by Mika Waltari
He drove to the harbor and boarded his ship, for he was to sail directly to Memphis, having already tarried too long in Thebes. According to the latest reports the horses of the Hittites were even now grazing in Tanis. I too went on board, and none sought to hinder me when I went up to him and said, “Horemheb, Pharaoh Akhnaton is dead; therefore I am released from my post as his skull surgeon and am free to come and go as I please. I mean to go with you into battle, for to me all things are indifferent and I am nowhere happy. I would see what manner of blessing is to come of this war of which you have spoken throughout your life. I would learn whether your rule is better than that of Akhnaton, or whether the earth is governed by the spirits of the underworld.”
Horemheb was overjoyed and said, “May this be a good omen-although I never should have supposed that you, Sinuhe, would be the first to volunteer for this war! No, this I could not have believed, knowing that you prefer comfort and soft couches to the strenuous exertions of the field. I fancied you might watch over my interests in the golden house-but perhaps it is better for you to come with me since you are a simple sort of man whom anyone may lead by the nose. In this way I have at least a clever doctor and may well find need for such. Truly, Sinuhe, my men were right to name you Son of the Wild Ass when we fought the Khabiri together, for you must certainly have the heart of that beast to feel no dread of the Hittites.
As he spoke, the oarsmen dipped their oars, and the vessel moved out into the current with floating pennants. The quays were white with throngs, whose shouting was like a gale of wind in our ears. Horemheb drew a deep breath and said smiling, “My oration made a deep impression on the people, as you see.”
I followed him to his cabin, from which he drove his scribes. Then he washed his hands, smelled them, and said coolly, “By Set and all devils! I did not think that the priests of Sekhmet still performed human sacrifice. But the old fellows were no doubt excited, for the gates of Sekhmet’s temple have not been opened for at least forty years. I wondered why they required Hittite and Syrian prisoners for the ceremonies, but I let them have their way.”
So aghast was I at his words that my knees gave beneath me, but Horemheb went on indifferently, “Had I known, I would scarcely have permitted it. Believe me, Sinuhe, I was much startled to find a warm, bleeding human heart in my hand before the altar. But let us render to the priests what is theirs, and they will give us no trouble.”
“Horemheb,” said I, “is anything sacred to you?”
He pondered a little, and replied, “When I was young, I believed in friendship, and I believed also that I loved a certain woman, whose scorn drove me to madness. Now I know that no human being is an aim, but only a means. I am the center of all things; all things proceed from me and return to me. I am Egypt; I am the people. In making 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 t
roops 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 Gaza!” And when the Hittites hurled sealed jars over the walls containing venomous snakes, one of them would be found full of grain and among this Horemheb’s message: “Hold Gaza!” In what manner Gaza was able to withstand the combined assault of Aziru’s men and the Hittites is more than I can understand, but the irascible garrison commander, who had seen me hoisted up the walls in a basket, well deserved the renown he won by holding Gaza for Egypt.
Horemheb marched his forces rapidly to Tanis, where he surrounded and cut off a Hittite chariot squadron that had halted in the bight of the river. Under cover of darkness he set his men to digging out the dried-up irrigation canals so that the rising river filled them. In the morning the Hittites discovered that they were trapped on an island and began to slaughter their horses and destroy their chariots. At this Horemheb flew into a rage. His purpose had been to capture these unharmed. He sounded the horns and attacked. The raw Egyptian troops won an easy victory and cut down the enemy, who had alighted and fought on foot. In this way Horemheb captured a hundred chariots or more and above two hundred horses. The victory was more important than the capture, for after it the Egyptians no longer believed the enemy to be invincible.
Marshaling chariots and horses, Horemheb drove to Tanis at their head, leaving the slower foot soldiers and the supply wagons to follow. A wild fervor blazed in his face as he said to me, “If you strike, strike first and hard!”
So saying he thundered on his way to Tanis, heedless of the Hittite hordes that roved and ravaged through the Lower Kingdom. From Tanis he continued his advance straight into the desert, overpowered the Hittite detachments that had been posted to guard the water supplies, and captured store after store. The Hittites had stacked hundreds of thousands of water jars at intervals across the desert for the use of their foot soldiers since, being no mariners, they dared not attempt the invasion of Egypt from the sea. Without sparing their horses, Horemheb and his men pressed onward. Many beasts fell exhausted during this wild advance, of which eye witnesses declared that the hundred careering chariots sent up a pillar of dust to the very skies and that their progress was like that of the whirlwind. Each night beacons were kindled on the ranges of the Sinai hills, bringing the free forces from their hiding places to destroy the Hittite guards and their supplies all over the desert. From this grew the legend that Horemheb tore across the wilderness of Sinai like a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. After this campaign his fame was so illustrious that the people told stories of him as they tell stories of the gods.
Horemheb took the enemy entirely by surprise. With their knowledge of Egypt’s weakness they could not conceive how he dared to attack across the desert while their troops were harrying the Lower Kingdom. Their main forces were scattered among the cities and villages of Syria in the expectation of Gaza’s surrender, because the regions thereabout could not support the colossal army the Hittites had assembled in Syria for the conquest of Egypt. They were exceedingly thorough in their warfare and never attacked until they had assured themselves of their superiority. Their commanders had noted on their clay tablets every grazing ground, every watering place, and every village in the area they intended to attack. Because of these preparations they had postponed their invasion and were thunderstruck at Horemheb’s move, partly because never yet had anyone dared assail them first and partly because they had not believed that Egypt possessed chariots enough for so great an enterprise.
Horemheb’s purpose had been at most to destroy the Hittite water store in the desert, to gain time for the ordered training and equipment of his men. But his amazing success intoxicated him; he whirled on like the wind to Gaza, fell on the besiegers in their rear and scattered them, destroyed their engines of war and set their camps on fire. Yet he could not go into the city. When the besiegers saw how few were his chariots, they rallied and counterattacked. He would have been lost had these troops had chariots also. As it was he was able to withdraw into the desert, having destroyed the water stores on the fringe of it before the infuriated Hittites could call up chariots enough to pursue him.
Horemheb rightly augured from this that his falcon was with him.
Remembering the burning tree he had once seen among the Sinai hills, he sent word to his javelin throwers and archers, ordering them to advance in forced marches across the desert along one of the roads constructed by the Hittites, where stood hundreds of thousands of earthenware jars containing water enough to supply a large body of foot soldiers. His purpose now was to fight in the desert, although the ground was better suited to chariot warfare. I think he had no choice, for after his flight from the Hittites his men and horses were so exhausted that they could hardly have reached the Lower Kingdom alive. Therefore he summoned his whole army into the desert, which was an act without precedent.
I got this account of Horemheb’s f
irst attack on the Hittites from him and from his men; I was not with him. If I had been, I should assuredly never have lived to write this. It fell to me to survey the traces of the struggle from my carrying chair as I followed the foot regiments on their forced marches through the scorching dust, beneath the glare of the pitiless sun.
When we had toiled across the wilderness for two weeks, which, despite the plentiful supplies of water, were exhausting enough, we saw one night a pillar of fire rising from a hill beyond the desert and knew that Horemheb awaited us there with his chariots. This night has stayed in my memory, because I could not sleep. Darkness brings chill to the desert after the burning day, and men who have marched barefoot through sand and prickly plants for weeks cry out in their sleep and groan as if tormented by demons. It is for this reason no doubt that men believe the desert to be full of such beings. At dawn the horns rang out, and the march continued, although ever more men sank down unable to rise. Horemheb’s beacon called us, and from every quarter of the desert small groups of ragged, sun-blackened robbers and guerrilla fighters hurried toward the fiery signal.
If our troops hoped for time to rest when they arrived at Horemheb’s camp, they were to be sorely disappointed. If they believed he might commend them for their rapid march and for having worn the skin from their feet in the sand, they were indeed deluded. He received us with rage in his face; his eyes were bloodshot with weariness.
Swinging the golden whip, which was flecked with blood and dust, he said to us, “Where have you been loitering, dung beetles? Where have you skulked, you devils’ spawn? Truly I should rejoice to see your skulls whiten in the sand tomorrow; I am so filled with shame at the sight of you! You creep to me like tortoises; you smellof sweat and filth so that I am compelled to hold my nose, while my best men bleed from countless wounds and my noble horses pant their last. Dig now, you men of Egypt, dig for your lives! This is work most fitting for you who have dug all your lives in the mud.”