ing they have contrived to seize her—the sons of Abdasherah, and (there is) none who lives to carry the message to the King. But counsel now thy faithful servant. I say also the whole of the fortress they have destroyed . . . I sent to the King . . . of advice as to the city Simyra. As a bird in the midst of the net she has remained. The siege of the usurpers is exceeding strong, and the messenger who from . . .”
The letter is much broken. It refers to Yapaaddu and to his own faithfulness to the Pakas (“chiefs”) of the King. He also appears to refer to the King destroying the Amorites, and goes on:
“The ruins perchance he will assign to his servant; and he has been constant and is upright against this thing—to subdue all the King’s (provinces?). He has lost all the cities which . . . this has befallen to . . . and from the destruction . . . against me none who . . . them. The two or three that have held fast are turning round. But he hears his faithful servant’s message, and a servant who has been constant in all labor, and his handmaid the city of Gebal (is) the only one that holds fast for me. The evils of this deed are equally thine, but I am broken in pieces. Henceforth Aziru is the foe of Yapaaddu. They have marched; and (there is) news that they have been cruel in their ravages against me. They rest not: they desire the evil of all that are with me. So they have waxed strong, powerful against me (a servant) faithful to the King from of old . . . Moreover, behold I am a faithful servant: this evil is wrought me: behold this message: lo! I am the dust of the King’s feet. Behold thy father did not wring, did not smite the lands of his rulers (Khazani) and the
Gods established him—the Sun God, the God . . . and Baalath of Gebal. But the sons of Abdasherah have destroyed from . . . us the throne of thy father’s house, and . . . to take the King’s lands for themselves. They have joined the King of the land of Mitana,[1] and the King of the land of Casi[2] and the King of the land of the Hittites . . . the King
- ↑ “Mitana,” the later Matiene. Dusratta, its king, claimed to rule the Hittites. The Amorites joined this league.
- ↑ The region called “Casi” in the inscription of Usurtasen I (Brugsch, “Hist.,” i., p. 139) was in Upper Egypt, and the Cush of the Bible is apparently intended—a very vague term for the southern deserts from the Euphrates to Nubia. There were, however, Cushites also in Babylonia. In the present case the Cassites who lived on the Euphrates, east of the Hittites, and who were Mongols, are probably intended.
