文档介绍：LETTERS OF THE GREAT
KINGS OF THE ANCIENT
NEAR EAST
The Royal Correspondence of the Late
Bronze Age
Trevor Bryce
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2003
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
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© 2003 Trevor Bryce
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
(Data to follow)
ISBN 0-203-50498-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-56985-7 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 041525857X (Print Edition)
CONTENTS
List of illustrations v
List of abbreviations vi
Comparative chronology of the Great Kings ix
Introduction 1
Part I Setting the scene 7
1 The main players: the five Great Kingdoms 8
2 The interaction of the players: imperial administration and 38
international relationships
Part II The letters and their themes 50
3 Letters and messengers 51
4 The club of royal brothers 70
5 Gift-exchanges 89
6 The marriage market 100
7 Sending for the doctor 113
Part III Historical episodes 121
8 The Syrian principalities 123
9 The warlords of Amurru 137
10 Hittite frontier correspondence 161
11 An extraordinary request 178
12 Letter to a Mycenaean king 190
13 The elusive Urhi-Teshub 204
14 Last days 214
iv