the operation. Whether it was Amon or Atonu who presided over the destinies of his people, or whether Thebes or Tel el-Amarna were the centre of impulse, was, in his opinion, merely a question of internal arrangement which could not affect the economy of the whole. But events soon showed that he was mistaken in his calculations. It is probable that if, on the expulsion of the Hyksôs, the earlier princes of the dynasty had attempted an alteration in the national religion, or had moved the capital to any other city they might select, the remainder of the kingdom would not have been affected by the change. But after several centuries of faithful adherence to Amon in his city of Thebes, the governing power would find it no easy matter to accomplish such a resolution. During three centuries the dynasty had become wedded to the city and to its patron deity, and the locality had become so closely associated with the dynasty, that any blow aimed at the god could not fail to destroy the dynasty with it; indeed, had the experiment of Khûniatonû been prolonged beyond a few years, it might have entailed the ruin of the whole country. All who came into contact with Egypt, or were under her rule, whether Asiatics or Africans, were quick to detect any change in her administration, and to remark a falling away from the traditional systems of the times of Thûtmosis III. and Amenothes II. The successors of the heretic king had the sense to perceive at once the first symptoms of disorder, and to refrain from persevering in his errors; but however quick they were to undo his work, they could not foresee its serious consequences. His immediate followers were powerless to maintain their dynasty, and their posterity had to make way for a family who had not incurred the hatred of Amon, or rather that of his priests. If those who followed them were able by their tact and energy to set Egypt on her feet again, they were at the same time unable to restore her former prosperity or her boundless confidence in herself.
THE REACTION AGAINST EGYPT