ence
of AEgean or Asiatic pirates on the routes followed by the mercantile
marine, which rendered their voyages dangerous and sometimes interrupted
them altogether. The Syrian coast-line was exposed to these marauders
quite as much as the African had been during the sixty or eighty years
which followed the death of Ramses II.; the seamen of the north--Achaeans
and Tyrseni, Lycians and Shardanians--had pillaged it on many occasions,
and in the invasion which followed these attacks it experienced as
little mercy as Naharaim, the Khati, and the region of the Amorites. The
fleets which carried the Philistines, the Zakkala, and their allies had
devastated the whole coast before they encountered the Egyptian ships of
Ramses III. near Magadil, to the south of Carmel. Arvad as well as Zahi
had succumbed to the violence of their attack, and if the cities of
Byblos, Berytus, Sidon, and Tyre had escaped, their suburbs had been
subjected to the ravages of the foe.*

* See, for this invasion, vol. v. pp. 305-311, of the
present work.

Peace followed the double victory of the Egyptians, and commerce on
the Mediterranean resumed once more its wonted ways, but only in those
regions where the authority of the Pharaoh and the fear of his vengeance
were effective influences. Beyond this sphere there were continual
warfare, piracy, migrations of barbaric hordes, and disturbances of all
kinds, among which, if a stranger ventured, it was at the almost certain
risk of losing his life or liberty. The area of undisturbed seas became
more and more contracted in proportion as the memory of past defeats
faded away. Cyprus was not comprised within it, and the AEgeans, who were
restrained by the fear of Egypt from venturing into any region under
her survey, perpetually flocked thither in numerous bodies. The Achaeans,
too, took up their abode on this island at an early date--about the time
when some of their bands were infesting Libya, and offering their help
to the enemies of the Pharaoh. They began their encroachments on the
northern side of the island--the least rich, it is true, but the nearest
to Cilicia, and the easiest to hold against the attacks of their rivals.
The disaster of Piriu had no doubt dashed their hopes of finding a
settlement in Egypt: they never returned thither any more, and the
current of emigration which had momentarily inclined towards the south,
now set steadily towards the east, where the large island of Cyprus