In this chapter we take a passing glance at the history of the Hittite lands after the Hittite power had passed, down to the establishment of the Seljûk Turks in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A.D. It is not a connected story, for with the disappearance of the Hittites the political horizon changed: thereafter the balance of power in the Near East was several times distributed anew. We must therefore be content to sketch an outline of the general course of eventful history in which the lands subsequently shared, and to note in what manner, but not to what extent, the local records and monuments are evidence of the parts they severally played. We are compelled to make these limitations, for no land on earth can claim a history so momentous as the drama that was worked out in Asia Minor during the centuries that followed the Hittite domination. Here was the scene of a long struggle for supremacy both among its own peoples and between the adjoining portions of the two continents which it connects; a thousand _Iliads_ would do scant justice to the deeds of arms alone. And the struggle of the continents was not merely for the possession of a land itself rich in minerals and for the most part highly fertile, but for a passage-way for great migrations, civilisations, and religions. To this story we have nothing to contribute, no new evidence to bring forward, no new opinions to maintain; the history of Asia Minor has been written by pens more able and more competent to deal with it.[77] In introducing these few pages our object is to subserve our main inquiry: to enable us to distinguish between the works of the various phases of history that we meet with in our wanderings, and especially to appreciate by contrast the peculiarities of the Hittite monuments which we shall next consider.