emissaries to his palace on the city’s acropolis. Here their leader,
Ramesses’diplomat-in-chief, will hold audience with him.
Inside the gate, numerous mudbrick buildings spread across the
terrain that slopes downwards to the lower section of the city,
which is enclosed by another set of walls. The royal palace is located
on a plateau just inside them. Recently replastered, the walls glisten
in the early morning light. The king’s guard clears a path for the
pharaoh’s men, escorting them through the crowds of bystanders
across a causeway to the royal citadel. Once within the royal
precinct, the emissaries are led through a succession of courtyards
and up aflight of steps to a large pillared hall, with a throne at one
end. Here they will pay their respects, on behalf of the pharaoh, to
the Great King of Hatti, and deliver to him letters and gifts from his
Royal Brother in Egypt.
For some time, they are kept waiting. The king has yet to emerge
from his private apartments. And the delay gives his own people
time to inspect the crates of gifts, delivered to another part of the
palace. The crates are opened, the gifts checked against a clay tablet
inventory to make sure that everything tallies up, and some of the
gold is taken and melted down to confirm that it is pure. All the
gifts are assessed to ensure they are worthy of their recipient.
To judge from the itemised lists that accompanied other diplomatic
missions from one Royal Brother to another, the gifts might
include pieces of furniture made of ebony, silver cosmeticflasks,
ceremonial weapons, delicately wrought combs of ivory, oilflasks
shaped like oxen, special novelty pieces like a silver monkey with a
baby in her lap, an abundance of linen cloth and linen garments of
thefinest quality, and large bars of gold. Word is passed to one of
the officials that everything is in order. All the items will be laid out
for public display, or at least for viewing by the privileged members
of the king’s court.
It is now time for the king to make his grand entrance. He’s
accompanied by his queen. Both are decked out in full ceremonial
garb, suitable for receiving envoys from a royal peer. The pharaoh’s
chief emissary is summoned before the king and queen and given
permission to speak. He does so in Akkadian, and one of the king’s
translators is at hand to render his speech in Hittite. The emissary
AN ELITE FRATERNITY:THE CLUB OF ROYAL BROTHERS 225