The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

Pharaoh Akhenaten lectured, “Here you see, Horemheb, what came of your refusal to listen to me. Had you spoken more of Aten to these men, they would not be acting thus; but now their hearts are darkened, the scars of your whip lash burn their backs and they know not what they do. And by the way, have you noticed that both my daughters already walk together, and Meritaten takes the younger one by hand, and they have the most enchanting little gazelle for a playfellow? Well, there is nothing to prevent your hiring the disbanded men as guards up and down the country, provided they remain guards and are not embodied into a standing army for war. And to my mind it would be well to break up all the chariots, for suspicion breeds suspicion, and we have to convince our neighbours that whatever happens, Egypt will never have recourse to war.”

“Would it not be simpler to sell the chariots to Aziru or the Hittites for they pay well for chariots and horses,” said Horemheb sarcastically. “I can see that it would not pay you to keep a regular army when you dump all the wealth of Egypt in swamp and bricks.”

Thus they disputed day after day until by sheer tenacity Horemheb gained the position of commander-in-chief of the frontier troops and of all the garrisons in all the cities, but Pharaoh gave an order they could only be armed with wooden spears, but left their numbers for Horemheb to determine. Horemheb then summoned all district commanders to Memphis — because it lay in the middle of the country as well as on the borders of the Two Kingdoms — and he planned to travel there himself, but just as he was on the point of embarking his warship, a river courier arrived with a stack of letters and clay tablets from Syria, full of alarming news so that hope was rekindled in Horemheb’s heart. These letters and clay tablets showed beyond dispute that King Aziru, having learned of the disturbances in Thebes, considered the moment favourable and assaulted and conquered several towns neighbouring the land of Amurru.

Megiddo, the key to Syria, was also in revolt, and Aziru’s forces were besieging the fortress to which the Egyptian garrison had retired, appealing to Pharaoh for speedy help. But Pharaoh Akhenaten said:

“I believe King Aziru has good reason for his actions for I know that he is a fiery man, and it may be that my envoys have offended him. I will not judge him until he has opportunity to defend himself. Yet one thing I can do, and it was wrong of me not to think of it before: now that a city of Aten is rising in the Black Land, I must build another in the

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Red Land, in Syria and in Kush. Truly, a city of Aten must be built in the land of Kush, and a city of Aten must also be built in Syria, which shall be the centre of all administration. Megiddo is a junction for the caravan routes and therefore the most suitable place, but I suspect that just now it is too disturbed to start construction work. But you have spoken to me of Jerusalem, where you built a temple to Aten during your campaign against the Habirus, for which I can never forgive myself. Although it is not in the middle of Syria like Megiddo, but farther south, I shall take immediate steps for the building of a city of Aten in Jerusalem so that in future that shall be the centre of Syria, though now it is only a shantytown.”

When Horemheb heard this, he broke his whip and threw it at Pharaoh’s feet and went aboard his warship and sailed to Memphis to reorganise the garrison troops throughout the country. Yet his stay in Akhetaten had had the advantage that I was able to tell him at leisure during long evenings all that I had seen and heard in Babylon, Mitanni, the land of Hatti and in Crete. He listened in silence, nodding now and again as if what I told him were not altogether news, and he fingered in his hands the knife I had been given by the Hittite harbourmaster. Occasionally, he asked me childish questions, for example, “On command, do the Babylonian soldiers start marching on their left foot like the Egyptians or on their right foot like the Hittites?” Or he asked, “When the Hittites use heavy chariots, do they have the spare horse run next to the other horses and behind the chariot?” Or he asked, “How many spokes are there in the wheels of Hittite chariots, and are they reinforced with metal?”

He must have made this kind of childish questions to me since he was a soldier, for soldiers are interested in such matters that are without meaning, like children trying to count how many legs a centipede has. But all that I recounted to him of roads, bridges and rivers he caused to be set down in writing, and all the names I mentioned he caused to be set down in writing so that I recommended him to consult Kaptah in this matter — for Kaptah was as childish as himself in his memory for all manner of useless things. On the other hand, he had no interest whatsoever when I told him about how to read liver, or when I listed all thousand gates and passageways and wells of liver, and he did not cause them to be set down in writing.

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