is, and each of the
regions of the Delta was divided into one or two fiefs, according to the
number and importance of the towns it contained. In the south, Thebes
was too directly under the influence of Ethiopia to be able to exercise
an independent policy with regard to the rest of the country. In the
north, two families contested the supremacy more or less openly. One of
them, whose hereditary domains included the Arabian, and parts of the
surrounding nomes, was then represented by a certain Pakruru. He had
united under his banner the numerous petty chiefs of the eastern side of
the Delta, the heirs of the ancient dynasties of Tanis and Bubastis, and
his energy or ability must have made a good impression on the minds of
his contemporaries, for they handed down his memory to their successors,
who soon metamorphosed him into a popular legendary hero, famed both for
his valour and wisdom. The nobles of the western nomes acknowledged as
their overlords the regents of Sais, the descendants of that Bocchoris
who had for a short while brought the whole valley of the Nile under
his sway. Sabaco, having put his rival to death, had installed in his
hereditary domains an Ethiopian named Ammeris, but this Ammeris had
disappeared from the scene about the same time as his patron, in 704
B.C., and after him three princes at least had succeeded to the throne,
namely, Stephinates, Nekhepsos, and Necho.* Stephinates had died about
680 B.C., without accomplishing anything which was worth recording.
Nekhepsos had had no greater opportunities of distinguishing himself
than had fallen to the lot of his father, and yet legends grew up round
his name as round that of Pakruru: he was reputed to have been a great
soothsayer, astrologist, and magician, and medical treatises were
ascribed to him, and almanacs much esteemed by the superstitious in the
Roman period.**

* The lists of Eusebius give the series Ammeres,
Stephinates, Nekhepsos, Necho I., but Lepsius displaced
Ammeres and identified him with the queen Amenertas; others
have thought to recognise in him Miamun Pionkhi, or
Tanuatamanu, the successor of Taharqa. He must, however, be
left in this place in the list, and we may perhaps consider
him as the founder of the XXVIth dynasty. If the number of
seven years for the reign of Stephinates is adopted, we must
suppose either that Manetho passed over the name of a prince
at the beginning of