h licentiousness, gaily welcomed
the morality-painting of the young Greuze. And to the more
serious-minded, such as Horemheb seems to have been, the movement must
have appealed in its imperial aspect. The new god Aton was largely
worshipped in Syria, and it seems evident that Akhnaton had hoped to
bind together the heterogeneous nations of the empire by a bond of
common worship. The Asiatics were not disposed to worship Amon, but Aton
appealed to them as much as any god, and Horemheb must have seen great
possibilities in a common religion.

It is thought that Horemheb may be identified amongst the nobles who
followed Akhnaton to El Amarna, and though this is not certain, there is
little doubt that he was in high favour with the King at the time. To
one whose tendency is neither towards frivolity nor towards fanaticism,
there can be nothing more broadening than the influence of religious
changes. More than one point of view is appreciated: a man learns that
there are other ruts than that in which he runs, and so he seeks the
smooth midway. Thus Horemheb, while acting loyally towards his King, and
while appreciating the value of the new movement, did not exclude from
his thoughts those teachings which he deemed good in the old order of
things. He seems to have seen life broadly; and when the new religion of
Akhnaton became narrowed and fanatical, as it did towards the close of
the tragic chapter of that king's short life, Horemheb was one of the
few men who kept an open mind.

Like many other nobles of the period, he had constructed for himself a
tomb at Sakkara, in the shadow of the pyramids of the old kings of
Egypt; and fragments of this tomb, which of course was abandoned when he
became Pharaoh, are now to be seen in various museums. In one of the
scenes there sculptured Horemheb is shown in the presence of a king who
is almost certainly Akhnaton; and yet in a speech to him inscribed
above the reliefs, Horemheb makes reference to the god Amon whose very
name was anathema to the King. The royal figure is drawn according to
the canons of art prescribed by Akhnaton, and upon which, as a protest
against the conventional art of the old order, he laid the greatest
stress in his revolution; and thus, at all events, Horemheb was in
sympathy with this aspect of the movement. But the inscriptions which
refer to Amon, and yet are impregnated with the Aton style of
expression, show that Horemheb was not to be held down to any on