Page 208 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

[1650-158° b.c.] The Great King 169

tiers in Asia Minor before the messengers arrived to report that
he had lost Yamkhad.
Mursilis knew that only prompt and spectacular action
could prevent the loss of Yamkhad from sparking a series of re­
volts which could disintegrate the Hittite kingdom. He sum­
moned his barons with the full muster of their feudal retainers,
and with an army as great as that which had originally con­
quered Aleppo he started south.
This time there were chariot skirmishes over the north Syrian
plain, and the first pitched battles between Hittite and Amorite.
But the Hittites had slaughtered garrisons to avenge, and they
carried all before them. Once again the walls of cities crumbled
before the shock of battering rams wielded by sweating infantry
bare to the waist, with only leather, copper-reinforced helmets
to protect them against the arrows and spears rained down from
the walls. This time the cities were sacked and their walls razed;
they should not have the means to rebel ever again.
Once more, proud Aleppo fell to Mursilis—and once more
the king of Yamkhad fled down river towards Babylon.
But this time Babylon was to be no refuge.
Since his youth Mursilis had dreamt of leading a swift
mechanized attack across the plains to the east, and during
the original campaign against Yamkhad he had repeatedly argued
to Hattusilis that their conquest of north Syria would never be
secure so long as Babylon remained an impregnable base for
Amorite counterattack. Now he regrouped his forces and pressed
on down the Euphrates to the east.
It was in many ways a rash venture. He must pass through
the southern territory of the Hurrians, leaving his lines of com­
munication dangerously vulnerable, should the Hurrians choose
to attack. But it was a calculated risk, and it came off. As he
had expected, the Hurrians had no desire to intervene to protect
Babylon against attack. To the immediate east of the Human
lands along the Euphrates lay the Semitic kingdom of Assyria,
athwart the upper Tigris. If Babylon were to be weakened, As­
syria would be isolated and left vulnerable to Human conquest.
The Hurrians therefore looked complacently on, and opened