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, strengthening the temples by pious gifts, so that the traditional rites could be celebrated at the divine cycles."* * The exact relationship between Nakhtusit and Ramses II. is not known; he was probably the grandson or great-grandson of that sovereign, though Ed. Meyer thinks he was perhaps the son of Seti II. The name should be read either Nakhitsit, with the singular of the first word composing it, or Nakhitusit, Nakhtusit, with the plural, as in the analogous name of the king of the XXXth dynasty, Nectanebo.