en living at Napata a certain Taharqa, one of those scions
of the solar race who enjoyed the title of "Royal brothers," and
from among whom Anion of the Holy Mountain was wont to choose his
representative to reign over the land of Ethiopia whenever the throne
became vacant. It does not appear that the father of Taharqa ever held
the highest rank; it was from his mother, Akaluka, that he inherited his
pretensions to the crown, and through her probably that he traced his
descent from the family of the high priests. Tradition asserts that he
did not gain the regal power without a struggle; having been proclaimed
king in Ethiopia at the age of twenty, as the result of some revolution,
he is said to have marched against Shabitoku, and, coming up with him
in the Delta, to have defeated him, taken him prisoner, and put him to
death.** These events took place about 693 B.C.,*** and Taharqa employed
the opening years of his reign in consolidating his authority over the
double kingdom.

* His name or monuments of his erection have been discovered
at Karnak.

** Eusebius, who cites the fact, had his information from a
trustworthy Greek source, perhaps from Manetho himself. The
inscription of Tanis seems to say that Taharqa was twenty
years old at the time of his revolt.

*** Most of the lists of kings taken from Manetho assign
twelve years to the reign of Sebikhos; one alone, that of
Africanus, assigns him fourteen years.

He married the widow of Sabaco, Queen Dikahitamanu, and thus assumed
the guardianship of Tanuatamanu, her son by her first husband, and this
marriage secured him supreme authority in Ethiopia.* That he regarded
Egypt as a conquered country can no longer be doubted, seeing that he
inserted its name on his monuments among those of the nations which he
had vanquished.

* The text of several documents only mentioned that Tanuata-
manu was the "son of his wife," which Opport interpreted to
mean son of Taharqa himself, while others see in him a son
of Kashto, a brother of Amenertas, or a son of Shabitoku.

[Illustration: 139.jpg TAHARQA AND HIS QUEEN DIKAHITAMANU]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the coloured plate in Lepsius.

He nevertheless felt obliged to treat it with consideration; he
respected the rights of the feudal princes, and behaved himself in every
way like a Pharaoh of the old royal line. He summoned his mother from
Napata, whe