d the
Libyans of the Sudan together curbed her ambition. Neither the triumphs
of Ramses II. nor the victory of Minephtah had been able to restore her
prestige, or the lands of which her rivals had robbed her beyond her
ancient frontier. Now her own territory itself was threatened, and her
own well-being was in question; she was compelled to consider, not
how to rule other tribes, great or small, but how to keep her own
possessions intact and independent: in short, her very existence was at
stake.

CHAPTER III--THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE

_RAMSES III.--THE THEBAN CITY UNDER THE RAMESSIDES--MANNERS AND
CUSTOMS._

_Nalthtasit and Ramses III.: the decline of the military spirit in
Egypt--The reorganisation of the army and fleet by Ramses--The second
Libyan invasion--The Asiatic peoples, the Pulasati, the Zakleala, and
the Tyrseni: their incursions into Syria and their defeat--The campaign
of the year XL and the fall of the Libyan kingdom--Cruising on the Red
Sea--The buildings at Medinet-Habu--The conspiracy of Pentauirit--The
mummy of Ramses III._

_The sons and immediate successors of Ramses III.--Thebes and the
Egyptian population: the transformation of the people and of the great
lords: the feudal system from being military becomes religious--The
wealth of precious metals, jewellery, furniture, costume--Literary
education, and the influence of the Semitic language on the Egyptian:
romantic stories, the historical novel, fables, caricatures and satires,
collections of maxims and moral dialogues, love-poems._

[Illustration: 287.jpg Page Image]

CHAPTER III--THE CLOSE OF THE THEBAN EMPIRE

_Ramses III.--The Theban city under the Ramessides--Manners and
customs._

As in a former crisis, Egypt once more owed her salvation to a scion
of the old Theban race. A descendant of Seti I. or Ramses II., named
Nakhtusit, rallied round him the forces of the southern nomes, and
succeeded, though not without difficulty, in dispossessing the Syrian
Arisu. "When he arose, he was like Sutkhu, providing for all the
necessities of the country which, for feebleness, could not stand,
killing the rebels which were in the Delta, purifying the great throne
of Egypt; he was regent of the two lands in the place of Tumu, setting
himself to reorganise that which had been overthrown, to such good
purpose, that each one recognised as brethren those who had been
separated from him as by a wall for so long a time, strengt