Page 315 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

262 The Argosies [1370-1300 B.C.]

siege of the mighty fortress lying where the Euphrates leaves the
mountains for the plains, and undoubtedly expected that any
message from Egypt would be a protest against his occupation
of territory which had been theirs until the revolt of Aziru thirty
years before.
With surprise he read a personal message from the queen of
Egypt: “My husband has died, and I have no sons, but of you
it is said that you have many sons. Send me one of your sons
and he will become my husband. I will on no account take one
of my subjects; to make such a man my husband would be
abhorrent to me.”
Suppiluliumas, the shrewd master of strategems and di­
plomacy, scented treachery. Clearly Egypt wanted one of his
sons as a hostage to deter him from venturing farther south into
former Egyptian territory. He sent a trusted, but expendable,
envoy to investigate the true state of affairs, and returned to his
siege. He captured Carchemish after eight days—but those eight
days lost him Egypt.
When his envoy reached Thebes, preparations for the funeral
of the pharaoh were in full swing. All the personal possessions of
Tutankhamon were being transported to his grave, and the
widowed queen stood sadly by as the beds and the great golden
throne, the bows and arrows and writing cases, the golden scimi­
tars and the chests of clothing, the chariots and the inlaid gaming
boards, all the relics of their life together, were carried out of the
palace. The embalming was almost completed and the gold death
mask was prepared, and every day courtiers and civil servants
were delivering to the palace the wooden figures, covered with
gold leaf, that symbolized their pledge to serve their master in the

next world as they had in this.
To the Hittite envoy Ankhesenamon gave a second, hurried
letter: “Why do you say I wish to deceive you? If I had a son,
would I write to a foreigner and publish my shame? You insult
me by speaking thus. He who was my husband is dead, and I
have no son. Must I then take one of my subjects and marry him?
I have written to no one but you. Everyone says you have many
sons; give me one of them that he may become my husband.