PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 19 



the commencement of a war which resulted in the Hittite yoke being 

 broken by Israel and the supremacy of Jabin brought to an end. 

 After this, and during the predominancy of the Assyrian and the 

 Lydian powers in Asia Minor, many of the Hittites passed into 

 Europe, and as fugitives became the pioneers of the race, their 

 love of liberty leading them to seek new and unfrequented regions. 

 This western dispersion has been traced by Mr. Campbell, who 

 thinks that the population of Liguria, apart from Genoa, to be 

 almost entirely Hittite. 



After the capture of Samaria by Sargon, Hamath shared the 

 same fate, as well as Carchemish ; the inhabitants of both he 

 transported to Assyria. The fate of Commagene followed soon 

 after. In the year 716 the Hittite confederacy came to an end ; but 

 the Hittites were still strong in Armenia and Asia Minor. Nebu- 

 chadnezzar having gained an alliance of the Hittites of the north with 

 those of the south who acknowledged his sway aided him success- 

 fully in crushing Assyria 660 B.C. During the time of Cyrus many 

 Hittite tribes migrated eastward to escape from Persian exactions. 

 Some of them got as far as the upper waters of the Ganges, others 

 passed into Europe when Asia Minor was divided between the 

 Assyrians and the Lydians ; these Hittite fugitives everywhere 

 became the world's pioneers, their love of liberty leading them to 

 seek new and unfrequented regions. The Parthians were the most 

 numerous and warlike of the Hittite tribes of Persia. Hittite 

 kings sat upon the Parthian throne, and ruled from Asia Minor 

 to India. In Spain a few small inscriptions called Celt-Iberian 

 have been found belonging to the period of the Roman occupation 

 under Scipio, and a large number of coins inscribed with Celt- 

 Iberian characters. Many similar have been found in the south 

 of France. The Celt-Iberian characters differ little from the 

 Etruscan, and are very like those on Parthian coins ; their age 

 cannot be determined with any degree of certainty, but some of 

 them appear to be previous to the Christian era. Of European 

 Hittites retaining their ancient language the Basques form one 

 division, and the Ugrians the other, the purely Hittite inscriptions 



