e more led the Egyptian armies into
Asia. Horemheb also made a bid for Syria; and Seti I. recovered
Palestine. Rameses II., his son, penetrated to North Syria; but, having
come into contact with the new power of the Hittites, he was unable to
hold the country. The new Pharaoh, Merenptah, seized Canaan and laid
waste the land of Israel. A few years later, Rameses III. led his fleet
and his army to the Syrian coast and defeated the Asiatics in a great
sea-battle. He failed to hold the country, however, and after his death
Egypt remained impotent for two centuries. Then, under Sheshonk I., of
Dynasty XXII., a new attempt was made, and Jerusalem was captured.
Takeloth II., of the same dynasty, sent thither an Egyptian army to help
in the overthrow of Shalmaneser II.

From this time onwards the power of Egypt had so much declined that the
invasions into Syria of necessity became more rare. Shabaka of Dynasty
XXV. concerned himself deeply with Asiatic politics, and attempted to
bring about a state of affairs which would have given him the
opportunity of seizing the country. Pharaoh Necho, of the succeeding
dynasty, invaded Palestine and advanced towards the Euphrates. He
recovered for Egypt her Syrian province, but it was speedily lost again.
Apries, a few years later, captured the Phoenician coast and invaded
Palestine; but the country did not remain for long under Egyptian rule.
It is not necessary to record all the Syrian wars of the Dynasty of the
Ptolemies. Egypt and Asia were now closely connected, and at several
periods during this phase of Egyptian history the Asiatic province came
under the control of the Pharaohs. The wars of Ptolemy I. in Syria were
conducted on a large scale. In the reign of Ptolemy III. there were
three campaigns, and I cannot refrain from quoting a contemporary record
of the King's powers if only for the splendour of its wording:--

"The great King Ptolemy ... having inherited from his father the royalty
of Egypt and Libya and Syria and Phoenicia and Cyprus and Lycia and
Caria and the Cyclades, set out on a campaign into Asia with infantry
and cavalry forces, a naval armament and elephants, both Troglodyte and
Ethiopic.... But having become master of all the country within the
Euphrates, and of Cilicia and Pamphylia and Ionia and the Hellespont
and Thrace, and of all the military forces and elephants in these
countries, and having made the monarchs in all these places his
subjects, he crossed t