Rameses to reduce to a position of grinding servitude the Semitic peoples
that under former dynasties had been permitted to settle in Lower Egypt;
for this Nineteenth Dynasty, to which Rameses II. belongs, was the new
king (dynasty) that arose "which knew not Joseph" (Ex. i. 8), and
oppressed the children of Israel. It was during the reign of his son
Menephtha that the Exodus took place (about 1300 B.C.).

[Illustration: RAMESES II. RETURNING IN TRIUMPH FROM SYRIA, with his
chariot garnished with the heads of his enemies. (From the monuments of
Karnak.)]

THE TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY (666-527 B.C.).--We pass without comment a long
period of several centuries, marked, indeed, by great vicissitudes in the
fortunes of the Egyptian monarchs, yet characterized throughout by a sure
and rapid decline in the power and splendor of their empire.

During the latter part of this period Egypt was tributary to Assyria. But
about 666 B.C., a native prince, Psammetichus I. (666-612 B.C.), with the
aid of Greek mercenaries from Asia Minor, succeeded in expelling the
Assyrian garrisons. Psammetichus thus became the founder of the Twenty-
sixth Dynasty.

The reign of this monarch marks a new era in Egyptian history. Hitherto
Egypt had secluded herself from the world, behind barriers of jealousy,
race, and pride. But Psammetichus being himself, it seems, of non-Egyptian
origin, and owing his throne chiefly to the swords of Greek soldiers, was
led to reverse the policy of the past, and to throw the valley open to the
commerce and influences of the world. His capital, Sais, on the Canopic
branch of the Nile, forty miles from the Mediterranean, was filled with
Greek citizens; and Greek mercenaries were employed in his armies.