Page 201 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

162 The Argosies [1650-1580 b.c.]

It was at this time, while the immensely strong fortifications
of the new capital were being built up of mighty stone blocks,
that a prince was born to the royal house. The birth of Mursilis
occasioned no great rejoicings. He was not a son of the king, who
had no children, but of one of his sisters, and in his early years
he was of little account in the large royal household.
He grew up with the new city, watching the houses and
streets being built, training in the use of spear and ax and short
curved sword beneath the frowning walls of the citadel, learning
to guide his chariot on the flats beside the river, and taking his
turn as a cadet officer at manning the towers and massive gate-

ONE OF THE FORTIFIED GATEWAYS OF HATTUSAS, AS IT MUST HAVE
APPEARED AT THE TIME OF MURSILIS.

ways of the city wall. Almost every year, with the coming of
spring, he would see the muster of the regiments of infantry
and squadrons of chariotry, and watch them march off for the
summer campaign. Often this would only amount to a show of
force along the frontiers, but sometimes there were more serious
campaigns, against the kingdom of Arzawa to the southwest or
against the unruly tribes of the Gasga lands beyond the northern
mountains. And every winter, when the army returned, he would
accompany the king on his round of temple ceremonies.
In the realm of the new Hatti (whom we call the Hittites)
there were many gods. Every city within the kingdom had its
temples and divinities, gods and goddesses of the old people