Khazar-khum Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Horemheb was not a commoner in the usual sense of
> the word. He was certainly noble & may have
> been a descendant of a king; there were many
> children from the harems running around, and the
> fates of most are unknown. He may have descended
> from a lesser prince or a queen's brother. But he
> wasn't a Joe Nobody.

---

Horemheb, were he able to claim descent or relationship with any king, would have done so in his titles, and would not have had to use the oracular coronation decree as he did, with claining that "Horus, lord of Hnes" (Horemheb's local town) crowned him (Murnane and Meltzer 1995). Oracular/divine events which justifying a person assuming the throne are signs of a man who had no direct familial claim to the throne, according to Murnane (1990).

Horemheb's best position for this status to take over the throne was his military might as General of the Army and the fact he claims in the coronation decree that he had been named deputy regent by the "King of Egypt" whom he served (Tutankhamun or Ay? Flip a coin here, since he never names the fellow) (Murnane and Meltzer 1995). This made him a powerful force to be reckoned with, to be sure, but it did not give him in and of itself the authority to rule.

Ockinga (1997) notes that there's archaeological evidence that a power struggle occurred after the death of Ay, in which Nahktmin and relatives of Ay and Nakhtmin were on the losing end. Desecration of tombs of relatives of Ay and Nakhtmin are done during Horemheb's reign, to obliterate all refences to Nakhtmin and Ay (in one tomb, interstestly, Ay's image is defaced, but leaves Tutankhamun's image untouched).

It's most likely that Horemheb was a career military man, possibly part of the maryannu class of horse/chariot warrior, who had served at least two, possibly three*, kings, and seen his star rise with each until he saw his chance to take it all as his position put him in the highest of confidence in the royal court.

But by titles which he could claim, he was not the son of a king; he maintains the noble title of /rpat/, "count," but as Ward has pointed out, these are titles which the nobility of Egypt developed independent of any relationship to the king or the royal family.

* Despite an atractive surmise vis a vis Paateneb or Paatenheb --> Horemheb, no clear link between these two men as the same has ever been established.

Reference:

Murnane, W. J. 1990. The Road to Kadesh: A Historical Interpretation of the Battle Reliefs of King Sety I at Karnak. Second Ed., Revised. Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilizations. SAOC 42. Chicago: Oriental Institute.

Murnane, W. J. and E. S. Meltzer. 1995. Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt. Society of Biblical Literature: Writings from the Ancient World Series 5. S. B. Parker. Atlanta: Scholars Press.

Ockinga, B. G. 1997. A Tomb from the Reign of Tutankhmun at Akhmim. Australian Center for Egyptology Reports 10. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.

Ward, W. A. 1982. Index of Administrative and Religious Titles of the Middle Kingdom. Beirut: American University of Beirut.

Ward, W. A. 1986. Essays on Feminine Titles of the Middle Kingdom and Related Subjects. Beirut: American University of Beirut. (Both of the aboth publications by Ward cover in detail the history and use of the title /rpat//rt-pat/, "count/countess," which was mistakenly been mistranslated in earlier years as "hereditary prince/princess.")

HTH.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom