forgive offenders at his pleasure. His fellow-townsmen are in the main
hostile to him; but the terror of the king's name is such that they do
not dare to offer him any resistance, and he singles out those who
appear to him most guilty for punishment, and has them executed, while
he grants the royal pardon to others without any let or hindrance on the
part of the civic authorities. Finally, having removed all those whom he
regarded as really dangerous, he ventured to conclude his commission by
granting a general amnesty to all persons implicated in the conspiracy,
and allowing the political refugees to return from the Oasis to Thebes
and to live there unmolested.
Men-khepr-ra soon afterwards became king. He married a wife named
Hesi-em-Kheb, who is thought to have been a descendant of Seti L, and
thus gave an additional legitimacy to the dynasty of Priest-Kings. He
also adorned the city of Kheb, the native place of his wife, with public
buildings; but otherwise nothing is known of the events of his reign. As
a general rule, the priest-kings were no more active or enterprizing
than their predecessors, the Ramessides of the twentieth dynasty. They
were content to rule Egypt in peace, and enjoy the delights of
sovereignty, without fatiguing themselves either with the construction
of great works or the conduct of military expeditions. If the people
that has no history is rightly pronounced happy, Egypt may have
prospered under their rule; but the historian can scarcely be expected
to appreciate a period which supplies him with no materials to work
upon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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