NOTICES IN EXODUS.
149
The
royal auhtority would be shaken, and to the pretensions of any rival claimants of the throne. The loss of six hundred thousand laborers would bring to an end the period of the construction of great works, or, at the least, greatly check their rapid Now this is exactly what all historians of multiplication. Egypt agree to have been the general condition of things in Egypt in the later years of Menephthah and the period immediately following. Military expeditions cease until the time of Rameses III., a space of nearly forty years. The later years of Menephthah are disturbed by the rise of a pretender, Ammon-mes, who disputes the throne with his
rary eclipse.
encouragement afforded
eon, and according to Manetho,* occupies it for five years. Seti II., or Seti-Menephthah, has then a short reign ; but
another claimant
is
brought forward by a high
official,
and
established in his place. Soon afterwards complete anarchy sets in, and continues for several years, f till a certain Set-
made king by the priests, and tranquility once The construction of monuments during this period almost entirely ceases and when Rameses III. shows nekht
more
is
restored.
;
the desire to emulate the architectural glories of former kings, he is compelled to work on a much smaller scale, and to content himself with the erection of a comparatively few edifices. /
*
"
Chronographia," p. 72. C. Ap. Syncell., See the " Great Harris Papyrus," translated by Dr. Eisenlohr the "Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology," vol L. t
359, et *eq.
in
P