Page 289 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

united. For the Achaeans had a fighting tradition, and a fond­
ness for booty, and by now a not inconsiderable fleet.
News came regularly from contacts in Egypt. They told that
Thothmes had finally settled the disputed frontier along the Eu­
phrates, taking the rather revolutionary step of accepting a prin-

IN THE HEYDAY OF CRETAN PROSPERITY THE ARTISTS OF THE ISLAND
Cities achieved a freedom of expression never paralleled in
THIS MILLENNIUM. THIS VIVID SCENE IS REPRODUCED FROM A CRETAN

SEAL.

cess from the kingdom of Mitanni beyond the river as his bride
to seal the bargain. This mixture of divine and mortal blood—
foreign blood at that—was not entirely approved in Egypt, but

of course the foreign princess was not accorded divine status
or a regency. Anyway, in 1412 b.c., before the Cretans whose life
we are following were thirty, the letters told of the death of
Thothmes, after only eight years’ reign, and of the unopposed