Before the Throne

38

HORUS HERALDED, “King Ahmose the Second!”

A tall, gaunt man stepped into the room. He paced to his place facing Osiris on his throne.

Thoth, Scribe of the Gods, then recited, “He bolstered the domestic order of the country. He relied excessively on an alliance with the Greeks, and overly indulged in dinners with wild drinking. During his reign, Persia emerged as a great power. To restrain her, Ahmose II sought to align Egypt with Babylonia and Greece, but Babylonia was destroyed.”

When Osiris invited him to speak, Ahmose II explained, “I considered King Apries responsible for his defeat before Babylon and that he was too weak to face the complex situation that confronted him. Thus I broke my pact with him and assumed the throne in his place. Then I fashioned an alliance to block the Persians, but the Persians won. Thereafter I turned to internal reform.”

“What did you do in domestic affairs?” Queen Hatshepsut queried.

“The country was notably affluent under me. And I enhanced civil law — it is enough to cite the rule requiring the rich to declare the sources of their wealth to the mayor of their city.”

“How did you prepare the common folk to deal with the nouveaux riches?” asked Thutmose III.

“My people were only concerned with farming and their own private lives,” said Ahmose II.

“You served as their example, in your love of riotous feasting with wine,” jibed Ramesses II. “I have nothing against such banquets — if the one who gives them is great!”

“His excellent works are not inconsiderable,” Isis interjected. “His plan was a wise one, though it failed.”

Osiris thought for a while, then pronounced, “You shall languish in Purgatory for a thousand years, before dwelling in the particular level of Paradise appropriate to your modest merit.”