(d) The Foreign Dominion. — But the 21st Dynasty does not, according to Manetho, consist of the priestly successors of Ifrhr. The legitimate Pharaohs he held to be the Tanite princes (S'mntw- Smendes, P'«6Vnn<-Psousennes, etc.) who rebelled against this usurpation, and were acknowledged first in the North, then also in the Thebaid. Be- fore long the rival families intermarried and so restored unity ; but their relationships and sequence are not clearly ascertained. On the monuments little more than their names occur, though mum- mies (of the priestly family) and much genea- logical evidence were found in the famous caehelte at Deir el-Bahri.
The next Dynasty, the 22nd, owed its rise to the political conditions of the period. The captains of the Libyan mercenaries had by this time attained a position, territorial as well as military, which made usurpation easy, and, when the opportunity offered, their cliief ,?'^'nA-Sousakim-Shishak was able without serious opposition to assume the royal
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titles. He was ambitious, and had pretensions to a reconquest of Syria. His inscription records a raid against both the Hebrew kingdoms — not against Judah only (1 K U^"). The Dynasty resided at Bubastis, and built extensively upon the ancient temple of the goddess B'stt (Bast) ; but we know little of its kings beyond their names, S'i'n/c, UVr/.n-Osorkon, T^^T^Takelothis. Tlie D3-nasty by which thej' were (presumably) overthrown sliows likewise Libyan names, but ruled from Tanis. The times may well have been too disturbed by dynastic rivalries to leave leisure for building; at any rate, the history of the 23rd Dynasty is as yet totally obscure.
During the period of weakness and dissension through which Egypt had been passin", the Nubian princes of Napata (Gebel liarkal) had been growing in Gtrenrjth, and were able now to shake oil' tlie Pharaoh s sovereignty, and even to contemplate the invasion of Egj'pt. This adventure was not diiti- cult to carry out in the southern country, where there was no leader to withstand them ; but as they advanced northward, the Ethiopians found an obstinate opponent in 7/»/i^Tnephachthos, the powerful prince of Sais (W. Delta), whose suprem- acy was recognized as far south as Uermopolis (Eshmunein). To this town the Ethiopian king, P'nhy (Piankhi) (775) laid siege. The Saites capitu- lated, and Tnephachthos fled, while the victors advanced to Memphis. A treaty was, however. Boon arranged, neither party being strong enough to suppress the other. The Ethiopians retired up the river, nominally in possession of the wliole valley ; but the Delta remained in the hands of Tnephachthos and his son /i^rernZ-Bocehoris, who seems to have finally extinguished tlie old legitim- ist families, extended his authority up to Thebes, and reigned for some time in comparative tran- quillity. The Ethiopians, however, liad not aban- aoned their ambitions, and, strengtliened by a marriage with a Tanite princess, and favoured by the Btill powerful Tlieban priesthood, they again marched northward and put an end to the rule of Bocchoris. This time their conquest was more complete. Their family, whose relationships and history are as yet far from clear, constitutes Manetho's 25th Dj'nasty, and its most conspicuous member is its first king, .S'6■^•'-Sabakon (707-695). His successors were not, however, strong enougli, at such a distance from home, to maintain a dominant position in llie North, though the petty princes of the Delta towns accepted for the moment the Ethiopian suzerainty. One of the latter — and probably not Sabakon liimself, as was formerly assumed — was the So (Kio = Sewe*) of 2 K 17', who ventured, in alliance with Gaza and Israel, to withstand the threatening growth of the Assyrian power in Palestine. Sargon, however, defeated the coalition at Kaphia, though he seems afterwards to have made a treaty with Egypt.
Throughout this period the hopes of the small Syrian states were placed on Egypt, whence, how- ever, in the confusion of party strife, no etl'ectiial help could come. Yet it was toward Syria that the ambitions of Sabakon's son, 7"Ar/.-Tharaka-Tir- hakah (690-664), wore directed. He was there brought, however, into speedy collision with Sar-
ton's successor, Sennacherib, who, at Eltekeh, efeated the combined troops of several Egyptian princes. Attempts at interference in Asia were thus for a time cnecked, and Tirhakah hud leisure for considerable building, both at Napata and at Thebes. But the Syrians still counted on an Egyptian alliance, and it was clear that, if the Assyrian rule was ever to be peacefully accepted by them, Egypt must once and for all be rendered * Greek Zft^^/), "Smo.. The Luci&nic t«xt llAfl tho inexplicable
powerless. An Assyrian army proceeded therefore southwards, and, while Tirhakah fled to Ethiopia and the minor princes submitted, Esarhadoon advanced as far as Thebes and subsequently organ- ized a government under twenty local regents, of whom tlie most notable was Nk'w-'^echo of Sais. Yet still Tirhakah had hopes, and his advances from the south, abetted by some of the local princes on whom Assyria relied, resulted at length in the expulsion of the invaders from Memphis. Assurbanipal, the son of Esarhaddon, thereupon liastened to Egypt, and, with small trouble, re- establislied the Assyrian supremacy, while Necho, who had joined Tirhakah, became a temporary captive in Nineveh. At length Tirhakah died, and his successor, Tnwtimn (cuncif. Tandamanie), having failed to recover the lost position, the Ethi- opians finally retired homeward, while iVssurbanipal requited the sympathy his opponent had received in Upper Egypt by devastating Thebes. For two or three years Assurbanipal was undisputed master of Egypt. Then came an Elamite war and simultaneous revolts in Babylon, Arabia, and Lydia.