Information about the Hittites

HBM #74 HBM #74

§1 Thusly the Priest:
Say to Mr. Kaššu:

§2 What you wrote to me in the following way: "There are 20 people of yours in the city of Zikkašta. Because it is a forwardmost watchtower, I will not give them to you by my own will. Report them in the palace!"

§3 I will keep reporting my servants in the palace. Because Kizzuwatna, too, is a forwardmost watchtower, how will they, namely your servants, come down to you? I will not give them back to you!

COMMENTARY

1 ^LÚSANGA: Line 1 and line 12 indicate that the author of this letter is the ^LÚSANGA KUR ^URUKizzuwatna, "The Priest of the land Kizzuwatna." The "Priest" of Kizzuwatna ruled much as a vassal king did, and this letter has the Priest corresponding with the military governor of a Hittite province about the distribution of personnel. The Priest was surely of a higher rank than Kaššu, since he does not call him "my brother." However, since he does not refer to him as "my son" either, then these two men were probably not in the same chain of command. It is clear that the Priest in this letter could not order Kaššu to send back his men, but only try to punish him by keeping some of Kaššu's men for himself. It is a sign of the wide ranging dispersal of men in Ḫatti that these two distant rulers had personnel in each others districts.

There is only one known Priest to rule in Kizzuwatna before the time of Šuppiluliuma I, and that is Kantuzzili. See Beal, Richard, "The History of Kizzuwatna and the Date of the Šunaššura Treaty," Orientalia NS 55 (1986) 435 f.

12-14 These lines indicate that at this time Kizzuwatna was a borderland between Ḫatti and enemy lands. This matches wonderfully with a text of Ḫattušili III (KBo 6.28 13-14 = CTH 88, ed. Goetze, Kizz. 21-22) which refers to the period before Šuppiluliuma I and states, "From this direction the Armatanan enemy [came] and devastated Ḫatti-Land. They made the city of Kizzuwatna the border." (Translation Rich Beal, pg. 436)

					Why?
	HBM #74 HBM #74 §1 Thusly the Priest: Say to Mr. Kaššu: §2 What you wrote to me in the following way: "There are 20 people of yours in the city of Zikkašta. Because it is a forwardmost watchtower, I will not give them to you by my own will. Report them in the palace!" §3 I will keep reporting my servants in the palace. Because Kizzuwatna, too, is a forwardmost watchtower, how will they, namely your servants, come down to you? I will not give them back to you! *COMMENTARY* 1 ^LÚSANGA: Line 1 and line 12 indicate that the author of this letter is the ^LÚSANGA KUR ^URUKizzuwatna, "The Priest of the land Kizzuwatna." The "Priest" of Kizzuwatna ruled much as a vassal king did, and this letter has the Priest corresponding with the military governor of a Hittite province about the distribution of personnel. The Priest was surely of a higher rank than Kaššu, since he does not call him "my brother." However, since he does not refer to him as "my son" either, then these two men were probably not in the same chain of command. It is clear that the Priest in this letter could not order Kaššu to send back his men, but only try to punish him by keeping some of Kaššu's men for himself. It is a sign of the wide ranging dispersal of men in Ḫatti that these two distant rulers had personnel in each others districts. There is only one known Priest to rule in Kizzuwatna before the time of Šuppiluliuma I, and that is Kantuzzili. See Beal, Richard, "The History of Kizzuwatna and the Date of the Šunaššura Treaty," Orientalia NS 55 (1986) 435 f. 12-14 These lines indicate that at this time Kizzuwatna was a borderland between Ḫatti and enemy lands. This matches wonderfully with a text of Ḫattušili III (KBo 6.28 13-14 = CTH 88, ed. Goetze, Kizz. 21-22) which refers to the period before Šuppiluliuma I and states, "From this direction the Armatanan enemy [came] and devastated Ḫatti-Land. They made the city of Kizzuwatna the border." (Translation Rich Beal, pg. 436)