The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

This way, they drank and threw dice from morning till night — quarrelling with each other and sometimes hurling the dice in each other’s faces, spitting in their palms and casting the dice from the cup again so that they rolled on the floor — since the old man was miserly and desired to play for small stakes only, and he mourned and bewailed his losses as if the gold he lost was really his own gold and not just a fantasy. But when Horemheb laid siege to Joppa, Kaptah became more alert, making him raise his stakes, and when a messenger brought news that Horemheb had breached the walls of Joppe, Kaptah beggared his opponent so thoroughly in a few throws as to reverse the debt to almost one hundred thousand deben of gold. But Kaptah was magnanimous and forgave him his debt since he had saved him from starvation in the dungeons of Gaza, and he bestowed new clothes on the man and a few handfuls of silver so that the old man wept for joy and blessed him as his benefactor.

I do not know whether or not Kaptah cheated and played with loaded dice. I know only that he played with great skill and had unbelievably good fortune playing dice. The tale of this gamble that had a stake of millions of debens and continued for weeks spread throughout Syria, and the old man, whose blindness soon returned to him, lived for the rest of his days in a little hut by the walls of Gaza, and travellers from other cities would visit him, and he would tell them of the play, and even after the passage of years he could repeat the score at each throw, for the blind have good memories. But he was proudest when he spoke of the last throw of all by which he lost one hundred and fifty thousand deben of gold, for never had such high stakes been played for with dice, and he did not believe that never again would anyone dare play with such high stakes. Thus he was very happy dwelling by the gates of Gaza, and the travellers brought him gifts in order to persuade him to tell his story, so that he never needed to suffer want but lived in greater comfort than if Kaptah had pensioned him for life during his old age. Such is the power of dreams on men’s hearts.

After Horemheb had conquered Joppe, Kaptah went there in haste, and I followed him, seeing for the first time a wealthy city in the hands of conquerors. When Horemheb’s troops stormed in from the holes they had breached in the walls, the boldest of its citizens had risen in revolt against Aziru and the Hittites in order to preserve their city and save it from plundering — but Horemheb had no mercy on them since their rebellion was of no use to him any more, and he allowed his men to plunder Joppe for two weeks. Kaptah amassed a huge fortune in Joppe, for the soldiers bartered expensive carpets, priceless furniture and statues of gods, which they could not carry away, in exchange for silver and wine — and one could get a beautiful, shapely Syrian woman for two copper rings in Joppe.

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It was indeed only in Joppe that I realised what a beast man is to another man, for there is no abomination which didn’t take place in Joppe when drunken soldiers plundered and burned the city. The soldiers set fire to houses for their own amusement, so that at night they could see to loot and rejoice with women in addition to torturing merchants of Joppe to make them disclose where their treasure lay hidden. There were those who diverted themselves by standing on a street corner and slaying with club or piercing with a spear any Syrian who came by — whether man or woman, elderly or child. While watching the evil of man in Joppe, my heart was hardened, and what had come to pass in Thebes for the sake of Aten was trivial compared to what came to pass in Joppe for the sake of Horemheb. In order to bind his soldiers closer to himself, Horemheb gave them free reign in Joppe. Anyone who took part in the sacking of Joppe, could never forget it, and the sacking of Joppe put the frenzy of depredation in the blood of Horemheb’s men so that nothing would hold them back in battle — and they didn’t even fear death any more as they thought how victory would again divert them like in Joppe. And the other way Horemheb bound the soldiers to himself by letting them in such a horrifying manner plunder Joppe was that they could no longer expect any mercy from the Syrians, for when Aziru’s men took prisoners, they flayed alive anyone who had taken part in the sacking of Joppe. To avoid sharing the fate of Joppe, many of the lesser cities along the coast rebelled and drove out the Hittites from within their walls and opened their gates to Horemheb.

I will speak no more of what took place in Joppe during those days and nights of plunder, for in recalling them my heart turns to stone in my breast and my hands grow cold. I say only that at the time of Horemheb’s attack there were in the city — besides Aziru’s garrison and the Hittite soldiers — nearly twenty thousand inhabitants, but when Horemheb and his troops departed Joppe, there were not three hundred left alive.

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