Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING lQTii CENTURY: HITTITES 791
haps styles himself king of Lycaonia. Between Kaisariye
(Caesarea) and the Taurus there has been discovered an
epitaph of a relatively late date, belonging to a Cilician, son
of a Cilician.
This expansion of the Cilician power in the final period
is attested by Greek writers of later date. It explains how
a Syennesis of Cilicia, in conjunction with a contemporary
king of Babylon, undertook to reconcile Alyattes of Lydia
and Kyaxares of Media. He of course divided the supremacy
of Asia Minor with Alyattes and was the neighbor of
the Babylonian monarch. It is also not improbable that
the expedition of Necho, king of Egypt, undertaken in the
direction of Karkemish, was directed not against Nebuchadrezzar
of Babylon, but against a Cilician king to whom
Karkemish already belonged, and whom Nebuchadrezzar
came to assist.
The latest inscriptions date probably from about 550 b. c.
It is in the highest degree probable that the " Hittite "
characters were superseded by the Aramaic during the
Persian period. The supremacy then established in those
parts by Persia may also explain why no further inscriptions
of Cilician kings have been forthcoming since that time.
After 550 b. c, all that we know of the Indogermanic inhabitants
of Cilicia is contained in Cilician proper names of
a later date.
Some time about 500 b. c. we find Indogermanic " Hittite
"-Armenians in Western Armenia. By what route
they effected their entrance, or at what date, we do not know.
It is not improbable that, as I suggested some years ago,
the Cimmerian invasion into Asia Minor pushed them in
this direction, and it is possible that their native seat oi
Khate was the starting point of this displacement ot the
Armenian people. It is equally possible, however, that as
we also have found a Hittite in ancient Phrygia, these
Armenian immigrants came from the west. This would