sculptured remains of the temples of Bubastis ; ther were prol>ably not of unmixed Egyptian origin, and may have been partly of Assyrian or Babylonian race. The first king was Sheshonk I (B.C. cir. 990), the con- temporary of Solomon, and in his reign it was that "Jeroboam arose and fied into Egypt unto Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon" (1 Kings xi, 40), B.C. 97.3. In the 5th year of Rehoboam, B.C. 9G9, Sheshonk invaded Judaea with an army of which it is said "the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt, the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians;" and that, having taken the "fenced cities" of Judah, he "came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house," and "the shields of gold which Solomon had made" (2 Chron. xii). "The record of this cam- paign," says Sir G. '\^'ilkinson, "which still remains on the outside of the south wall of the great temple of Karnak, bears an additional interest from the name of Yuda-MeJchi (kingdom of Judah), first discovered by Champollion in the long list of captured districts and towns put up by Sheshonk to commemorate his suc- cess." Perhaps it was by Jeroboam's advice that he thus attacked Judah. It is doubtful, however, wheth- er Jeroboam did not sufter by the invasion as well as Rehoboam. See Shishak. The next king, Osorkon I, is supposed by seme to have been the Zerah whom Asa defeated (2 Chron. xiv, 9) ; and in that view, as the army that Zerah led can only have been that of Egypt, his overthrow will explain the decline of the house of Sheshonk. According to others, Zerah was a king of Asiatic Ethiopia. See Zerah. Of the other kings of this dynastv we know scarcely more than the names. It was followed by the 23d dynasty of Tanite kings, so called from Tanis, the Zoan of Scripture. They appear to have been of the same race as their predecessors. Bocchoris the Wise, a Saite, celebrated as a lawgiver, was the only king of the 24th dynasty (B.C. cir. 734). He is said to have been burned alive bj' Sabaco the Ethiopian, the first king of the 2rjth or Ethiopian dvnasty. Egypt therefore makes no figure in Asiatic historj- during the 23d and '24th dynasties ; under the 2oth it regained, in part at least, its ancient importance. This was a foreign line, the warlike sovereigns of which strove to the utmost to repel the onward stride of Assyria. It is not certain Avhich of the Sabacof — Shebake, or his successor Shebateke — corresponded to the So or Seva of the Bible, who made a treaty with Hoshea, which, as it involved a refusal of his tribute to Shalmaneser, caused the taking of Samaria, and the cajitivitj' of the ten ti'ibes. See So. The last king of this dynasty was Tirhakah, or Teh- rak (B.C. 690), who, probably while yet ruling over Ethiopia or Upper Egy)>t only, advanced against Sen- nacherib to support Hezekiah, king of Judah, B.C. 713. It does not appear w hether lie met the Assyrian army, but it seems certain that its miraculous destruc- tion occurred before awy engagement had been fought between the rival forces. Perhaps Tirhakak availed himself of this opportunity to restore the supremacy I of Egypt west of the Eujjhrates. See Tirhakah. With him the 25th dynasty closed. It was succeeded by the 26th, of Saite or native kings. The first sover- eign of importance was Psammetichus, or Psainetik I (B.C. 664), who, according to Herodotus, had previ- ously been one of a dodecarchj' which had ruled Egypt. Rawlinson finds in Assyrian history traces of a dodecarchy liefore Psammetichus. This ]iortion of the history is obscure. Psammetichus carried on a war in Palestine, and is said to have taken Ashdod. or Azotus, i. e., according to AVilkinson, Slwilid, "the strong," after a siege of twenty-nine years (Herod, ii, 157 ; see Rawlinson in loc. ii, 204). It was prol>ably held by an Assyrian garrison, for a Tartan, or gen- eral of the Assyrian king, had captured it apparently when garrisoned by Egyptians and Ethiopians in the
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