CÆSAREA: TYPES OF SEMITIC SETTLERS. (See pp. [12], [23], [33].)
The triumph of the Hittite arms in these, and doubtless other minor expeditions, had now established the authority of the Hittite king throughout the region of northern Syria, and had extended his frontier until it bordered on that of the Amorites, hitherto professed allies of the Pharaoh. These early settlers have recently been recognised as of Aramaic (Semitic) stock; in records of Babylonia as old as the time of Hammurabi, from which this inference is made, they are described as living in the western deserts, and now appear to have pushed gradually northward, until they had occupied, like Bedouin, all the habitable fringe of the tongue of desert lying between Mesopotamia and the Lebanon. Their patriarch, Ebed-Asherah, now found himself in the same dilemma as Aitakama and other northern chieftains had before him, but the rapid advance of the Hittite power left him little time for hesitation.[769] He and his sons were the recognised leaders of the Amorite tribes in peace and policy and war. They had watched with anxiety the approach of the Hittite leader on Tunip from Nukhasse,[770] and the failure of the Pharaoh to send them support could not but have added to their concern. Quick by instinct to read the signs of the times, they covertly came to an understanding with the chief of Kadesh, a city already under the Hittite suzerainty, if not actually within the domain of Aitakama. At the same time Aziru, the most active of the sons of Ebed-Asherah, making pretence of still serving his old master, cast his eye upon the city of Sumur as his nearest prize. The change of attitude and subtle dealings of the Amorites did not escape the notice of the Pharaoh’s emissary, who reported Sumur to be in great danger though not yet fallen, and Ebed-Asherah’s sons as minions of the new northern power.[771] The Egyptian sovereign was grieved but inactive. In a letter addressed to the Amorite chief[772] he charged them with their duplicity, and ordered the appearance of Aziru as a hostage at his court. The latter, however, evaded the command. He would seem to have already brought about the downfall of Sumur and other cities, and felt some natural hesitation in accepting his sovereign’s invitation. He found also a pretext for postponing the rebuilding of Sumur as commanded,[773] and still protested his fidelity. In response, however, to a more peremptory summons, in spite of shifts and subterfuges, Aziru appeared ultimately at Thebes[774] for the judgment of his case. But the Amorites had influence at court, as appears from a letter of their patriarch to one of the officials asking for his son’s release.[775] Amon ‘passed sentence’ on Aziru and ‘granted him his life.’[776] The mercy extended to Aziru, however, was unavailing; and further allegiance to the Pharaoh could only have proved fatal to the best interests of his people. The Hittite cause was clearly triumphing, indeed the Egyptian made no apparent effort to resist his oncoming; in any case the Amorite hastened to take the winning side. Betaking himself to the Hittite, Aziru ‘cast himself under the feet of Subbi-luliuma,’ who ‘granted him grace.’[777] The price of the Amorite vassalage appears in another record as three hundred shekels of gold paid yearly.[778]
With the Amorites on his side it would appear that the Hittite leader might now have swept onwards to the frontiers of Egypt, but at this stage the southerly progress of the Hittite arms seems to have been stayed. Occupied probably with other campaigns of similar character for the expansion of his power in Asia Minor, Subbi-luliuma had been obliged to entrust the conduct of much of his Syrian wars to Aitagama, and possibly he found that the region of the Lebanon was a frontier already distant enough for effective control. However that may be, he found it desirable to come to terms with the Pharaoh, and concluded with him an alliance,[779] which brought their struggle for some time to an end.
Some of the events which we have described seem to have happened with a swiftness surprising even in oriental history, but the Great King probably foresaw that a sterner task lay before him in the consolidation of his empire. Here again fortune proved to be on his side, by removing the two chief sources of inquietude on his Asiatic frontiers. In Egypt, Amenhetep IV., who had succeeded to the throne about 1375 B.C., was too young or too busily occupied with home affairs to take any active interest in the possession of Syria, and was only too glad to renew the Hittite treaty in due course.[780] Babylonia, where the kings of Karduniash sat upon the throne, was too distant to give occasion for anxiety, and in addition the broad tract subject to the Amorite régime was wedged between their respective spheres of influence. In the East the tragic development of affairs among the Mitannians,[781] the murder of Tushratta, the flight of the heir-apparent from the usurper and patricide, Sutatarra, and the invasion of the land by the Assyrians and by the mountaineers of Alshe, were a series of events all favourable to the Hittite cause. The armies of Subbi-luliuma crossed the Euphrates to make good his claim to a portion of the disintegrated kingdom, and when he realised the distressful condition which the anarchy of these times had brought about, he even sent his administrators with cattle, sheep, and horses to re-establish the population.[782] Finally, when the fugitive Mattiuaza, after a vain appeal to the court of Babylon,[783] turned to him for protection, he saw and grasped his opportunity. The oracle was consulted, and ‘the Hittite god gave judgment in favour of Mattiuaza, Tushratta’s son’ (as against Sutatarra, whom he had previously supported). Taking, therefore, the unhappy prince by the hand, Subbi-luliuma gave him one of his daughters to wife, and set him upon the remnants of his father’s throne. Terms of allegiance were defined, and the new but reduced kingdom of Mitanni was created a special Protectorate.[784] The gods of both peoples were invoked as guardians of the treaty. The frontier of Subbi-luliuma on the Euphrates was amply secured by the gratitude of the re-established king.
The empire of the Hittites beyond Taurus had now reached, under Subbi-luliuma, its furthest historical extent; and in Asia Minor, though direct evidence is not yet available, we may infer that his sway had been extended westward far beyond the confines of the Halys, even if his arms had not already penetrated to the Lydian coast.[785] We thus see in Subbi-luliuma the founder of the Hittite empire under the dynasty of the Hatti, which for nearly two hundred years continued to hold its own amid the constant tremblings of the balance of oriental power throughout this time. Relieved for the present from their frontier campaigns, the Great King and his allies seem to have reaped the reward of their good fortune and prosperity. In the capital at Boghaz-Keui, ‘the city of the Hatti,’ the royal palace seems to have stood on the northern crest of Beuyuk Kaleh.[786] At Malatia, the palace of his vassal or ally, the king of Khali-rabbat (the Milid of later Assyrian records), was decorated with sculptured blocks showing the ruler and his consort as high priest and high priestess, making oblations before Sandes (the Hittite national deity), and to the winged deity who seems to have been the guardian of the tribe.[787] To the same phase of art, though not necessarily the work of this generation, we must assign the similar oblation scenes of Eyuk[788] and Fraktin[789]; in the former case, moreover, the forms of the sacred vessels are the same as those seen at Malatia. It is true that such vases may have continued in use for ceremonial purposes after their common vogue had passed; but in any case the lower buildings at Eyuk, the existence of which we have pointed out,[790] must be as old as these times; while in the rock-sculptures of Fraktin we recognise a phase of art and motive as early as that of any recorded Hittite works.
It is a singular fact that notwithstanding the great deeds of Subbi-luliuma and his successors, no sculpture of any kind has come down to perpetuate the Hittite triumphs. The Hittite monuments of Asia Minor are all of primarily religious signification. The royal palaces were decorated with religious scenes, while even the warrior deities of Giaour-Kalesi and Kara-Bel are identified with forms of the national god Sandes. The king is always spoken of as The Sun, and this fact may be reflected in the terms of address to the Pharaoh by his Syrian subjects at this time,[791] who otherwise is invariably styled the Horus. At Malatia the local king and queen are already seen as high priest and high priestess of the gods.[792] In these early suggestions we see the first traces of ideals so clear in later history, namely, priest-kingship and the high status of the woman,[793] with all the ramifications which the maintenance of these principles involved.
The nature of the Hittite constitution as a whole becomes more clear in later reigns, but we have already seen something of the nature of the kingdom and confederacy in watching the tying of its bonds. Three distinct grades of allegiance can be recognised already:[794] the allies, the vassals under tribute, and the conquered states administered by the crown. The special protectorate of Mitanni may be classed with the first of these. Each subject state would seem to have been bound to the Great King by special treaty: that with the Amorites has been already mentioned, while even the petty kingdom of Nukhasse seems to have its special firman granted when first conquered, previous to the disaffection of its chief.[795]
PLATE LXXXVII
