A History of Egypt from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1909. Excerpt: ... ing, Wenamon by inquiry found a Cyprian who spoke Egyptian, and he bade this new-found interpreter speak to the queen for him. "Say to my mistress: 'I have heard as far as Thebes, the abode of Amon, that in every city injustice is done; but that justice is done in the land of Alasa Cyprus]. But, lo, injustice is done every day here.'" She said, "Indeed What is this that thou sayest?" I said to her, "If the sea raged and the wind drove me to the land where I am, thou wilt not let them take advantage of me to slay me, I being a messenger of Amon. I am one for whom they will seek unceasingly. As for the crew of the prince of Byblos whom they sought to kill, their lord will surely find ten crews of thine, and he will slay them on his part." Wenamon's crew was then summoned, and he himself bidden to lie down and sleep. At this point his report breaks off, and the conclusion is lost; but here again, in Cyprus, whose king, as practically his vassal, the Pharaoh had been wont to call to account for piracy in the old days of splendour, we find the representative of Egypt barely able to save his life. It is to be noticed that his reminder of unpleasant consequences makes no reference to the Pharaoh, while it places fully as much emphasis upon the vengeance of the prince of Byblos as upon that of Egypt; this only two generations after a great war-fleet of Ramses III had destroyed the powerful united navy of his northern enemies in these very waters. This unique and instructive report of Wenamon,1 therefore, reveals to us the complete collapse of Egyptian prestige abroad and shows with what appalling swiftness the dominant state in the Mediterranean basin had declined under the weak successors of Ramses III. When Tiglath-pileser I appeared in the West about 1100 B. C., a Pharaoh, who was prob...