Predecessors of Cleopatra

by Leigh North

Of Shashanq II, who succeeded, or of his wife, almost nothing is recorded; he was probably a peaceful king and did little towards building or repairing temples.

Queen Karemama was the wife of the next king, Takelut or Theke-leth II, who reigned fifteen years, and is described as the “Great chief of Mashanasha”; the queen is called “great royal wife” and “beloved of Mut.” Brugsch speaks of her as a daughter of Nimrod, and gives her a very lengthy name, which we can only hope that the lady was of sufficient size to carry. Another wife is called Mut-em-hat-sat-Amen. The former was the mother of the high priest Uarsarken. The queen was descended from one of the royal families of Thebes, and, perhaps in deference to her wishes, they dwelt for a while in Thebes, with a view also, no doubt, of propitiating the priests. The queen is also called “princess, great lady and mistress of the South.”

Shashanq III turned the huge statue of Rameses II into a pylon, having no more respect for his predecessors than did Rameses II himself, and his exploits are inscribed and described after those of Rameses II and Seti I. He adopted the pre-nomen of Rameses II. An Apis bull, a tablet records, was born in the twenty-eighth year of his reign; but, though it lasted fifty-two years, there seem to be no memorials remaining, which was also the case with his successor, Pamai. Nor in the reign of his son Shashanq or Shishak IV do we find mention of the queen. The former seems to have reigned only two, the latter thirty-seven years.

All this time Egypt was in more or less of a turmoil, with a divided or disputed succession, “Such a condition of things,” says one writer, “was of course fatal to literature and art,” which latter “did not so much decline as disappear,” and after Shashanq I no monarch of the line left any building or sculpture of the slightest importance. In this period of doubt and disorder we have the names of a king, Peta-Bast, Auuth-meri-Amen and Uasar-ken or Osorkon III, whose mother and wife are probably mentioned as “Royal mother, royal wife, Tata-Bast, and son of the sun, Nasaek (en) living forever” in a golden aegis of the goddess Sekhet, in the Louvre.

Named as one of the Twenty-third Dynasty, we have Pi-ankhi, who descended on Egypt from Ethiopia, whither the priests had retired, who made his capital at Napata and who, probably through his wife was connected with the old royal families of Egypt. Pi-ankhi called himself “King of Kush,” and the mother, sister and daughter of the king bore each a title of honor as “Queen of Kush.” In inscriptions the king is spoken of as being “like a panther,” and we further read that “Then Nimrod sent forth his wife, the queen and daughter of a king, Nes-thent-nes,” or, as she elsewhere is called, Nes-thent-meh to supplicate the queens and royal king’s daughters and sisters. And they threw themselves prostrate in the women’s house before the queens (saying), “Pray come to me, ye queens, king’s daughters and king’s sisters! Appease Horus, the ruler of the palace. Exalted is his person, great his triumphs. Cause his anger to be appeased before my (prayer), else he will give over to death the king, my husband (but) he is brought low”; when they had finished her majesty was moved in her heart at the supplication of the queen. This comes from a closely written memorial stone set up by the king. It is spoken of as “The Inscription of Pi-ankhi Mer-Amen, king of Egypt, in the eighth century B. C.,” and the Nimrod mentioned was probably Nemareth, one of the petty rulers of Egypt before referred to. The stone was discovered at Mont Barkal, the place where it was originally set up, and the words in brackets are those half obliterated and restored to make out the sense.

When the victor entered the conquered city we are told that “then came to him the king’s wives, and the king’s daughters, and they praised his majesty, after the manner of women; but his majesty did not turn his countenance upon them.” Ungallant majesty, who was hastening on to further conquests and had no time for social amenities! To Nemareth, however, who finally came, leading “a horse with his right hand, and holding a sistrum made of gold and lapis-lazuli in his left,” Pi-ankhi was more condescending—nobly forgave him, like some other nations we have heard of, for defending his own territory, and accompanied him to the temples, and then to Nemareth’s stables, where he, with further condescension, actually scolded the grooms for giving the horses too short rations during the siege.

Elsewhere the queen Pi-anchi, or the next monarch, is spoken of as “sister and wife, the queen of Kekmi (Egypt) Ge-ro-a-ro-pi.” The stone from which this was taken has two pictures, the other showing also the Ethiopian queen. Says Brugsch, “While this sister of the king is designated as Queen of Nubia, another, who was also a wife of Miamun-Mut, is called Queen of Egypt.” His majesty seems to have spent a great deal of time sailing up and down the river, yet conquering wherever he went. And it is probable, after the weak rulers had all submitted to him, he returned to Ethiopia, where he died.

According to Manetho there was but one king of the Twenty-fourth Dynasty, of the old line, named Barkenrenef, who reigned for six years only, at Sais, and there is no mention of his wife. But meanwhile an Ethiopian, possibly the son of Pi-ankhi, held authority at Thebes, and is called “King of the South, Kasta.” He seems to have married a priestess of Amon, called “divine adorer” or “morning star,” a daughter of Osorken III by the name of Shep-en-apt, and Sabaka, who became king, and Amenartas, a priestess, who held the rank of “Neter tuat,” which her mother had also borne.

This Sabaka, or Sabaco, became king of the Nubian Twenty-fifth Dynasty and reigned about twelve years. He called himself “king of the South and North” and “son of the sun.” He appears to have made repairs on various temples and was a contemporary of Sargon and Sennacherib, kings of Assyria, with which country, as well as with Palestine, the confused history of Egypt, through all this period, is much associated.

Queen Amenartas, or, as she is elsewhere called, Ameneritis, married Pi-ankhi, a Nubian prince, and styled herself “royal daughter, royal sister, royal wife.” Her husband called himself “Uniter of two lands” and “multiplier of mighty men.” The queen was a zealous restorer of the temples, and added chambers and small sanctuaries at Karnak, in one of which a fine limestone statue of her was found. We know that she was considered beautiful, and Brugsch says, “sweet peace seems to hover about the features; even the flower in her hand suggests her high mission as reconciler of the long feud.” A part of the inscription at her feet, on the base of the statue at Gizeh, from which the names of her father and mother are erased, reads: “May he (the god Amen) grant everything that is good and pure by which the divine nature lives, all that the heaven bestows and the earth brings forth, to the princess, the most pleasant, the most gracious, the kindest and most amiable queen of Upper and Lower Egypt, the sister of the king (Sabaco), the ever-living, the daughter of the deceased king (Khasta), the wife of the divine one, Amenisitis. May she live!” Of herself she says, “I was the wife of the divine one, a benefactress to her city (Thebes), a bounteous giver for her land. I gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked.” So we may judge that she was good, beautiful and beloved.