DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4679#0013
INTRODUCTION. xiii
after we had learned how to deal with the natives, and emancipated
ourselves from dependence on a Greek servant, our. experience has
been, with rare exceptions, of great kindness and hospitality and
pleasant intercourse with the peasantry. But wherever I have been,
and whatever was my luck, my passion has been to look for traces
of the past in the facts of the present, in the faces, manners, pronun-
ciation, tales, and superstitions of the people, as well as in the monu-
ments of older days. My interest, and the scope of this book, are not
confined to any period; I have tried to throw some light on the
question how Phrygia has come to present the aspect that it now
shows to the traveller; and I believe that I had no prepossessions for
or against any view, but have simply gone where the evidence led me.
At the dawn of our knowledge, Phrygia seems to have been part
of that great empire which was subject to the sovereigns of Pteria, the
city of the White Syrians on the borders of Cappadocia* and Paphla-
gonia, whose remains are the largest and the most remarkable in Asia
Minor, though it has lain in ruins since 539 b. c. The character, the
affinities, and the fate of that empire are one of the unsolved problems
of history. Its very existence was still unsuspected so recently as
twenty years ago ; and is hardly even yet admitted by all scholars, or
thought of by people in general. Hitherto I have never ventured to
do more than argue that such an empire once existed; as to its
ethnological affinities, I have not found the evidence sufficient to
support any conclusion. Now, while acknowledging the slippery
character of the subject, I venture for the first time to support the
opinion (maintained already by some scholars, and controverted by
others) that that old empire of Pteria was ruled by the king Khitasar,
whose war with Rameses II towards 1300 B. 0. is one of the most
famous events in Egyptian history.
The struggle was fought out between Rameses and the Khita in
northern Syria. Among the allies of Khitasar were the chiefs of
Kadesh, Aleppo, Carchemish, and other places in northern Syria,
Kornmagene, Cilicia, and the extreme eastern part of Cappadocia2, and
1 ' Cappadocia,' here, is a rough geo- Eccce et Langue des Hittites p. 117 as Naha-
graphical designation of a vast region rain, Aratu (Arvad), Chilibu (Aleppo), Qa-
in eastern Asia Minor, inhabited by desh, Carchemish, Anaugas, Akerith (?),
various peoples. I imply no definite Muschanath (?), Leka, Qazuadana, Kati,
limits in ancient times. Keshkesh. Lantsheere places the Kesh-
2 The names are given by Lantsheere kesh to the north of Kornmagene ; but
after we had learned how to deal with the natives, and emancipated
ourselves from dependence on a Greek servant, our. experience has
been, with rare exceptions, of great kindness and hospitality and
pleasant intercourse with the peasantry. But wherever I have been,
and whatever was my luck, my passion has been to look for traces
of the past in the facts of the present, in the faces, manners, pronun-
ciation, tales, and superstitions of the people, as well as in the monu-
ments of older days. My interest, and the scope of this book, are not
confined to any period; I have tried to throw some light on the
question how Phrygia has come to present the aspect that it now
shows to the traveller; and I believe that I had no prepossessions for
or against any view, but have simply gone where the evidence led me.
At the dawn of our knowledge, Phrygia seems to have been part
of that great empire which was subject to the sovereigns of Pteria, the
city of the White Syrians on the borders of Cappadocia* and Paphla-
gonia, whose remains are the largest and the most remarkable in Asia
Minor, though it has lain in ruins since 539 b. c. The character, the
affinities, and the fate of that empire are one of the unsolved problems
of history. Its very existence was still unsuspected so recently as
twenty years ago ; and is hardly even yet admitted by all scholars, or
thought of by people in general. Hitherto I have never ventured to
do more than argue that such an empire once existed; as to its
ethnological affinities, I have not found the evidence sufficient to
support any conclusion. Now, while acknowledging the slippery
character of the subject, I venture for the first time to support the
opinion (maintained already by some scholars, and controverted by
others) that that old empire of Pteria was ruled by the king Khitasar,
whose war with Rameses II towards 1300 B. 0. is one of the most
famous events in Egyptian history.
The struggle was fought out between Rameses and the Khita in
northern Syria. Among the allies of Khitasar were the chiefs of
Kadesh, Aleppo, Carchemish, and other places in northern Syria,
Kornmagene, Cilicia, and the extreme eastern part of Cappadocia2, and
1 ' Cappadocia,' here, is a rough geo- Eccce et Langue des Hittites p. 117 as Naha-
graphical designation of a vast region rain, Aratu (Arvad), Chilibu (Aleppo), Qa-
in eastern Asia Minor, inhabited by desh, Carchemish, Anaugas, Akerith (?),
various peoples. I imply no definite Muschanath (?), Leka, Qazuadana, Kati,
limits in ancient times. Keshkesh. Lantsheere places the Kesh-
2 The names are given by Lantsheere kesh to the north of Kornmagene ; but