A country which could afford to indulge in extravagances of this nature must have been in a flourishing condition, and everything goes to prove that Egypt prospered under the rule of the early Bubastite kings.

The very same causes, however, which had ruined the Ramessides and the Tanites were now openly compassing the downfall of the Bubastite dynasty.  The military feudalism from which it had sprung, suppressed for a time by Sheshonq I., developed almost unchecked under his successors.  They had thought to break it up and turn it to their own advantage, by transferring the more important religious functions and the principal fiefs to their own sons or nephews.  They governed Memphis through the high priests of Phtah; a prince of the blood represented them at Khmunu,* another at Khninsu** (Heracleopolis), and others in various cities of the Delta, each of them being at the head of several thousand Mashauasha, or Libyan soldiers on whose fidelity they could entirely rely.

     * E.g.  Namroti, under Pionkhi-Miamun, whose rights were such
     that he adopted the protocol of the Pharaohs.

** Stole 1959 of the Serapaeum contains the names of five successive princes of this city, the first of whom was Namroti, son of Osorkon II., and high priest of Thebes; a member of the same family, named Pefzaabastit, had taken cartouches under Osorkon III. of the XXIIIrd dynasty.

Thebes alone had managed to exclude these representatives of the ruling dynasty, and its princes, guided in this particular by the popular prejudice, persistently refused to admit into their bodyguard any but the long-tried Mazaiu.  Moreover, Thebes lost no opportunity of proving itself to be still the most turbulent of the baronies.  Its territory had suffered no diminution since the time of Hrihor, and half of Upper Egypt, from Elephantine to Siut, acknowledged its sway.1

* It is evident that this was so from the first steps taken by Pionkhi-Miamun’s generals:  they meet the army and fleet of Tafnakhti and the princes of the north right under the walls of Hormopolis, but say nothing of any feudal princes of the south.  Their silence is explained if we assume that Thebes, being a dependency of Ethiopia, retained at that date, i.e. in the time of the XXIInd dynasty, the same or nearly the same boundaries which it had won for itself under the XXIst.

Through all the changes of dynasty its political constitution had remained unaltered; Amon still ruled there supreme as ever, and nothing was done until he had been formally consulted in accordance with ancient usage.  Anputi, in spite of his being a son of Sheshonq, was compelled to adopt the title of high priest in order to rule in peace, and had married some daughter or niece of the last of the Painotmu.  After his death, good care was taken to prevent the pontificate from passing to one of his children, as this would have re-established