From Gaza, I sailed back to Egypt, and in case we should sight hostile ships, I ordered Pharaoh’s pennant and all pennants of peace run up at the masthead so that the sailors were filled with contempt for me, saying that the vessel was rocking the waves painted and decorated like a harlot. But when we reached the river, the people gathered along the banks waving palm branches and greatly praising the peace and also praising me because I was Pharaoh’s envoy and brought the peace with me so that even the sailors began to respect me at last and forgot that I had been hauled up the walls of Gaza in a basket. When I was once again in Memphis, I sent them several jars of wine and beer, so that they would be more sure to forget that unfortunate event which had diminished my dignity.
Horemheb read my clay tablets and greatly commended my skill as a negotiator, to my great astonishment, since it was not his habit to applaud any deeds of mine for he was usually only disappointed in me. I could not understand it until I learned that the warships of Crete had been ordered to sail back to Crete. Thus Gaza would soon have fallen into Aziru’s hands had war continued — for without sea communications Gaza was lost, and it would not have been possible for Horemheb and his troops to try reach Gaza by land, because in autumn his troops would have perished from thirst in the desert. Therefore Horemheb gave me high praise and made speed to send many ships to Gaza, laden with troops, provisions and arms.
During my stay with King Aziru, King Burnaburiash of Babylon had sent an ambassador by sea to Memphis with his suite, bringing expensive gifts. I received him on board Pharaoh’s ship, which was in Memphis awaiting me, and we journeyed up the river together, and the voyage was pleasant for both of us since he was a venerable old man of profound learning, with a white, silky beard that hung to his chest. We conversed together of stars and sheep livers and so we lacked no topic for discussions — for one may talk all one’s life through of stars and sheep livers without ever exhausting the great theme.
We discussed affairs of state also, and I noted that he was deeply disturbed by the growing power of the Hittites. The priests of Marduk had however foretold that their power had its limits and would endure less than a hundred years for a savage white race would come from the
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west, rolling over the Hittites so that their realm would disappear as if it never existed. It was little comfort to think that the power of the Hittites would be gone in hundred years since I was born to live during their time. I wondered how any people could come from the west, where there was no land in the west save the islands in the sea. Nevertheless, since the stars had spoken it, I was persuaded of its truth, having seen it with my own eyes and met with so many marvels in Babylon that I more readily believed the stars than my own knowledge.
He had with him some of the finest mountain wine, and we rejoiced our hearts with it, and he told me that signs and omens in ever increasing numbers in the Tower of Marduk presaged the end of an era. He and I were both aware that we were living in the sunset of the world and that night was before us, and many upheavals must occur, and many people would be swept from the face of the earth as the Mitannians had already been swept, and that old gods would die before the new gods were born and a new era begun. He inquired very eagerly about Aten, and he wagged his head and stroked his white beard when I spoke of Aten to him. For Aten had no images, and all men were equal before him, and he did not get fat from sacrifices but from love amongst men since regardless of their colour and language all men were brothers before Aten, and he made no difference between poor and rich, noble and slave.
The Babylonian ambassador acknowledged that no other such god had ever revealed himself on earth and thought that this appearance now might well signify the beginning of the end, for so dangerous and frightening a teaching as this he had never heard of before. He said that Aten’s teaching made roofs of floors and made doors open outward, so that one stood on his head thinking about it and walked backward. His knowledge and wisdom made me quiet since he came from Babylon, which is the cradle of all earthly and secular wisdom, and I respected him greatly and did not want him to despise me for my lunacy. Therefore I did not tell him about my idea that maybe Aten’s appearance and Pharaoh Akhenaten’s faith were an opportunity for all people, never to come again. I also realised the madness of this idea, returning from war, hands and knees burned by boiling pitch and having seen mutilated bodies. Experiencing all that, my common sense told me that men were no brothers to each other, but a man was a mauling lion to another man.
After a pleasant journey, we arrived to Akhetaten, and I regarded myself returning wiser than when I had left.
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