d, defending its frontiers, and watching over the
welfare of its inhabitants, he cried: 'Let him reign!' because of the
love he had for me." Seti also chose for him wives, beautiful "as are
those of his palace," and he gave him in marriage his sisters Nofritari
II. Mimut and Isitnofrit, who, like Ramses himself, had claims to the
throne. Ramses was allowed to attend the State councils at the age
of ten; he commanded armies, and he administered justice under the
direction of his father and his viziers. Seti, however, although making
use of his son's youth and activity, did not in any sense retire in his
favour; if he permitted Ramses to adopt the insignia of royalty--the
cartouches, the pschent, the bulbous-shaped helmet, and the various
sceptres--he still remained to the day of his death the principal State
official, and he reckoned all the years of this dual sovereignty as
those of his sole reign.*

* Brugsoh is wrong in reckoning the reign of Ramses II. from
the time of his association in the crown; the great
inscription of Abydos, which has been translated by Brugsch
himself, dates events which immediately followed the death
of Seti I. as belonging to the first year of Ramses II.

Ramses repulsed the incursions of the Tihonu, and put to the sword
such of their hordes as had ventured to invade Egyptian territory.
He exercised the functions of viceroy of Ethiopia, and had on several
occasions to chastise the pillaging negroes. We see him at Beit-Wally
and at Abu Simbel charging them in his chariot: in vain they flee in
confusion before him; their flight, however swift, cannot save them from
captivity and destruction.

[Illustration: 187.jpg RAMSES II. PUTS THE NEGROES TO FLIGHT]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Insinger.

He was engaged in Ethiopia when the death of Seti recalled him to
Thebes.*

* We do not know how long Seti I. reigned; the last date is
that of his IXth year at Redesieh and at Aswan, and that of
the year XXVII. sometimes attributed to him belongs to one
of the later Ramessides. I had at first supposed his reign
to have been a long one, merely on the evidence afforded by
Manetho's lists, but the presence of Ramses II. as a
stripling, in the campaign of Seti's 1st year, forces us to
limit its duration to fifteen or twenty years at most,
possibly to only twelve or fifteen.

He at once returned to the capital