Whatever might have been the nature of their private sentiments, they professed to be anxious to maintain, for their mutual interests, the relations with Egypt entered on half a century before, and as the surest method of attaining their object was by a good marriage, they would each seek an Egyptian wife for himself, or would offer Amenothes a princess of one of their own royal families. The Egyptian king was, however, firm in refusing to bestow a princess of the solar blood even on the most powerful of the foreign kings; his pride rebelled at the thought that she might one day be consigned to a place among the inferior wives or concubines, but he gladly accepted, and even sought for wives for himself, from among the Syrian and Chaldaean princesses. Kallimmasin of Babylon gave Amenothes first his sister, and when age had deprived this princess of her beauty, then his daughter Irtabi in marriage.* * Letter from Amenothes III. to Kallimmasin, concerning a sister of the latter, who was married to the King of Egypt, but of whom there are no further records remaining at Babylon, and also one of his daughters whom Amenothes had demanded in marriage; and letters from Kallimmasin, consenting to bestow his daughter Irtabi on the Pharaoh, and proposing to give to Amenothes whichever one he might choose of the daughters of his house. Sutarna of Mitanni had in the same way given the Pharaoh his daughter Gilukhipa; indeed, most of the kings of that period had one or two relations in the harem at Thebes. This connexion usually proved a support to Asiatic sovereigns, such alliances being a safeguard against the rivalries of their brothers or cousins. At times, however, they were the means of exposing them to serious dangers. When Sutarna died he was succeeded by his son Dushratta, but a numerous party put forward another prince, named Artassumara, who was probably Gilukhipa's brother, on the mother's side;* a Hittite king of the name of Pirkhi espoused the cause of the pretender, and a civil war broke out. * Her exact relationship is not explicitly expressed, but is implied in the facts, for there seems no reason why Gilukhipa should have taken the part of one brother rather than another, unless Artassumara had been nearer to her than Dushratta; that is to say, her brother on the mother's side as well as on the father's.