The Life and Times of Akhnaton, Pharaoh of Egypt

by Arthur E. P. Brome Weigall

To this letter the writer added a postscript addressed to Akhnaton’s secretary, with whom he was evidently acquainted. “Bring these words plainly before my lord the King,” runs this pathetic appeal. “The whole land of my lord, the King, is going to ruin.”

The letters sent to Akhnaton from the few princes who remained loyal form a collection which even now moves the reader. To Akhnaton they must have been so many sword-thrusts, and one may picture him praying passionately for strength to set them aside. Soon it would seem that the secretaries hardly troubled to show them to him; and ultimately they were so effectually pigeon-holed that they have only recently been discovered. The Pharaoh permitted himself to answer some of them, and seems to have asked questions as to the state of affairs; but never does he offer any encouragement. Lapaya, one of the princes of the south, who had evidently received a communication from Akhnaton in which his fidelity was questioned, wrote saying that if the Pharaoh ordered him to drive a sword of bronze into his heart he would do so. It is a commentary upon the veracity of the Oriental that in subsequent letters this prince is stated to have attacked Megiddo, and ultimately to have been slain while fighting against the Egyptian loyalists.

Addudaian, a king of some unknown city of south Judea, acknowledges the receipt of a letter from Akhnaton in which he was asked to remain loyal; and he complains, in reply, of the loss of various possessions. Dagantakala, the king of another city, writes imploring the Pharaoh to rescue him from the Khabiri. Ninur, a queen of a part of Judea, who calls herself Akhnaton’s handmaid, entreats the Pharaoh to save her, and records the capture of one of her cities by the Khabiri.

And so the letters run on, each telling of some disaster to the Egyptian cause, and each voicing the bitter complaint of those who were being sacrificed to the principles of a king who had grasped the meaning of civilisation too soon.

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.