es. The
Canaanites were the most numerous, and had they been able to confederate
under a single king, it would have been impossible for the Egyptians to
have broken through the barrier thus raised between them and the rest of
Asia.

_III.--The Eighteenth Theban Dynasty_

The account of the first expedition undertaken by Thutmosis I. in Asia,
a region at that time new to the Egyptians, would be interesting if we
could lay our hands on it. We know that this king succeeded in reaching
on his first campaign a limit which none of his successors was able to
surpass. The results of the campaign were of a decisive character, for
Southern Syria accepted its defeat, and Gaza was garrisoned as the
secure door of Asia for future invasions. Freed from anxiety in this
quarter, Pharaoh gave his whole time to the consolidation of his power
in Ethiopia, where rebellion had become rife. Subduing this southern
region and thus extending the supremacy of Egypt in the regions of the
upper Nile, Thutmosis was able to end his days in the enjoyment of
profound peace. Thutmosis II. did not long survive him. His chief wife,
Queen Hatshopsitu, reigned for many years with great ability while the
new Pharaoh, Thutmosis III., was still a youth.

After the death of Hatshopsitu, the young Pharaoh set out with his army.
It was at the beginning of the twenty-fourth year of his reign that he
reached Gaza. Marching forward he reached the spurs of Mount Carmel and
won a decisive victory at Megiddo over the allied Syrian princes. The
inscriptions at Karnak contain long lists of the titles of the king's
Syrian subjects. The Pharaoh had now no inclination to lay down his
arms, and we have a record of twelve military expeditions of this king.
When the Syrian conquest had been effected, Egypt gave permanency to its
results by means of a series of international decrees, which established
the constitution of her empire, and brought about her concerted action
with the Asiatic powers. She had already occupied an important position
among them when Thutmosis III. died in the fifty-fifth year of his
reign.

Of his successors the most prosperous was the renowned Amenothes III.,
who is immortalised by the wonderful monumental relics of his long and
peaceful reign. Amenothes devoted immense energy to the building of
temples, palaces and shrines, and gave very little of his time to war.

_IV.--The Last Days of the Theban Empire_

When the male line failed, t