their memories, and, even had their hands been free, would have
made them cautious in dealing with his great-grandson; but they were
incessantly engaged in internecine quarrels, and had recourse to
Pharaoh merely to enlist his support, or at any rate make sure of his
neutrality, and prevent him from joining their adversaries.

[Illustration: 053.jpg AMENOTHES III. FROM THE TOMB OF KHAMHAIT]

Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Daniel Héron.

Whatever might have been the nature of their private sentiments, they
professed to be anxious to maintain, for their mutual interests, the
relations with Egypt entered on half a century before, and as the surest
method of attaining their object was by a good marriage, they would each
seek an Egyptian wife for himself, or would offer Amenôthes a princess
of one of their own royal families. The Egyptian king was, however, firm
in refusing to bestow a princess of the solar blood even on the most
powerful of the foreign kings; his pride rebelled at the thought that
she might one day be consigned to a place among the inferior wives
or concubines, but he gladly accepted, and even sought for wives for
himself, from among the Syrian and Chaldæan princesses. Kallimmasin of
Babylon gave Amenôthes first his sister, and when age had deprived this
princess of her beauty, then his daughter Irtabi in marriage.*

* Letter from Amenôthes III. to Kallimmasin, concerning a
sister of the latter, who was married to the King of Egypt,
but of whom there are no further records remaining at
Babylon, and also one of his daughters whom Amenôthes had
demanded in marriage; and letters from Kallimmasin,
consenting to bestow his daughter Irtabi on the Pharaoh, and