Horemheb’s Great Decree.
Sometime during his reign, King Horemheb proclaimed a new set of laws. Taking aim at corruption and abuses-of-power (allegedly happening throughout Egypt), the pharaoh went hard on corrective measures. Punishments could range from beatings to disfigurement, exile to death. Horemheb was not messing around. But what was he really trying to achieve?
- Intro music: Keith Zizza www.keithzizza.net
- Interludes and Outro music by Luke Chaos www.twitter.com/luke_chaos
- Banner image: Horemheb with Amun. Photo by Richard Mortel via Flickr.com.
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Bibliography
- G. de la Bédoyere, Pharaohs of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of Tutankhamen’s Dynasty (2022).
- C. Eyre, The Use of Documents in Pharaonic Egypt (2013).
- A. Gnirs, ‘Haremhab – ein Staatsreformator? Neue Betrachtungen zum Haremhab-Dekret’, Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 16 (1989), 83–110.
- A. Gnirs, Militär und Gesellschaft: Ein Beitrag zur Sozialgeschichte des Neuen Reiches (1996).
- A. Gnirs, ‘Coping with the Army: The Military and the State in the New Kingdom’, in J. C. Moreno García (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Administration (2013), 639—717.
- R. Hari, Horemheb et la reine Moutnedjemet ou la fin d’une Dynastie (Geneva, 1965).
- W. Helck, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie: Ubersetzung zu den Heften 17–22 (1961).
- J.-M. Kruchten, Le décret d’Horemheb: traduction, commentaire épigraphique, philologique et institutionnel (1981).
- K. Pflüger, ‘The Edict of King Haremhab’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies 5 (1946), 260–76.
- YouTube: Guy de la Bédoyere, “Horemheb, the ‘Enlightened Despot,'” https://youtu.be/-jCEo21_hK4
Horemheb cutting down corruption and being benevolent sounds ironic. On one hand, he didn’t start out as pharaoh, but on the other, his military background doesn’t help his case, especially with a modern viewpoint. That begs a question. Is there evidence that Pharaohs ever genuinely cared about the common people from the bottom of their hearts? I know it’s a complicated and powerful position to have, but it feels cynical to say that every monarch only did things for power and power alone.
That, unfortunately, is impossible to answer with any certainty. Some rulers make a display of being “accessible” or “personable” (e.g. the Middle Kingdom royal statues) but the answer on whether it was genuine or political probably died with them