The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
World history
He quotes from Manetho[j]: “There was a king of ours whose name
was Timæus.” (The identity of this king has never been determined
with certainty. It may have been Amenemhat IV (XIIth Dynasty) or Ra
Amenemhat, the third king of the XIIIth.) “Under him it came to pass,
I know not how, that God was averse to us, and there came, after a
surprising manner, men of ignoble birth out of the eastern parts, and
had boldness enough to make an expedition into our country, and with
ease subdued it by force, yet without our hazarding a battle with them.”
It is possible that this campaign of unresisted conquest was
accomplished with the aid of factors hitherto unknown on the African
continent: the war chariot and the horse.[a]
“So when they had gotten those that governed us under their power,
they afterwards burnt down our cities and demolished the temples of
the gods, and used all the inhabitants after a most barbarous manner.
At length they made one of themselves king, whose name was Salatis; he
lived also at Memphis and made both the upper and lower regions pay
tribute, and left garrisons in places that were the most proper for
them. He chiefly aimed to secure the eastern parts, as foreseeing that
the Assyrians, who had then the greatest power, would be desirous of
that kingdom and invade them; and as he found in the Saïte [Sethroite]
nome, a city very proper for his purpose, and which lay upon the
Bubastic channel, called Avaris; this he rebuilt and made very strong
by walls, and by a most numerous garrison of two hundred and forty
thousand armed men to keep it. Thither Salatis came in summer-time,
partly to gather his corn, and pay his soldiers their wages, and
partly to exercise his armed men and thereby to terrify foreigners.
When this man had reigned thirteen years, after him reigned another,
whose name was Beon [or Bnon], for forty-four years, and after him
reigned another, called Apachnas, thirty-six years and seven months;
after him Apophis reigned sixty-one years, and then Ianias fifty years
and one month, after all these reigned Assis forty-nine years and two
months. And these six were the first rulers among them, who were all
along making war with the Egyptians, and were very desirous gradually
to destroy them to the very roots. This whole nation was called
Hyksos, _i.e._ Shepherd kings. These people and their descendants kept
possession of Egypt 511 years.
“And after this the kings of the Thebaïd and of the other parts of
Egypt made an insurrection against the Shepherds, and a terrible and
long war was made between them.
“Under a king whose name was Alisphragmuthosis, the Shepherds were
subdued, and were indeed driven out of other parts of Egypt, but were
shut up in a place that contained ten thousand acres; this place was
named Avaris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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