elf king, and had his cartouches
inscribed on official documents side by side with those of the Tanite
monarch.* His kingship died with him, just as that of Patnotmu had done
in similar circumstances, and two years later we find his successor,
Harsiisit, a mere high priest without pretensions to royalty.

* No. 26 of Legrain's inscriptions tells us the height of
the Nile in the sixteenth year of Petubastit, which was also
the second year of King Auiti. Seeing that Auiti's name
occurs in the place occupied by that of the high priest of
Thebes in other inscriptions of the same king, I consider it
probable that he was reigning in Thebes itself, and that he
was a high priest who had become king in the same way as
Painotmu under the XXIst dynasty.

[Illustration: 253.jpg KING PETUBASTIS AT PRAYER]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a small door now in the Louvre.

Doubtless his was not an isolated case; all the grandees who happened
to be nearly related either to the dethroned or to the reigning houses
acted in like manner, and for the first time for many years Egypt
acknowledged the simultaneous sway of more than one legitimate Pharaoh.
Matters became still worse under Osorkon III.; although he, too,
introduced a daughter of Anion into his harem, this alliance failed to
give him any hold over Thebes, and even the Seven Nomes and the Delta
were split up to such an extent that at one time they included something
like a score of independent principalities, three of which, Hermopolis,
Heracleopolis, and Tentramu, were administered by kings who boasted
cartouches similar to those of Tanis and Bubastis.

About 740 B.C. there appeared in the midst of these turbulent and
extortionate nobles a man who, by sheer force of energy and talent,
easily outstripped all competitors. Tafnakhti was a chief of obscure
origin, whose hereditary rights extended merely over the village of
Nutirit and the outskirts of Sebennytos. One or two victories gained
over his nearest neighbours encouraged him to widen the sphere of his
operations. He first of all laid hands on those nomes of the Delta
which extended to the west of the principal arm of the Nile, the Saite,
Athribite, Libyan, and Memphite nomes; these he administered through
officers under his own immediate control; then, leaving untouched the
eastern provinces, over which Osorkon III. exercised a make-shift,
easygoing rule, he made his way up the ri