For a time, however, Solomon's strenuous centralisation was successful. His dominion extended, at least nominally, from Tiphzah (Thapsacus), beside the ford on the west bank of the Euphrates, to the Mediterranean; over the whole domain of the Philistines; and from Damascus to "the river of Egypt," that is, the Rhinokolura or Wady el-Areesh. The names Jeroboam and Rehoboam imply that they were born in an epoch of prosperity.[231] But the sequel proves that it was that sort of empire which, "Like expanded gold, Exchanges solid strength for feeble splendour."[232] FOOTNOTES: [193] Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. vii. 8. According to one tradition he lived to fifty-three (Ewald, iii. 208), and was only twelve when he succeeded David. [194] 2 Chron. viii. 3. Ewald thinks it is confirmed by 2 Kings xiv. 28, where, however, the Hebrew is obscure. [195] 1 Kings x. 26. [196] 1 Kings ix. 18. Here the "Q'rî," the marginal, or "read" text, has Tadmor (_i.e._, Palmyra), as also in 2 Chron. viii. 4. But this Tamar (Ezek. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28) is "_in the land_" on the south border. In the Chronicles Tadmor is the right reading, for the chronicler is speaking of Hamath-Zobah and the north. It is not at all unlikely that Solomon also built Tadmor (Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. vi. 1) to protect his commerce on the route to the Euphrates. [197] The forty-fifth psalm is supposed by old interpreters to have been an epithalamium on this occasion, but was probably much later. Perhaps notices like 1 Kings iii. 1-3 (the Egyptian alliance), the admonition in 1 Kings ix. 1-9 and the luxury described in x. 14-29, are meant as warning notes of what follows in xi. 1-8 (the apostasy), 9-13 (the prophruption), and 14-43 (the concluding disaster). [198] Gezer is Abu-Shusheh, or Tell-el-Gezer, between Ramleh and Jerusalem (Oliphant, _Haifa_, p. 253), on the lower border of Ephraim. Ewald identifies it with Geshur, the town of Talmai, Absalom's grandfather. See Lenormant, _Hist. anc. de l'Orient._, i. 337-43. The genealogy of this dynasty is thus given by Brugsch-Bey (Gen. Table iv.), _Hist. of Egypt_, vol. ii.:-- Hir-hor==Notem. | Piankhi. | Pinotem I. | +--------+---------+ | | Pisebkhan I. Men-khepher-ra. | +-------------|----------+-----+ | | | Pinotem II. Pisebkhan II. Ker'amat (a daughter). [199] See Deut. xxiii. 7, 8.