He displayed little activity, his advanced age preventing him from entering on any serious undertaking:  but his accession nevertheless marks an important date in the history of Egypt.  Although Harmhabi was distantly connected with the line of the Ahmessides, it is difficult at the present day to know what position to assign him in the Pharaonic lists:  while some regard him as the last of the XVIIIth dynasty, others prefer to place him at the head of the XIXth.  No such hesitation, however, exists with regard to Ramses I., who was undoubtedly the founder of a new family.  The old familiar names of Thutmosis and Amenothes henceforward disappear from the royal lists, and are replaced by others, such as Seti, Minephtah, and, especially, Ramses, which now figure in them for the first time.  The princes who bore these names showed themselves worthy successors of those who had raised Egypt to the zenith of her power; like them they were successful on the battle-field, and like them they devoted the best of the spoil to building innumerable monuments.  No sooner had Seti celebrated his father’s obsequies, than he assembled his army and set out for war.

It would appear that Southern Syria was then in open revolt.  “Word had been brought to His Majesty:  ’The vile Shausu have plotted rebellion; the chiefs of their tribes, assembled in one place on the confines of Kharu, have been smitten with blindness and with the spirit of violence; every one cutteth his neighbour’s throat."* It was imperative to send succour to the few tribes who remained faithful, to prevent them from succumbing to the repeated attacks of the insurgents.  Seti crossed the frontier at Zalu, but instead of pursuing his way along the coast, he marched due east in order to attack the Shausu in the very heart of the desert.  The road ran through wide wadys, tolerably well supplied with water, and the length of the stages necessarily depended on the distances between the wells.  This route was one frequented in early times, and its security was ensured by a number of fortresses and isolated towers built along it, such as “The House of the Lion “—­ta ait pa mau—­near the pool of the same name, the Migdol of the springs of Huzina, the fortress of Uazit, the Tower of the Brave, and the Migdol of Seti at the pools of Absakaba.  The Bedawin, disconcerted by the rapidity of this movement, offered no serious resistance.  Their flocks were carried off, their trees cut down, their harvests destroyed, and they surrendered their strongholds at discretion.  Pushing on from one halting-place to another, the conqueror soon reached Babbiti, and finally Pakanana.**

     * The pictures of this campaign and the inscriptions which
     explain them were engraved by Seti I., on the outside of the
     north wall of the great hypostyle hall at Karnak.