Page 419 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

twice in a thousand years, adventure outside its allotted sphere

and such a catastrophe, like any other act of god, had to be en­
dured while it happened and forgotten as soon as possible when
it had passed by. Tiglathpileser had demonstrated his power,
with unnecessary severity, they felt, and now he was demon­

strating elsewhere. It could not be his intention to establish a
permanent dominion over the countries at the western end of the

routes from Mesopotamia, for by tradition these belonged to the
Hittite, the Asia Minor sphere of influence. Hattusas, admittedly,
had fallen a lifetime ago. But Carchemish and Aleppo and Hama
and Ugarit were no less Hittite for that—in fact the fall of the old

country had left them the heirs to the traditions and glory of
Great Hatti. Hittites had never submitted to Assyrians, and they

were not going to start now. Though they had lost the north to the
Phrygians, the Hittites of the south would keep the standard of
Suppiluliumas aloft.
Tiglathpileser took the Great West Road again.

His soldiers were now seasoned campaigners. They could
cover twenty miles a day and still fortify a camp at the end of it,

grumbling, of course, at the scouts who had picked a site where
stones had to be carried two hundred yards and at the com­
missary that never got the provisions up until halfway through

the night. They were adept at picking up a goat or two on the
march, or knocking over hares and bustards and even an oc­
casional gazelle with arrow or slingshot, to supplement the eternal

buckwheat and dates. They could act as beaters when the king
and his staff called a holiday to hunt lion in the desert, or wild
oxen and even once elephant in the marshes of the Khabur, and

they enjoyed the chase as much as the king did. And they were
expert sackers of towns and villages, quick to size up the objects
that could profitably be carried home and to destroy and bum

the rest, to distinguish between the prisoners who were healthy
and comely enough to make slaves and those who were only good
for executing. They were good at massacre by now, competently

setting up the sharpened stakes and impaling the captives cleanly
and without fuss. Without pity or squeamishness, too, for the

captives were rebels, who had brought their own fate upon them­
selves. They could have submitted and saved their lives. Not to