Doubtless his was not an isolated case; all the grandees who happened to be nearly related either to the dethroned or to the reigning houses acted in like manner, and for the first time for many years Egypt acknowledged the simultaneous sway of more than one legitimate Pharaoh.  Matters became still worse under Osorkon III.; although he, too, introduced a daughter of Anion into his harem, this alliance failed to give him any hold over Thebes, and even the Seven Nomes and the Delta were split up to such an extent that at one time they included something like a score of independent principalities, three of which, Hermopolis, Heracleopolis, and Tentramu, were administered by kings who boasted cartouches similar to those of Tanis and Bubastis.

About 740 B.C. there appeared in the midst of these turbulent and extortionate nobles a man who, by sheer force of energy and talent, easily outstripped all competitors.  Tafnakhti was a chief of obscure origin, whose hereditary rights extended merely over the village of Nutirit and the outskirts of Sebennytos.  One or two victories gained over his nearest neighbours encouraged him to widen the sphere of his operations.  He first of all laid hands on those nomes of the Delta which extended to the west of the principal arm of the Nile, the Saite, Athribite, Libyan, and Memphite nomes; these he administered through officers under his own immediate control; then, leaving untouched the eastern provinces, over which Osorkon III. exercised a make-shift, easygoing rule, he made his way up the river.  Maitumu and the Fayum accepted him as their suzerain, but Khninsu and its king, Pefzaabastit, faithful to their allegiance,* offered strenuous resistance.

     * Pefzaabastit, King of Heracleopolis, seems to be identical
     with the Pharaoh Pefzabastit of the Berlin sarcophagus.

He then crossed over to the right bank, and received the homage of Heliopolis and Phebtepahe; he put the inhabitants of Uabu to ransom, established a close blockade of Khninsu, and persuaded Namroti, King of Khmunu, to take an oath of allegiance.  At length, those petty kings and princes of the Said and the Delta who still remained unconquered called upon Ethiopia, the only power capable of holding its ground against him, for help.  The “vile Kaushu” (Cush) probably rose to be an independent state about the time when Sheshonq and the Bubastite kings came into power.

[Illustration:  255.jpg VIEW OF A PART OF THE RUINS OF NAPATA]

     Reproduced by Faucher-Gudin, from a lithograph published in
     Cailliaud.