History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 215 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12).

History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12) eBook

Gaston Maspero
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 215 pages of information about History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12).

     * The treaty of Ramses II. with the Prince of the Khati was
     sculptured at Karnak.

Not only was a perpetual truce declared between both peoples, but they agreed to help each other at the first demand.  “Should some enemy march against the countries subject to the great King of Egypt, and should he send to the great Prince of the Khati, saying:  ’Come, bring me forces against them,’ the great Prince of the Khati shall do as he is asked by the great King of Egypt, and the great Prince of the Khati shall destroy his enemies.  And if the great Prince of the Khati shall prefer not to come himself, he shall send his archers and his chariots to the great King of Egypt to destroy his enemies.”  A similar clause ensured aid in return from Ramses to Khatusaru, “his brother,” while two articles couched in identical terms made provision against the possibility of any town or tribe dependent on either of the two sovereigns withdrawing its allegiance and placing it in the hands of the other party.  In this case the Egyptians as well as the Hittites engaged not to receive, or at least not to accept, such offers, but to refer them at once to the legitimate lord.  The whole treaty was placed under the guarantee of the gods both, of Egypt and of the Khati, whose names were given at length:  “Whoever shall fail to observe the stipulations, let the thousand gods of Khati and the thousand gods of Egypt strike his house, his land, and his servants.  But he who shall observe the stipulations engraved on the tablet of silver, whether he belong to the Hittite people or whether he belong to the people of Egypt, as he has not neglected them, may the thousand gods of Khati and the thousand gods of Egypt give him health, and grant that he may prosper, himself, the people of his house, and also his land and his servants.”  The treaty itself ends by a description of the plaque of silver on which it was engraved.  It was, in fact, a facsimile in metal of one of those clay tablets on which the Chaldaeans inscribed their contracts.  The preliminary articles occupied the upper part in closely written lines of cuneiform characters, while in the middle, in a space left free for the purpose, was the impress of two seals, that of the Prince of the Khati and of his wife Puukhipa.  Khatusaru was represented on them as standing upright in the arms of Sutkhu, while around the two figures ran the inscription, “Seal of Sutkhu, the sovereign of heaven.”  Puukhipa leaned on the breast of a god, the patron of her native town of Aranna in Qaauadana, and the legend stated that this was the seal of the Sun of the town of Aranna, the regent of the earth.  The text of the treaty was continued beneath, and probably extended to the other side of the tablet.  The original draft had terminated after the description of the seals, but, to satisfy the Pharaoh, certain additional articles were appended for the protection of the commerce and industry of the two countries, for the prevention of the emigration

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History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 5 (of 12) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.