The many complaints to Pharaoh of Rib-Addi of Byblos.
| Author | Pryke, Louise M. |
| Position | Report |
This paper examines the nature and frequency of the complaints of Rib-Addi of Byblos to Pharaoh about neglect. Rib-Addi, the mayor of Byblos in the fourteenth century B.C.E. and an Egyptian vassal, is a unique character in the Amarna letters, both in terms of the volume of information that he provides, and the colorful ways in which he provides it. There are currently 350 letters and inventories in the 382 Amarna tablets. Of these 350, around 64 are thought to have been written to or by Rib-Addi of Byblos, (1) meaning that this corpus comprises almost one-fifth of the total number of letters and inventories. Rib-Addis zeal as a correspondent cannot be doubted, but the abundance of primary source material provided by his letters is something of a mixed blessing. The Rib-Addi correspondence is characterized by its magnitude but also by the writer's frequent. repetitiveness. This creates a situation in Rib-Addi's letters in which less frequently stated information could be overlooked and changes to commonly used themes could go unnoticed, having a negative impact on the accuracy of the interpretation. In order to utilize the information that Rib-Addi provides, it is necessary to organize the information contained in his correspondence in a systematic way that is to the benefit of its clarification and analysis.
In this study the method employed will be to identify Rib-Addi's repeated phrases and ideas on the theme of neglect, (2) and then to consider the frequency and context of this theme within the corpus of letters. It will be shown that there are three main types of complaint about neglect made by Rib-Addi, and that his usage of these complaints changes throughout the course of his correspondence. The chronological ordering of the Rib-Addi letters in the study at hand follows the work of Knudtzon and Moran. (3) Thus letters EA 68-95 are considered as having been written under the rule of Amenophis III, and letters EA 102 onwards are thought to be from the time of Akhenaton.
The theme of neglect within the Rib-Addi letters is one with particular relevance to scholarly debate. The suggestion that Akhenaton was negligent in foreign policy due to his preoccupation with religious reform (4) was once widely accepted and has been a subject of much discussion. Later, probably due to the influence of Gardiner, (5) the accepted view tended to lay the blame for the supposed neglect of vassals on both Amenophis III and Akhenaton. The Rib-Addi letters, with their unceasing requests for assistance and reports of impending disaster, have undoubtedly had a crucial role in the development of this negative view (6) and its persistence in modern scholarship. (7)
By systematically analyzing the data from the Rib-Addi letters it can be recognized that, contrary to the traditional view, there was a decrease in complaints of neglect under the reign of Akhenaton from what can be observed under Amenophis III. What also becomes apparent in the course of this analysis is that Rib-Addi of Byblos can be shown by the evidence to have been a shrewd political operator, highly focused on his own situation and that of the surrounding territories.
As well as categorizing Rib-Addi's complaints of negligence and analyzing their frequency, this paper will examine the content and context of the complaints in an attempt to gain a better insight into what motivations caused the Byblian vassal to complain. It is the view held here that the context of the thematic material in Rib-Addi's letters is of great importance for ascertaining the meaning of this material. An example of this is the well-known theme of loyalty. Although this is not the main point of this paper, Rib-Addi's image has been so shaped in modern scholarship by the theme of loyalty that it deserves a short comment. Moran expertly revealed that, with his frequent comments expressing loyalty to the king, Rib-Addi presented an image of himself as Pharaoh's arad kitti or loyal servant. (8) If Rib-Addi's comments about loyalty are analyzed in terms of content and context, it can be shown that Rib-Addi's most common motivation for making a declaration of loyalty is the pursuit of a reward, either in the form of military aid or material goods. Twenty out of forty-five declarations of loyalty seem to have this motivation. (9) Only twelve comments about loyalty have no obvious motive, and the remaining thirteen seem actually to have been motivated by the need to refute an allegation of disloyalty. 11 The importance of material goods and military aid to Rib-Addi is an issue which will resurface in the analysis below, but this brief example has already shown the importance of context when considering Rib-Addi's political motives.
CATEGORIES OF NEGLECT
The three main types of comment about neglect by Rib-Addi that will be examined in this study can be classified as follows:
1) comments that mention neglect directly (accusatory and non-accusatory), often with the use of the verb qalu: 2) comments that refer to Rib-Addi's words being unheeded (accusatory only); 3) comments that create a comparison between Rib-Addi's current situation and a previous one, the "comparison complaint."
Comments Directly Mentioning Neglect
The accusatory form of this complaint is usually a comment that makes a clear assertion of negligence or a neglectful deed, e.g., "Why have you neglected your country?" (EA 74: 48). (12) The non-accusatory form of this type of complaint urges the king not to be negligent: "May the king not neglect this deed, since a commissioner was killed" (EA 132: 43-46). While the accusatory form of this type of complaint is clearly the more damaging to the king's reputation, the non-accusatory form is also significant. Urging the king not to be negligent shows Rib-Addi using stronger terms than if he had employed other common tropes, such as suggesting that the king heed his words. It must be assumed that Rib-Addi's choice of stronger terms for his warning was a deliberate one.
Comments Referring to the Heeding of Rib-Addi's Words
Like the accusatory form of the complaint, this form of complaint refers directly to an action that the king did not take, either by not heeding Rib-Addi's words, or not replying to his letters: "[Then fr]om Batruna I wr[ote to yo]u, 'Send men to ta[ke the ci]ty for you.' [My] words went [u]nheeded" (EA 90: 14-17). There is also a non-accusatory form of this complaint that urges the king to heed Rib-Addi's advice: "[And] may my lord heed the wor[ds] of his [servant] " (EA 78: 17-18).
It is difficult to classify the seriousness of the non-accusatory type of this complaint, as its meaning seems to be quite context-sensitive. Rib-Addi frequently makes this type of comment preceding a request to the king, and in this usage its meaning could be considered exhortative. This form of complaint can also be seen in more negative contexts, however, seemingly urging against further neglect: "Why have you neglected your country? I have written like this to the palace, but you do not heed my words. Look, Amanappa is with you. Ask him. He is the one that knows and has experienced the stra[its] I am in. May the king heed the words of his servant" (EA 74: 48-53).
Given the wide-ranging nature of this non-accusatory form of complaint, only the accusatory form, which directly makes mention of Rib-Addi's words going unheeded, will be considered here. Rib-Addi also makes frequent comments urging the king to "give thought" to a subject or issue. (13) In usage and context, these comments are similar to the non-accusatory "heeding of words" comments: "I was in Sigata and I wr[ote] to [y]ou, 'Give thought to [your] city lest Abdi-Agirta take it.' [But] you did not listen to m[e]" (EA 90: 9-13). (14)
The variable nature of the meaning of this type of comment, as well as that of the non-accusatory "heeding of words" comment, makes the meaningful interpretation of their data difficult and these comments are therefore excluded from consideration here. It should be noted chat this exclusion has no marked effect on the shape of the data; with or without their inclusion the main outcomes of the analysis of the data are the same. (15)
The Comparison Complaint
This type of complaint about neglect draws a comparison between Rib-Addi's current situation and better times in the past. The use of the comparison complaint by Rib-Addi is quite complex and therefore the analysis of this type will be more detailed than that of the two types considered above.
"Previously, provisions of the king were at [m]y disposal, and we could pay the hi
"Als1 to the king's saying: 'Guard yourself,' consider that previously, in the days of my ancestors, there was a garrison of the king with them and property of the king was at their disposal, but as far as I am concerned, there are no provisions of the king at my disiposlal, and there is no garrison of the king with me" (EA 122: 9-18). The fixation on Rib-Addi's own situation, using the first person singular instead of the more accusatory second person singular, is typical of the comparison type of complaint. (16)
However, there are two clear exceptions to this, where Rib-Addi can be seen to attach a...
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