From these documents we have recovered a very full picture of international politics in Western Asia during two centuries, from the close of the fifteenth to the later years of the thirteenth century b.c. We can trace in some measure the dynastic relations established by Egypt with the other great Asiatic states, and the manner in which the balance of power was maintained, largely by diplomatic methods. During the earlier part of this period Egyptian power is dominant in Palestine and Syria, while the kingdom of Mitanni, under its Aryan dynasty, is a check upon Assyrian expansion. But Egypt was losing her hold upon her Asiatic provinces, and the rise of the Hittite empire coincided with her decline in power. Mitanni soon fell before the Hittites, to the material advantage of Assyria, which began to be a menace to her neighbours upon the west and south. After a change of dynasty, Egypt had meanwhile in part recovered her lost territory in Palestine, and once more took her place among the great nations of Western Asia. And it is only with the fall of the Hittite empire that the international situation is completely altered. Throughout Babylon stands, so far as she may, aloof, preoccupied with commerce rather than with conquest;[15] but in the latter half of the period her eyes are always fixed upon her Assyrian frontier.
HEAD OF A COLOSSAL STATUE OF AMEN-HETEP III
From the Tell el-Amarna correspondence we see how the kings of Mitanni, Assyria and Babylon gave their daughters to the Egyptian king in marriage and sought to secure his friendship and alliance. Apparently Egypt considered it beneath her dignity to bestow her princesses in return, for in one of his letters to Amen-hetep III. Kadashman-Enlil remonstrates with the King of Egypt for refusing him one of his daughters and threatens to withhold his own daughter in retaliation.[16] Another of the letters illustrates in a still more striking manner the intimate international intercourse of the period. At the height of its power the kingdom of Mitanni appears to have annexed the southern districts of Assyria, and for a time to have exercised control over Nineveh, as Hammurabi of Babylon had done in an earlier age. It was in his character of suzerain that Dushratta sent the holy statue of Ishtar of Nineveh to Egypt, as a mark of his esteem for Amen-hetep III. We have recovered the letter he sent with the goddess, in which he writes concerning her:[17] " Indeed in the time of my father the lady Ishtar went into that land; and, just as she dwelt there formerly and they honoured her, so now may my brother honour her ten times more than before. May my brother honour her and may he allow her to return with joy." We thus gather that this was not the first time Ishtar had visited Egypt, and we may infer from such a custom the belief that a deity, when stopping in a foreign country with his or her own consent, would, if properly treated, confer favour and prosperity upon that land. We shall see later on that Rameses II. sent his own god Khonsu on a similar mission to Khatti, in order to cure the epileptic daughter of the Hittite king, who was believed to be possessed by a devil.[18] We could not have more striking proofs of international intercourse. Not only did the rulers of the great states exchange their daughters but even their gods.
But the letters also exhibit the jealousy which existed between the rival states of Asia. By skilful diplomacy, and, particularly in the reign of Akhenaten, by presents and heavy bribes, the Egyptian king and his advisers succeeded in playing off one power against the other, and in retaining some hold upon their troublesome provinces of Syria and Palestine. In paying liberal bounties and rewards to his own followers and party in Egypt itself, Akhenaten was only carrying out the traditional policy of the Egyptian crown;[19] and he extended the principle still more in his dealings with foreign states. But peculation on the part of the ambassadors was only equalled by the greed of the monarchs to whom they were accredited, and whose appetite for Egyptian gold grew with their consumption of it. Much space in the letters is given up to the constant request for more presents, and to complaints that promised gifts have not arrived. In one letter, for example, Ashur-uballit of Assyria writes to Akhenaten that formerly the king of Khanirabbat had received a present of twenty manehs of gold from Egypt, and he proceeds to demand a like sum.[20] Burna-Buriash of Babylon, his contemporary, writes in the same strain to Egypt,[21] reminding Akhenaten that Amenophis III. had been far more generous to his father. "Since the time my father and thine established friendly relations with one another, they sent rich presents to one another, and they did not refuse to one another any desired object. Now my brother has sent me as a present two manehs of gold. Send now much gold, as much as thy father; and if it is less, send but half that of thy father. Why hast thou sent only two manehs of gold? For the work in the temple is great, and I have undertaken it and am carrying it out with vigour; therefore send much gold. And do thou send for whatsoever thou desirest in my land, that they may take it thee."
