-thirtieth year of the reign of
Nimmuria], in the first winter month, on the tenth day, the Court
being at the southern residence (Thebes), in the Residence
Ka-em-Ekhut. Duplicate of the Naharina letter brought by the
messenger Pirizzi and (another)."

Tushratta's dominion was wide, extending from south-eastern Cappadocia to
beyond the later Assyrian capital, Nineveh. But the kingdom of Mitani,
occasionally called after the northern fatherland of its people,
Hanirabbat, was nearing its fall. In the south it had a dangerous enemy
in Babylonia; in the north and west the Hittites were hostile and all the
more to be dreaded since Mitani-Hanirabbat was inhabited by a people
related to the Hittite stock. The kings of Mitani soon realised that their
existence was best secured by a steady alliance with Egypt. To this end
Artatama and Shutarna, the two predecessors of Tushratta, had sent their
daughters to the harem of the Pharaohs. The so-called "marriage scarab" of
Nimmuria bears witness to this, and reference to the bond is often made by
Tushratta. Before he could ascend the throne he had various difficulties
to contend against, of which a faithful account is sent to Egypt:

"When I ascended my father's throne I was still young, for Pirhi
did evil to my land and had slain its lord. Therefore he did evil
to me also and to all my friends. But I quailed not before the
crimes that were committed in my land, but slew the murderers of
Artashumara my brother, with all their adherents. Know also, oh,
my royal brother! that the whole army of the Hittites marched
against my land. But the God Teshup, the lord, delivered them into
my hand and I destroyed them. Not one man from their midst
returned to his own land. And now I have sent to thee a chariot
and two horses, a youth and a maiden, the booty of the land of the
Hittites."

This letter betrays itself as one of the earliest written for Tushratta by
the fact that it makes no request for gold. All his later letters are
filled with greedy entreaties, completely giving the lie to the immediate
pretext under which they were professedly written. One of them, more than
a yard long and proportionately broad, still keeps its charms to itself,
since for some unknown reason, though written in cuneiform character like
the rest, the language is that of Hanirabbat and this we are still unable
to read. Nimmuria indeed, seems to h