22 THE NUBIANS, THE NUBA L2.xvii.

XVII Kashta was succeeded by his son Piankhi (744-710 B.c.^),

This king took further advantage of the decadence that had over-

taken Egypt and completed the work begun by his father in over-

running the whole country and making it tributary to him.

XVIII Piankhi was succeeded about 710 B.C. by his brother

Shabaka. This monarch, not content with merely receiving tribute,

firmly established his authority over the whole of Egypt.

He was followed by Shabataka'-^, and the latter, about 688 B.C., by Taharka (a son of Piankhi), who in the reign of Shabaka had commanded the Ethiopian army that was sent to Palestine to assist

Hezekiah against the Assyrians of Sennacherib, who were now

approaching the eastern borders of Egypt.

The Assyrian Danger

XIX Taharka's main preoccupation throughout his reign was to stem the tide of this Assyrian invasion. But he was unsuccessful, and in 670 B.C. Esarhaddon forced his way to the Egyptian frontier and heavily defeated him. Taharka retired southwards leaving the

Delta and Memphis in the hands of the Assyrians^.

Esarhaddon, however, did not press his success, and as he with- drew northwards Taharka reoccupied Memphis and renewed his

intrigues with the Palestinian kings.

XX On the death of Esarhaddon in 668, his son Ashurbanipal

continued the fresh campaign that had been started against Taharka and achieved a decisive victory in the eastern Delta. Taharka again

retired southwards. The Assyrians followed and occupied Thebes,

reinstated the Libyo-Egyptian dynasts as Governors in Egypt and

left garrisons. Ashurbanipal himself then returned with his spoil

to Nineveh.

Shortly afterwards Taharka died^. XXI Tanutamon, a son of Shabaka (who had married Taharka's

^ The dates given for the twenty-fifth dynasty are as amended by Reisner in Oct. 1919.

- Manetho makes him son of Shabaka, but Breasted (Hist. p. 377) thinks this

a little doubtful. Piankhi, Shabaka and Shabataka, it may be noted, were all buried

at Gebel Kurru near Barkal (Reisner, Sndati Notes and Records, Oct. 1919).

' Breasted (loc. cit. p. 378) says of Taharka: "His features as preserved in con- temporary sculptures shew unmistakeably negroid characteristics." Reisner, on

the contrary {Sudan Notes and Records, ]an. 1919, p. 50), says that though the Assyrian king chose to represent Taharka as a negro, he "was not a negro, for the statues

of both himself and his descendants shew features which might be Egyptian or Libyan but certainly not negro."

* He was the founder of the great royal cemeteries of Ethiopia at Nuri, near Merowe.