The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

I yet need to tell that after reinforcements had arrived in ships from Egypt, after all chariots were equipped, after all horses in southern Syria were gathered in Gaza, and after the troops were trained in front of Gaza, Horemheb issued a proclamation declaring that he came as a liberator to Syria and in no way as a conqueror. Under the kindly protection of Egypt, all Syrian cities had always enjoyed the freedom of trade and complete independence — each city with its own King; yet the terrifying treachery of Aziru had left all cities in Syria under Aziru’s rule, and Aziru had dropped the crowns of the traditional Kings and levied heavy taxes on the cities. In his greed, he had also sold Syria to the Hittites, of whose cruelty and evil practices the Syrians had daily proof with their own eyes; and Syria had no other destiny left than the slavery of the Hittites and the state of total insecurity — though the Hittites had yet to reveal their true colours and wanted to vanquish Egypt first. Therefore he, Horemheb, the invincible, son of the falcon, came to Syria to liberate Syria, to liberate every village and city from the yoke of slavery, to liberate trade and to reinstate the former kings to their privileges so that under the protection of Egypt, Syria might prosper and flourish as before. He promised complete protection from plundering and freedom and independence to every city that expelled the Hittites from within its walls and closed its gates to Aziru. But those cities that continued to resist he would burn, plunder and destroy and carry away the citizens into slavery and level their walls forever.

This was the declaration Horemheb gave when he left with his troops to march towards Joppe and sent his fleet along the coast to close the harbour of Joppe. With the help of his spies, he made his declaration known across Syrian cities and caused there to be much uneasiness and indecision, creating disputes amongst his enemies, which was indeed the sole purpose of his declaration. But Kaptah, like the cautious man he was, remained within the walls of Gaza in case Horemheb should suffer defeat, for both the Hittites and Aziru were gathering together a mighty force inland. Kaptah said the reason was that after all the hardships he had endured in the dungeons of Gaza, he could not bear the troubles of an uncomfortable military campaign, and he kept me with him in Gaza so that I would cure him of his ailments.

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Roju the Stiff Old Sod was reconciled with Kaptah, for Kaptah cured him of his sickness by explaining that his own soldiers, starving during the siege, had secretly eaten the four hundred donkey cruppers from the harness store, for they were of soft leather and could be chewed to dull the edge of hunger. When Roju heard this, his anger subsided so that he could be loosed from his bonds, and he reproached his soldiers severely but forgave their crime to them because of the great valour they had shown defending Gaza. And he said to his soldiers:

“Truly, I am held accountable to Pharaoh for these donkey cruppers, but now I can give the accounts with clear conscience since I know where the cruppers have gone to, and I won’t punish you though you’d deserve it for it brings me pleasure to hear you have beaten up several of Horemheb’s dung rats on the streets and broken skulls and hit wounds in them to teach them how to behave in Gaza. Thus I won’t punish you for these accursed cruppers and pay them to Pharaoh from my own pocket if you only go and beat up any of Horemheb’s dung rats who comes boasting your way. Beat them with bats, poke them with sharp sticks, steal their girls and mix sheep droppings in their beer, and I will be content and will get some sleep again.”

So Roju was perfectly healed and knew how to sleep again, but his soldiers brought much trouble to Horemheb since Horemheb would not punish the heroes of Gaza for their mischief though they made life in Gaza unbearable to his soldiers. When Horemheb had marched off to Joppe, Roju had the gates of Gaza closed and swore that never again would he admit anyone with troops into Gaza, and he drank wine with Kaptah, watching him play dice with the prison guards, since, at the time of Horemheb’s departure, Kaptah had only won one and a half million deben of gold back from the old man — whose eyesight I had cured so that he could now see the pips of the dice.

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