ace, compared with whom the northern Pharaohs, even those whose
mothers ranked as "worshippers" of Amon, were but mere mushroom kings?
Thebes admitted the validity of their claims: it looked to them for
help, and the revolts by which it had been torn ever since the reign of
Osorkon II. were, perhaps, instigated by the partisans of Ethiopia. In
the time of Petubastis its high priests, Harsiisit and Takeloti, were
still connected with the Tanites; after that it placed itself under
the immediate orders of Ethiopia, and the pontificate disappeared. The
accession of a sovereign who was himself invested by hereditary right
with the functions and title of high priest of Amon henceforth rendered
the existence of such an office superfluous at Thebes: it would almost
have meant an _imperium in imperio_. The administration of religious,
and perhaps also of political, affairs was, therefore, handed over
to the deputy prophet, and this change still further enhanced the
importance of the "female worshippers of the god." In the absence of
the king, who had his capital at Napata, they remained the sole
representatives of legitimate authority in the Thebaid: the chief among
them soon came to be regarded as a veritable _Lady of Thebes_, and,
subject to the god, mistress of the city and its territory.

It is not quite clear whether it was Pionkhi Miamun or one of his
immediate predecessors who took possession of the city. The nomes
dependent on Amon followed the example of the capital, and the whole
Theban territory as far as Siut had been occupied by Ethiopian troops,
when in the twenty-first year of the king's reign the princes of the
Delta and Middle Egypt appealed to the court of Napata for help.

[Illustration: 262.jpg MAP OF MIDDLE EGYPT DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF
PIONKHI]

Even had they not begged it to do so, it would have been compelled
before long to intervene, for Tafnakhti was already on his way to
attack it; Pionkki charged Luamarsakni and Pu-arama, the generals he had
already stationed in the Thebaid, to hold Tafnakhti in check, till he
was able to get together the remainder of his army and descend the Nile
to support them. Their instructions were to spare none of the rebellious
towns, but to "capture their men and their beasts, and their ships on
the river; to allow none of the fellaheen to go out into the fields,
nor any labourer to his labour, but to attack Hermopolis and harass it
daily." They followed out these orders, th