An important role was also played by the fact that the Hittite kingdom had no natural boundaries - large rivers, mountain ranges, and impenetrable deserts. Surrounded to varying degrees by principalities dependent on it, it felt securely behind this fairly wide “loose” belt.
The Hittites, no worse than their neighbors, knew how to gather forces into a fist when they intended to strike at the enemy; only the fingers in this fist were folded differently, not like in Egypt or Babylon. Here is how the Hittite king Mursili instructed his successor on the throne: “Communicate only with the courtiers! The tsar has nothing to expect from townspeople and peasants. They cannot be trusted, and communication with the insignificant only breeds danger. In a similar appeal of the Egyptian pharaoh Ahtoy, the meaning is different: “Do not make a difference between the son of a noble person and a commoner. Draw a man close to you for his deeds...” Of course, Akhtoy was not a “democrat”. He simply knew that the main threat to the throne came from the recalcitrant Egyptian nobles. Mursili, on the other hand, firmly counted on the loyalty of the Hittite nobility
The fact is that the relationship between the king and the "noble" people among the Hittites was of a different nature than in Egypt or Babylon. Unlike other countries of the Ancient East, the noble Hittites were not considered slaves of the king, like the rest of the population. It seems that the Hittites retained the idea of “nobility” inherent in the Indo-European peoples as an innate quality; it did not depend either on the degree of closeness to the king, or on the position held. "Clean", i.e. free, the Hittites were recognized if they did not carry labor (luzzy) or grocery (sakhkhan) duty. They united in a meeting of warriors - "pankus", on the opinion of which the choice of a new monarch from among the representatives of the royal family depended. In a word, the king did not put pressure on the nobility, who was a reliable support for the throne. It is no coincidence that another king, Hattusi-li I, when he needed to change the decision on the appointment of the heir to the throne, turned to the pankus.
Thus, the Hittite method of "folding fingers into a fist" was more effective than that of other peoples. The clear, simple structure of society, the unity of interests of the royal family and the free Hittites made this fist very formidable. The Hittites did not always exert prolonged pressure on their neighbors, but on occasion they were able to inflict short blows of crushing force on them.
Features of the organization of the Hittite society distinguish it from contemporary states. Some historians even consider it "feudal". Perhaps this is an exaggeration. The Hittites adopted a lot from the cultures of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia: writing, religious beliefs and myths, laws, customs. They even borrowed their name from the Hattians, an older people who inhabited the central regions of the peninsula of Asia Minor before the emergence of the Hittite kingdom here. In ancient Eastern history, the Hittites played a significant role, having managed to win their place under the sun. It seemed that the world was already divided between the powers of antiquity, but the Hittites who were late for the division did not yield to any of them.
Their kingdom disappeared almost without a trace around 1200 BC. The Hittites knew how to resist powerful states. But before a powerful wave of spontaneous invasion of dozens of tribes and peoples from the Balkan Peninsula, they were powerless. She, one might say, covered the Hittite kingdom with her head. After the defeat of the capital of the country, Hattusa, the force that united the small principalities ceased to exist.
The great kingdoms of antiquity went into oblivion in different ways: some split with a roar, others died after a long, serious illness. The Hittite kingdom vanished into thin air like an obscure vision...
As soon as the Greek ship moored in the harbor of the city of Tyre, and the sailors began to carry amphoras with wine and olive oil to the shore, a strange picture opened up to their eyes. The marketplace was filled with people. To the melodic sounds of flutes, several dozen people easily jumped up, trying to follow the musical rhythm. Then suddenly, as if on cue, they all threw themselves on the ground and began to roll from side to side. The Greeks were taken aback, although they had already heard a lot about the strange customs of the Phoenicians. There were stories that the Canaanites - as the inhabitants of Phoenicia were called - worship bloodthirsty gods, sacrifice their own children to them, burn alive captives captured during wars and pirate raids. The old Greek explained to his comrades that the Phoenicians pray on the pier to one of their main gods, Melkart. Having come to their senses, the sailors again scurried along the wooden bridges from the ship to the shore and back: if you stop near every curiosity in foreign countries, you will not receive income from trade travels ...
The Greeks, one might say, did not like the Phoenicians. Many Phoenician beliefs and customs seemed wild to them. Phoenician merchants were tight-fisted, and too often Phoenician and Greek pirates and merchants came face to face. Nevertheless, the Greeks adopted a lot from the Phoenicians, in particular the love of long-distance sea voyages, full of danger and adventure. The Phoenicians were the first to reach the Pillars of Hercules (as the Strait of Gibraltar was called in ancient times) and told the Greeks about the lands on the shores of the great ocean.
The Phoenicians became the teachers of the Greeks in the difficult art of trading. The accommodating Greeks learned the language of their more experienced partners. It is known that in ancient Greek the words "gold", "wine", "clothes", "veil", "linen", "knife", "sword", "cloth" have Phoenician roots. The Greeks also borrowed the alphabet from the Phoenicians, changing it and adapting it to their own language.
