at the entrance to the Security Council in the United Nations
building in New York.
Let’s be a bit cynical about all this. The treaty itself in both its
versions reflects not a broad ideology of peace and harmony
between nations, but a set of narrow self-interests. It’s much more
concerned with things like guarantees of military support for each
treaty-partner in the event of an attack by a third party, and
contains provisions for extraditing refugees from one kingdom
seeking asylum in the other. And very significantly, the Hittite
version contains a provision which has no corresponding clause in
the Egyptian one: If the people of Hatti rise up against Hattusili,
Ramesses must send troops to his aid. This clause leaves no doubt
that Hattusili still felt insecure on his throne, and was now
signalling his readiness to call on foreign military aid in the event of
fresh uprisings against his rule.
So from Hattusili’s point of view, the treaty was important in
confirming the pharaoh’s endorsement of his regime in Hattusa,
and also in securing a promise of Egyptian military support should
his regime be challenged by his own people. For Ramesses, one of
the incentives for concluding the treaty may well have been its
propaganda value to him; he could represent it as a settlement
sought by the Hittite king now abjectly suing for peace. This
could have provided a useful boost to the pharaoh’s credibility
as a warrior-king, given that his military ventures in the Syro-
Palestinian region had achieved little of lasting value, especially
when compared to the great exploits in the region of former
Egyptian warrior-leaders like Tuthmosis III. The ever-increasing
threat posed by Assyria to the subject-territories of both kingdoms,
if it decided to launch an invasion across the Euphrates, may also
have been a factor in persuading the former arch-enemies to come
to terms. Fear of a common enemy as much as, or more than, a
desire for lasting peace and harmony may well have provided the
essential foundation of the Eternal Treaty.
You might bear all this in mind when you read the inscription
on your next visit to the United Nations. But perhaps we shouldn’t
be too cynical. Though tensions still simmered between the Hittite
and Egyptian courts, the two kingdoms remained at peace for the
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING 191