Ramses III

“ Order was restored in Egypt by Setnakht about 1200 B. C., and his son and successor, Ramses III, 1198-1167 B. C., reasserted his sovereignty over Palestine and Phœnicia.
(6) Ramses III.—Ramses III found himself confronted with a peculiar situation. The Egyptian Delta and the coasts of Palestine were invaded by hordes of people from over the sea. As early as the reign of Ramses II the Egyptians had employed men from the island of Sardinia as mercenaries; there must then have been intercourse with distant islands across the sea. ”

“ Behold, how vain are human hopes before the order of the world; behold, how vain they are before the decrees that have been written in fiery signs upon the heavens by the Eternal!...
Hundred-year-old Ramses, mighty ruler of Egypt, was breathing his last. The chest of the potentate before whose voice millions had quaked half a century, had been invested by a stifling incubus, and it drank the blood from his heart, the strength from his arm, and at times even the consciousness from his brain. ”

“ Thus, when “the rewards of the King” were yet warm in Ramses’ hands, that happy young warrior was dismayed to receive a roll of papyrus, straight from the hands of Majesty, a brief note whose finely written contents necessitated another exile from Sesen, from Thebes and the home he so dearly loved, the villa of Enana the Magician, his grandsire. Ramses was commanded to depart for the north with the setting of the morrow’s sun, there to take over the Egyptian army guarding the hostile frontier in Asia. ”

“ The king enjoyed a reign of sixty-seven years; part of which time he was associated with his father. He must have been nearly one hundred years old when he died; and from the temple walls at Abydos we learn that he had sixty sons and fifty-nine daughters. This is the merest outline of Ramses II., one of the greatest of the Egyptian kings; an essentially successful man, bold, enterprising, ambitious, and vain. ”

“ As Ramses I reigned but a very few years, while his successor, Seti I, associated his son, Ramses II, with him on the throne when the latter was but twelve years old or thereabouts, it could only have been during his long reign of sixty-seven years that Ramses II brought the name by which he had been christened into vogue. It is possible that those Egyptian scholars are right who see the Hebrews in a certain class of foreigners called Aperiu, and employed by Ramses II to work at his monuments ”

“ In the earlier Ramesside tombs, under Seti I. and Ramses II., the execution of these subjects shows evidence of a care and skill which are quite marvellous, and both figures and hieroglyphics betray the hand of accomplished artists. But in the tomb of Ramses III. the work has already begun to show signs of inferiority, and the majority of the scenes are coloured in a very summary fashion; a raw yellow predominates, and the tones of the reds and blues remind us of a child’s first efforts at painting. ”

“ Why this story should have been attached to Ramses iii. it is just as impossible for us to know as it is to understand why the name of Neit, the goddess of Sais and the twenty-sixth dynasty, should have been [pg 254] combined with that of the Theban Pharaoh of the twentieth. Rhampsinitos, Ramessu-n-Neit or “Ramses of Neit,” indicates the period in which alone the name could have been formed. It must have been the invention of the Karian dragomen who came into existence under the Saitic dynasty. ”

“ When the three dignitaries were seated, Ramses XII said,
"Tell me, Nitager, dost Thou think that my son will be a leader? But tell pure truth."
"By Amon of Thebes, by the glory of my ancestors in whom was blood royal, I swear that thy heir, Prince Ramses, will be a great leader, if the gods permit," replied Nitager. "He is a young man, a lad yet; still he concentrated his regiments, eased their march, and provided for them. ”

“ Young, 1815, and M. Champollion, 1824, Ramses III was the 15th Monarch of the 18th dynasty, the date affixed to him being 1561 to 1559 B.C., but the British Museum Catalogue, page 60 says: The principal part of the monuments in this room are of the age of King Ramses II, the Sesostris of the Greeks, and the greatest monarch of the 19th dynasty; but, in the tables, he appears as the 14th of the 18th dynasty 1565 to 1561 B.C. and the catalogue is probably a slip. ”

“ The name of the other city, Raamses, also points to the same king, since Ramses I, the only other king of the name Egypt had known, reigned less than two years—a time insufficient for the building of a city. The Bible evidently refers, then, to Ramses II. Concerning Ramses II and his reign much is now known, as has been pointed out in § 6 (7) ; (see Fig. 10) .
All through the nineteenth dynasty peoples from Syria were employed by the kings on public works. ”

“ Now I will render thee a service: Come in the night to the temple of Astaroth, but bind thyself to keep the secret. Come alone, and Thou wilt be convinced as to who the gods are who speak in the temples and touch us."
"I will come," said Ramses, after some meditation.
"Forewarn me, prince, on the morning of the day, and I will give thee the evening password; Thou wilt be admitted. Only betray neither me nor thyself," said the Phoenician, with a kindly smile. "Men never pardon betrayal of their secrets, though gods pardon sometimes." ”

“ His successor, the famous Ramses II., carried on wars by sea, as is proved by the inscriptions in the Temple at Abû Simbel in Nubia, 762 miles above Cairo.
In the records of the reign of Ramses III., 1200 b.c., we again come upon illustrations of ships in the Temple of Victory at Medînet Habû, West Thebes. The inscriptions describe a great naval victory which this king won at Migdol, near the Pelusiac mouth of the Nile, over northern invaders, probably Colchians and Carians. Fig. 6 shows one of the battleships. ”

“ But first of all I will seize their treasures, which have always been bloated, but which from the time of Ramses the Great have begun to swell out, and today are so swollen that the treasure of the pharaoh is invisible because of them."
"Woe to me and to thee!" sighed Tutmosis. "Thou hast plans under which this hill would bend could it hear and understand them. And where are thy forces, thy assistance, thy warriors? Against thee the whole people will rise, led by a class of men with mighty influence. But who is on thy rider?"
Ramses listened and fell to thinking. At last he said,
"The army." ”

“ But with the advent of the XIXth and XXth dynasties came anxious times; the peoples of Syria and Libya, long kept in servitude, at length rebelled, and the long distance between Karnak and Gaza soon began to be irksome to princes who had to be constantly on the alert on the Canaanite frontier, and who found it impossible to have their head-quarters six hundred miles from the scene of hostilities. Hence it came about that Ramses II., Mînephtah, and Ramses III. all took up their abode in the Delta during the greater part of their active life ”

“ Carchemish, Tunipa, Khalabu, Katna, Pabukhu, Arvad, Mitanni, Mannus, Asi, and a score of other famous towns of this period appear in the list of the subjugated nations, recalling the triumphs of Thûtmosis III. and Amenothes II. Ramses did not allow himself to be deceived into thinking that his success was final. ”

“ On hearing this Ramses was greatly affected.
"Then dost Thou think, holy man," inquired he, "that I shall find my son some time, and that I shall be able to say to that woman: 'Sarah, I know that I have been too harsh to thee?'"
"I am as certain of it as that I see thee now, worthy lord," replied the prophet.
"Speak, speak of this!" exclaimed the prince. "A man does not think of the grave till he has put a part of himself there. This misfortune has struck me, and struck just when I thought myself more powerful than any save the pharaoh." ”

“ Some of their predatory bands, having ravaged the Bekâa, ended by attacking the subjects of the Pharaoh himself, and their chiefs dreamed of an invasion of Egypt. Ramses, informed of their design by the despatches of his officers and vassals, resolved to prevent its accomplishment. He summoned his troops together, both indigenous and mercenary, in his own person looked after their armament and commissariat, and in the VIIIth year of his reign crossed the frontier near Zalu. ”

“ In the center, easily recognized by his bright red leather doublet and gilded warbonnet, stood the young Egyptian general, Ramses. A huge Ethiopian katana, leaning well out over the leather body of the chariot, urged on Ramses’ horses by word of mouth and lash of whip. At the right of the chariot bounded a lean Nubian panther. ”

“ In the reaction which followed on this discovery, the modern historians of ancient Egypt were disposed to dispute his claim to be a conqueror at all. But we now know that such a scepticism was exaggerated, and though Ramses II. was not a conqueror like Thothmes III., he nevertheless maintained and extended the Asiatic empire which his father had recovered, and the lists of vanquished cities which he engraved on the walls of his temples were not mere repetitions of older catalogues, or the empty fictions of flattering chroniclers. ”

“ And Assyria would meet five hundred thousand Egyptian warriors."
Ramses was delighted at this outburst of patriotism in Mentezufis. He seized him by the hand, and said,
"Then, if we are able to have such an army, why do we not attack Babylon? Is not the great warrior Nitager imploring us for years to do so? Is not his holiness alarmed by the movement in Assyria? If we let them concentrate their forces, the struggle will be most difficult; but if we begin ourselves."
The priest interrupted him,
"Dost Thou know, prince, what a war is to which one must go through a desert? ”

“ In another temple hewn in the rock of the western bank at Beth-el-Walli, a little above Syene, we see Ramses II. standing alone upon his war chariot, rushing with drawn bow on a crowd of negroes, who are armed with very long bows, but clothed only with skins. They fall before the horses of the king. Thus defeated, they fly to their villages, which lie in a valley shadowed by cocoa-palms, in the tops of which apes are climbing. Women and children come forth in distress to meet the fugitives. ”

“ I wish the toiling man to rest; I wish that Egypt might have eight millions of people as aforetime and win back that land seized from it by the desert; I wish the laborer to rest one day in seven and each man who digs the earth to have some little part of it."
Pentuer fell on his face before the kindly sovereign.
"Rise," said Ramses. "But I have had hours of grievous sadness: I see the suffering of my people; I wish to raise them, but the treasury is empty. Thou thyself knowest best that without some tens of thousands of talents I cannot venture on such changes. ”

“ Nōfert-āri Dances Before Pharaoh In chariots or carrying-chairs members of the Court were hurrying to the Palace, to assist at the feast planned to honor, at one and the same time, Belur, the newly arrived Hittite Ambassador, and the victorious Egyptian general, Ramses, but now returned from Nubia.
According to precedent Ramses would present himself before Pharaoh and the Court in order to receive the customary favors bestowed upon a victorious Egyptian leader, those “favors which the King bestows” and “the gold order of valor.” ”

“ Slowly Ramses drew from his girdle a great emerald set in gold. A rose-colored band of fine gazelle hide showed it to have been worn about the forehead of its former owner, the Nubian King.
King Shaba will need “the panther’s eye” no more. His ashes lie beneath the smouldering ruins of his palace. Vultures hover above the demolished houses of Napata, his Capital.
Sesen clasped her hands upon her bosom with delight. Without replying she took the jewel from Ramses’ hand and bound it about her [185] gold-filleted wig. Ramses smiled down upon the happy little maid, as she sank into his arms. ”

“ Indeed, death would come as a welcome relief to the indignities and tortures that would presently be meted out to him. He was destined to swing from the prow of Ramses’ galley head down, where he would be lightly fed, yet, were it possible, not allowed to die, until Pharaoh himself should despatch him.
According to custom, a captive chief must be presented to the great god Amen of Thebes. Established precedent required that he be killed before the temple portals of the god himself. Whether Aton would scorn such a blood-thirsty offering, Ramses did not pause to think. ”

“ To my misfortune the heir was here and spoiled my plans. Act that way always, Ramses, of course in presence of real enemies."
"But if, as today, he meets a force three times superior?" inquired
Herhor.
"Daring keenness means more than strength," replied the old leader. "An elephant is fifty times stronger than a man; still he yields to him, or dies at his hands."
Herhor listened in silence.
The maneuvers were declared finished. Prince Ramses with the minister and commanders went to the army near Pi-Bailos. ”

“ They were not allowed to remain intact for a very long time, for a century is an insignificant matter when we deal with Egyptian history. Almost three centuries had passed, when a new conqueror arose, who was emulous of his great predecessor's deeds, and who envied him his renown. This was Ramses II., surnamed "the Great", {37}the "Pharaoh of the Oppression", who reigned from 1388 to 1322 B. C. (according to Lepsius) . Not only in his monuments but also in his deeds he carries off equal honors with Thothmes the Great. ”