Petrie, William M. Flinders: Syria and Egypt from the Tell el Amarna letters (London, 1898)

io INTRODUCTION

Syria into a state of internal discord un-
repressed. The immediate effect of this
was that various parties, without caring
particularly about being for or against the
Egyptians, began to fight with one another.
Each tried to draw the power of Egypt to
his own side by representing that he was
loyally acting in the interest of his suzerain ;
and the weaker party was sure to place his
trust most fully upon Egypt. It was only
when a man had played his own hand for
a long time, had strengthened himself by
absorbing much of his neighbour's goods
and lands, and had safely neglected the
orders of the Egyptians on several occa-
sions—it was only then that he cared to
throw off the mask and act openly in his
own interest, and allow himself to be classed
as an enemy. Hence we often find very
different views of people, and might put
them as being on the Egyptian side accord-
ing to their own account long after they
were on the enemies' side according to other
accounts.

5. A very important consideration which
has not been worked out hitherto lies in
the few chronological details which can be
gathered. It is obvious that excepting a