history. A comparatively ancient tradition relates that the Hebrews
arrived in Egypt during the reign of Aphobis, a Hyksos king, doubtless
one of the Apopi. The Hyksos were ousted by a hero named Ahmosis after a
war of five years. The XVIIIth Dynasty was inaugurated by the Pharaohs,
whose policy was so aggressive that Egypt, attacked by enemies from
various quarters, and roused, as it were, to warlike frenzy, hurled her
armies across all her frontiers simultaneously, and her sudden
appearance in the heart of Syria gave a new turn to human history. The
isolation of the kingdoms of the ancient world was at an end; and the
conflict of the nations was about to begin.


_II.--Beginning of the Egyptian Conquest_


The Egyptians had no need to anticipate Chaldæan interference when,
forsaking their ancient traditions, they penetrated for the first time
into the heart of Syria. Babylonian rule ceased to exercise direct
control when the line of sovereigns who had introduced it disappeared.
When Ammisatana died, about the year 2099 B.C., the dynasty of
Khammurabi became extinct, and kings of the semi-barbarous Cossæan race
gained the throne which had been occupied since the days of Khammurabi
by Chaldæans of the ancient stock.

The Cossæan king who seized on Babylon was named Gandish. He and his
tribe came from the mountainous regions of Zagros, on the borders of
Media. The Cossæan rule over the countries of the Euphrates was
doubtless similar in its beginnings to that which the Hyksos exercised
at first over the nomes of Egypt. The Cossæan kings did not merely bring
with them their army, but their whole nation, who spread over the whole