ull the long
formula runs:

"To the king, my lord, my gods, my sun, the sun of heaven; Yitia,
prefect of Askelon is thy servant, the dust at thy feet, the
servant of thy horses. At the feet of the king my lord seven times
and again seven times I prostrate myself upon my back and upon my
breast."

The importance of these letters, however, consists in the substance of
what they report and in what they tell us as to the doings of the writers.
They are the data by reason of which the Tell el Amarna archives
constitute a unique store of historical material for the study of the
history of civilisation.

Warlike expeditions among the vassal chiefs were the order of the day.
Most dangerous of all the chiefs was Aziru, prefect of the land of the
Amorites, whose territory included the district north of Damascus and part
of the valley of the Orontes. In the hope of founding an independent
kingdom, Aziru had swiftly seized on the dominions of all the chiefs on
his northern boundary, and in this action his admirable understanding with
the Egyptian officials afforded him invaluable help. The town of Tunip
sent a truly pathetic letter to Pharaoh from which we learn that Aziru had
already taken Nii, was besieging Simyra in Phoenicia, and at the same time,
by the aid of his creatures at Court, had succeeded in preventing the king
from reinstating a prince of Tunip who had been sent into Egypt as a
hostage. This prince, a certain Yadi Addu, had already been released and
was on his way home when the allies of Aziru caused him to be recalled.

"If, however, we have to mourn," so the complaint proceeds, "the
king himself will soon have to mourn over those things which Aziru
has committed against us, for next he will turn his hand against
his lord. But Tunip, thy city, weeps; her tears flow; nowhere is
there help for us."

The most bitter complaints against Aziru and his father Abd-Ashera come
from Rib-Addi of Gebal. His utterances rival the Lamentations of Jeremiah
both in volume and in monotonous pathos. One of these many letters, the
contents of which are often stereotyped enough, is also noticeable for its
revelation of the connection of Rib-Addi, who must already have been an
elderly man, with Amanappa:

"To Amanappa, my father; Rib-Addi, thy son! At my father's feet I
fall. Again and again I asked thee, 'Canst thou not rescue me from
the hand of Abd-Ashera? All the Ha