Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

dtn. xix. THE PHARAOH OF THE OPPRESSION 301

in which the king caused arei miskenoth, i.e. ' treasure
cities' or temple cities, to be built for him.

The new Pharaoh ' who knew not Joseph,' and who
adorned the cities of Eamses and Pithom with temples-
and treasuries, can be no other than Eamses II. He is
undoubtedly the Pharaoh of the oppression and the
father of that un-named princess who found Moses in the
little papyrus barque among the flags of the river.

While the fact that this Pharaoh was the founder
of Eamses is so unquestionably demonstrated by the
Egyptian records, the inscriptions do not mention the
Israelites by name. It must, therefore, be supposed that
they were included in the general term of ' foreigners/
Prom this time, and in the future history of the empire,
Zoan-Tanis is of great importance; here, on the wide
plains, the hosts of warriors and chariots were mustered,
to be exercised in the manoeuvres of battle, and in the
harbours on the river the sea-going ships and their
crews came to land. Prom this place Tehuti-mes III.
had started in his war against Western Asia; it was to
Tanis that Eamses II. had directed his return from
Thebes ; here he had received the embassy of peace
from the king of Kheta; and from hence Moses led the
Hebrews out of the land of bondage to the land of
promise.

The numbers of foreign prisoners, who, in the cam-
paigns of the Egyptians, were transplanted to the Nile
valley, must under Eamses Sesostris have reached an
unprecedented height. If we add to these the de-
scendants of the foreigners brought to Egypt after
former wars, a total number is reached, which certainly
amounted to a third, and probably still more, of all the
families of Egypt. So far as the contemporary infor-
mation will allow us to judge, it was the custom to
place the northern groups in the south, and the southern