onventionality which we
never see to the same extent in the statues of the XIIth dynasty. The
work is, however, an extremely interesting one, and we are tempted to
wish that many more such monuments had been saved from the ruins of the
city.*

* Mariette attributes this group to the Hyksos; I have
already expressed the opinion that it dates from the XXIst
dynasty.

The Pharaoh who dedicated it was a great builder, and, like most of
his predecessors with similar tastes, somewhat of a conqueror. The
sovereigns of the XXIst dynasty, though they never undertook any distant
campaigns, did not neglect to keep up a kind of suzerainty over the
Philistine Shephelah to which they still laid claim. The expedition
which one of them, probably Psiukhannit II., led against Gezer, the
alliance with the Hebrews and the marriage of a royal princess with
Solomon, must all have been regarded at the court of Tanis as a partial
revival of the former Egyptian rule in Syria. The kings were, however,
obliged to rest content with small results, for though their battalions
were sufficiently numerous and well disciplined to overcome the
Canaanite chiefs, or even the Israelite kingdom, it is to be doubted
whether they were strong enough to attack the troops of the Aramaean or
Hittite princes, who had a highly organised military system, modelled
on that of Assyria. Egyptian arms and tactics had not made much progress
since the great campaigns of the Theban conquerors; the military
authorities still complacently trusted to their chariots and their light
troops of archers at a period when the whole success of a campaign was
decided by heavily armed infantry, and when cavalry had already begun
to change the issue of battles. The decadence of the military spirit
in Egypt had been particularly marked in all classes under the later
Ramessides, and the native militia, without exception, was reduced to a
mere rabble--courageous, it is true, and able to sell their lives dearly
when occasion demanded, rather than give way before the enemy, but
entirely lacking that enthusiasm and resolution which sweep all
obstacles before them. The chariotry had not degenerated in the same
way, thanks to the care with which the Pharaoh and his vassals kept up
the breeding of suitable horses in the training stables of the principal
towns. Egypt provided Solomon with draught-horses, and with strong yet
light chariots, which he sold with advantage to the sove