Alashiya is probably Cyprus, which
also bore the name Yantinay from the time of Thothmes III until the
seventh century, when it is called Yatnan by the Assyrians. A king
of Alashiya corresponded with Amenhetep III in cuneiform on terms of
perfect equality, three hundred years before: "Brother," he writes,
"should the small amount of the copper which I have sent thee be
displeasing unto thy heart, it is because in my land the hand of Nergal
my lord slew all the men of my land (i.e. they died of the plague), and
there was no working of copper; and this was, my brother, not pleasing
unto thy heart. Thy messenger with my messenger swiftly will I send, and
whatsoever amount of copper thou hast asked for, O my brother, I,
even I, will send it unto thee." The mention by Herhor's envoy of
Nesibinebdad (Smendes), the King of Tanis, a powerful ruler who in
reality constantly threatened the existence of the priestly monarchy
at Thebes, as "him to whom Amen has committed the wardship of his
North-land," is distinctly amusing. The hard fact of the independence of
Lower Egypt had to be glozed somehow.
The days of Theban power were coming to an end and only the prestige
of the god Amen remained strong for two hundred years more. But the
alliance of Amen and his priests with a band of predatory and destroying
foreign conquerors, the Ethiopians (whose rulers were the descendants
of the priest-kings, who retired to Napata on the succession of the
powerful Bubastite dynasty of Shishak to that of Tanis, abandoning
Thebes to the Northerners), did much to destroy the prestige of Amen
and of everything connected with him.
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