Pépi Ier

Pépi 1st is a Pharaon which knows a long reign of forty years (-2315 with -2265); other dates indicate that it reigned of -2332 with -2283. Its advent immediately does not follow the death of his/her father Téti, who is assassinated, if it is necessary to believe Manéthon of it. Divergent opinions of the historians on the exact part played in the succession by Ouserkarê, character who occupies some time the throne between the death of the father and the advent of the son. He is perhaps only one usurper having benefitted from the young age of Pépi 1st to try to charm the throne to him. Some however put forth the assumption that it is one corégent selected by the Ipout queen-mother to ensure an interim without clash, while waiting for that the crown prince reaches the age to exert the power.

Pépi marries successively the two girls of the Nomarque of Abydos, Khoui of which it has two wire which become Pharaons: Mérenrê {{Ier}} and Pépi {{II}}. Its tomb is with Saqqarah, it is inside that was found for the first time the Textes of the pyramids.

Genealogy

Titulature

Reign

Sovereign energetic and undertaking, it reigns more than one half-century. Certain texts give a report on a conspiracy against him in which one of the women of the king was implied.

The reign of Pépi 1st does not mark rupture with happy and stable times that Egypt knew since the beginnings of the Ancient Empire.

Assisted by qualified and effective ministers, like Ouni celebrates it, which left us his autobiography in its tomb of Abydos, the Pharaon can ensure safety and prosperity its people. The only dark note of the reign that we know is a plot against the king in whom the royal wife Amtès is implied. It fails, and Pépi entrusts the payment of the business to Ouni.

Out of Egypt, several energetic military forwardings are carried out against Aamou, tribes Bedouins which threaten the north-eastern borders of the kingdom. The commercial relations between the Pharaonic kingdom and the foreign countries (Nubie, Byblos) remain flourishing.

However, the happy time of Pépi 1st sees continuing rise to power and in autonomy of the provincial senior officials, started under. The high loads of the State, in particular that of nomarque, tend more and more to become hereditary, under the pressure of their holders. The political weight growing vis-a-vis it royal capacity of these family lines of senior officials is illustrated by the marriage of Pépi 1st.

The Pharaon, to strengthen his capacity on the Average-Egypt, wife two girls of Khoui, noble high-ranking person of the town of Abydos. The son of this last, Djaou, will become the vizier of Mérenrê {{Ier}} then Pépi {{II}}.

Moreover, Pépi 1st must grant at certain great religious institutions country of the privileges of immunity exempting them of the contributions to the royal tax department. The royal decrees of this type, promulgated under the constraint of powerful local authorities, were to multiply under the successors of Pépi 1st, weakening the Pharaonic authority seriously.

Burial

Sources

Chronic of the Pharaons , Peter A. Clayton.
Audran Labrousse, pyramids of the queens , 1999,

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