Diplomacy In Practice:A Study Of Hittite-Egyptian Correspondence In The Reign Of Hattusili Ⅲ As Well As A Collection Of Their Texts With Chinese Translation

Since the discovery of the Amarna letters,complemented by the Boghazko（?）archive and the Ugaritic archive,many Assyriologists,and Egyptologists,who are followed by Hittitologists,have been attracted to the field of international relations among the several Near East Great Kingdoms vying with each other during the Late Bronze Age（ca.1550-1200 BCE）.For its advantage over the other two in its amount and scope,the Amarna letters have been thoroughly explored for both the diachronic evolution and the structure of the relationship among those great powers,which could be called as“epistolic tradition”.However,Hittites used to bind their relationships with other peoples by treaties,and those excavated fragments of tablets with their texts have been utilized as the material for discussing Hittite relationships with other nations,which form a kind of“treaty path”in this research field.Since the beginning of the last century,some diplomatic letters between（?）attu（?）ili III of Hatti and Rameses II of Egypt had been found from time to time during the excavations at Boghazko（?）.This correspondence and the Eternal Treaty between those two Great Kings were diplomatic documents out of the contacts between the King of Hatti and the Pharoah of Egypt.Unfortunately,the Hittite-Egyptian Correspondence normally isn’t treated as the tool of deep reading the Eternal Treaty but only the sources for the further change of the Hittite-Egyptian relationship after the ratification of the Treaty.Actually,in the point view of“diplomacy in practice”,the Correspondence and the Treaty,which rooted in the same historical process,could be collated as the mutual context for interpreting each other,which provides a privileged case for the study of the interrelation between treaty and diplomatic correspondence in the diplomatic practices in Ancient Near East.On one hand,the contents of our Hittite-Egyptian correspondence seem to focus on trivialities without direct connections,and on the other hand,their expressions look like repeats of themselves,which show us a picture of two countries dealing with the diplomatic issues emerging randomly under some routine procedures.But by collecting these letters according to their main motives and comparing with them with the provisions in the Treaty,these trivial letters didn’t only perform the standard diplomatic procedures of that time,but should also be taken as vital diplomatic practices at keeping the peace between the two countries lied down by the Treaty.Furthermore,the arguments for the whereabouts of the dethroned Hittite King,Ur（?）i-Te（?）ub,in the letters usually referred to the formal recognition of the legitimacy of（?）attu（?）ili III and his descendants’rule in Hatti from Rameses having been guaranteed by the provisions in the Treaty,which reflects the diplomatic negotiations in the Correspondence were conducted in the frame of the Treaty.In a similar manner,the performance of the Eternal Treaty and its influences could also be assessed in the context of the Correspondence.In the second half of the13^th century BCE,shortly after the ratification of the Treaty,a relatively peaceful international situation emerged in Near East.The traditional interpretation of the balance among the great powers tends to highlight the cooperation lied down by the Treaty and takes it as a baffle of the aggression from Assyria.Although this argument has been challenged,the baffling power of the Treaty still isn’t been firmly denied by evidence other than the circumstantial ones.However,according to our Hittite-Egyptian correspondence,there was no negotiation between Hatti and Egypt referring to the military provisions in the Treaty.Judging from it,the baffle function based on the military cooperation of Hatti and Egypt and its effect on the international situation in the Near East should not be treated seriously.Moreover,there are more than one-third of Hittite-Egyptian diplomatic letters concerning the negotiations of the royal marriage between the two great powers.According to these letters,Rameses II made promises about the high rank of the Hittite princess in his harem in response to the requests from the Hittite royal couples,in which he exhibited a kind of pragmatic attitude to diplomacy.In this term,out of the perspective of the Correspondence,the adjustments and adaptations of the ideology,Pharoah surpassing other kings shown in Egyptian inscriptions and reliefs,in the practical diplomacy,could be understood more properly.The collation between the Hittite-Egyptian Correspondence and the Eternal Treaty gives us an opportunity to consider the manner in which the formation and evolution of the cordial relationship between two great powers in the Near East during the Late Bronze Age.The Correspondence doesn’t only provide pieces of direct evidence for assessing the performance of the Treaty in practice,but also can be used for appraising its actual contribution to the relative peaceful situation in the Near East in the second half of the 13^th century BCE.Meanwhile,the Treaty also sets up a frame for the diplomatic practice between Hatti and Egypt,which could be a powerful tool for the analysis of the trivial diplomatic matters and the behavioural routines behind them.By merging the“epistolic tradition”with the“treaty path”,our privileged case reveals a kind of interactive mechanism between treaty and diplomatic correspondence in the relation among the great powers in the Ancient Near East.