Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/585

RAMSES I. (RAMESES). M. 1462, B. 1400.

SETHI or MEEPTAH I. (SETHOS), a warlike prince who overran a large part of Western Asia, and constructed the first canal between the Red Sea and the River Nile. Numerous monuments dating from his reign still exist at Karnak. Kurnel, Abydos, and other places, while of all the royal tombs on the left bank of the river at Thebes that of Sethi is in every respect the most remarkable. B. 1366.

RAMSES II., surnamed the Great, the Sesostris of whom so many fabulous events are related by the Greek historians. His triumphs are recorded not only on innumerable monuments in Egypt itself, but also on others raised by him in the countries which he overran. Such is the rock tablet at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb, near Beyrut, in Syria. During his reign of sixty- seven years he erected many famous buildings in Egypt, besides appro- priating some of those built by his predecessors, which now bear his cartouche. B. 1333.

The true character of Ramses II. is revealed in the numerous native documents of all kinds which survive from this period. Instead of extending the limits of the empire consolidated by Thothies III., he scarcely succeeded in keeping it together. During his reign the colossal power built up by the sovereigns of the eighteenth dynasty everywhere shows symptoms of approaching decay. South, north, and west all the nations reduced by the Thothmes and Amenhoteps break out in open revolt against their Egyptian masters. Nubia is agitated, and the walls of the temples are covered with representations of the many victories gained by the viceroys of Ethiopia over the rebels in this region. At the same time the northern provinces are threatenel and sometimes hard pressed by the nomad Libyans from the west, and by other strangers with "blue eyes and light hair" descending on the African continent from the islands of the Mediterranean. The reaction against Egyptian supremacy also spreads to Asia, where the warlike Hittites, who fight with chariots, form with many other nations a formidable alliance against Ramses. After eighteen years of incessant warfare Ramses is compelled to make a treaty with the allies, leaving them in possession of all their territories. The terms of the treaty, which is still extant, appear to be much more favourable to the Hittites than to the Egyptian monarch.

The more his history becomes unravelled the less the king shows him- self worthy of the surname of "Great" given to him by the early interpreters of the Fgyptian records. Enough is already known of his career to justify the conclusion of Lenormant that he was a commonplace individuality, an unbridled despot devoured by an overvaulting ambition, and carrying his vanity so far as, wherever possible, to efface from the monuments the names of their builders and substitute his own.

During his whole reign he lived on the reputation gained by an exploit performed when about twenty years old. Towards the close of the Hittite wars, having fallen into an ambush, he succeeded in rescuing himself and his escort by cutting his way through the ranks of the enemy. This skirmish reappears continually in all the large battle-pieces sculptured on the buildings erected by him. It also forms the subject of a poem, which is the only specimen of Egyptian epic poetry that has survived to our times. 81—AF.