Rammeside Period
I have some Modern Historian quotes for Rammeside Period from Ramses I - Ramses II: Sorry I don't have any others... getting them off my teacher next week. I guess you can come to your own conclusion about what these modern historian's think about each pharaoh.
Ramses I:
"Ramses had been Vizier and the kings deputy" (Newby)
"Ramses came from a comparatively obscure military family in the Delta" (Newby)
"The choice of Ramses as Horemhebs successor was based on three qualifications his ability, loyalty and line of heirs" (Bradley)
"The new pharaoh was deeply concerned/convince that his accession opened a new ear" (Kitchen)
Seti I:
"The cenetoph of Seti I was something of a political statement. In the temple he established his image as pharaoh" (Newby)
"Setis tomb is the most magnificent in the Valley of the Kings" (Newby)
"Seti had certainly made it clear that a revival of Egyptian power in the area was underway" (Newby)
"Seti could now indulge his twin ambition to be the new Thutmose III and a new Amenhotep III all in one" (Kitchen)
"The decrees of Seti I show the invocation of magic to support law" (Gardiner)
"When Seti diesthe country was prosperous and firmly administered" (Bradley)
Ramses II:
Ramses is the "symbol of the proud majority of Egypt through the ages" (Kitchen)
Ramses was the "overadvertised hero of Kadesh, a megabrainiac builder and unbridled despot" (Kitchen)
"...an unbridled despot, who took advantage of a reign of almost unparalleled length, and of the acquisitions of his father and ancestors, in order to torment his own subjects and strangers to the utmost of his power." (Kitchen)
"a brash young man...not overburdened with intelligence and singularly lacking in taste... [yet with] tremendous energy and personal magnetism." (William Hayes)
"Blatant advertising was used to cover up the failure to attain past glories" (Wilson)
His monuments "attempted to impress by overpowering size, without concern for artistic quality" (Breasted)
Size and quantity were Rames "major criteria for artistic effectiveness" (Wilson)
"Ramses chose administrators wisely and did not hesitate to promote men from outside the narrow aisle of Thebes and Memphis" (Bradley)
In his temples Ramses "sought to anchor the restored monarchy firmly in centre of the Egyptian religious faith and practice" (Grimal)
"If a rulers greatness be measured by the prosperity, balance and relative contentment of a nations society, then in that sense, Ramses was great" (Hayes and Kitchen)
"stupid and culpably inefficient general" (Wilson)