represented attacking any country in the immediate vicinity of Egypt, and from the remarkable fact that some of the people through whose territory he passes are on friendly terms, and come forward to pay the stipulated tribute* or to bring presents to the monarch. And the names of Cananat and Lemanon‡, added to the circumstance of its being at the commencement § of his reign, tend strongly to confirm this opinion.

Osirei was the son and successor of Remeses I., and father of the second of that name.

He ex

tended his conquests to a considerable distance in the "north and south countries;" but the destruction of the upper part of the walls of Karnak has unfortunately deprived us of great part of the interesting historical bas reliefs which describe them. Among the people against whom the war was principally directed, we distinguish the Rot-n-no, who, from their colour and dress, as

* The tributes levied on the countries conquered by the Egyptians, are not only mentioned in the sculptures of Thebes, but also by Tacitus: "Legebantur indicta gentibus tributa haud minus magnifica quam nunc vi Parthorum, aut potentia Romana jubentur." An. ii. 60.

The Pharaoh, whose daughter Solomon married, destroyed" the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer, and burnt it with fire;" probably for the same reason-neglect in paying the tribute they owed-which brought the vengeance of Osirei upon them on this occasion. 1 Kings, ix. 16.

The common custom of substituting m for b in Coptic, and the representation of a mountainous and woody country in which the chariots could not pass, convince me of this being intended for Mount Lebanon. In the compartment immediately below it is the "land of Canana." Vide Egypt and Thebes, pp. 190. 192. The modern Greeks write mp for b, as Phamprika, for Fabrica, and the sound of m may be detected when a person having an impediment in his speech attempts to pronounce a word commencing with b. Another remarkable instance of the use of m for b is met with in the name of Nimrod, which is written Nebrod in the list of Chaldee kings. Vide Corry's Ancient Fragments, p. 67. § In his first year, according to the hieroglyphics.

well as the productions of their country, appear to have lived in a colder climate than Egypt, which produced elephants and bears.* The march of the monarch is described with great spirit on the walls of Karnak. Leaving Egypt with a considerable force, he advanced into the heart of the enemy's country; attacked and routed them in the field; and following up his successes, he laid siege to their fortified cities, and obliged them to surrender at discretion. And in order to indicate the personal courage of the hero, he is represented alighting from his car, and, having laid aside his bow, engaging hand to hand with the hostile chiefs. Having established his dominion in the conquered countries he returned to Egypt, and dedicated the rich booty and numerous captives he had made to the deity of Thebes.

The subsequent part of his reign was employed in erecting the monuments which still serve to commemorate his victories, and the glory he acquired; and the splendour of Egypt at this period is sufficiently demonstrated by the magnificence and grandiose scale of the buildings, and by the sculptures that adorn his splendid tomb.†

Osirei was succeeded by his son, Remeses the Great ‡, who bore the name of Amun-mai-Reme*From a tomb at Thebes. Vide Egypt and Thebes, p. 153. Discoverd and opened by Belzoni at Thebes.

M. Champollion and Sig. Rosellini are of opinion that there intervened another king between this and Osirei, to whom they give the name of Remeses II. Lord Prudhoe, Major Felix, and myself think them to have been one and the same monarch, and that the variation in the mode of writing the name was owing to his having altered it some time after he ascended the throne. If they were two kings, they must have been brothers, and both sons of Osirei, and the reign of the first

ses, or Remeses-mi-amun *, and was reputed to be the famous Sesostris of antiquity. The origin of the confusion regarding Sesostris may perhaps be explained. He is mentioned by Manetho in the 12th Dynasty, and Herodotus learned that he preceded the builders of the pyramids: I therefore suppose that Sesostris was an ancient king famed for his exploits, and the hero of early Egyptian history; but that after Remeses had surpassed them, and become the favourite of his country, the renown and name of the former monarch were transferred to the more conspicuous hero of a later age; and it is remarkable that when Germanicus went to Egypt, the Thebans did not mention Sesostris, but Rhamses, as the king who had performed the glorious actions ascribed in olden times to their great conqueror. Nothing, however, can justify the supposition that Sesostris, or, as Diodorus calls him, Sesoosis, is the Shishak of Scripture.

The reign of Remeses was conspicuous as the Augustine era of Egypt, when the arts attained a degree of perfection which no after age succeeded in imitating t, and the arms of Egypt were ex

could only be of very short duration. It is to be hoped that time and future discoveries will settle the question.

* I have noticed the synonymous use of these titles, Amun-mai and Mai-amun (Mi-amun), in the names of Remeses III. and others, when written horizontally and vertically.

+ The head now in the British Museum, and erroneously called of the Young Memnon, is of Remeses II. We smile at the name young applied to a statue because it was smaller than a colossus in the same temple; a distinction formerly adopted at the Louvre, where a statue was called le jeune Apollon, because it had not yet attained the size of the Belvedere.

tended by this prince considerably farther into the heart of Asia than during the most successful invasions of his predecessors. He had no sooner ascended the throne than he zealously devoted himself to military affairs; and we find that in his fourth year he had already waged a successful war against several distant nations. * His march lay along the coast of Palestine, and the record of that event is still preserved on the rocks of the Lycus near Beiróot, where his name and figure present the singular circumstance of a Pharaonic monument without the confines of Egypt. But that

this nation extended its arms and dominion far beyond the valley of the Nile, is abundantly proved by the monuments and by Scripture history, and some of their northern possessions were retained by the Egyptians until Nebuchadnezer king of Babylon took from Pharaoh Neco all that belonged to him, "from the Euphrates to the river of Egypt."+ From Syria their march probably extended towards the N. E.; but I do not pretend to decide the exact nations they invaded, or the names of the people over whom the victories of the great Remeses are recorded on the walls of the Memnonium. M. Champollion sup* Vide my Egypt and Thebes, p. 193.

but the

+ 2 Kings, xxiv. 7. This river of Egypt is not the Ni, "rivulet " 66 or torrent of Egypt;" and is mentioned by Joshua (xv. 4.) as the boundary line, a little to the south of the modern G (Ghuzzeh). (nahl) is a rivulet, and not a river, as some have supposed, which is (nahr), as in Arabic. Much less is nahl related to the Nile. Neco also "went up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates." 2 Chron. xxxv. 20. For the first copy of the name of Remeses on the Lycus we are indebted to Mr. Wyse. Strabo (lib. xvii.) says, "The rule of the Egyptians extended into Scythia, Bactria, India, and what is now called Ionia."

I use this name for the palace-temple of Remeses II. because it is better known than any other.

*

poses them the Scythians, and perhaps the hieroglyphics may admit of such a reading; but let it suffice for the present that they were a northern nation, skilful in the art of war, and possessing strong towns and a country traversed by a large river. Indeed, from their general appearance and the mode of fortifying their towns, we may conclude them to have been far above the level of a barbarous state; and the double fosses that surrounded their walls, the bridges over them, and the mode of drawing up their phalanxes of infantry, suggest a considerable advancement in civilisation, and the art of war. Their offensive and defensive arms, consisting of spears and swords, helmets, shields †, and coats of mail, were light and effective; and two-horsed chariots, containing each three men, formed a well constituted and powerful body of troops. Some fought on horses, which they guided by a bridle, without saddles ‡, but the far greater part in cars; and these instances of the use of the horse seem to be introduced to show a peculiarity of Asiatic people.

I do not find the Egyptians thus represented; and though it is probable they had cavalry as well as chariots, mention being made of it in ancient authors, the custom of employing large bodies of

* As they are seen from above, it is not possible to ascertain how they were constructed.

In form bearing a slight resemblance to the Theban Greek buckler.
The Numidian cavalry had neither.

§ We read of the Egyptian horsemen in Isaiah, xxxvi. 9., "put thy trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen ;" and in Miriam's Song, "the horse and his rider." Exod. xv. 21. Shishak had with him 1200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. 2 Chron. xii, 3. Vide my Egypt and Thebes, p. 194. note.