2. AfouunienfaL — The oldest royal names foimd at Thebes are those of kings of the Nantef line, who are known to have been there buried, and who are vari- ously assigned to ihe 9th and the 11th dynasty, but undoubtedly reigned not long before the 12th. The Uth dynasty, which probably ruled about half a cen- tury, began about 2000 years B.C.; and the 12th was. like it, of Theban kings, according to Manetho, the Egyptian historian. The rise of the city to importance may therefore be dated with the beginning of the first Theban dynasty. With the 12th dynasty it became the capital of Egypt, and continued so for the 200 years of the rule of that line. Of this powerful dynasty Ihe chief monument there is only part of the ancient sanct- uary of the great temple of Amen-ra, now called tliat of El-Karnak. The 12th dynasty was succeeded by the 13th, wliich appears after a time to have lost the rule of all Egypt by the establisliment of a foreign Shep- herd dynasty, the 15th to the 17th. Theban kings of the 12th and 13th dynasties continued, however, to gov- ern a liinited kingdom, tributary to the Shepherds, un- til an insurrection arose which led to the concjuest of the foreigners and the ca|)ture of their capital Zoan by Aflhmes, the head of the 18th dynasty and founder of the Egyptian empire, which was ruled by this and the 19th and 20th dynasties, all of Theban kings, for about 400 years from B.C. cir. 1492. During tliis period Thebes was the capital of the kingdom, and of an empire of which the northern limit was Mesopotamia, and the
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southern a territory upon the Fppcr Nile; and tlien, es])ecially by ilie kiii<;s nf the l.^lh and li>th dynasties, those j;reat nionunienls which make Thebes the most wontlerl'ul site in E<;ypt were founded or excavated. The kinj;s wiio have left the tincst works are Thothmes III and Amenoph III of the 18tli dynasty, Sethos I and Eameses II of the liHh, and Ivanieses III of tlie 20tli (19th); but thri)ii,i;hoiit the jieriod of 1 lie empire the capital was constantly lieaiiiilicd. During the '2()ih dynasty the high-priests of Ainen-ra gaiiieii the sover- eign ])ower, perhaps corresponding to Manetho's 'ilst dy- nasty, which he calls of Tanites, and which must in this case be considered as of Thebans. They continued to add to the monuments of the capital, though, like the later kings of the empire, their constructions w^ere not of remarkable size. The '22d dynasty, headed by She- shenk I, tlie Shishak of the Uible, seems still to have treated Thebes as the capital, although they embel- lished their native city, Bubastis. in the Delta. Under them and the kings of the "iod, who were evidently of the same line, some additions were made to its temples, but no great independent structures seem to have been raised. The most interesting of these additions is Shi- shak's list of the coimtries, cities, and tribes conquered or ruled by him, including the names of those captureil from Kehoboam, sculptured in the great temple of El- Karnak. Under the "iSd dynasty a period of dissension began, and lasted for some years until the Ethiopian con- quest, and establishment of an Ethiopian dynasty, the 25th, about B.C. 714 (see De Kouge's interesting paper, Jihicr. //inf. (Ill Rot Piaiichi- }/ eriiimoiin. in the Rev. A rch. N. S. viii, 94 sq.). At this time the importance of Thebes must have greatly fallen, but it is probable that the Ethiopians made it their Egyptian capital, for their sculptures found there show that thej' were careful to add their records to those of the long series of sover- eigns who reigned at Tliebes. It is at the time of the 25th dynasty, to which we may reasonably assign a duration of tifty years, that Thebes is first mentioned in
Scripture, and from this period to that of the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchatlnezzar it is spoken of as one of the chief cities of Egypt, or as No, '■ the city." Un- der the Ethiopians it was no more than a provincial cajMtal ; immediately after their rule it was taken twice at least by the Assyrians. Asshur-bani-pal, son and successor of Esar-haddon (.\sshur-akh-idanna), who came to the throne about B.C. liljT-GGt!, in a first expedition defeated the troops of Tirhakah, and captured the city of Ni'a ; a second time he invaded the country, which had revolted, and again captured Ni'a. The exact time of these events has not been fixed, but it is evident that they occurred either at the close of the rule of the Ethiopian dynasty, or early in that of the Saite 2Gth, when Egypt was governed by the Dodecarchy. Tir- hakah and Niku, evidently Nccho I, the father of Psammetichus I, are mentioned almost as late as the time of the second expedition, rsammetichus I came to the throne B.C. G(J4, and therefore it is probable that these events took place not long before, and about the time of, or a little after, his accession. These dates are especially important, as it is probable that the prophet Nahum refers to the first capture when warning Nine- veh by the fate of her great rival. But this reference may be to a still earlier capture by the Assyrians, for Esar-haddon conquered Egypt aiul Ethiopia, though it is not distinctly stated that he captured Thebes (see Kawlinson, Illustrations of A'r/i/ptian t/istory, etc., from the Ciuieij'orm Inscriptions, in the Transactions of the K. S. Lit., 2d ser. vii, 1.S7 sq.). The Saite kings of the 2Gth dynasty continued to embellish Thebes, which does not seem to have siift'ered in its monuments from the Assyrians; but when their rule came to an end with the Persian conquest by Cambyses, it evidently endured a far more severe blow. Later Egyptian kings still added to its edifices, and the earlier Greek sovereigns followed their example. The revolt against Ptolemy X Lathyrus, in which Thebes stood a siege of three years, was the final blow to its prosperity.