Ramses repulsed the incursions of the Tihonû, and put to the sword such of their hordes as had ventured to invade Egyptian territory. He exercised the functions of viceroy of Ethiopia, and had on several occasions to chastise the pillaging negroes. We see him at Beît-Wally and at Abu Simbel charging them in his chariot: in vain they flee in confusion before him; their flight, however swift, cannot save them from captivity and destruction.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger.
He was engaged in Ethiopia when the death of Seti recalled him to Thebes.*
* We do not know how long Seti I. reigned; the last date is
that of his IXth year at Redesieh and at Aswan, and that of
the year XXVII. sometimes attributed to him belongs to one
of the later Ramessides. I had at first supposed his reign
to have been a long one, merely on the evidence afforded by
Manetho’s lists, but the presence of Ramses II. as a
stripling, in the campaign of Seti’s 1st year, forces us to
limit its duration to fifteen or twenty years at most,
possibly to only twelve or fifteen.
He at once returned to the capital, celebrated the king’s funeral obsequies with suitable pomp, and after keeping the festival of Amon, set out for the north in order to make his authority felt in that part of his domains. He stopped on his way at Abydos to give the necessary orders for completing the decoration of the principal chambers of the resting-place built by his father, and chose a site some 320 feet to the north-west of it for a similar Memnonium for himself. He granted cultivated fields and meadows in the Thinite name for the maintenance of these two mausolea, founded a college of priests and soothsayers in connexion with them, for which he provided endowments, and also assigned them considerable fiefs in all parts of the valley of the Nile. The Delta next occupied his attention. The increasing importance of the Syrian provinces in the eyes of Egypt, the growth of the Hittite monarchy, and the migrations of the peoples of the Mediterranean, had obliged the last princes of the preceding dynasty to reside more frequently at Memphis than Amenôthes I. or Thûtmosis III. had done. Amenôthes III. had set to work to restore certain cities which had been abandoned since the days of the Shepherds, and Bubastis, Athribis, and perhaps Tanis, had, thanks to his efforts, revived from their decayed condition. The Pharaohs, indeed, felt that at Thebes they were too far removed from the battle-fields of Asia; distance made it difficult for them to counteract the intrigues in which their vassals in Kharû and the lords of Naharaim were perpetually implicated, and a revolt which might have been easily anticipated or crushed had they been advised of it within a few days, gained time to increase and extend during the interval occupied by the couriers in travelling to and from the capital. Ramses felt the importance of possessing a town close to the Isthmus where he could reside in security, and he therefore built close to Zalû, in a fertile and healthy locality, a stronghold to which he gave his own name,* and of which the poets of the time have left us an enthusiastic description. “It extends,” they say, “between Zahi and Egypt—and is filled with provisions and victuals.—It resembles Hermonthis,—it is strong like Memphis,—and the sun rises—and sets in it—so that men quit their villages and establish themselves in its territory.”—“The dwellers on the coasts bring conger eels and fish in homage,—they pay it the tribute of their marshes.—The inhabitants don their festal garments every day,—perfumed oil is on their heads and new wigs;—they stand at their doors, their hands full of bunches of flowers,—green branches from the village of Pihâthor,—garlands of Pahûrû,—on the day when Pharaoh makes his entry.—Joy then reigns and spreads, and nothing can stay it,—O Usirmarî-sotpûnirî, thou who art Montû in the two lands,—Ramses-Mîamûn, the god.” The town acted as an advance post, from whence the king could keep watch against all intriguing adversaries,—whether on the banks of the Orontes or the coast of the Mediterranean.
* An allusion to the foundation of this residence occurs in
an inscription at Abu Simbel, dated in his XXVth year.
Nothing appeared for the moment to threaten the peace of the empire. The Asiatic vassals had raised no disturbance on hearing of the king’s accession, and Mautallu continued to observe the conditions of the treaty which he had signed with Seti. Two military expeditions undertaken beyond the isthmus in the IInd and IVth years of the new sovereign were accomplished almost without fighting. He repressed by the way the marauding Shaûsû, and on reaching the Nahr el-Kelb, which then formed the northern frontier of his empire, he inscribed at the turn of the road, on the rocks which overhang the mouth of the river, two triumphal stelæ in which he related his successes.* Towards the end of his IVth year a rebellion broke out among the Khâti, which caused a rupture of relations between the two kingdoms and led to some irregular fighting. Khâtusaru, a younger brother of Maurusaru, murdered the latter and made himself king in his stead.** It is not certain whether the Egyptians took up arms against him, or whether he judged it wise to oppose them in order to divert the attention of his subjects from his crime.
* The stelæ are all in a very bad condition; in the last of
them the date is no longer legible.
** In the Treaty of Harrises II. with the Prince of Khâti,
the writer is content to use a discreet euphemism, and
states that Mautallu succumbed “to his destiny.” The name of
the Prince of the Khâti is found later on under the form
Khatusharu, in that of a chief defeated by Tiglath-pileser
I. in the country of Kummukh, though this name has generally
been read Khatukhi.