3. THE FAITHLESSNESS OF AZIRU.
While Aziru, the Amorite, schemed on the borders of Asia Minor, a Syrian prince named Itakama suddenly set up an independent kingdom at Kadesh and joined hands with the Hittites, thus cutting off the loyal city of Tunip, the friendly kingdom of Mitanni, and the territory of the faithless Aziru from direct intercourse with the Lebanon and Egypt’s remaining possessions in Palestine and Syria. Three loyal vassal kings, perhaps assisted by Dushratta of Mitanni, attacked the rebels, but were repulsed by Itakama and his Hittite allies.
Aziru at once turned the situation to his own advantage. Hemmed in between the Hittites on the north and this new kingdom of Kadesh on the south, he collected his armies and marched down the Orontes to the Mediterranean coast, capturing the cities near the mouth of that river and adding them to his possessions. Should the Hittites ask him to give an account of these proceedings, he could reply that he was, as it were, the advance-guard of the Hittite invasion of Syria, and was preparing the road for them. Should Itakama question him, he could say that he was, with friendly hands, linking the Hittites with Kadesh. And should Akhnaton call upon him for an explanation, he could answer that he was securing the land for the Egyptians against the Hittite advance.
No doubt Aziru preferred to keep his peace with the Hittites the most secure, for it was obvious that they were the rising people; but at the same time he did not yet dare to show any hostility to Egypt, whose armies might at any moment be launched across the Mediterranean. Unable to hold a position of independence, he now thought it most prudent to allow the northmen to swarm southwards through his dominions, from Amki over and around the Lebanon to Kadesh, where their ally Itakama dwelt. In return for this assistance he seems to have been allowed a free hand in the forwarding of his own interests, and we now find him turning his attention to the sea-coast cities of Simyra and Byblos, which nestled at the western foot of the Lebanon. Here, however, he received a check, and failed to obtain a footing. He therefore marched eastwards to the city of Niy, which he captured, slaying its king; and both to the Hittites and to the Egyptians he seems to have pretended that he had taken this step in their interests.
On hearing of the fall of this city the governor of Tunip wrote a pathetic appeal to Akhnaton, asking for help; for he was now quite isolated, and he knew that Aziru was a free-lance who cared not a jot for any but his own welfare.
“To the King of Egypt, my lord,” runs the letter. “The inhabitants of Tunip, thy servant. May it be well with thee, and at the feet of our lord we fall. My lord, Tunip, thy servant, speaks, saying: Who formerly could have plundered Tunip without being plundered by Thothmes III.? The gods ... of the King of Egypt, my lord, dwell in Tunip. May our lord ask his old men [if it be not so.] Now, however, we belong no more to our lord, the King of Egypt.... If his soldiers and chariots come too late, Aziru will make us like the city of Niy. If, however, we have to mourn, then the King of Egypt will mourn over these things which Aziru has done, for he will turn his hand against our lord. And when Aziru enters Simyra Aziru will do to us as he pleases, in the territory of our lord the King, and on account of these things our lord will have to lament. And now Tunip, thy city, weeps, and her tears are flowing, and there is no help for us. For twenty years we have been sending to our lord the King, the King of Egypt, but there has not come to us a word—no, not one.”
Several points become apparent from this letter. One sees that in the more distant cities of Syria the significance of Akhnaton’s new religion was not understood. The governor of Tunip refers to the old gods of Egypt worshipped in that town, and he knows not, or cannot be brought to believe, that Akhnaton has become a monotheist. One sees that the memory of the terrible Thothmes III. and his victorious armies was still in men’s minds, and was probably one of the main causes of the long-continued peace in Syria. Akhnaton’s father, Amonhotep III., had not concerned himself greatly with regard to his foreign dominions, and, as the people of Tunip had been asking for assistance for twenty years, it would seem that the danger which now beset them was already feared before that Pharaoh’s death.
Letter from Ribaddi to the King of Egypt, reporting the progress of the rebellion under Aziru.
(British Museum, No. 29,801.)
How, one asks, could Akhnaton read such a letter as this, and yet refuse to send a relieving army to Syria? Byblos and Simyra were still loyally holding out; and troops disembarked at these ports could speedily be marched inland to Tunip, could crush Hakama at Kadesh, and could frighten Aziru into giving real assistance to Dushratta and other loyal kings in holding the Hittites back behind the Amanus Mountains. But this was Akhnaton’s Gethsemane, if one may say so with reverence; and like that greater Teacher who, thirteen hundred years later, was to preach the self-same doctrine of personal sacrifice, one may suppose that the Pharaoh suffered a very Agony as he realised that his principles were leading him to the loss of all his dearest possessions. His restless generals in Egypt, eager to march into Syria, must have brought every argument to bear upon him; but the boy would not now turn back. “Put up thy sword into his place,” he seems to have said; “for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”