Page 204 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

[i65°"15So b.c.] The Great King 165

fiefs. Often the two would sit long into the night discussing the
problems of empire and the international situation beyond their
frontiers. For the kingdom of the Hittites, now in control of the
great metal-mining districts of central Asia Minor and the
Taurus mountains, kept in close touch through its merchants and
caravan leaders with the situation outside its borders.
To the west and south the Hittite realm was secure. South
lay the land of Kizzuwatna along the Mediterranean coast, a
friendly dependency. The great kingdom of Arzawa in the south­
west was within the Hittite sphere of influence, officially at least
a vassal. In the northwest, on the Dardanelles, the rich city-state
of Troy was primarily a maritime power, interested only in main­
taining its monopoly of sea-borne trade between the Aegean and
the Black Sea and in challenging the paramount position of Crete
on the commerce lanes of the eastern Mediterranean. Troy had
no ambitions in the interior of Asia Minor. In the lands to the
north, along the Black Sea coasts, the Asianic tribes of the Gasga
were always making trouble, and no punitive expeditions ap­
peared to subdue them permanently. But they seemed incapable
of organizing themselves into a unity, and unless they combined
they were a menace which could be kept under control By vigi­
lant frontier fortresses and an adequate mobile reserve.
But to the east and southeast the Hittite realm was open to
attack, and here by forces mightier than hers.
Due east, in the mountains south of the Caucasus and around
Lake Van, were the Hurrians. Their rulers and warriors were,
Mursilis knew, of his own people, a related folk who, like his own
ancestors, had migrated from the region north of the great
Caucasus range over three hundred years ago. Their language
could still, with difficulty, be understood by a Hittite, though
they had for ordinary purposes adopted the completely foreign
tongue of the people they ruled. That the rulers of the Hurrians
(they called themselves the Mitanni) were distant cousins of the
rulers of the Hittites disposed neither Hattusilis nor his crown
prince to mistrust them the less; it was, anyway, almost an in­
stinct in the Hittite royal family to distrust cousins. But there
was peace between the two nations, peace and even a sort of un­
formulated alliance. ... For the Hurrians had their interest di­