The Coming of the Greeksthat by 1190 B.C.—when the Hittite Empire ended—Hattic
was only a language of ritual and ancient texts, while Hittite
and especially Luwian (on its way to becoming the language—
misleadingly called Hieroglyphic Hittite—attested on Iron
Age inscriptions) were the languages spoken in the realm.
There is no sign of ethnic antagonism between Hittite speak-
ers, Hattic speakers, and Luwian speakers (this is not surpris-
ing, since presumably many people were bilingual or even tri-
lingual), and one must imagine that in the first half of the
second millennium, the people of Hatti fop one reason or an-
other found it expedient to learn a Proto-Anatolian language.
If we must use such terms, "Haitians" had evolved into "Hit-
tites" and "Luwians."
Although not propelled to imperial kingship by a nation,
Hattusilis required the services of a community of another
kind. During the period of the Old Kingdom, the Hittite
kings were to some extent dependent upon a body known as
the pankus, defined in Hittite texts as an assembly of "the fight-
ing men" or of "the fighting men, servants, and grandees."
Many historians, on the assumption that a Hittite nation had
invaded Hatti shortly before Hattusilis's time, have described
the pankus as a quintessentially Indo-European institution—a
Volksversammlung, and the voice of the Hittite nation. 30 In fact
it was none of these things. In most tribal societies, whether
ancient or modern, the tribesmen (each of whom is also a war-
rior) meet in assembly to decide on matters of gravity. If some
Proto-Indo-European communities were still at the tribal
level, they would very likely have known such a tribal assem-
bly. But since there is no evidence whatever for the existence
- Gurney, The Hittites, 69, describes the pankus as an "assembly
of the 'whole body of citizens.' " According to Goetze, in "State and Society
of the Hittites," p. 26 in Neuere Hahiterforschung (Hisioria Einzelschrift 7),
ed. G. Walser (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1964), the pankus was "a council of
the noblemen." This definition, which seems to be close to the mark, is
echoed by Otten, "Das Hethiterreich," 365 (Otten refers to it as an Adelsge-
meinschaft).
68