The Greek fleet, numbering a thousand ships, assembled at Aulis, a harbor in Boeotia. To ensure the fleet's safe sailing to the shores of Asia Minor, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. Having reached the Troad, the Greeks tried to return Helen and the treasures by peaceful means. The tried diplomat Odysseus and the offended husband Menelaus went as messengers to Troy. The Trojans refused them, and a long and tragic war began for both sides. The gods also took part in it. Hera and Athena helped the Achaeans, Aphrodite and Apollo helped the Trojans.
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 ...
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In 1595 BC King Mursili I captures and destroys Babylon, acquiring huge booty. Around 1400 B.C. another Hittite king, Suppiluliuma I, defeated the powerful kingdom of Mitanni; establishes its control over the upper Euphrates and Northern Syria. Finally, in 1312 BC. (according to other sources, in 1286 BC), the Hittite king Muwatalli, who led the thirty-thousandth army, near the Syrian city of Kadesh lured the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II into a trap with a large military detachment. Almost all Egyptians were destroyed; only the pharaoh escaped with a small guard (see the article "Military Affairs of the Ancient East"). The Hittites successfully fought off neighboring semi-savage peoples, such as the Casques, who pressed on their borders.
What is the secret of the power of the Hittite kingdom? You can find out the "military secret" by looking at the structure of the Hittite society and state.
Due to the presence of ore deposits and forests in Asia Minor, the Hittites had plenty of metals and wood, in contrast to the states located in the valleys of large rivers. The Hittites refused the mediation of Assyrian and Babylonian merchants and enjoyed the benefits of nature on their own.
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.
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The Trojan War, according to the ancient Greeks, was one of the most significant events in their history. Ancient historians believed that it occurred approximately at the turn of the 13th-12th centuries. BC, and began with it a new - "Trojan" era: the ascent of the tribes inhabiting Balkan Greece to a higher level of culture associated with life in cities. Numerous Greek myths were told about the campaign of the Greek Achaeans against the city of Troy, located in the northwestern part of the peninsula of Asia Minor - Troad, later combined into a cycle of legends - kyklich poems. The most authoritative for the Hellenes was the epic poem "Iliad", attributed to the great Greek poet Homer, who lived in the VIII century. BC. It tells about one of the episodes of the final, tenth year of the siege of Troy-Ilion - this is the name of this Asia Minor city in the poem.
The Trojans broke into the Achaean camp and almost burned their ships. The closest friend of Achilles, Patroclus, begged the hero to give him his armor and chariot and rushed to the aid of the Greek army. Patroclus stopped the onslaught of the Trojans, but he himself died at the hands of Hector. The death of a friend makes Achilles forget about the offense. The thirst for revenge inspires him. Trojan hero Hector dies in a duel with Achilles. The Amazons come to the aid of the Trojans. Achilles kills their leader Penthesilea, but soon dies himself, as predicted, from the arrow of Paris, directed by the god Apollo. Achilles' mother Thetis, trying to make her son invulnerable, dipped him into the waters of the underground river Styx. She held Achilles by the heel, which remained the only vulnerable spot on his body. The god Apollo knew where to direct the arrow of Paris. It is to this episode of the poem that mankind owes the expression "Achilles' heel".
The Greeks could not immediately take Troy, surrounded by powerful fortifications. They built a fortified camp on the seashore near their ships, began to devastate the outskirts of the city and attack the allies of the Trojans. In the tenth year of the siege, a dramatic event occurred that resulted in serious setbacks for the Achaeans in battles with the defenders of Troy. Agamemnon insulted Achilles by taking away the captive Briseis from him, and he, angry, refused to enter the battlefield. No amount of persuasion could convince Achilles to leave his anger and take up arms. The Trojans took advantage of the inaction of the most courageous and strong of their enemies and went on the offensive, led by the eldest son of King Priam Hector. The king himself was old and could not take part in the war. The Trojans were also helped by the general fatigue of the Achaean army, which had been unsuccessfully besieging Troy for ten years. When Agamemnon, testing the morale of the warriors, pretended to offer to stop the war and return home, the Achaeans greeted the offer with enthusiasm and rushed to their ships. And only the decisive actions of Odysseus stopped the soldiers and saved the situation.