Petrie, William M. Flinders: Syria and Egypt from the Tell el Amarna letters (London, 1898)

INTRODUCTION 23

the Egyptians again obtained a hold on
Syria. Even the boasted conquests of
Sety I. and Ramessu II. did not more than
half recover the length of Syria ; while they
did not attempt alliances with Mesopotamia
and Babylonia, but were content to meekly
make treaties on equal terms with the Khita,
who had absorbed the greater part of
Syria, and who had laid out that kingdom
which was so familiar to the Israelites.

In later times the warlike Merenptah,
Ramessu III. and Sheshenq I., claimed
authority again over Palestine, but they did
not venture to go beyond the Ramesside
territory. In the XXVIth Dynasty Nekau
(Necho) struck boldly through Syria to the
Euphrates, only to be defeated at Car-
chemish ; and the Ptolemies, though holding
Cyprus and much of Phoenicia, yet did not
succeed in acquiring the Seleucid kingdom
of Antioch. At no period, therefore, can we
place the power of Egypt higher than it was
under Amenhotep III., lord of the two great
cradles of civilization, the narrow valley of
Nile, and the plains and highlands of
Mesopotamia.