by a hero named Ahmosis after a
war of five years. The XVIIIth Dynasty was inaugurated by the Pharaohs,
whose policy was so aggressive that Egypt, attacked by enemies from
various quarters, and roused, as it were, to warlike frenzy, hurled her
armies across all her frontiers simultaneously, and her sudden
appearance in the heart of Syria gave a new turn to human history. The
isolation of the kingdoms of the ancient world was at an end; and the
conflict of the nations was about to begin.

_II.--Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest_

The Egyptians had no need to anticipate Chaldaean interference when,
forsaking their ancient traditions, they penetrated for the first time
into the heart of Syria. Babylonian rule ceased to exercise direct
control when the line of sovereigns who had introduced it disappeared.
When Ammisatana died, about the year 2099 B.C., the dynasty of
Khammurabi became extinct, and kings of the semi-barbarous Cossaean race
gained the throne which had been occupied since the days of Khammurabi
by Chaldaeans of the ancient stock.

The Cossaean king who seized on Babylon was named Gandish. He and his
tribe came from the mountainous regions of Zagros, on the borders of
Media. The Cossaean rule over the countries of the Euphrates was
doubtless similar in its beginnings to that which the Hyksos exercised
at first over the nomes of Egypt. The Cossaean kings did not merely bring
with them their army, but their whole nation, who spread over the whole
land. As in the case of the Hyksos, the barbarian conquerors thus became
merged in the more civilised people which they had subdued. But the
successors of Gandish were unable permanently to retain their ascendancy
over all the districts and provinces, and several of these withdrew
their allegiance. Thus in Syria the authority of Babylon was no longer
supreme when the encroachments of Egypt began, and when Thutmosis
entered the region the native levies which he encountered were by no
means formidable.

The whole country consisted of a collection of petty states, a complex
group of peoples and territories which the Egyptians themselves never
completely succeeded in disentangling. We are, however, able to
distinguish at the present time several of these groups, all belonging
to the same family, but possessing different characteristics--the
kinsfolk of the Hebrews, the children of Ishmael and Edom, the Moabites
and Ammonites, the Arameans, the Khati and the Canaanit