THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 688 



probably in the sixteenth oentuiy, have extended far southward into 

 Syria to Mount Lebanon, as we have evidence that the language of 

 the Mitani was spoken in Dunip (= lioliopolis = Baalbek). And the 

 unnamed power against which Thothnies I, about 1500 b. c, and 

 Thothnies III carried on war in Naharina was probably the jVIitani 

 kingdom." But soon after the Amarna period, already in the four- 

 teenth century, rising Assyria overthrew the Mitani kingdom and 

 took possession of Mesopotamia. 



While the Mitani must have advanced toward the south, in the 

 seventeenth or sixteenth century B. c, we see the Chatti, or individual 

 people of the Plittites, Just at the Tell el-Amarna period, in the 

 fifteenth century b. c, invading Syria from their native country, 

 Cappadocia, and continually advancing southward. Through the 

 weakness of Egypt, and for a time also the waning power of Assyria, 

 the Mitani in the course of the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries 

 sul)]ected entire S3"ria to themselves as far as Mount Hernion. At 

 the acme of their power, in the twelfth century, they meet the read- 

 vancing Egyptians under Ramses II in various battles, one of which, the 

 attack of the Egyptians on the city of Kadesh on the Orontes, became 

 well known, as the subject of a great Egyptian poem which extolls 

 King Ramses in an extravagant manner. From these times dates also 

 the oldest surviving example of a treaty between nations. This treaty 

 was concluded between Ramses II and Chattusar, the king of the 

 Chatti. The original was inscribed on a silver tablet in Babylonian 

 script and language, as is now clearly estal)lished, and shows that 

 Babylonian was even then, about 100 years after the Amarna period, 

 still the international language of diplomacy.^' But it is only the 

 Egyptian translation which the Pliaraoh caused to l>e engraved in the 

 Temple of Karnak, that has come to us. On this occasion the royal 

 scribe added an introduction, according to which the question was of 

 a conclusion of peace which the Hittite king had entreated from 

 Ramses. As a matter of fact it is Chattusar who draws up the treaty 

 nor are there any fixed conditions of peace. The treaty I'ather con- 

 tains genera] assurances to al)stain from hostilities against one another, 

 probably thus meeting a mutual need, and in addition there is 

 the conclusion of a defensive alliance against internal and external 

 enemies. The interesting contents of the document justify its pres- 

 entation here in nearly complete form after the latest translation.'' 



«Der alte Orient, vol. i, part 2, 2d ed., p. 31. 



&Der alte Orient, vol. i, part 2, 2d ed., p. 4. 



'By W. ]\Iax Mueller: Der Buendnisvertrag Ramses 11 und des Chettiterkoenigs. 

 Mitteilungcn der Vorderasiatischen gesellschaft. 1902. 5. For the changes made in 

 the interest of clearness 1 was kindly supported hy the Egyptologist, Dr. Mo(>ller. 

 The text of the treaty is, in its present condition, not without gaps. The exact form 

 of the proper names is difficult to estahlish. 



