nsignia of royalty, including the uraeus and the
cartouche. Monthotpu I., Antuf II., and Antuf III. must have occupied a
somewhat remarkable position among the great lords of the south, since
their successors credited them with the possession of a unique preamble.
It is true that the historians of a later date did not venture to
place them on a par with the kings who were actually independent; they
enclosed their names in the cartouche without giving them a prenomen;
but, at the same time, they invested them with a title not met with
elsewhere, that of the first Horus--_Horu tapi_. They exercised
considerable power from the outset. It extended over Southern Egypt,
over Nubia, and over the valleys lying between the Nile and the Red
Sea.* The origin of the family was somewhat obscure, but in support
of their ambitious projects, they did not fail to invoke the memory of
pretended alliances between their ancestors and daughters of the solar
race; they boasted of their descent from the Papis, from Usirniri Anu,
Sahuri, and Snofrui, and claimed that the antiquity of their titles did
away with the more recent rights of their rivals.

The revolt of the Theban princes put an end to the IXth dynasty, and,
although supported by the feudal powers of Central and Northern Egypt,
and more especially by the lords of the Terebinth nome, who viewed the
sudden prosperity of the Thebans with a very evil eye, the Xth dynasty
did not succeed in bringing them back to their allegiance.**

* In the "Hall of Ancestors" the title of "Horus" is
attributed to several Antufs and Monthotpus bearing the
cartouche. This was probably the compiler's ingenious device
for marking the subordinate position of these personages as
compared with that of the Heracleopolitan Pharaohs, who
alone among their contemporaries had a right to be placed on
such official lists, even when those lists were compiled
under the great Theban dynasties. The place in the XIth
dynasty of princes bearing the title of "Horus" was first
determined by E. de Rouge.

** The history of the house of Thebes was restored at the
same time as that of the Heracleopolitan dynasties, by
Maspero, in the _Revue Critique_, 1889, vol. ii. p. 220. The
difficulty arising from the number of the Theban kings
according to Manetho, considered in connection with the
forty-three years which made the total duration of the