inclinations, and the nobles and priests were too well trained in
obedience to venture to censure anything he might do, even were it to
result in putting the whole population into motion, from Elephantine to
the sea-coast, to prepare for the intruded deity a dwelling which should
eclipse in magnificence the splendour of the great temple. A few
of those around him had become converted of their own accord to his
favourite worship, but these formed a very small minority. Thebes had
belonged to Amon so long that the king could never hope to bring it
to regard Atonu as anything but a being of inferior rank. Each
city belonged to some god, to whom was attributed its origin, its
development, and its prosperity, and whom it could not forsake without
renouncing its very existence. If Thebes became separated from Amon it
would be Thebes no longer, and of this Amenothes was so well aware that
he never attempted to induce it to renounce its patron. His residence
among surroundings which he detested at length became so intolerable,
that he resolved to leave the place and create a new capital elsewhere.
The choice of a new abode would have presented no difficulty to him had
he been able to make up his mind to relegate Atonu to the second rank of
divinities; Memphis, Heracleopolis, Siut, Khmunu, and, in fact, all the
towns of the valley would have deemed themselves fortunate in securing
the inheritance of their rival, but not one of them would be false to
its convictions or accept the degradation of its own divine founder,
whether Phtah, Harshafitu, Anubis, or Thot. A newly promoted god
demanded a new city; Amenothes, therefore, made selection of a broad
plain extending on the right bank of the Nile, in the eastern part of
the Hermopolitan nome, to which he removed with all his court about the
fourth or fifth year of his reign.*

* The last date with the name of Amenothes is that of the
year V., on a papyrus from the Payilm; elsewhere we find
from the year VI. the name of Khuniaton, by the side of
monuments with the cartouche of Amenothes; we may conclude
from this that the foundation of the town dates from the
year IV. or V. at the latest, when the prince, having
renounced the worship of Amon, left Thebes that he might be
able to celebrate freely that of Atonu.

He found here several obscure villages without any historical or
religious traditions, and but thinly populated; Amenothes chose on