the rival combatants. A treaty of alliance,
offensive and defensive, was drawn up between Ramses II. and Khata-sil,
"the great king of the Hittites," and it was cemented by the marriage of
the Pharaoh to the daughter of the Hittite prince. Syria was divided
between the Hittites and Egyptians, and it was agreed that neither
should under any pretext invade the territories of the other. It was
also agreed that if either country was attacked by foreign foes or
rebellious subjects, the other should come to its help. Political
refugees, moreover, were to be delivered up to the sovereign from whom
they had escaped, but it was stipulated that in this case they should
receive a full pardon for the offences they had committed. The Hittite
copy of the treaty was engraved on a silver plate, and the gods of Egypt
and the Hittites were called upon to witness the execution of it.

The legendary exploits of Sesostris, that creation of Greek fancy and
ignorance, were fastened upon Ramses II., whose long reign, inordinate
vanity, and ceaseless activity as a builder made him one of the most
prominent of the old Pharaohs. It was natural, therefore, at the
beginning of hieroglyphic decipherment that the Greek accounts should be
accepted in full, and that Ramses II. should have been regarded as the
greatest of Egyptian conquerors. But further study soon showed that, in
this respect at least, his reputation had little to support it. Like his
monuments, too many of which are really stolen from his predecessors, or
else sacrifice honesty of work to haste and pretentiousness, a large
part of the conquests and victories that have been claimed for him was
due to the imagination of the scribes. In the reaction which followed on
this discovery, the modern historians of ancient Egypt were disposed to
dispute his claim to be a conqueror at all. But we now know that such a
scepticism was exaggerated, and though Ramses II. was not a conqueror
like Thothmes III., he nevertheless maintained and extended the Asiatic
empire which his father had recovered, and the lists of vanquished
cities which he engraved on the walls of his temples were not mere
repetitions of older catalogues, or the empty fictions of flattering
chroniclers. Egyptian armies really marched once more into Northern
Syria and the confines of Cilicia, and probably made their way to the
banks of the Euphrates. We have no reason for denying that Assyrian
troops may have been defeated by his arm