the prefect with Ben Khia (or Ben Tobia) a man of (war?); but despatch thou him to thy servant . . .”
57 B.—The salutation as usual mentions Baalath of Gebal. “Why shall the King my Lord send to me? The best indeed trembles, of those who watch for him against my foes, and of my freemen. What shall defend me if the King will not defend his servant? . . . if the King will order for us chiefs of the Land of Egypt, and of the Land of Nubia, and horses, by the hand of this my chief as I hope, and preservation for the servants of the King my Lord. If none at all to me . . . to march horses . . . my land is miserable. By my soul’s life! if the King cared at heart for the life of his servant, and of his chief city, he would have sent a garrison, and they had guarded thy city and thy servant. That the King shall know . . . of our lands; and Egyptian soldiers (bitati) shall be ordered; and to save all that live in his land, therefore it is spoken as a message to the King (with thy messengers?) As to the . . . of this dispute of Khaia with the city of Simyra, that they should send us without delay thirteen talents (or pieces of gold): I gave the proclamation. The men of blood are named in the letter to the city of Simyra.[1] It avails not. Ask Khaia as to the letter of our previous dispute with the city of Simyra—to satisfy the King, and to give security to the King, they are sending again, and . . .”
24 B.M This is broken at the top.
“And King my Lord, soldiers are moving to the city of Gebal, and behold the city Durubli[2] has sent forth soldiers to war to the city Simyra. If the heart of the King my Lord is toward the city of Durubli my Lord will also order many soldiers, thirty chariots and an hundred chief men of your land; and you will halt at the city Durubli, my Lord’s city. If the lands are to be defended, the King will order the departure of Egyptian soldiers (bitati) to the city of Gebal, and (I doubt not?) you will march to us). And I . . . to slay him, and . . . behold the King my Lord . . . faith-
- ↑ This perhaps refers to Khanni’s proclamation already given, and to the Khai who had been sent at an earlier period to Aziru. The rebels are named in the proclamation of the later embassy, which we thus see to have had no effect. An envoy without a military force behind him usually fails.
- ↑ Durubli is probably the city which the Greeks called Tripoli, the largest town between Simyra and Gebal. There is a village called Turbul, on the north-east of Tripoli (Trâblus).
