Before the Throne

14

HORUS CALLED OUT, “King Thutmose the First!”

A lissome man of medium height advanced in his shroud until he stood before the throne.

Thoth read from the sacred scroll, “Domestic matters calmed during his reign. He undertook a military expedition to Nubia. He put down a revolt in Syria and extended his reach nearly to the borders of Naharin. He had wood imported from Lebanon, using it to build temples to the gods.”

Osiris invited Thutmose I to address the court.

“My mother was a commoner,” confessed Thutmose I, “thus my blood was not wholly royal. To make up for this, I married the Princess Ahmose, legitimizing my rule. My urge to see into the Unknown led me to invade Nubia in order to arrive at the sacred spring that lay at the source of the Nile. When I aimed my arrow at the enemy commander, he fell down dead — and I ripped his army to shreds. I was the first to reach the Third Cataract, where I erected five stelae to record our victories just as I built a fortress there as a garrison. I reorganized the administration, improving conditions for the tribes, and had almost returned to Thebes when news came to me of an uprising in Syria — which I put down by leading a campaign against it.

“Once back in Egypt, I decided to use the head tax exclusively for reform and construction, putting my trust in the genius of Ineni, who built two giant pylons at the entrance of the temple of Amun, as well as a great covered enclosure supported by columns made from the cedars of Lebanon. It was my good fortune to have restored the temple of Osiris — your own temple, My Lord — in the town of Abydos long since buried in sand, embellishing it with splendid furnishings and vessels of silver and gold, while creating religious endowments to maintain it as well.”

“Why was there unrest in Syria?” asked Pharaoh Ahmose I.

“To put an end to the head tax,” answered Thutmose I.

“Didn’t you leave a garrison behind you, as you had done in Nubia?” queried Amenhotep I.

“No,” came the reply, “I was wary of splitting my forces, but left behind a contingent to deal with emergencies.”

“And thus we reap what we sow!” lamented the Sage Ptahhotep.

“You were humiliated to the point where you had to marry a princess in order to bestow legitimacy on your rule,” bemoaned Abnum. “There’s no shame in the fact that your mother was from the people. If only you had not disavowed the glorious popular revolution and its great rule, and drawn the veil of injustice over it, then you would not have subjected your dignity to this degradation.”

“We blame you, O Divinity,” Khufu inveighed against Osiris, referring to Abnum, “for bringing this strange agitator among us.”

“He earned his place by meeting the obligation for divine and just rule,” rebutted Osiris.

“This son is in need of no defense,” declared Isis.

“To your place among the Immortals,” Osiris ordered Thutmose I.