The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empireSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
The Hittites : $b The story of a forgotten empire
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Hittites
The treaty, of which we possess the Egyptian text in full, was a very
remarkable one, not only because it is the first treaty of the kind of
which we know, but also on account of its contents. It ran as
follows[1]:--
[1] This translation is the one given by Brugsch in the second
edition of the English translation of his _History of Egypt_.
'In the year twenty-one, in the month Tybi, on the 21st day of the
month, in the reign of King Ramessu Miamun, the dispenser of life
eternally and for ever, the worshipper of the divinities Amon-Ra (of
Thebes), Hormakhu (of Heliopolis), Ptah (of Memphis), Mut the lady of
the Asher-lake (near Karnak), and Khonsu, the peace-loving, there took
place a public sitting on the throne of Horus among the living,
resembling his father Hormakhu in eternity, in eternity, evermore.
'On that day the king was in the city of Ramses, presenting his
peace-offerings to his father Amon-Ra, and to the gods Hormakhu-Tum, to
Ptah of Ramessu-Miamun, and to Sutekh, the strong, the son of the
goddess of heaven Nut, that they might grant to him many thirty years'
jubilee feasts, and innumerable happy years, and the subjection of all
peoples under his feet for ever.
'Then came forward the ambassador of the king, and the Adon [of his
house, by name ..., and presented the ambassadors] of the great king of
Kheta, Kheta-sira, who were sent to Pharaoh to propose friendship with
the king Ramessu Miamun, the dispenser of life eternally and for ever,
just as his father the Sun-god [dispenses it] each day.
'This is the copy of the contents of the silver tablet, which the great
king of Kheta, Kheta-sira, had caused to be made, and which was
presented to the Pharaoh by the hand of his ambassador Tartisebu and his
ambassador Ra-mes, to propose friendship with the king Ramessu Miamun,
the bull among the princes, who places his boundary-marks where it
pleases him in all lands.
'The treaty which had been proposed by the great king of Kheta,
Kheta-sira, the powerful, the son of Maur-sira, the powerful, the son of
the son of Sapalil, the great king of Kheta, the powerful, on the silver
tablet, to Ramessu Miamun, the great prince of Egypt, the powerful, the
son of Meneptah Seti, the great prince of Egypt, the powerful, the
son's son of Ramessu I., the great king of Egypt, the powerful,--this
was a good treaty for friendship and concord, which assured peace [and
established concord] for a longer period than was previously the case,
since a long time. For it was the agreement of the great prince of Egypt
in common with the great king of Kheta, that the god should not allow
enmity to exist between them, on the basis of a treaty.
'To wit, in the times of Mautal, the great king of Kheta, my brother, he
was at war with [Meneptah Seti] the great prince of Egypt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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