Manetho give two or three princes--Rathotis, Khebres, and
Akherres--whose names are not found on the monuments.** It is possible
that we ought not to regard them as historical personages, but merely
as heroes of popular romance, of the same type as those introduced so
freely into the history of the preceding dynasties by the chroniclers
of the Saite and Greek periods. They were, perhaps, merely short-lived
pretenders who were overthrown one by the other before either had
succeeded in establishing himself on the seat of Horus. Be that as it
may, the XVIIIth dynasty drew to its close amid strife and quarreling,
without our being able to discover the cause of its overthrow, or the
name of the last of its sovereigns.***

* Tutankhamon receives the tribute of the Kushites as well
as that of the Syrians; Ai is represented at Shataui in
Nubia as accompanied by Pauiru, the prince of Kush.

** Wiedemann has collected six royal names which, with much
hesitation, he places about this time.

*** The list of kings who make up the XVIIIth dynasty can be
established with certainty, with the exception of the order
of the three last sovereigns who succeed Khuniatonu. It is
here given in its authentic form, as the monuments have
permitted us to reconstruct it, and in its Greek form as it
is found in the lists of Manetho:

[Illustration: 112.jpg Table]

Manetho's list, as we have it, is a very ill-made extract,
wherein the official kings are mixed up with the legitimate
queens, as well as, at least towards the end, with persons
of doubtful authenticity. Several kings, between Khuniatonu
and Harmhabi, are sometimes added at the end of the list;
some of these I think, belonged to previous dynasties, e.g.
Teti to the VIth, Rahotpu to the XVIIth; several are heroes
of romance, as Mernebphtah or Merkhopirphtah, while the
names of the others are either variants from the cartouche
names of known princes, or else are nicknames, such as was
Sesu, Sesturi for Ramses II. Dr. Mahler believes that he can
fix, within a few days, the date of the kings of whom the
list is composed, from Ahmosis I. to Ai. I hold to the
approximate date which I have given in vol. iv. p. 153 of
this History, and I give the years 1600 to 1350 as the
period of the dynasty, with a possible error of about fifty
years, more or l