g of
later date.

** 1 Kings xii. 21-24; cf. 2 Ghron. xi. 1-17, where the list
of strongholds, wanting in the Boole of Kings, is given from
an ancient source. The writer affirms, in harmony with the
ideas of his time, "that the Levites left their suburbs and
their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem; for
Jeroboam and his sons cast them off, that they should not
execute the Priest's office unto the Lord."

The century and a half which had elapsed since the death of the last of
the Ramessides had, as far as we can ascertain, been troubled by civil
wars and revolutions.*

* I have mentioned above the uncertainty which still shrouds the XXth
dynasty. The following is the order in which I propose that its kings
should be placed:--

[Illustration: 393.jpg TABLE OF KINGS]

The imperious Egypt of the Theban dynasties had passed away, but a new
Egypt had arisen, not without storm and struggle, in its place. As long
as the campaigns of the Pharaohs had been confined to the Nile valley
and the Oases, Thebes had been the natural centre of the kingdom; placed
almost exactly between the Mediterranean and the southern frontier, it
had been both the national arsenal and the treasure-house to which all
foreign wealth had found its way from the Persian Gulf to the Sahara,
and from the coasts of Asia Minor to the equatorial swamps. The cities
of the Delta, lying on the frontier of those peoples with whom Egypt
now held but little intercourse, possessed neither the authority nor the
resources of Thebes; even Memphis, to which the prestige of her ancient
dynasties still clung, occupied but a secondary place beside her rival.
The invasion of the shepherds, by making the Thebaid the refuge and
last bulwark of the Egyptian nation, increased its importance: in the
critical times of the struggle, Thebes was not merely the foremost city
in the country, it represented the country itself, and the heart of
Egypt may be said to have throbbed within its walls. The victories of
Ahmosis, the expeditions of Thutmosis I. and Thutmosis III., enlarged
her horizon; her Pharaohs crossed the isthmus of Suez, they conquered
Syria, subdued the valleys of the Euphrates and the Balikh, and by so
doing increased her wealth and her splendour. Her streets witnessed
during two centuries processions of barbarian prisoners laden with the
spoils of conquest. But with the advent of the XIXth and XXth dynasties
came an