In trying to work out the story of the decline and fall of the Hittite power, we are faced with the same difficulty that enshrouded the whole problem of the Hittites until recent discoveries shed the light of internal documentary evidence upon the period of their empire—namely, that for the most part only the events connected with certain of their frontier lands came at all within the horizon of the Assyrian and the Greek historians, and these are seen by us with relative disproportion. To take a single illustration, we fail to find in the Egyptian and Assyrian records any suggestion as to the position of the Hittite capital of the fourteenth century at Boghaz-Keui; and for more than seven hundred years we are without any direct evidence as to its fortunes, until a chance reference by Herodotus in describing the affairs of Lydia tells us of its final overthrow. In the tenth century, however, during the temporary decline of Assyria and the withdrawal of the Phrygians, the Hittite states may be inferred to have largely recovered their power and independence. But though there were frequent alliances between neighbouring states, there does not seem to have been any over-lord, as of old, powerful enough to unite them all under his leadership and to maintain a consistent policy. Malatia and Marash appear as the chief cities of kingdoms in Taurus, while in the Anti-Taurus the kingdom of Tabal (or Tubal) probably included the districts of Komana, Ekrek, Mazaca, and Fraktin. On the plateau the kingdom of the Khilakku, which we may call Greater Cilicia (embracing the region from Tyana to the Kara Dagh, and from Karaburna to Bulghar-Madên), replaced the original state of Hatti within the Halys as chief representative of Hittite power and tradition. But it was not for long: if the Muski had retreated it was only to gather strength; while in the east a new rival, of force and character similar to the Hittites, had appeared in the region of Lake Van, pressing down to the Euphrates and even into Syria, where also the steady infiltration of Aramæan peoples was already challenging the dominance of the old Hittite stock.