His son, Ramses il. — the best known of Egyptian Pharaohs, because the most industrious in record- ing his own glory,— succeeded young, and reigned for 67 years. Of these the first score were occupied in the war with the Hittites, till it became eviaent that a peace, similar to that of the last rei^, could alone end a struggle in which neither side was strong enough to retain the mastery. An alliance, oU'ensive and defensive, was at the same time concluded and cemented, some years later, by a marriage. The war had been signalized by at least one great battle — that at Kadesh, — in Avliich prodigies of valour are ascribed to the king. But the position of Egypt in Asia, as defined by the peace of the king s 21st year, wai far inferior to that attained two centuries earlier by Thutmosis III. Instead of the frontier at the Euphrates and Mt. Amanus, Ramses II. had to be content with one which crossed the Lebanon about Beirflt. As a means of controlling Phoenicia and Palestine, he erected a series of forts across the desert, while strengthening various Delta towns (cf. the Hebrew tradition of ' Pithom and Raamses,' Ex 1"), and choosing for his favourite residence Tanis (Zoan), a much more apt centre than Thebes for the direction of operations in Syria.
After the Hittite peace, Ramses ll. appears to have devoted himself principally to architecture. Not only did he build endless temples to the gods (and some even to himself) throughout the country, but he did not scruple,- while restoring, to appro- priate the work of his predecessors, w'hose names he frequently replaced on their buildings and statues by his own. He had more than 150 children. His successor was his fourteenth son, Mrnpth (Merenptah), whose reign is as yet the only one in which reference has been found to the Israelites (see below). As well as his famous Libyan war, Mrnpth boasts of a campaign in Syria, where he still claimed the allegiance of tlie southern Iialf of the country, The great Libyan host, defeated in his 5th year, had come allied again with those pirate hordes which had appeared in the Delta under Setlios, and whose homes it is impossible to localize, owing to the difficulty in exactly identify- ing their names. They came, at any rate, from the Mediterranean coasts; but whether Asia Minor, the ^gean islands, and the Italic countries all sent contingents, cannot be decided. The name of Mrnpth is found on numerous monuments, but we know little of his doings.
The long reign of Ramses II., and perhaps apathy and self-indulgence in his latter years, had enfeebled the royal power, and by the time of Mmpth's death the country was ready for revolu- tion. Power fell into the "hands of tne magnates and great officials, and only after half a century of disturbance did Stnht succeed in re-establishing order. This prince, who presumably had claimed
legitimate Ramesside descent, left the throne to hia son, Ramses III., whose reign lasted over 30 years. During its first decade, three formidable attacki from without had to be repelled — two by Libyan coalitions, and one by a host of the northern mari- time invaders, whom the wealth of Egypt had more than once attracted under former kings. This time, however, they approached the eastern Delta by land through SjTia as well as by sea, and it was only after a destructive battle at the frontier fortress of Magdolos that they were repulsed. The hold of each successive Pliaraoh upon the Asiatic provinces was growing weaker, and it is doubtful how far the authority of Ramses III. was effective there, even though the Hittite empire had long been dissipated. At home the king's t ran- quUlity was broken by a widespread and mysterious conspiracy, originating in the palace, and sup- pressed with great severity. Otherwise, the reign appears to have been peaceful. The king's chief ambition was the imitation in all points of his ancestor, Ramses II. The wealth of^ the country was enormous. The king lived the life of a self- indulgent despot, while the real power was with the Tlieban priests and^ the foreign mercenaries — mainly Libyans and S'rdin', i.e. Sardinians, of whom the latter had already served the Pharaohs of the preceding Dynasty.
Ramses III. was followed by a series of his sons and grandsons, who each bore the name of Ramses. Under their weak rule Egypt finally lost her Syrian dependencies, and lett them open to the conquests of Assyria. Each king seems to have been principally occupied with the preparation of a vast rock-tomb (BIban el-Muldk), and meanwhile the ascendency of the priests of Amon grew always greater, until ^rhr (Herhor), who had already added to the office of chief priest the principal political and military titles, felt strong enough to mount the throne and thus put an end to the Ramesside rule. The Ramesside Pharaohs had, with even greater resources at their command, rarely displayed the capacity or vigour of the 18tli Dyn- asty, and the nation "had readily relapsed into the unwarlike apathy and distaste for foreign inter- course which had marked its earlier history. Mer- cenary troops became therefore the only means of retaining a nold on the foreign provinces, and the king grew more and more completely the tool of the military leaders. On the other hand, the recent triumph of orthodoxy had further strengthened the position of the priesthood, on whom royal piety heaped untold quantities of treasure, the product of the foreign trioutaries. The great offices of state in the hands of a mere bureaucracy were effective only in tilling the royal treasury, while the popu- lation at large was starving and discontented.