He then made his way to the palace and inspected its courts, chambers, treasury, and storehouses, and reviewed the whole household, including even Namrôti’s own wives and daughters, though “he turned not his face towards any one of them.” He next went on to the stud-farms, and was indignant to find that the horses had suffered from hunger during the siege. Thoroughbreds were probably somewhat scarce at Napata, and he had, no doubt, reckoned on obtaining new blood and a complete relay of chargers from the Egyptian stables; his chances of doing so seemed likely to vanish if brood mares and stallions had everywhere been debilitated by the hardships of war. He reserved a part of the booty for himself, handed over the balance to the priests of Amon at Karnak, and also, before he left, received tribute from Heracleopolis. Pefzââbastît brought him horses, the pick of his stables, slaves laden with gold and silver and precious stones; then burying his face in the dust, he offered worship to his liberator: “Hell had swallowed me up, I was plunged into darkness, and lo, now a light has been given me. Since I have found no man to love me in the day of adversity, or to stand by me in the day of battle, save only thee, O victorious king, who hast torn away the night from above me, I will be thy servant, I and all my house, and Khninsu shall pay tribute into thy treasury. For, as to thee, thou art Harmakhis, chief of the imperishable stars, thou art king, even as he is king, and even as he doth not destroy himself, neither shalt thou destroy thyself!”
The downfall of Khmunu led all who might still have shown resistance in Middle Egypt to lay down their arms also. The fortress of Pisakhmakhpirrî* dominated the gorges of Lahunît, and thus commanded the entrance to the Fayum; but the son of Tafnakhti agreed to surrender it, provided he were allowed to march out with the honours of war.
* This fortress, which bears a name compounded with that of
Osorkon I., must have been rebuilt by that monarch on the
site of an earlier fort; the new name remained in use under
the XXIInd and XXIIIth dynasties, after which the old one
reappears. It is Illahun, where Petrie discovered the
remains of a flourishing town of the Bubastite epoch.
Shortly after, Maîtumu threw open its gates, and its example was followed by Titauî; at Maîtumu there was rioting among the Egyptians in the streets, one party wishing to hold out, the other to surrender, but in the end the latter had their way.* Piônkhi discharged his priestly duties wherever he went, and received the local taxes, always being careful to reserve a tenth for the treasury of Amon-Râ; the fact that his army was kept under rigid control, and that he showed great clemency to the vanquished, helped largely to conciliate those who were not bound by close ties of interest to the cause of Tafnakhti. On reaching Memphis, Piônkhi at once had recourse to the persuasive methods which had hitherto served him so well, and entered into negotiations with the garrison. “Shut not yourselves up in forts, and fight not against the Upper Country,** for Shu the god of creation, when I enter, he entereth, and when I go out, he goeth out, and none may repel my attacks. I will present offerings to Phtah and to the divinities of the White Wall, I will honour Sokari in his mysterious coffer, I will contemplate Eîsânbuf,*** then I will return from thence in peace. If ye will trust in me, Memphis shall be prosperous and healthy, even the children shall not cry therein. Behold the nomes of the South; not a soul has been massacred there, saving only the impious who blasphemed God, and these rebels have been executed.”
* Maritumu, or Maîtumu, is the modern Meîdum, associated in
the inscription with the characteristic epithet, Pisokari-
Nibu-Suazu, or “temple of Sokari, master of the
transfiguration.” Titauî lay exactly on the frontier between
Upper and Lower Egypt—hence its name, which signifies
“commanding the two regions;” it was in the Memphite nome,
and Brugsch identifies it with the Greek city of Acanthos,
near Dahshur, but this position appears to me to be too
close to Memphis and too far from the boundary of the nome;
I should prefer to place Titauî at Kafr el-Ayat or
thereabouts.
** I.e. against Piônkhi, who was master of the Upper
Country, that is, of Thebes and Ethiopia, and the forces
from the whole of the valley to the south of Memphis who
accompanied him.
*** Lit., “He who is on the South of his Wall,” a name given
to one of the quarters of Memphis, and afterwards applied to
the god Phtah, who was worshipped in that quarter.
This eloquence, however, was of no avail. A detachment of archers, sailors, and engineers sent to make a reconnaissance of the harbour was taken by surprise and routed with loss, and on the following night Tafnakhti suddenly made his appearance on the spot. He had the 8000 men who were defending it paraded before him, and made them a speech, in which he pointed out the great natural strength of the position, the stoutness of the walls and the abundance of provisions; he then mounted his horse, and making his way a second time through the enemy’s outposts, headed straight for the Delta in order to levy reinforcements there. The next day, Piônkhi went in person to examine the approaches of the city in which his ancestors had once been throned. There was a full Nile, and the river came right up to the walls. He sailed close in along the whole of the eastern front, and landed on the north, much vexed and discomfited at finding it so strongly fortified. Even the common soldiers were astonished, and began to discuss among themselves the difficulties of the undertaking with a certain feeling of discouragement. It would be necessary, they declared, to open a regular siege, “to make an inclined plane leading to the city, throw up- earthworks against its walls, bind ladders, set up masts and erect spars all around it.” Piônkhi burst into a rage when these remarks were repeated to him: a siege in set form would have been a most serious enterprise, and would have allowed the allied princes time to get together fresh troops. He drove his ships full speed against the line of boats anchored in the harbour, and broke through it at the first onset; his sailors then scaled the bank and occupied the houses which overlooked it. Reinforcements concentrated on this point gradually penetrated into the heart of the city, and after two days’ fighting the garrison threw down their arms. The victor at once occupied the temples to save them from pillage: he then purified Memphis with water and natron, ascended in triumph to the temple of Phtah, and celebrated there those rites which the king alone was entitled to perform. The other fortresses in the neighbourhood surrendered without further hesitation. King Auputi of Tentramu,* prince Akaneshu,** and prince Petisis tendered the homage of their subjects in person, and the other sovereigns of the Delta merely waited for a demonstration in force on the part of the Ethiopians before following their example.
* Probably the original of the statue discovered by Naville
at Tel-el-Yahudîyeh. Tentramu and Taânu, the cities of
Auputi, are perhaps identical with the biblical Elim (Exod.
xvi. 1) and the Daneon Portus of Pliny on the Red Sea, but
Naville prefers to identify Daneon with the Tonu of the
Berlin Papyrus No. 1. I believe that we ought to look for
the kingdom of Auputi in the neighbourhood of Menzaleh, near
Tanis.
** Akaneshu ruled over Sebennytos and in the XVIIth nome.
Naville discovered at Samannud the statue of one of his
descendants, a king of the same name, perhaps his grandson,
who was prince of Sebennytos in the time of Psammetichus I.
Piônkhi crossed the Nile and marched in state to Heliopolis, there to receive the royal investiture.
He offered up prayers at the various holy places along the route, such as the sanctuary of Tumu at Khriâhu and the temple of the Ennead who dwelt in the cavern from which the Northern Nile was supposed to spring; he then crossed over Mount Ahu, bathed his face in the reputed source of the river, and at length penetrated into the dwelling-place of Râ. He ascended the steps leading to the great chapel in order that he might there “see Râ in Hâît-Banbonu even himself. All unattended, he drew the bolt, threw open the doors, contemplated his father Râ in Hâît-Banbonu, adjusted Ra’s boat Mâdît and the Saktit of Shu, then closed the doors again, affixed a seal of clay, and impressed it with the royal signet.” He had thus submitted his conduct for the approval of the god in whom all attributes of royalty were vested, and the god had legitimatised his claims to universal rule: he was henceforth the master, not merely de jure but de facto as well, and the kings who had hitherto declined to recognise him were now obliged to bow reverently before his authority.
Osorkon was the first to submit, and did so before the close of Piônkhi’s stay at Heliopolis; when the latter pitched his camp near Kahani* in the Athribite nome, the nobles of the Eastern Delta, both small and great, came one after another with their followers; among them Patinifi of Pisapti, Paimau of Busiris, Pabîsa of Khriâhu and of Pihâpi,** besides a dozen others.