RAMESES X.

" treasuries, of the store-houses, and of the granaries of the " temple of Amen-Ra, the king of the gods ; so that the income of " the heads and hands for the maintenance of Amen-Ra, the " king of the gods, may be applied to his service." The passing of this decree was the beginning of the downfall of the power of the Theban kings, and the first of the series of great events which resulted, a few years later, in the usurpation of the supreme power by the high-priest of Amen.

In the reign of Rameses X. the prosecution of the thieves who systematically robbed the royal tombs and mummies of the great kings and benefactors of the temple and priesthood of Amen, which had been begun by Rameses IX., was continued, and in his first year some sixty people were arrested. Of the reign of Rameses XL, which must have been short and unimportant, nothing is known.

In the reign of Rameses XII. the high-priest of Amen was called Her-Heru. This official was the "commander-in-chief of the army," and " governor of the South and North," and as his predecessor had obtained authority from the king to levy taxes on the people, he was master of both the spiritual and material resources of the countr}'. Rameses XII. possessed merely nominal power, and Upper Egypt and Nubia, at least, were ruled by Her-Heru ; when the king died the high-priest of Amen declared himself to be the king of Egypt. Meanwhile the popularity of the priests of Amen was not so great in Lower Egypt, for it was evident to the local chiefs and nobles that the priests of Amen were absorbed wholly in promoting the interests of their god and of themselves, even at the expense of the country's welfare, and that they had neither the means nor the wish to maintain the supremacy of Egypt in Syria. The people of the Delta, moreover, quickly realized that they could not rely upon them for defence against the attacks of the lawless tribes on the north-east frontier of Egypt, and that, if they wished to preserve their independence and their trade, they must find means to protect both.

The state in which the Delta folk found themselves was not new, for even in the reign of Rameses III. the actual power possessed by the priests of Amen was greater than that of the king. The successors of Rameses III. were inert and incompetent rulers, and 645