5. AZIRU AND RIBADDI FIGHT TO A FINISH.
Meanwhile Ribaddi was holding Byblos valiantly against Aziru’s armies, and many were the despatches which he sent to Akhnaton asking for assistance against Aziru. Nothing could have been easier than the despatch of a few hundred men across the Mediterranean to the beleaguered port, and the number which Ribaddi asks for is absurdly small. Akhnaton, however, would not send a single man, but instead wrote a letter of gentle rebuke to Aziru, telling him to come to the City of the Horizon to explain his conduct. Aziru wrote at once to one of Akhnaton’s courtiers who was his friend, telling him to speak to the Pharaoh and to set matters right.
He explained that he could not leave Syria at that time, for he must remain to defend Tunip against the Hittites. The reader, who has seen the letter written by the governor of Tunip asking for help against Aziru, will realise the perfidy of this Amorite, who was now, no doubt, preparing to capture Tunip for the sake of its riches, and, having done so, would tell Akhnaton that he had entered it to hold it against the Hittites.
Akhnaton then wrote to Aziru insisting that he should rebuild the city of Simyra, which he had destroyed; but Aziru again replied that he was too busy in defending Egyptian interests against the inroads of the Hittites to give his attention to this matter for at least a year. To this Akhnaton sent a mild reply; but Aziru, fearing that the letter might contain some matter which it would be better for him not to hear, contrived to evade the messenger, and the despatch was brought back to Egypt. He wrote to the Pharaoh, however, saying that he would see to it that the cities captured by him should continue to pay tribute as usual to Egypt.
The tribute seems to have reached the City of the Horizon in correct manner until the last years of the reign,[77] though probably it was much less in quantity than had been customary. There was general confusion in Syria, as we have seen; but, as in the case of the struggle between Aziru and Ribaddi, where both professed their loyalty to Egypt, so, in all the chaos, there was a make-believe fidelity to the Pharaoh. The tribute was thus paid each year by a large number of cities, and it was probably not till the seventeenth and last year of Akhnaton’s reign that this pretence of loyalty was altogether discarded.
In desperate straits at Byblos, Ribaddi made a perilous journey to the neighbouring city of Beyrût in order to attempt to collect reinforcements. No sooner had he left, however, than an insurrection occurred at Byblos, and Ribaddi paid for his loyalty to Egypt by losing the support of his own subjects. Presently Beyrût surrendered to Aziru, and Ribaddi was forced to fly. After many an adventure the stout old king managed to regain control of Byblos, and to set about the further defence of the city.
Meanwhile Aziru had paid a rapid visit to Egypt, partly to justify his conduct and partly, no doubt, to ascertain the condition of affairs on the Nile. With Oriental cunning he managed to satisfy Akhnaton that his intentions were not hostile to Egypt, and so returned to the Lebanon. Ribaddi, hearing of this, at once sent his son to the City of the Horizon to expose Aziru’s perfidy and to plead for assistance against him. At the same time he wrote to Akhnaton a pathetic account of his misfortunes. Four members of his family had been taken prisoners; his brother was constantly conspiring against him; old age and disease pressed heavily upon him. All his possessions had been taken from him, all his lands devastated; he had been reduced by famine and the privations of a long siege to a state of utter destitution, and he could not much longer hold out. “The gods of Byblos,” he writes, “are angry with me and sore displeased; for I have sinned against the gods, and therefore I do not come before my lord the King.” Was his sin, one wonders, the adoption for a while of Akhnaton’s faith? To this communication Akhnaton seems to have made no reply.