Egypt great and powerful I myself am made great and powerful. This is no more than fitting, as you may understand, Sinuhe.”
His words made little impression on me, for I had known him as a boastful boy, and I had seen his parents, who smelled of cheese, and cattle, although he had raised them to distinction. Therefore, I could not take him very seriously although it was plain that he sought to make himself divine in my sight. I concealed my thoughts from him and began to speak of Princess Baketamon, who was mortally offended because she had not been given a place of fitting dignity in Tutankhamon’s procession. Horemheb listened to me greedily and offered me wine, that I might tell him more of Baketamon. So the time passed as we sailed down the river to Memphis, while the chariots of the Hittites laid waste the Lower Kingdom.
BOOK 14
The Holy War
1
While Horemheb was in Memphis, collecting troops and equipment, he summoned the wealthy men of Egypt and addressed them.
“You are all affluent men and I but a shepherd boy born with dung between the toes. Nevertheless, Ammon has blessed me, and Pharaoh has entrusted me with the leadership of this campaign. The enemy that threatens our land is formidable and of hideous savagery as you well know. It has given me great satisfaction to hear you speak your minds boldly-to acknowledge that war demands sacrifices from everyone, for which reason you have curtailed the grain measure of your slaves and laborers and raised the price of goods all over Egypt. I perceive from your words and deeds that you also are prepared to make great sacrifices. In order to sustain the cost of war it will be needful for each one of you to lend me-and at once-one half of his estate, whether in gold, silver, or grain, in cattle, horses, or chariots. It is all one to me, so it be delivered promptly.”
At this the rich men of Egypt broke out in loud expostulation; they tore their robes and said, “The false Pharaoh has beggared us already, and we are penniless men! What security do you offer us for the loan of half our estates, and what interest do you mean to pay?”
Horemheb surveyed them kindly.
“My security is the victory that with your help, my dear friends, I intend to win as soon as possible. If I do not win it, the Hittites will come and rob you of all you have; therefore, my security seems to me sufficient. As to the interest, I intend to make a separate agreement with each one, and I hope that my terms will prove acceptable to you all. But you protested too soon, for I had not yet finished what I had to say. I require at once one half of your estates as a loan-merely as a loan, my good sirs. At the end of four months you shall again lend me one half of the remainder; and after a year, one half of what you still have left. You yourselves are best able to compute the sum finally remaining in your possession, but I am well assured that it will prove more than adequate to supply your cooking pots for the rest of your lives and that I am in no way robbing you.”
Then the rich men threw themselves down before him, weeping bitterly and hitting the floor with their foreheads until the blood came. But he consoled them.
“I summoned you because I know that you love Egypt and are willing to make liberal sacrifice on its behalf. You are wealthy, and each of you has made his fortune by his own efforts. I am sure that you will soon restore these fortunes; the rich man always grows richer even though superfluous juice be pressed from him now and again. You, most excellent men, are to me a precious orchard. Though I squeeze you as I might squeeze a pomegranate so that the seeds spurt out between my fingers, yet like a good gardener I would not harm the trees but only gather in the harvest from time to time. Remember also that I give you a great war-greater than you dream of-and in time of war the well-to-do man is bound to prosper. The longer the war, the greater his prosperity; no power in the world can prevent this-not even Pharaoh’s taxation department. You should be grateful to me. I send you home now with my blessing. Go in peace, be diligent, swell up again like ticks, for there is none to hinder you.”
With these words he dismissed them. They departed groaning and lamenting and rending their garments, yet as soon as they had passed the doors, they ceased their outcry. They began busily calculating their losses and planning means to repair them.
Horemheb said to me, “This war is a gift to them. From now on, when they rob the people, they may blame the Hittites for all calamities just as Pharaoh can blame them for the famine and misery the war brings on the land of Kem. In the end it is the people who pay; the wealthy will rob them of many times the sum they lend to me-I can then squeeze them again. This method suits me better than a war tax. If I levied such a tax on the people, they would curse my name. By robbing the rich to pay for the war, I win the blessing of the people and their favor as a just man.”
At this time the delta country stood in flames. Roving Hittite bands set fire to the villages and grazed their horses on the sprouting corn. Fugitives came in hordes to Memphis, bringing such hideous tales of the Hittite frenzy for destruction that my heart quailed and I begged Horemheb to hasten.
But he smiled unconcernedly, saying, “The Egyptians must have a taste of the Hittites if they are to be persuaded that no grimmer fate can befall them than to be bound to the enemy in slavery. I would be mad to set forth with raw troops and no chariots. Don’t be uneasy, Sinuhe; Gaza is still ours-Gaza is the cornerstone on which this war is built. Until this city is in their hands, the Hittites dare not send their main force into the desert. They are not in undisputed control of the sea. I have sent patrols into the desert to harry the bandits and guerrilla fighters, and I am not so idle as you seem to think. Egypt is menaced by no exceptional danger until the Hittites are able to bring their foot soldiers across the desert to the Black Land.”
Men were streaming into Memphis from every part of Egypt: hungry men, men who in Aton’s name had lost homes and families and no longer valued their lives, and men who lusted for adventure and the spoils of war. Heedless of the priests, Horemheb pardoned all who had shared in the foundation of Aton’s kingdom and freed the prisoners from the quarries so as to press them into his service. Memphis soon resembled a vast camp. Life here was turbulent. Fighting raged in the taverns and pleasure houses every night, and peaceful people locked themselves into their houses, to remain there in fear and trembling. From smithy and workshop came the ring of hammers. So great was the fear of the Hittites that even poor women gave up their copper ornaments to be forged into arrowheads.
Ships were continually putting in at Egyptian ports from the islands in the sea and from Crete. Horemheb commandeered them all and took officers and crews into his employ. He captured even Cretan warships and forced their crews to serve Egypt. Such vessels were now scattered about the sea and were cruising from port to port, unwilling to return home. It was said that insurrection had broken out among the slaves in Crete and that the city of the nobles upon the hill had been blazing like a torch for weeks past and could be seen far out to sea. Yet no one had any sure report of what was happening, and the Cretan seamen lied as was their custom. Some claimed that the Hittites had invaded the island, although how this could have happened when they were not a seafaring nation is hard to understand. Others maintained that a strange, fair-haired race from the North had sailed thither to lay waste the country and despoil it. But with one voice the Cretans declared that all calamities had come about because their god was dead. For this reason they were glad to take service with the Egyptians. Nevertheless others of their nation, who had sailed to Syria, allied themselves with Aziru and the Hittites.
All this was much to Horemheb’s advantage, for exceedingly great confusion prevailed at sea, where it was all against all in the scramble for ships. Rebellion had broken out in Tyre against Aziru, and surviving rebels had made their escape to Egypt, where they enrolled under Horemheb. Thus Horemheb was able to muster a fleet and fit it out for battle with the help of experienced crews.
Gaza still stood. When the harvest was in and the river began to rise, Horemheb set forth from Memphis with his troops. He sent forward messengers by sea and land to penetrate the lines of the besiegers; a vessel that sailed into Gaza harbor under cover of night, laden with sacks of grain, carried the message: “Hold Gaza! Hold Gaza at any price!” While battering rams thundered at the gates and the roofs of the city blazed because no one had time to extinguish the fires, an arrow here and there came singing in with the message: “Horemheb commands you! Hold
