d lived
intermixed with their conquerors, a despised class, suffering more or
less of oppression. In Upper Egypt the case was different. There the
people had submitted in a certain sense, acknowledged the Hyksos
monarchs as their suzerains, and indicated their subjection by the
payment of an annual tribute; but they retained their own native
princes, their own administration and government, their own religion,
their own laws; they did not live intermixed with the new comers; they
were not subject to daily insult or ill-treatment; the fact that they
paid a tribute did not hinder their preserving their self-respect, and
consequently they suffered neither moral nor physical deterioration.
Further, it would seem to have been possible for them to engage in wars
on their own account with the races living further up the Nile, or with
the wild tribes of the desert, and thus to maintain warlike habits among
themselves, while the Hyksos were becoming unaccustomed to them. The
Ra-Sekenens of Thebes, who called themselves "great" and "very great,"
had probably built up a considerable power in Upper Egypt during the
reigns of the later "Shepherd Kings;" had improved their military
system by the adoption of the horse and the chariot, which the Hyksos
had introduced; had practised their people in arms, and acquired a
reputation as warriors.
More particularly must this have been the case with Ra-Sekenen III., the
contemporary of Apepi. Ra-Sekenen the Third called himself "the great
victorious Taa." He surrounded himself with a council of "mighty chiefs,
captains, and expert leaders." He acquired so much repute, that he
provoked Apepi's jealousy before he had in any way transgressed the
duties which he owed him as a feudatory. In the long negotiation between
the two, of which the "First Sallier Papyrus" gives an account, it is
evident that, while Ra-Sekenen has committed no act whereof Apepi has
any right to complain, he has awoke in him feelings of such hostility,
that Apepi will be content with nothing less than either unqualified
submission to every demand that he chooses to make, or war _a outrance_.
Never was a subject monarch more goaded and driven into rebellion
against his inclination by over-bearing conduct on the part of his
suzerain than was Ra-Sekenen by the last "Shepherd King." The
disinclination of himself and his court to fight is almost ludicrous:
they "are silent and in great dismay; they know not how to answer the
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