The Concubine's Son

by H A CULLEY

  After that Ashlatum concentrated on befriending the other concubines and she gradually isolated the queen. Whether or not Sin-Muballit was planning to replace Zuuthusu by Hammurabi as his heir, Nidintu had dripped enough venom in her son’s ear to convince him to kill the king.

  ‘What do I do with her, mother? Now you are not there, she rules the harem again and I am in danger of incubating a nest of vipers in the heart of my palace.’

  ‘Hmmm. Poison would be too obvious; then her brother might feel he had to bestir himself and avenge her.’ She thought for a moment. ‘There is a shrine to Amasagnul, the fertility goddess, in the middle of that lake beside Borsippa. You could send her and her obnoxious daughter there as priestesses. Who could object to that?’

  ‘That’s brilliant, mother. Not only does it remove them to where they can’t do any harm, but they’ll hate it.’ Hammurabi grinned at the thought and got up to leave, but Ashlatum put a detaining hand on his arm.

  ‘You need to think what to do with the rest of the concubines too, and it’s time you got yourself a wife. You need an heir to be truly secure on your throne.’

  Hammurabi stiffened and bit back the retort that had immediately sprung to his lips. He loved his mother but he didn’t want her trying to match make.

  ‘Perhaps, but there are other more urgent matters for now,’ he muttered after a few moment’s thought. He left the room, knowing his mother was correct, but he intended to devote more care to selecting his queen than his father had.

  ~#~

  Abilkisu bowed low. ‘You wanted to see me, lord king?’

  ‘Yes, come and sit down.’ Abilkisu hesitated for a moment. No-one sat in the presence of the king. But when Hammurabi impatiently waved at the chair next to him, he scuttled over to do as he was bid.

  ‘Why is the treasury so impoverished? Even allowing for Zuuthusu’s theft of some of the gold, surely Babylon should be much richer than it is?’

  ‘Your father, Marduk care for his soul, was a generous man; too generous. He bought precious stones from Elam and had the goldsmiths make jewellery for the queen and for his favourite concubines.’ Abilsiku paused, obviously debating whether to say more.

  ‘Come on, man, I want the truth. You needn’t worry about offending me.’

  ‘Well, I fear that your father never bothered to institute a proper tax collection system. If he needed money he either borrowed it at usurious rates of interest or collected as much as he needed from some who owed taxes and forgot about the rest as soon as he had what he wanted.’ Abilsiku coughed nervously. He wasn’t used to plain speaking. In his world survival usually depended on saying what his listener wanted to hear.

  ‘Good. Thank you. Now draw up a list of all those who owe taxes going back over, what?’ He looked at his treasurer. ‘Would five years be fair?’

  When Abilsiku nodded, he continued, ‘Give them a reasonable time to pay what they owe but make it clear to everyone that, from now on, taxes must be paid on time and in full.’

  ‘Is that all, lord king?’ Abilsiku started to get out of his chair, eager to make a start.

  ‘No, far from it.’

  ‘Oh, my apologies.’ The treasurer sat down again and motioned for his scribe to make notes.

  ‘I need the money to improve the irrigation system throughout the lands under my control. That way we can maximise our food production and, as a tenth of it comes to me, my wealth. I also plan to manufacture jewellery, weapons and armour. I don’t want to give the jewellery away but I need it, and the weapons, to increase our trade with Syria and the distant Mediterranean lands. We have a number of bronze foundries now but I want to make Babylon the centre for bronze-smiths in Mesopotamia. I also want stone and timber in exchange to improve the defences of our cities, and I can only get that from the mountains that run along the Phoenician coast.’

  ‘Why sell weapons only to distant lands, lord king? It would be more profitable to sell them closer to home.’

  Hammurabi gave the man a sharp look. ‘Of course, but I have no intention of arming my enemies. Today’s allies are tomorrow’s potential foes. In any case, the Euphrates is the ideal trading route, once I have built up my fleet of boats.’

  The king wondered if the man could really be as innocent as his question implied. What he didn’t tell him was that he also needed to stockpile weapons and armour for a large Babylonian army. He hadn’t yet explained his plans in that direction to anyone yet, not even his mother, who he trusted above everyone.

  Chapter Three – The Hittite – 1791 BCE

  Hammurabi was worried. Eshnunna had been suspiciously quiet ever since Zuuthusu had taken refuge there. There had been no border incident – in itself unusual – and no signs of Eshnunna preparing to invade. His advisors seemed to regard this as good news, but the king wasn’t so sure. His brother would have heard reports of Babylon’s progress - the increase in land under cultivation and the emergence of the city as a major trading port – and he had expected some interference with his plans; but nothing had happened.

  One of the problems had been finding farmers for the newly irrigated land. He had solved this by offering it to farmers who couldn’t afford to buy the land in exchange for half the profits generated until they had paid off the purchase price. He had also sold land to merchants who had then let it to tenants. Not only had this generated significant income for the treasury but it increased the population.

  His next step had been to use the increase in available manpower to build up Babylon’s military might. In the past the general population had provided an enthusiastic militia infantry. Shepherds and boys were used as slingers and the number of archers depended on those who could afford a bow. Chariots and those who manned them were generally sponsored by wealthy merchants and the king. It was an inexpensive way or producing any army when required but they were ill-trained and useful only for a mainly defensive role. Few would be prepared to travel outside the environs of Babylon and its other city states to fight.

  One of Hammurabi’s first actions had been to develop a proper force of camel riders. Those he had used when he seized the throne had been borrowed from merchants who used them for trade caravans. Infantry, and even chariots drawn by onagers, were slow over any distance and thus of limited use in patrolling or carrying messages swiftly from A to B.

  The merchants of Kish bought their camels from Bedouin tribesmen who came from the deserts to the west of the Euphrates. The only market they attended was at Rapiqum, a town on the west bank of the river to the north of Sippar. Unfortunately, this was inside the kingdom of Mari , which was allied to Mari at the time. When Hammurabi announced his intention to travelling there, his council was appalled.

  ‘If you are recognised, they will kill you and we’ll have Zuuthusu imposed on us as king.’ His chief minister was the first to react to the announcement. Hammurabi couldn’t quite work out whether the prospect secretly pleased Ibbi-Addad or not. It really was time he replaced him, he decided.

  ‘I will be quite safe. I will travel there as one of a party of merchants from Kish.’

  ‘Without taking an escort?’ Bashaa fretted.

  ‘Just the normal few guards that would escort any party of traders,’ he told him. ‘It’ll also give me the chance to see if I can find out what’s happening in Eshnunna.’

  ~#~

  The journey from Kish to Rapiqum was uneventful, once Hammurabi had succeeded in preventing the merchants who accompanied him from bowing to the ground every time he appeared. Most of them rode donkeys or travelled in carts drawn by onagers but Hammurabi elected to ride a camel. A double saddle for the hump had been designed by one of the leather workers in Babylon so that a young boy sitting in front could control the camel; the second seat behind was designed for an archer but in this case it was occupied by the king. He found the motion uncomfortable but, after he had been sick once, he got used to it, as he did to the smell.

  The boy put the camel through its paces and Hammurabi was alarmed at th
e speed with which it could run. It was certainly a lot faster than a chariot drawn by onagers and he began to think of its military application, in addition to patrols and carrying messengers. If archers could be taught to cope with its erratic motion, they could be a valuable weapon on the battlefield: coming in fast, striking and then withdrawing before they became engaged in fighting. He had originally conceived a camel force perhaps forty or fifty strong, but now he began to think of hundreds.

  They spent the night south of Sippar. He didn’t want to enter the city because word of his presence would inevitably leak out. They skirted it out of sight to the east and re-joined the road along the bank of the Euphrates until Rapiqum came in sight. The town lay twenty five miles north of Sippar and for the last few miles they had been inside the kingdom of Mari.

  The actual town of Rapiqum was quite small, consisting of perhaps two hundred houses, a small temple and the governor’s palace. There was no wall around it; instead it was surrounded by brightly coloured tents. There was no bridge but six large rafts made of reeds plied to and from across the Euphrates. To save being washed downstream by the current, the crews hauled the rafts across the river using a number of thick ropes made from hemp which were securely tethered to palm trees on each bank. It took an hour for the traders from Kish to finish crossing, then they went and set up camp upstream of the early arrivals.

  The next day Hammurabi, accompanied by Bashaa and one other member of the palace guard dressed as caravan guards, was guided by one of the merchants from Kish to where camels were being sold.

  ‘You can’t buy too many, lord king,’ the merchant whispered to him. ‘It would look suspicious. Can I suggest that you negotiate for ten and say that you have friends who are also interested? Then you can arrange a separate meeting at Sippar next week.’

  The purchase of the camels went smoothly and the king arranged the meeting without, he thought, arousing suspicion. However, Bashaa saw the Bedouin’s eyes light up with greed at the prospect of further sales. Perhaps self-interest would keep his tongue still but Bashaa worried that he would tell people of his good luck and so draw unwanted attention to their party.

  Early the following morning the merchants from Kish left, having concluded their business. Hammurabi’s plan was to travel with them as far as Sippar and wait there for the Bedouin camel traders. However, the arrival of a caravan the next day caught his interest. The chief guard was dressed in a way he hadn’t seen before and he was riding a horse, an animal the king had heard of but never seen. He was intrigued and even Bashaa’s warning that he thought they were being watched didn’t deter him from speaking to him.

  He waited until the new arrivals had camped and then he, accompanied by Bashaa, walked over to speak to the man.

  ‘Stop looking behind you, it makes you look furtive.’ Hammurabi admonished his protector quietly.

  ‘I’m certain we are being followed, lord king. The sooner we leave here the happier I’ll be.’

  Bashaa tried to appear normal and resisted the temptation to glance over his shoulder again. Had he done so, he might have seen a nondescript man darting from cover to cover as he shadowed them. What the man didn’t know was that he himself was being followed by one of the camel boys that Hammurabi had brought with him. The boy was only eleven and could blend into the bustle of the camp more easily than his quarry. A hundred yards behind him, three of the disguised Babylon palace guards trailed the boy, just in case they were needed.

  Hammurabi came across the strange looking caravan guard as he was tending to his horse. He was dressed in a short kilt that ended above his knees, a broad leather belt from which hung what looked like a very long dagger and a bronze helmet of a different design to those found in Mesopotamia. He was bare chested with several old scars on his torso and arms.

  The king greeted him in Sumerian but it was obvious that the man didn’t understand him; so he switched to Akkadian, the language spoken by most of the peoples of Mesopotamia. This time, the man replied, but in Phoenician, the lingua franca of traders.

  ‘I understand a little Akkadian but I speak Phoenician better. What do you want with me?’

  Bashaa stepped forward to upbraid the man for speaking so brusquely to the king, but Hammurabi held up his arm to keep him in place.

  ‘Obviously that isn’t your native language either. Where are you from, stranger?’

  ‘What business is it of yours?’ the man asked warily.

  ‘I am merely making polite enquiries. You have the look of an experienced soldier and I may be able to offer you employment.’

  ‘I already have employment, as you can see.’ He indicated the caravan with which he had arrived.

  ‘I’m talking about armies, not a pitiful handful of caravan nursemaids.’

  The man looked him up and down. ‘No merchant, and a young one at that, employs armies.’

  Just at that moment the man who had followed him appeared accompanied by four of the town watch.

  ‘Hammurabi, you are to come with me. The governor has ordered that you be detained until the true King of Babylon, Zuuthusu arrives here.’

  The king and Bashaa were only armed with bronze daggers; to carry weapons in the merchants’ camp would have been highly suspicious. Unfortunately, the town watch carried spears, which they now levelled at the two Babylonians. Suddenly, the palace guards stepped forward and grabbed three of the soldiers from behind. Bashaa grasped the haft of the remaining spear whilst its holder was distracted and pulled it out of his grasp. Hammurabi had drawn his dagger and was about to deal with the man who had been following them when the stranger stepped forward and, with a swift movement of his long dagger, he cut deeply into the fellow’s neck.

  Bashaa and the palace guards quickly dealt with the town watch but by now there was uproar throughout the merchants’ camp.

  The stranger quickly remounted his horse and offered his hand to Hammurabi, who swung his body up behind him. Just at that moment a string of camels appeared being ridden by the camel boys and the remaining Babylonian soldiers. Within a few seconds everyone was mounted and followed in the wake of the horse carrying the stranger and the king as they rode down the west bank of the Euphrates.

  After a few miles the party stopped. There was no road this side of the river and the ground was strewn with rocks so chariots couldn’t easily pursue them. Everyone dismounted and Hammurabi thanked the stranger for his help. The man made a low bow with his hands clasped across his chest.

  ‘It is my pleasure to serve you, lord king. Especially as I now seem to have cut my ties with my former employer and will, no doubt, face an unpleasant death should I return to Marian territory.’ He straightened and looked the king in the eye. ‘You mentioned something about leading an army?’

  ‘Am I correct in thinking that such a task would not be unfamiliar to you?’

  The stranger shrugged. ‘I was King Anittas’s senior military commander before he was killed and I was disgraced.’

  ‘Anittas,’ Hammurabi murmured, trying to recall where he had heard the name before. Then he dimly remembered his tutor telling him something about a new kingdom emerging in the mountains of Anatolia. It slowly came back to him. The tutor had said that its capital was Hattusas and the people were called Hittites. They had slowly conquered the other city states of Anatolia until they came up against the expanding kingdom of the Assyrians.

  ‘Do you come from Hattusas?’ he asked the Hittite.

  ‘No, from Kussara, the original home of our kings. It was at the palace there that Anittas and his whole family was massacred by Labarnas, his chief minister. I managed to escape by boat down to Tarsa, where I bought this horse, and from there made my way to the Phoenician coast. Once there, I managed to get a job protecting caravans.’

  ‘Did you have a family at Kussara?’

  ‘No, they are at Hattusus, where my wife’s father is the chief elder. I only hope that he can protect her and our three children. But, either way, they are as good as dead to
me now.’ A look of abject misery flitted across the Hittite’s face before he composed himself again.

  Hammurabi muttered some words of sympathy before asking the man his name.

  ‘Tarhunda, lord king.’

  ‘Well, Tarhunda, I am looking for a man to train and lead my army. Do you think that you are the one I am seeking?’

  ‘Provided I can learn Arkkadian quickly, I think you have found your commander, lord king.’ The man grinned, feeling happier that he had for some time.

  ~#~

  A week later and the promised camel traders began to arrive on the west bank of the Euphrates opposite the Babylonian city of Sippar. Hammurabi hadn’t bothered to cross over; the river was quite fast flowing at this point and to do so by boat would have been both time consuming and hazardous. It didn’t seem worth it, especially as the camels would arrive on this side.

  After a day of intense haggling, Hammurabi had bought another hundred camels for his royal messenger service and for border patrols. He had discussed the use of camels for warfare with Tarhunda but his new commander wasn’t convinced.

  ‘In the mountains, we use horses for the type of work for which you plan to use camels, but no-one has suggested using horses in battle. They are tough to catch and to train and, if it is difficult to shoot an arrow from the hump of a camel, it must be impossible to do so from horseback. We have tried using them instead of onagers to pull chariots, but they haven’t got the strength to do so for very long; the chariots are just too heavy. To use horses to pull them, someone would need to find a way of making the chariots much lighter.’