Ethiopians, soon
consolidated his rule over the country he had conquered. From 660 or
659 B.C. he so effectively governed Egypt that foreigners, and even the
Assyrians themselves commonly accorded him the title of king. The fall
of the Ninevite rule had been involved in that of the feudal lords,
but it was generally believed that Assur-bani-pal would leave no
means untried to recall the countries of the Nile to their obedience:
Psammetichus knew this, and knew also that, as soon as they were no
longer detained by wars or rebellions elsewhere, the Assyrian armies
would reappear in Egypt. He therefore entered into an alliance with
Gyges,* and subsequently, perhaps, with Shamash-shumukin also; then,
while his former suzerain was waging war in Elam and Chaldaea, he turned
southwards, in 658 B.C., and took possession of the Thebaid without
encountering any opposition from the Ethiopians, as his ancestor
Tafnakhti had from Pionkhi-Miamun. Mon-tumihait** negotiated this
capitulation of Thebes, as he had already negotiated so many others;
in recompense for this service, he was confirmed in his office, and his
queen retained her high rank.

* The annexation of the Thebaid and the consequent
pacification of Egypt was an accomplished fact in the year
IX. of Psammetichus I. The analogy of similar documents,
e.g. the stele of the high priest Menkhopirri, shows that
the ceremony of adoption which consecrated the reunion of
Upper and Lower Egypt cannot have been separated by a long
interval from the completion of the reunion itself: in
placing this at the end of the year VIII., we should have
for the two events the respective dates of 658-657 and 657-
656 B.C.

** The part played by Montumihait in this affair is easily
deduced: (1) from our knowledge of his conduct some years
previously under Taharqa and Tanuatamanu; (2) from the
position he occupied at Thebes, in the year IX., with regard
to Shapenuapit, according to the stele of Legrain.

A century or two earlier Psammetichus would have married one of the
princesses of sacerdotal lineage, and this union would have sufficed to
legalise his position; perhaps he actually associated Shapenuapit with
himself by a show of marriage, but in any case he provided her with an
adopted daughter according to the custom instituted by the Ethiopian
Pharaohs. She already had one daughter by adoption, whom she had
receiv