Page 453 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

39° Bronze and Iron [1020-1000 b.c.]

knowing that neither of the rivals dare embark on foreign ven­
tures that would give the other a chance to seize the whole coun­
try.
In Assyria there have been five kings in the fifty-eight years
since the great Tiglathpileser died. Now his great-grandson, an­
other Shalmaneser, had succeeded to the throne, but to a vastly
depleted heritage. For in the past lifetime .the Aramaeans of the
desert had won all the empire of the great conqueror, and even
carved out kingdoms for themselves from the land of Assyria it­
self. It had gone even worse with Babylonia, where an Aramaean
chieftain, Adad-apal-iddina, had captured Babylon itself and
assumed the throne. And now the Aramaeans of Babylon and
their cousins the Chaldeans of the southern cities were themselves
being assailed by the Sutu, another desert tribe.
The situation in Palestine is typical of the whole of the Mid­
dle East. The peaceful days when Palestine was a colony of
Egypt are more than two hundred and fifty years in the past (as
long ago as the reign of William and Mary). And there is a tradi­
tion that, all of seven hundred years ago (the time of the
Crusades, to us), a people from Palestine had even conquered
and ruled Egypt. But the people who now live here feel no tie of
blood with the Hyksos (though strong ties there must in fact be).
Palestine is divided. The hill country of the interior, and the deep
plain of Jordan, are held by tribes of the children of Israel, shep­
herd farmers whose forefathers, they say, entered the country
eight generations ago, after a long period as desert nomads
and an even longer period settled in the Egyptian delta. The
coastal lands and the plain as far as the foothills belong to the
Philistines, who know that their great-great-great-grandfathers,
some hundred and fifty years back, came in by sea from Asia
Minor in the course of the great migrations. They have inherited
from their Canaanite predecessors (whose language they speak
and whose blood runs strong in theirs) a tradition of war with
the Israeli hillmen, and as far back as man’s memory goes there
has never been more than a year or so without a punitive expedi­
tion into the hills or a plundering raid into the plains. Yet both
sides fight with one hand only. To the Philistines the hillmen
are unruly brigands who prevent honest seamen from devoting