Page 317 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

she knew that no love was lost between Ai and Horemheb, who
commanded the northern army. If a Hittite prince came at her
summons, it seemed likely that he would come with the backing

of the troops of the delta. Horemheb cared nothing for Amon,
or for any god except his own hawk-god Horus, but he had
always been faithful to the ruling dynasty, whether that dynasty
worshipped Amon or Aten.

When the news came, it took her last hope. Suppiluliumas,
who had made Hatti a power in the north and who now ruled
from the Black Sea to the Lebanon, and from the Aegean to the
Euphrates, had left until too late the greatest coup of his career.

Ai had discovered what was afoot and had taken countermeas­
ures. The Great King had indeed sent one of his sons (she never
learned which), but before the prince reached the frontier of
Egypt and the delta army he was assassinated.

Some weeks later, with appropriate pomp, Ankhesenamon
was wedded to Ai, and Ai was proclaimed pharaoh.
It was never a marriage in anything other than name.
Ankhesenamon was determined that there should be no children
to perpetuate Ai’s line. She set up her own establishment within

the palace and was rarely seen. At the age of twenty-one, the
young and beautiful queen in fact retired from the world.
She heard of her husband’s official acts of government. Now

that the priests of Amon were the open rulers of Egypt, much
of the revenues of the country were directed officially to the
building of temples and to increasing the estates of the existing
temples. Of the corruption which accompanied this priestly rule
she heard little. Now that the tax collectors and the royal in­

spectors were priestly nominees, there was no check on the
rapacity of local officials. Fortunes were made through fraudulent
returns and through bribes. And the middle class, the traders

and small landowners, suffered the most. Even within the palace
it was not entirely unknown that conspiracies were afoot, often
associated with the names of prominent army officers, to over­
throw the rule of the priests. More and more often the name of

Horemheb was mentioned by the discontented.
For Horemheb held the north in a firm grip. At the accession
of Ai he had neglected to send the customary congratulations