following the death of Siphtah, but they had taken no concerted action, nor attempted any revolt, so that when Ramses III. ascended the throne he was spared the trouble of reconquering them. He had merely to claim allegiance to have it at once rendered him--an allegiance which included the populations in the neighbourhood of Qodshu and on the banks of the Nahr el-Kelb. The empire, which had threatened to fall to pieces amid the civil wars, and which would indeed have succumbed had they continued a few years longer, again revived now that an energetic prince had been found to resume the direction of affairs, and to weld together those elements which had been on the point of disintegration. One state alone appeared to regret the revival of the Imperial power; this was the kingdom of Libya. It had continued to increase in size since the days of Minephtah, and its population had been swelled by the annexation of several strange tribes inhabiting the vast area of the Sahara. One of these, the Mashauasha, acquired the ascendency among these desert races owing to their numbers and valour, and together with the other tribes--the Sabati, the Kaiakasha, the Shaiu, the Hasa, the Bikana, and the Qahaka*--formed a confederacy, which now threatened Egypt on the west. This federation was conducted by Didi, Mashaknu, and Maraiu, all children of that Maraiu who had led the first Libyan invasion, and also by Zamaru and Zautmaru, two princes of less important tribes.** Their combined forces had attacked Egypt for the second time during the years of anarchy, and had gained possession one after another of all the towns in the west of the Delta, from the neighbourhood of Memphis to the town of Qarbina: the Canopic branch of the Nile now formed the limit of their dominion, and they often crossed it to devastate the central provinces.*** * This enumeration is furnished by the summary of the campaigns of Ramses III. in _The Great Harris Papyrus_. The Sabati of this text are probably identical with the people of the Sapudiu or Spudi (Asbytse), mentioned on one of the pylons of Medinet-Habu. ** The relationship is nowhere stated, but it is thought to be probable from the names of Didi and Maraiu, repeated in both series of inscriptions. *** The town of Qarbina has been identified with the Canopus of the Greeks, and also with the modern Korbani; and the district of Gautu, which adjoined it, with the territory of the modern town of Edko. Spiegel-berg throws doubt on the identification of Qarbu or Qarbina, with Canopus. Revillout prefers to connect Qarbina with Heracleopolis Parva in Lower Egypt.