History properly so called opens with Dyn. 3. Yet here still we have knowledge of only one or two out of half a dozen kings. Some fragments on which the name of Nbk' (Nebka) occurs are held to belong to his time ; Dsr (Zezer), his suc- cessor, in all probability built (possibly usurped) the step-pyramid of Sakkara. He was a monarch of some power, for he extended his activity to tlie mines of Sinai, where his name is found, and Ills cult was reWved at quite a late epoch. The Dynasty closes (or the next begins) with a better known King, Sn/noSoris, whose name survives on numerous monuments, the most important bein^ his pyramid-torab at MedHm. He, too, exploited the Sinaitic copper, not, however, as his inscrip- tions there show, until he had crushed the hostile nomads of the neighbourhood. The tombs of several of his nobles are extant In the cemeteries of Abusir, Dahshur, and Medflm. The 4th Dynasty has left a memorial more indelible than that of any that followed it ; for the successors of Soris built as their tombs the three great pyramids of Gizeh. Their relationships to Soris and to one another are uncertain. Some close blood connexion can be argued from genealo^es in contemjjorary tombs and from later tradition. Hwfw-Cheo^s, /r/V'-Chephren, and iWnA:'M>r'-Mykerinus appear fo have spent their energies chiefly on the con- struction of their pyramids. With this object they brought granite from Aswfln and alabaster from quarries near Tel el-Amarna. Cheops, how- ever, continued the work in Sinai, and built in the Delta (Tideh and Bubastis). Indeed we learn from the inscriptions of Mtn (Methen), a magnate of the time, that the Delta was already, at any rate in part, reclaimed and worked for the crown by great functionaries. Of the remaining three or four kings of the Dyna.sty, one at least is known to have built a pyramid. The great Sphinx is usually attributed to this period, though it possibly belongs to a considerably later age. The relative scarcity of remains of the 4th Dynasty probably points to the small development of the custom of building monumental tombs.
Tradition regarded the 5th Dynasty as a new family, possibly as one of usurpers. One legend — probably not without interested motives — ascribes to it an origin half-priestly, half-divine, and places its home in the neighbourhood of Heliopolis ; else- whereitiscalled native to Elephantine. The Dynasty jonsisted of some nine kings, mostly little more now than names ; for we know of no achievements more remarkable than work in the mines of Sinai or Hammftmat and a trading expedition down the coasts of the Red Sea. The pyramids of all but one of the kings are identified — mostly at Abusir. That of IKni'-s-Onnos, the last of the Dynasty, is at Sakkara, and, though smaller than most tombs of Us class, is to us of much greater importance than
the gigantic but barren erections of earlier reigns i for in it are inscribed the most aricient texts of all Egyptian literature (see below).
The 6th Dynasty, in its widespread activity abroad and at home, is a strong contrast to its forerunner. Inscriptions of its kings meet us in all parts of Upper and Lower Egypt, as well a.'' in Sinai and the desert quarries. And now, more- over, we may read in the earliest of narrative in- scriptions— those of IKni (Una) and J^r^icf (Herk- huf), the generals and ambassadors of kmgs Ppy (Pepy) I. and Mrnr (Merenera) — of expeditions against both the Syrian and Nubian barbarians. These resulted, indeed, in little but booty and conciliatory presents from the tribes over whon. a temporary victory could probably be achieved with little trouble, by the (at least partially) dis- ciplined troops of Egypt. One of the latter kings of this Dynasty, Ppy II., sat longer on the throne than any monarch in the world's history ; native and Greek documents assign him a reign of over 90 years.
We know not under what circumstances the 6th Dynasty had reached the throne, — whether through some blood claim or by vi'olence, — nor do we know amidst what events its rule closed. Evidently, however, it had no peaceful end. The last of its kings are but empty names, and indeed in the latter years of Ppy II. complete obscurity sur- rounds the political and social existence of Egypt. When, some two or three centuries later, that obscurity is dissipated, the country has assumed a new face, the capital is no longer at Memphis, the centre of gravity is several hundred miles farther south.
The outward characteristics of the Egyptian polity show little change under the 3rd, 4tli, and 5th Dynasties. The southern and northern king- doms, bound together, it has been said, in a sort of personal union, each retains to some extent its separate organization, although important offices, once proper to one or other of them, are often found united in the hands of a single functionary, just as the official nomenclature of the P!iaraoh combined the royal titles of both South and North. The king is omnipotent ; his ministers — a mere bureaucracy — are members of the royal house or of the great territorial families. The ancient division of the country into nomes forms the basis of an elaborate financial and judicial administration, yet controlled by the court through officials dependent on the central government, by whom the royal dues are collected and legal questions settled independently of the local authorities. But as time goes on, and (as we may infer) weak rulers succeed the strong, the old provincial independence reasserts itself, and the nomarchs begin to mov« beneath the weight of central despotism. One of the first signs of this decentralizing tendency is the growth of the custom of burial, now no longer at Memphis, beside the king, but at home, in the cemeteries of the provincial capitals, at Akhmim, Abydos, Thebes, Elephantine, and elsewhere. The court of the nomarch was modelled \\\mn that of the king ; its officials grew in number, its militia in strength. The kings of the 6th Dynasty are left surrounded only by courtiers and placemen ; the magnates seem to have withdrawn, and to be ready, when opportunity offers, to reassert the primitive independence of their position.