Late Empire Part 1
Commonly known as the Empire or the New Kingdom
Historically, the period refered to in this work as the “Late Empire” is instead called by scholars either the New Kingdom or, more frequently, the Empire. The sudden change of terminology from “kingdom” to “empire” for the Hittite political system is, at the very best, somewhat misleading. It leads the reader into believing in a dramatic change in Hittite society. But, while there is a significant reversal of fortunes, the late empire does not differ significantly from what had been before, in either scope or nature.
This is not to say that the reign of Šuppiluliuma I does not represent a new period in Hittite history. This Great King’s reign represents a brilliant Hittite resurgence after the almost total collapse of the Middle Empire during Tudḫaliya III’s reign. Further, our available sources blossom for the Late Empire as compared with any earlier period of Hittite history, beginning with the marvelous histories written by Muršili II about himself and his father Šuppiluliuma I. Even the language appears new, for beginning with Šuppiluliuma we note changes in the language which cause us to distinguish between a Middle Hittite dialect and a New Hittite dialect.
Another distinction of crucial importance can be made for the Late Empire. Šuppiluliuma I made the first widescale use of the treaty system which we first saw in the reign of Telipinu, and which Šuppiluliuma’s great-grandfather Tudḫaliya II modified for purposes of domination instead of equality. This treaty system, while never fully displacing the earlier provincial system, came to overshadow it and play a vital role in the progress of late Hittite history.
Nevertheless, it must be remembered that the Hittites themselves saw no break in history between a “kingdom” period and an “empire” period. This is not to say that Šuppiluliuma’s reign didn’t represent a new beginning even to them. Henceforth, all Hittite Great Kings traced their lineage back to Šuppiluliuma in their official documents. In most cases they didn’t bother to go back any further, whether this was Muršili II, son of Šuppiluliuma I, or Šuppiluliuma II, great-great grandson of Šuppiluliuma I.
Continuity can be seen in that Šuppiluliuma was a member of the old dynasty, and the “empire” that he created did not vastly outsize that of his ancestors. Nor did his reign represent the birth of a new culture. So, with these things in mind, the reader has from now until the conclusion of this work to decide if the standard change in scholastic terminology is justified or not.
Wife of Ḫuqqana of Ḫayaša
(Contemporary of Aḫen-Aton and Tut-anḫ-Amon of Egypt. Contemporary with Aššur-uballiṭ I of Assyria (See Peter Machinist (1987).)
The following account of Šuppiluliuma’s military exploits is based largely on The Deeds of Šuppiluliuma. The broken nature of this text makes the proper placement of the fragments, and thus the events, difficult to determine. The sequence here follows that presented by Güterbock (1956). Once the Great Syrian campaign begins, the number of sources for Šuppiluliuma’s reign increases and can be used to supplement the fragmentary Deeds.
After Šuppiluliuma’s victory against the Arzawans, Šuppiluliuma’s father, Tudḫaliya III, no longer appears in the Deeds. The fragmentary nature of the text makes it unclear whether or not Šuppiluliuma immediately became king at this point. It is important to note that the next fragment begins with word of the enemy being brought directly to Šuppiluliuma, who then decided to march against the enemy (rather than ask permission to do so from Tudḫaliya, which he had been doing up until then). There doesn’t seem to be any space in the Deeds for the reign of a Ḫattušili II, which contributes to the difficulties surrounding the question of that king’s existence.
The Succession
Šuppiluliuma had not been the designated successor to the throne. That distinction was held by Tudḫaliya "the Younger", as reported by Šuppiluliuma's own son, Muršili II,
"Because Tudḫaliya, their lord, was the (designated) son for the land of Ḫatti, [the city] of Ḫattuša, the princes, the lords, the overseer of clansmen, the lower ranking officers, [the team leaders, and the troops and chario]try all swore an oath to him, and my father also swore an oath to him." (CTH 378.1 - Plague Prayer of Muršili II, 1st Version, §2)
These oaths sworn in favor of Tudḫaliya the Younger were not enough to ensure the smooth transfer of the kingship. With Kaškans still ravaging the land, Arzawa menacing Ḫatti from the west, and the capital at Ḫattuša still in ruins, a strong and experienced leader was needed on the throne. A group of officers, including the hitherto immensely successful prince Šuppiluliuma, transgressed their oaths and killed Tudḫaliya the Younger. It was a sign of things to come from this royal son, who never seemed to have felt particularly constrained by his word if it interfered with his ambition.
During the struggle for the throne, Tudḫaliya appears to have been supported by some of his brothers, and these men met the same fate as their sibling. One group of men - who exactly is not known, but they were probably also family members - were banished to the island of Alašiya instead of being killed. This bloodshed in the royal family cleared the way for the accession of Šuppiluliuma as the Great King of Ḫatti.
New Officials Hittite Great Kings frequently exercised their right to make new appointments when they ascended to the throne. Certain positions were tradtionally held by men who enjoyed a specific relationship to the reigning Great King. Considering the bloody nature of Šuppiluliuma's accession, there were probably plenty of additional offices available to be filled as well, and we may therefore suspect that the following appointments took place almost immediately: Šuppiluliuma’s brother Zida became Chief of the Royal Bodyguard. Within a couple years Šuppiluliuma’s son Telipinu was appointed Priest of Kizzuwatna. (See below)
Šuppiluliuma’s Early Campaigns as Great King
"Because the city Ḫattuša [had been burned down] by the [enemy, and] the enemy had taken [the borders] of the land of Ḫatti for themselves, [my father set about attack]ing? the lands [of the enemy.]" (CTH 378.1 - Plague Prayer of Muršili II, 1st Version, §4)
Šuppiluliuma’s reign was in many ways predicted by his princely career. The man was first and foremost a general. Under his father, he had spent many years marching out to various corners of the empire leading armies in the field of battle. His own reign can be described in precisely the same way. There was a restlessness about the man which time and again drove him to march out from his capital in all directions, even on those few occassions when strictly speaking there was no need for him to do so.
But there can be no question that he was the right man for the times. During his father’s reign, the constant danger along the borders made his skills essential to the survival of the empire. These dangers were still very much alive when he himself came to the throne.
His first concern as Great King was with the continuation of his campaigns against Arzawa. Word was brought to him that an Arzawan enemy had attacked the town of Aniša and then moved on to a town whose name is only partially preserved as [...]išša. So he marched forth and destroyed them. Continuing on his way, he then destroyed six enemy war bands at the town of Ḫuwana[...], and seven more war bands at the towns of Ni[...] and Šapparanda.
Another Arzawan enemy had moved into the land Tupaziya and onto Mt. Ammuna, where a man named Anna was helping them. Anna attacked Tupaziya and a lake whose name has been lost, and then managed to penetrate as far as Tuwanuwa, which he attacked. Clearly the Hittite situation was dire, since Tuwanuwa was located in southeastern Anatolia just north of the Taurus. That the Arzawans should be able to successfully campaign so far into the southeast indicates just how weak the empire had become. While Anna was attacking Tuwanuwa, Šuppiluliuma was occupied destroying the towns of Naḫḫuriya, Šapparanda, and another town whose name is lost. He then went to Tiwanzana “for sleeping.”
In the morning he claims to have gone down from Tiwanzana with a small patrol consisting of only six other chariots. While riding he was confronted by “the whole enemy all at once.” This was probably a chance encounter rather than an intentional engagement (Beal (1992) 288f.). Nevertheless, he emerged victorious, and the enemy fled, abandoning their booty and taking up a defensive position on a mountain. From their height advantage they attempted to destroy Šuppiluliuma by raining arrows down on him. Šuppiluliuma chose to move up to Tuwanuwa at that time, where he was joined by his troops and chariots. At this point the text again becomes fragmentary, and we can only assume that Šuppiluliuma proved victorious over Anna and his Arzawan allies.
The next fragment relates how Šuppiluliuma defeated an unknown Kaškan enemy. Two men, Takkuri and Ḫimuili, are mentioned here. Šuppiluliuma had an officer named Ḫimuili, so these two men were perhaps Hittite officers. In fact, this may be the very Ḫimuili who played such a prominent role in the Maşat Hüyük letters, although this can certainly not be proven, and Ḫimuili was by no means an uncommon Hittite name. After defeating this enemy, he went to the town of Anziliya (In the Kaškan region, not too far from Mašat). Then the Hittite towns of Pargalla, [...], Ḫattina, and Ḫa[...] were attacked by an enemy, so Šuppiluliuma went out and defeated them, restoring the Hittite people, cattle, sheep, and goods to their rightful places.
After this, Šuppiluliuma had to turn his attentions to the west again due to yet another menace from that direction. A man named Anzapaḫḫaddu, who may have been the king of Arzawa, captured Hittite territory. Šppiluliuma wrote the standard letter demanding the return of his territory and people, which was duly ignored by the Arzawan. So Šuppiluliuma marched against him. Something about the land of Mira is then written. This may perhaps be the expulsion of a ruler named Mašḫwiluwa from Mira by his brothers. Mašḫwiluwa fled to Šuppiluliuma as a fugitive, and Šuppiluliuma accepted him and gave him his daughter Muwatti as a wife. But after this, Šuppiluliuma was not able to assist Mašḫwiluwa in restoring his lands to him because his attentions became absorbed with the Hurrian lands on the eastern side of his empire (Extended Annals Year 12). Šuppiluliuma’s change of venue may not have been completely voluntary. The broken text fragments make it clear that Šuppiluliuma was having difficulties recapturing land from Anzapaḫḫaddu, and the ultimate outcome is not preserved. In spite of this, we can conclude that he must ultimately have been successful in capturing Arzawa itself, since he is known to have given the rule over Arzawa to a man named Uḫḫa-ziti (Extended Annals Year 3). Further, Arzawa supposedly freed itself again while he was campaigning in Syria, which it could hardly have done if it had not been previously captured.
One western land that Šuppiluliuma apparently did not have to campaign against was the land Wiluša. Although it stayed outside the Hittite vassal system, it remained at peace with the Hittites and maintained regular communications through messengers. This was apparently enough to prevent Šuppiluliuma from bringing his troops into that distant land. At this time Wiluša was ruled by a man that the Hittites called Kukkunni. Although this man seems to bear an Anatolian name, it may be better known from Greek sources. Various Greek sources present a Trojan hero by the name of Kyknos (with a false Greek etymology meaning "swan"), king of Colonae in the Troad, who was a son of Poseidon. This Greek Kyknos of the Trojan war was killed by Achilles and then transformed into a swan.
Šuppiluliuma against Armatana: The next fragments mention a successful campaign against Armatana.
Rebuilding & Remodeling
Sometime around ~1400 B.C., the archaeological evidence at Boğazkale indicates that the citadel was rebuilt. We might suppose that this reconstruction followed the sacking of the city in the reign of Tudḫaliya III. We do not, unfortunately, know exactly when the reconstruction began. Šuppiluliuma must have been involved, though, since he helped to recover the capital from the Kaškans.
The citadel was not simply rebuilt, it was remodeled. The revived Hittite empire required a more impressive palace (Which at least suggests that the citadel was not rebuilt until the revival of Hittite fortunes under Šuppiluliuma). To this end the Hittites constructed huge terraces on the western and eastern side of Büyükkale in order to expand the area of the citadel plateau. The southern area of the citadel remained domestic in nature, but now most of the northern half seems to have been dedicated to palatial buildings.
The palace itself stood at the upper, northern end: closest to the rocky cliffs and furthest from the southern gate. A central courtyard surrounded by a colannade formed its heart, and the royal apartments opened onto this courtyard. The new terraces of the plateau were occupied by other buildings and the cyclopean walls.
At this time the office of Priest of Kizzuwatna reveals itself to be a rather unique position. The Priest was required to have the same friends and enemies as the Great King. He had to reveal those who spoke or acted against the Great King. If he was involved in a dispute, it had to be referred to the Great King. The position appears to have been heritable, and Telipinu had to recognize Arnuwanda as the legitimate successor to the Great Kingship, and further he could not interfere with the succession. The last requirements could easily have been inserted simply because of the claim Telipinu could otherwise make on the throne, but the rest strongly resemble those required of vassal kings. But along with those requirements, there were religious requirements as well which fit his position as “priest”. How Telipinu’s responsibilities differed from those of his predecessor is unknown, but considering that a previous Priest of Kizzuwatna considered himself a Border Guard for the Great King, clearly Telipinu’s authority must have strongly resembled those of his predecessor.
Perusal of the Priest’s duties reveal similarities with the duties held earlier by Madduwatta of Mt. Zippašla. Both had duties reminiscent of vassal kings, but considered themselves to be Border Guards. However, in the instance of Kizzuwatna, the position takes on a new character due to the religious duties placed upon its ruler.
The need to keep a closer connection with the ruler of Kizzuwatna than with a typical vassal king, and the appearance of this tie through the priestly role, may have been influenced by the profound effect that the culture, and particularly the religion of Kizzuwatna was having on Ḫatti proper at this time. Telipinu’s role in the subsequent Great Syrian campaign, if he had one, is entirely unknown.
Kingdom of the West
“You have not gone to the land of Ḫatti, you have not seen the land of Apa. Ḫedem, you know [not] its nature, nor Yegdy either. What is it like, the Ṣumur of Sessi (life, prosperity, health!)? On which side of it is the city of Ḫalap? What is its stream like? You have not gone forth to Kadesh and Tubiḫi. You have not gone to the region of the Bedouin with the bowmen of the army. You have [not] trodden the road to the Magur, where the sky is darkened by day and it is overgrown with cypress trees and oaks and cedars which reach the heavens. Lions are more numerous than leopards or bears, (and it is) surrounded by Bedouin on (every) side of it. You have not climbed the mountain of Shawe, barefoot, your hands laid upon [your bow], your chariot laced with ropes, your horse in tow. Pray let [me tell you of] ...-beret. You are dismayed (at) climbing it and cross its stream above it. (Thus) you see the taste of being a mahir, with your chariot laid upon your [shoulder] and your [assistant] tired out. You reach a halt in the evening, with your whole body crushed and battered, your [members] belabored, ... yourself in sleep.
“You awaken, for it is the hour of starting in the sickly night. You are alone for the harnessing; no brother comes for brother. The sneak-theives have entered into [the] camp, the horse is untied, the ... has been lost in the night, and your clothes have been stolen. Your groom awoke in the night, saw what {they} had done, and took what was left. He has entered among those who are wicked, he has mingled with the Bedouin tribes, and he has made himself into the likeness of an Asiatic. The foe had come to raid furtively and found you inert. When you awake, you find no trace of them, and they have carried off your property. (Thus) you have become a fully equipped mahir, as you fill your ear (with experience).” (Papyrus Anastasi I, ANET 477 with some changes of language)
These words were written by an Egyptian scribe of the late 19th dynasty, but his words would have echoed true long before then. The land that he described, full of dark forests, ferocious beasts, and cowardly sneak thieves, was the raw material from which a small kingdom had sprung several centuries before this passage was written, namely the kingdom of Amurru.
Amurru began its existence in the wild highlands of the Lebanese mountains. The semi-nomadic tribes that called the cedars of Lebanon home were an ever present menace to their more civilized neighbors on the coastal lowlands. There lay the great commercial cities such as Beruta (Beirut), Gubla (Byblos), Ardata, Ullaza, Irqata, Ṣumur, and their like. Since the conquests of Thutmose III, Ṣumur had replaced Ullaza as the most important imperial city in Egypt’s northern-most zone of control, and it had become the residence of the Egyptian comissioner who exercised his authority in the region now generally refered to by the local rulers as Amurru.
Amurru’s political destiny was forever altered by an ambitious highland dynast who turned his eyes to the rich coastal cities that lay below him. He was destined to weld the highlands and lowlands into what would become the kingdom of Amurru, and establish a dynasty which would only disappear with the kingdom of Amurru itself and indeed with the Late Bronze Age era of which it had become such an important part. The man was named ʾAbdi-Aširta.
Calling upon the strength of dissidents in the Amurrite highlands, usually referred to generically as ʾApiru, ʾAbdi-Aširta began his campaign to sweep down out of his mountains and capture the coastal cities of Amurru. Under his leadership, the ʾApiru killed Aduna, the king of Irqata. This victory did not evoke a response from Aduna’s Egyptian masters, and so subsequently Miya, the ruler of Arašni, seized the city Ardata for ʾAbdi-Aširta. These two cities, Irqata and Ardata, gave ʾAbdi-Aširta important southern strongholds from which to expand his conquests both northward and southward. The coastal city Šigata fell to him next.
While several Levantine rulers were alarmed by his activities, the most prolific witness to ʾAbdi-Aširta’s predations was Rib-Ḫadda, the ruler of Gubla. He saw himself as always on the verge of being overwhelmed by the Amurrites, and vociferously complained to his Egyptian overlords with every advance forward in the Amurrite dynast’s plans. As ʾAbdi-Aširta emerged from his highland base as a local strongman, Rib-Ḫadda was there to complain about it. In letter after letter, he requested Egyptian military aid to protect him against the Amurrites. One such letter, written after ʾAbdi-Aširta’s capture of Šigata, is addressed to the Egyptian official Aman-Appa, who had previously been posted in Ṣumur and may have been the man in charge of a garrison from Ṣumur which had previously been posted in Gubla, but which appears to have been withdrawn when Aman-Appa returned to Egypt. In this letter, Rib-Ḫadda tried to convince Aman-Appa how easily the Amurrites could be repelled, and how much that would restore Egyptian prestige in the area,
“Why have you been negligent, not speaking to the king, your lord, so that you may come out together with archers and fall upon the land of Amurru? If they hear of archers coming out, they will abandon their cities and desert. Do not you yourself know that the land of Amurru follows the stronger party? Look, they are not now being friendly to ʾAbdi-Aširta. What will he do to them? [And so] they are longing day and night for the coming out of the archers, and (they say), ʻLet us join them!’ All the mayors long for this to be done to ʾAbdi-Aširta, since he sent a message to the men of Ammiya, ʻKill your lord and join the ʾApiru.’ Accordingly, the mayors say, ʻHe will do the same thing to us, and all the lands will be joined to the ʾApiru.’” (EA #73)
In fact, ʾAbdi-Aširta’s message worked, and the men of Ammiya did indeed kill their lord and join with him (EA ##74, 75). This further expansion of Amurrite dominion occurred at just the same time that a new force entered the Syrian plain - the resurgence of Ḫatti under the leadership of Šuppiluliuma.
Šuppiluliuma’s First Syrian Campaign
A good map for Šuppiluliuma I’s Syrian campaigns can be found in Murnane, William J., The Road to Kadesh, SAOC 42, 1990, xvi. HDT = Beckman, Gary, Hittite Diplomatic Texts.
Turning back to the Anatolian highlands, we find Šuppiluliuma shifting his vigorous attention in a new direction. With his Anatolian possessions momentarily secure, Šuppiluliuma now took account of the lost territories in the east. He secured a treaty with Artatama II, whom he called the “King of Ḫurri”, as opposed to Tušratta, whom he called the “King of Mitanni.” Artatama’s domain seems to have lain to the east of Tušratta’s, since the Assyrians were his subjects and paid tribute to him during the first part of his reign (HDT #6B §1). Tušratta now found himself uncomfortably pinched between two united foes.
The Hittites would prove to be the ones who would initiate hostilities. Gathering together his army, Šuppiluliuma marched forth against his Hurrian neighbor. His first target was Išuwa. Išuwa had remained a Mitannian possession since Tušratta had repulsed the Hittites there in the reign of Tudḫaliya III. Moreover it had remained a haven for the troops of all those many cities who had fled there. Šuppiluliuma now felt ready to avenge that Hittite humiliation.
As it turned out, his confidence was somewhat premature. Instead of a grand tour of reconquest, he was only able to raid into Išuwa as far as the west bank of the Euphrates. Making no further progess in this direction, he turned south and marched against the Mitannian possessions in Syria. In this direction, Šuppiluliuma was able to march deep into Syria where he claimed to have taken Mitannian territory as far as Mt. Lebanon. This is somewhat disturbing in terms of Egyptian-Hittite relations, since this would seem to imply that he marched deep into Egyptian Amurru, past the latitudes of the Egyptian cities Ṣumur and Kadesh.
Šuppiluliuma’s conquests must have come as quite an unexpected surprise to his contemporaries. After all, not long before the Hittites had seemed all but finished. In Gubla Rib-Ḫadda sent a dramatic summary of this alarming turn of events to the pharaoh, which, since it happened to coincide with his own problems with his northern neighbor Amurru, offered him yet another opportunity to express his own distress as well,
“Just now the men of Ammiya have killed their lord. I am afraid. May the king be informed that the king of Ḫatti has seized all the countries that were vassals of the king of Mittani. Behold, [he] is king of Naḫrima (i.e. Ḫurri) and the land of the Great Kings, and ʾAbdi-Aširta, [the servant] and dog, is taking [the land of the king (of Egypt)].” (EA #75)
This response to Šuppiluliuma’s conquests, while clearly an overreaction, is certainly understandable.
Tušratta could not let such a humiliating loss go unchallenged. He sent off an antagonistic letter to Šuppiluliuma, making the consequences of the Hittite king’s aggressions clear,
“Why are you plundering on the west bank of the Euphrates? . . . . If you plunder the lands of the west bank of the Euphrates, then I too will plunder the lands on the west bank of the Euphrates.” HDT #6a
Presumably, this is precisely what he did. But before relating Šuppiluliuma’s response to these further Mitannian agressions, we must continue for a while the saga of the emergence of Amurru.
After taking control of Ammiya, ʾAbdi-Aširta turned his eyes southward against Gubla. Rib-Ḫadda reacted in his typically hysterical fashion, and in a letter to the pharaoh was not afraid to put damning words in his enemy’s mouth,
“So now ʾAbdi-Aširta has written to the troops: ʻAssemble in the temple of NINURTA, and then let us fall upon Gubla. Look, there is no one that will save it from us. Then let us drive out the mayors from the country that the entire country be joined to the ʾApiru, ... to the entire country. Then will (our) sons and daughters be at peace forever. Should even so the king (of Egypt) come out, the entire country will be against him and what will he do to us?’” (EA #74)
So, according to Rib-Ḫadda, ʾAbdi-Aširta was willing to menace even the Egyptian pharaoh himself! We might be suspicious of poor Rib-Ḫadda and suspect him of a little alarmist propaganda inspired by his duress. And he does seem to have been hard pressed by the Amurrite, and for some time he had been making the same complaint to the pharaoh,
“Behold, the war of the ʾApiru against <me> is severe and, as the gods of your land are alive, our sons and daughters (as well as we ourselves) are gone since they have been sold in the land of Yarimuta for provisions to keep us alive. ʻFor lack of a cultivator, my field is like a woman without a husband.’” (EA #74)
Little of Rib-Ḫadda’s kingdom remained to him. ʾAbdi-Aširta had already taken all of his villages in the mountains and along the sea, so that besides Gubla he controlled only two other towns.
Rib-Ḫadda’s distress was somewhat ameliorated by the fact that, while ʾAbdi-Aširta was orchestrating hostilities against him, a much greater opportunity presented itself on his northern frontier. The troops of the city Šeḫlal, led by a man named Yamaya, launched an assault on Ṣumur and captured it while Paḫanate, the Egyptian commissioner in Ṣumur, was away in Egypt. It is not known whether or not the unrest around Ṣumur was in any way connected with the recent Hittite annexation of territory in its vicinity. In any event, ʾAbdi-Aširta was quick to seize the opportunity and, on behalf of the Egyptians, moved in and himself attacked Ṣumur, capturing the city in turn from Yamaya.
At least, that was how he chose to present the situation to the Egyptians. But the Egyptian court was apparently barraged by a series of reports not only from other Syrian mayors, but also perhaps from some Egyptians (or some other class of people) who had fled Ṣumur when ʾAbdi-Aširta took control of the city, and even from Yamaya himself. According to their version of events, it was ʾAbdi-Aširta who was the aggressor, and he who had wrongly taken the city.
Paḫanate was initially swayed by ʾAbdi-Aširta’s enemies, and sent a letter to the Ammurite accusing him of being an enemy of Egypt. ʾAbdi-Aširta protested vigorously that his actions had been misinterpreted, and that in fact he was a loyal Egyptian subject, being vilely maligned by his enemies,
“[May my lord listen. There were] no men in Ṣumur to guard it [as he had] ordered, and Ṣumur [was afraid of] the troops of Šeḫlal; there were no men in it to guard it. [So] I myself hastened to the rescue from Irqata, and I myself came [before] Ṣumur and . . . your [. . .] from the hand of the troops of Šeḫlal. If I had not been staying in [Irqata], if I had been staying where life was peaceful, then the troops of Šeḫlal [would certainly have] sent Ṣumur and the palace up in flames. When I myself hastened to the rescue from Irqata and arrived in Ṣumur, there were no men that had stayed on in the palace. Here are the (only) ones that had stayed on in the palace: Šab-ilu, Bišitanu, Maya, Arsawa. There were (only) 4 men that had stayed on in the palace, and they said to me, ʻSave us from the hand of the troops of Šeḫlal.’ And so I saved them from the hand of the troops of Šeḫlal. [Of 4] persons I saved the lives. 25 (was the number of those) whom [the troops of] Šeḫlal killed.” (EA #62)
Rib-Ḫadda of Gubla, apparently somewhat stronger than he wished the Egyptian court to otherwise believe, took advantage of ʾAbdi-Aširta’s abscence in the north to go forth and take away Šigata from him. But capturing Šigata and holding it were two different things. Rib-Ḫadda was promptly endangered by Egyptian pathos. The Egyptians in general do not seem to have been particularly interested in who ruled in the Syrian cities, so long as they professed loyalty to the pharaoh, and so they appear to have chosen to accept ʾAbdi-Aširta’s authority in Ṣumur as a fait accompli. This freed him to turn his attentions southward once more. Now Rib-Ḫadda’s recent achivement came under threat. The Egyptians were clearly not reacting as he expected them to, and now he found his newly gotten gains in jeopardy. He needed Egyptian aid to hold back ʾAbdi-Aširta, and anxiously wrote to Ḫaya, the Egyptian commissioner over him, to find out about its arrival,
“Why have you been negligent, not speaking to the king so he will send archers to take Ṣumur? What is ʾAbdi-Aširta, servant and dog, that he takes the land of the king for himself? What is his auxiliary force that it is strong? Through the ʾApiru his auxiliary force is strong! So send me 50 pairs of horses and 200 infantry that I may resist him in Šigata until the coming forth of the archers. Let him not gather together all the ʾApiru so he can take Šigata and Ampi, and [seize . . .] . . . What shall I be able to do? There will be no place where [men] can enter against [him].” (EA #71)
Yet the Egyptians did nothing, and ʾAbdi-Aširta successfully recaptured Šigata and Ampi from the Gublite. Rib-Ḫadda once again found himself hard pressed by his Amurrite enemy, and once again sought assistance from the Egyptians,
“May the king, my lord, know that the war of ʾAbdi-Aširta against me is severe. He wants to take [for himself] the two cities that have remained to me. Moreover, what is ʾAbdi-Aširta, the dog, that he strives to take all the cities of the king, the Sun, for himself? Is he the king of Mitanni, or the king of Kaššu (i.e. Babylon), that he strives to take the land of the king for himself? He has just gathered together all the ʾApiru against Šigata [and] Ampi, and he himself has taken these two cities. [I] said, ʻThere is no place where men can enter against him. He has seized [. . .] . . ., [so] send me a garrison of 400 men and [30(?) pairs of] horses [with all speed.’ It] is [thus that I keep writing to] the palace, but you [do not] reply to me. [. . .] . . . For years archers would come out to inspect the country, and yet now that the land of the king and Ṣumur, your garrison-city, have been joined to the ʾApiru, you have done nothing. Send a large force of archers that it may drive out the king’s enemies and all lands be joined to the king. Moreover, you are a great lord. You must not neglect this message.” (EA #76)
Rib-Ḫadda’s words seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Or, at best, misled ears. Now that ʾAbdi-Aširta had gained Egyptian recognition, he could more easily present his own version of events to the pharaoh, which of course contradicted Rib-Ḫadda’s. His attacks on Gublite territory continued, and Rib-Ḫadda became increasingly upset and confused by the Egyptians’ lack of response to his needs.
“Though I keep writing like this to the king, my lord, he does not heed my words. Since he (i.e. ʾAbdi-Aširta) has attacked me three times this year, and for two years I have been repeatedly robbed of my grain, we have no grain to eat. What can I say to my peasantry? Their sons, their daughters, the furnishings of their houses are gone, since they have been sold in the land of Yarimuta for provisions to keep us alive. May the king, my lord, heed the words of his loyal servant, and may he send grain in ships in order to keep his servant and his city alive. May he grant 400 men and 30 pairs of horses, as were given to Surata, that they may guard the city for you.” (EA #85)
In addition to direct attacks against Gublite territory, ʾAbdi-Aširta began forming alliances against Gubla. Rib-Ḫadda’s grain supply from the land of Yarimuta, upon which he depended so heavily, was cut off. After depositing a payment for grain with Yapaḫ-Ḫadda of Beruta, the Egyptian commissioner Yanḫamu claimed to have sent Rib-Ḫadda grain, but the grain failed to arrive. Rib-Ḫadda blaimed this on an alliance forged between Yapaḫ-Ḫadda and ʾAbdi-Aširta (EA #85).
While all this was going on, new and disturbing events had taken place in Amurru. ʾAbdi-Aširta had (perhaps) initially benefitted from the Hittite attack on Syria, taking advantage of the disorder created by it in order to expand his territory there. But now Tušratta was on the move, seeking to reassert his authority in Syria. ʾAbdi-Aširta, who had probably seized some previously Mitannian territory from the Hittites, now found himself pinched between Mitanni and Egypt. He began playing a dangerous game of divided loyalties. He may initially have believed that he could, in fact, have maintained a duel allegiance; owing allegiance to Egypt for his Egyptian territories, and owing allegiance to Mitanni for his Mitannian possessions. Whatever he was attempting, he definitely opened relations with the king of Mitanni, and the king of that land entered Amurru. He may have simply done so to confirm his relation with ʾAbdi-Aširta, but Rib-Ḫadda was convinced that the Mittanian king had further ambitions,
“Moreover, the king of <Mi>tanni came out as far as Ṣumur, and though wanting to march as far as Gubla, he returned to his own land, as there was no water for him to drink.” (EA #85)
Rib-Ḫadda’s charge is usually dismissed, but in fact the Mittanian king may very well have planned on attacking Gubla in support of his new vassal. However, this must remain very uncertain.
In any event, Rib-Ḫadda’s greatest concern remained the Egyptian recognition of ʾAbdi-Aširta,
“Why do you not reply, ʻWhat my servant requests is available’, or ʻis not available’, so I may know what I should do until the king arrives and visits his loyal servant? Who is ʾAbdi-Aširta, the servant and dog, that they mention his name in the presence of the king, my lord? Just let there be one man whose heart is one with my heart, and I would drive ʾAbdi-Aširta from the land of Amurru. Moreover, since your father’s return from Sidon, from that time the lands have been joined to the ʾApiru. Accordingly, I have nothing.” (EA #85)
Rib-Ḫadda’s fortunes, however, were soon to change for the better, though he did not yet realize it. ʾAbdi-Aširta’s relations with Mitanni would prove to be too much for the Egyptians to bear, as it hit them where it mattered most - their pocketbooks. Rib-Ḫadda would finally hit upon an accusation which would awaken Egyptian wrath against the Amurrite. Writing once again to the Egyptian official Aman-Appa, who apparently remained ignorant of the fact that the grain Yanḫamu was supposed to send to him had never arrived (ll. 13-16), he claimed,
“[The war] is severe, and so come with archers that you may take the land of Amurru. Day and night [it has] cried to you [and they] say (that) what is taken from them to Mittana is very much.” (EA #86)
This was soon followed up later by the alarming claim that,
“Moreover, that dog is in Mittana,” (EA #90)
This was the crucial one-two punch that would finally turn the Egyptians against ʾAbdi-Aširta. The Egyptians could not abide by a vassal who swore loyalty to another sovreign, and backed it up by paying tribute to him. The Egyptians would soon, finally, take action.
But Rib-Ḫadda still had some unpleasantness in his immediate future. Indeed, for him, it was truly darkest before the dawn. Aman-Appa had Rib-Ḫadda send a messenger to him so that the pharaoh could provide him with troops and chariots. But his messenger returned empty-handed. ʾAbdi-Aširta heard this, and was duly encouraged. He was soon in possession of Baṭruna, and threatening Gubla itself,
“He has stationed the ʾApiru and chariots there (in Baṭruna), and they have not moved from the entrance of the gate of Gubla.” (EA #87)
Rib-Ḫadda was now left with only Gubla itself. With his situation about as dire as it could possibly be, Rib-Ḫadda even requested that the pharaoh send him 1,000 shekels of silver and 100 shekels of gold, “so he will go away from me” (EA #91).
But no such payoff was to come, and Rib-Ḫadda was almost out of time,
“I have just heard (that) he has gathered together all the ʾApiru to attack me. What can I do by myself? I go on writing like this for archers and an auxiliary force, but my words go unheeded.” (EA #91)
Indeed, ʾAbdi-Aširta soon took control of the Gublite countryside,
“Behold the city! He has . . . the entrance of the gate of Gubla. How long has he not moved from the gate, and so we are unable to go out into the countryside. Moreover, look, he strives to seize Gubla! And [. . . and] may the king, my lord, give heed to [the words of] his servant, and [may] he hasten [with] all speed chariots and [troops] that they may guard [the city of the king], my lord, and [. . . until] the arrival of the king, [my] lord. For my part, I will not neglect the word of [my] lord. But if the king, my lord, does [not give heed] to the words of his servant, then Gubla will be joined to him, and all the lands of the king, as far as Egypt, will be joined to the ʾApiru.” (EA #88)
Even more, Rib-Ḫadda was himself on the verge of giving up and surrendering to ʾAbdi-Aširta,
“Moreover, should my lord not have word brought to his servant by tablet, with all speed, then . . . the city to him and I will request a town from him to stay in, and so I will stay alive.” (EA #88)
But Rib-Ḫadda had now seen the worst. Egypt finally began to show signs that it was awakening to the threat posed by ʾAbdi-Aširta. Even the commissioners seem to have become alarmed by ʾAbdi-Aširta’s activities. Letters went out to the kings of Beruta, Sidon, and Tyre, saying,
“Rib-Ḫadda will be writing to you for an auxiliary force, and all of you are to go.” (EA #92)
While Rib-Ḫadda was immensely pleased by this, the expected troops were unfortunately late in showing up, naturally resulting in another letter to the pharaoh. But it seems probable that the reinforcements did finally show up. Things were changing in the Levant, and everyone seemed aware of Egypt’s new attitude towards ʾAbdi-Aširta. Not only were local rulers expected to turn against ʾAbdi-Aširta, including even the Amurrite cities, but even Aman-Appa himself finally sent word to Rib-Ḫadda to announce his immenent arrival. But Rib-Ḫadda had been given empty promises too many times in the past, and on the verge of his salvation he had some difficulty believing in this change in Egypt’s attitude,
“[Look, I] was distressed at your words, ʻI am [on my] way to you.’ You are always writing like this to me! Listen to me. Tell the king to give you 300 men so we can visit the city and regain (it) [for the king]. Do not the commissioners long [for] the coming out of the archers? He is stronger than the king! Moreover, if we are able to seize Baṭruna for you, then the men will abandon ʾAbdi-Aširta. Things are not as they were previously. If this year there are no archers, [then] he will be strong forever.” (EA #93)
But there would be archers. However, before the arrival of Egyptian troops, ʾAbdi-Aširta first had to defend himself against local rulers such as Rib-Ḫadda and his comrades. With sentiment turned against him, it was now ʾAbdi-Aširta who was on the defensive. He turned to his ally, the king of Mittani, for help,
“The king of Mittani visited the land of Amurru itself, and he said, ʻHow great is this land! Your land is extensive.’” (EA #95)
It would do him no good. ʾAbdi-Aširta would not survive his fall from grace. In fact, he now seemed incapable of spreading around generous gifts to his supporters, and unable to satisfy his Mitannian master, they turned against him. Betrayed by Mitanni, unable to support his followers, and with Egypt against him and sending forth troops to deal with him, his own people seem to have reassessed their situation, and then decided to dispose of their troublesome leader themselves, even before the Egyptian troops arrived.
“Now, the ships of the army are not to enter the land of Amurru, for they (the people) have killed ʾAbdi-Aširta, since they had no wool and he had no garments of lapis lazuli or MAR-stone color to give as tribute to Mittana.” (EA #101)
Ironically, this preemptive strike against ʾAbdi-Aširta made Amurru a pariah land, since they had acted without Egyptian authority,
“Put a man in each city (Tyre, Sidon, and Beruta) and let him not allow a ship from the land of Amurru (to enter), for they have killed ʾAbdi-Aširta. It was the king that placed him over them, not they! Let the king tell the 3 cities and the ships of the army not to go to the land of Amurru.” (EA #101)
Rib-Ḫadda had won. Against all odds, the great conquerer of Amurru had failed to capture him, and instead had been murdered by his own people. Rib-Ḫadda’s long struggle against ʾAbdi-Aširta was over. Little could he know that he was about to wake from a bad dream into a nightmare.
The Fight for Amurru
Yet to be formulated into a narrative. Some relevant quotes, not in any particular order, are included here.
Men of Arwada attacking Rib-Ḫadda(?):
“Moreover, whose ships have attacked me? Is it not the men of Arwada? Indeed, they are now with you in Egypt.” (EA # 101)
“This tablet is from Irqata. To the king, our lord: Message from Irqata and its elders. We fall at the feet of the king, our lord, 7 times and 7 times. To our lord, the Sun: Message from Irqata. May the heart of the king, (our) lord, know that we guard Irqata for him. When the king, our lord, sent D[UMU]-Biḫa, he said to us, ʻMessage of the king: Guard Irqata!’ The sons of the traitor to the king seek our harm; Irqata seeks loyalty to the king. As to [silver] having been given to S[u]baru al[ong with] 30 horses and chariots, may you know the mind of Irqata. When a tablet from the king arrived (saying) to raid the land that the ʻApiru had taken [from] the king, they waged war with us against the enemy of our lord, the man whom you placed over us. Truly we are guarding the land. May the king, our lord, heed the words of his loyal servants. May he grant a gift to his servant(s) so our enemies will see this and eat dirt. May the breath of the king not depart from us. We shall keep the city gate barred until the breath of the king reaches us. Severe is the war against us - terribly, terribly!” (EA #100)
“My situation is very difficult. The war of the sons of ʾAbdi-Aširta against me is severe. They have occupied the land of Amurru, and the entire country is theirs. Ṣumur and Irqata remain to the magnate. I have now been in Ṣumur because the magnate is in difficulty due to the war. I left Gubla, but Zimredda and Yapaḫ-Ḫadda were not with me. So the magnate keeps writing to them, but they pay no attention to him. May the king, my lord, heed the words of his loyal servant. Send an auxiliary force with all speed to Ṣumur in order to guard it until the arrival of the archers of the king, the Sun. May the king, the Sun, expel the traitors from his land. Moreover, may the king, my lord, heed the words of his loyal servant. Send a garrison to Ṣumur and to Irqata. As the entire garrison has fled from Ṣumur, may it seem right in the sight of the lord, the Sun of all countries, and give me 20 pairs of horses, and send an auxiliary force with all speed to Ṣumur in order to guard it. Whatever is left of the garrison is in difficulty, and few people are still in the city. If you do not send archers, then there will not be a city remaining to you. But if archers are on hand, we will take all the lands for the king.” (EA #103)
“May the Lady of Gubla, the goddess of the king, my lord, establish your honor in the presence of the king, your lord, the Sun of all countries. Moreover, you know that, though informed, you have delayed in coming out. Why did you write? Now you are going to come into an empty house. Everything is gone. I am utterly ruined. Moreover, as to your writing me, ʻGo, stay in Ṣumur until I arrive,’ know that the war against me is very severe and I have been unable to go. Now Ampi is at war with me. Know that the magnate and the lords of the city are at peace with the sons of ʾAbdi-Aširta, and accordingly I am unable to go. Know that all are traitors, and you must not inquire about me from my enemies. Now, because of the situation, I am afraid.” (EA #102)
“May the king, my lord, know that Pu-Baḫla, the son of ʾAbdi-Aširta, has occupied Ullassa. Theirs are Ardata, Waḫliya, Ampi, Šigata. All the cities are theirs. So may the king send an auxiliary force to Ṣumur until the king gives thought to his land. Who are the sons of ʾAbdi-Aširta, the servant and dog? Are they the king of Kaššu or the king of Mittani that they take the land of the king for themselves? Previously, they would take cities of your mayors, and you did nothing. Now they have driven out your commissioner and have taken his cities for themselves. They have taken Ullassa. If in these circumstances you do nothing, then they are certainly going to take Ṣumur and kill the commissioner and the auxiliary force in Ṣumur. What am I to do? I cannot go personally to Ṣumur; the cities of Ampi, Šigata, Ullassa, Arwada, are at war with me. Should they hear that I was entering Ṣumur, there would be these cities with ships, and the sons of ʾAbdi-Aširta in the countryside. They would attack <me>, and I would be unable to get out, and Gubla would be joined to the ʾApiru. They have gone to Ibirta, and an agreement has been made with the ʾApiru.” (EA #104)
“Moreover, may the king give thought to Ṣumur. Look at Ṣumur! Like a bird in a trap, so is Ṣumur; the sons of ʾAbdi-Aširta by land, the people of Arwada by sea, are against it day and night. I sent 3 ships to Yanḫamu, [but ships] of the people of Arwada were (there) to intercept them, and out they came! Consider the case of the people of Arwada. When the archers came out, all the property of ʾAbdi-Aširta in their possession was not taken away, and their ships, by an agreement, left Egypt. Accordingly, they are not afraid. Now they have taken Ullassa, and they strive to take Ṣumur. Everything belonging to ʾAbdi-Aširta they gave to the sons, and so now they are strong. They have taken the army ships together with everything belonging to them, and I am unable to go to the aid of Ṣumur. Yapaḫ -Ḫadda is at war with me because of [my] property in his possession. Let us put the case before Aman-. . . and DUMU-Biḫa and before Yanḫamu, for they are the ones that know what is my due concerning [. . .]. Because my property in his possession is considerable, he has accordingly waged war against me. When I heard of the capture of Ullassa, I wrote [repeatedly . . .] to him, but he raided [ . . .] and took [. . .] He has waged [war] against me. [. . large gap . .] [May he] send [. . . that] we may put the case before [them]. May any property of mine in his possession be taken for the king, and let the faithful servant live for the king. The Egyptians that got out of Ullassa are now with me, but there is no grain for them to eat. Yapaḫ-Ḫadda does not let my ships into Yarimuta, and I cannot send them to Ṣumur because of the ships of Arwada. Look, he says, ʻRib-[Ḫadda] took it, and so he is against me. . .’” (EA #105)
“Now, as for Ṣumur, the war against it is severe, and it is severe against me. Ṣumur is now raided up to its city gate. They have been able to raid it, but they have not been able to capture it. Moreover, ʻWhy does Rib-Ḫadda keep sending a tablet this way to the palace?’ He is more distraught than his brothers about Ṣumur. Look, in my case, there has been war against me for 5 years. Accordingly, I keep writing to my lord. Look, I am not like Yapaḫ-Ḫadda, and I am not like Zimredda. All brothers have deserted me. There is war against Ṣumur, and now its commissioner is dead. Indeed, I myself am now in distress. I was in [Ṣumur], and all its people fled. May my lord send [a commissioner and troops] with him with all [speed that he may] guard it. I myself cannot [get out. Let him] move in between the two of them that [are against it]. How can the king say, ʻWhy does Rib-Ḫadda keep sending a tablet to his lord?’ Because of the evil that was done before, and especially so nothing like this will be done to me now! Moreover, may it seem right in the sight of my lord, and may he send Yanḫamu as its commissioner, Yanḫamu the parasol-bearer of the king, my lord. I have heard it reported that he is a wise man and (that) everyone loves him. Moreover, may it seem right to my lord, and may he send 20 pairs of first class horses to his servant - there are many men on my side - so that I can march against the enemies of the king, my lord. Moreover, as for all my cities that I have reported on to the king, my lord, as my lord is witness, they have not returned. The day the troops of my lord’s expeditionary force left, all became enemies.” (EA #106)
Great Syrian Campaign
Believed to have taken place ca. 1340, four years after his accession (Bryce (1992)).
Šuppiluliuma began his epic campaign by crossing over to the east bank of the Euphrates and taking possession of the remainder of Išuwa. After annexing Išuwa he returned to their homelands the troops who had previously fled there. With Išuwa secured, he then turned south and seized the land of Alše and the district of Kutmar, and gave them to Mr. Antaratli of Alše. This left the district of Šuta exposed, in which was located the Mitannian capital Waššukkani. Šuppiluliuma promptly marched into the Mitannian heartland and wrote to Tušratta, “Come! Let us fight!” (DS #26) - but Tušratta chose to stay in his city rather than engage the Hittite. When Šuppiluliuma approached the Hurrian capital, Tušratta fled without giving battle, apparently retreating into Syria. However, Šuppiluliuma proved unable to capture the capital itself, and had to content himself with the plundering of Šuta.
Tušratta’s flight into Syria seems to have involved more than simply a life saving retreat into his vassal properties. While there, he seems to have conducted military campaigns, presumably against unruly vassals who chose to use his discomfiture as an excuse to rebel against his authority.
After devastating Šuta, Šuppiluliuma turned around and crossed back over the Euphrates, either in pursuit of Tušratta or in an attempt to take away his Syrian vassals. By entering Syria the Hittite Great King exposed himself to the Byzantine complexities of Syrian vassal politics. This region was terribly fragmented and its political structures seem to have been extremely unstable. This makes the reconstruction of events difficult. The reader must be warned that the following reconstruction of events is uncertain and other possibilities have been offered.
Syria was the region where the Mitannian and Egyptian empires met. We can only wonder if the situation seemed as confusing to Šuppiluliuma as it does to us. In the event, Šuppiluliuma does not seem to have concerned himself overmuch with the subtlties confronting him. He was on a march of conquest, and made little effort to distinguish Mitannian vassals from Egyptian ones. This policy would ultimately lead him and his empire into generations of intermittent conflict with Egypt.
It’s possible that after entering the Syrian vassal territories Šuppiluliuma’s first stop was the land of Nuḫašši, which was ruled by several “kings of Nuḫašši”. We know of two such kings, but do not know if there were any more. One of these kings was named Šarrupši, and the other was named Addu-nirari. Addu-nirari clearly considered himself an Egyptian vassal, but Šarrupši’s situation is more uncertain.
Šarrupši came to fear for his life when Tušratta entered his territory. Since Šuppiluliuma was near to hand, Šarrupši wrote to the Hittite king, declaring, “I am the subject of the King of Ḫatti. Save me!” (HDT #7). The question that needs to be answered is, why was Tušratta trying to kill Šarrupši? A possible answer is that Šarrupši had been a Mitannian vassal up until the time of Tušratta’s discomfiture at Waššukkanni. At this time, Šarrupši might have tried to throw off the Mitannian yoke, perhaps in favor of an Egyptian one, or perhaps he turned to Artatama II. But the sudden appearance of Tušratta meant that Šarrupši needed help from someone immediately at hand, and so he turned to the Hittite king. In any event, Šuppiluliuma duly marched into Nuḫašši, perhaps more out of a desire to face Tušratta in battle than to save a petty Syrian king. It is somewhat amusing to note that the Hittite entry into Nuḫašši, which greatly alarmed the other Syrian principalities, was used by Aziru of Amurru as a convenient excuse to delay a potentially fatal journey to Egypt that the pharaoh had been demanding of him (EA #164). In any event, after entering Nuḫašši, the Hittite army successfully drove out the beleaguered Mitannian emperor.
But Šarrupši, for some reason, had turned on his savior. It’s possible that Tušratta had forced him to rejoin the Mitannian fold before the Hittites reached Nuḫašši, and therefore the Hittites would have had to face him in battle. Although Šarrupši escaped (fleeing with Tušratta?), he did so at the price of leaving behind his mother, his brothers, and his children, whom Šuppiluliuma duly carted off to Ḫatti. In Šarrupši’s place Šuppiluliuma installed Takip-Šarri, one of Šarrupši’s subjects, as the king of the city Ukulzat in Nuḫḫašši.
At some point Šuppiluliuma wrote a letter to Addu-nirari, the other known king in Nuḫašši, asking for his submission. It is difficult to imagine that this was based on ignorance of Addu-nirari’s vassalage to Egypt. The unpleasant conclusion is that he was deliberately flouting Egypt’s authority. Addu-nirari knew the precariousness of his situation, but felt that he and his anscestors owed their position to the Egyptians. So he sent off an urgent message to the Egyptians explaining his situation and begging for aid,
“And the king of Ḫatti [wrote to me about an alliance]. My lord, [I rejected] (the offer of) tablets of treaty obligations, and [I am (still) a servant of] the king of Egypt, [my lord].
“And now, [may] our lord [come forth] to [us], and into his power [we will] indeed [restore the lands], and indeed [. . .] . . . to our lord. [And] may our lord come forth (this) year. Do not be negligent. You will see that they are loyal to the service of the king, my lord. And if my lord is not willing to come forth himself, may my lord send one of his advisors together with his troops and chariots.” (EA #51).
He further started plotting against the Hittites. He joined with Itur-Addu, king of Mukiš, and Aki-Teššup, a king in Niya, and began attacking the territory of Ugarit, which had refused to commit itself to their anti-Hittite cause. Such behavior played nicely into Hittite hands. Šuppiluliuma sent a letter (HDT #19) to Niqm-Addu II, the king of Ugarit, demanding that, although the lands of Mukiš and Nuḫašši were both hostile to the Great King, Niqm-Addu should be at peace with Ḫatti, as were his anscestors. The letter includes a not-so-subtle claim of lordship over Ugarit, when in fact Ugarit remained an Egyptian vassal. Nevertheless, Niqm-Addu resisted submitting himself to the Hittite Great King.
Ugarit remained too far south to hinder Šuppiluliuma, so instead he moved further west and captured the city of Ḫalap. It was probably at this time that he removed his son Telipinu from his position as Priest of Kizzuwatna and installed him instead as the King of Ḫalap (Bryce (1992) 12). It was as the King of Ḫalap that Telipinu would finish out his career. Interestingly, in spite of his move, his Kizzuwatnan title clung to him, and he remained known as “the Priest” for the rest of his life.
While Šuppiluliuma was busying himself with Ḫalap, the depradations of the kings of Mukiš, Niya, and Nuḫašši finally became too much for Niqm-Addu II of Ugarit to bear. So he turned to the Hittite king for aid in return for his submission. Šuppiluliuma responded by sending troops and driving out the enemy. He himself marched against and captured Mukiš, seat of the long dead Idri-mi. In Ugarit Niqm-Addu gave precious gifts to the Hittite commanders who saved him and then went before Šuppiluliuma in Alalaḫ, which remained the capital of Mukiš, and submitted to him there. For the first time a Hittite ruler had stolen away an Egyptian vassal. The incident would contribute to a souring of Hittite-Egyptian relations, but would not actually cause a rupture. In fact, nothing Šuppiluliuma did during this campaign would directly cause a breach between these two lands. It is possible that the Egyptians thought that diplomacy could be used to correct the situation rather than swords, and initial indications after the campaign would at first seem to have supported that view.
During his stay in Mukiš, Takuwa, a brother of Aki-Teššup and described by Šuppiluliuma as “king of Niya”, came before the Hittite king for peace. But back in Niya his brother Aki-Teššup used the opportunity to seize his brother’s territory. Aki-Teššup and several powerful men named Ḫešmiya, Ḫabaḫi, Birriya, and Nirwabi, along with their troops, joined forces with Akiya, the “king” of Araḫati. Or at least he made himself such, since he and his cohorts’ first step was to seize the city of Araḫati. Once in posession of this stronghold, they then initiated hostilities against the Hittite ruler. It was a poorly made decision. Šuppiluliuma marched against them, captured them all, and subsequently took them back to Ḫatti with him.
After this victory, Šuppiluliuma turned south. His first stop on this leg of the campaign was the capture of the city of Qaṭna. After that he continued south into Apa (Apina, Upe), at least part of which was controlled by Egypt. From this point on, the land of Apa would prove to be the outermost limit of the Hittite empire, the armies of which would spill a great deal of blood here along with the Egyptians as they both struggled to stretch forth their empires to the furthest reaches possible. On the occasion of this conquest of Apa, Šuttarna, the Egyptian vassal king of Kadesh, apparently fearing for his life, came out along with his son Aitaqqama and attacked the Hittite king. Šuppiluliuma, swearing that he had not ever intended to attack Kadesh, nonetheless took advantage of the opportunity and overcame them in battle so that his enemies fled into the city of Abzuya. The city was duly beseiged and then captured, along with Šuttarna and his sons, brothers, chariot warriors, and possessions, which, of course, Šuppiluliuma would take back with him to Ḫatti. Ugarit had gone over to the Hittite side more or less willingly, but here the Hittites had outright attacked an Egyptian vassal. Šuppiluliuma’s only saving grace was that he had, after all, been attacked by Šuttarna, and this fact surely helped to ensure that relations between the two lands were not strained beyond repair.
With Kadesh out of the way, Šuppiluliuma continued his march against Apa. The king of Apa at that time was named Ariwanna, and along with his noblemen Wambadura, Akparu, and Artaya, he gave battle to the Hittite conqueror. Šuppiluliuma was once again victorious and the defeated were destined to be deported to Ḫatti.
This was the last march of the Great Syrian Campaign, about which in one text Šuppiluliuma proudly boasts,
“Because of the presumptuousness of King Tušratta, I plundered all of these lands in one year and brought them to Ḫatti. From Mount Lebanon and from the far bank of the Euphrates I made them my territory.” (HDT #6a)
After the Great Syrian Campaign
(Chronology of Amarna letters needs to be revisited for this section. Take it with a grain of salt.)
One of the territories that remains remarkably absent from Šuppiluliuma’s records of his Great Syrian Campaign is that of Amurru. Possibly this is simply because Šuppiluliuma avoided this Egyptian territory, but then he did not seem particularly squeemish about upsetting the Egyptians in other lands. Another possible reason that it was left out was because Amurru simply did not wait to be attacked before it gave up. Something rather odd about the Great Syrian campaign is that we have no evidence for the return trip to Ḫatti. Hittite military strategy did not seem to call for a return home through friendly territory, and so the abscence of return campaigning is odd. This oddity can perhaps be made comprehensible if we place the submission of Amurru to the Hittites as the last leg of the Great Syrian campaign. Its absence from the historical record may arise from the fact that this remarkable submission was rather - unremarkable.
Šuppiluliuma had had to violently crush resistence in the Syrian territories through which he marched - except in Amurru. In Amurru Aziru sought and succeeded in avoiding a Hittite thrashing. At the same time, he significantly changed the nature of his power and indeed the very political foundations of Amurru. Early in his career, and all through his Egyptian experiences, Aziru had remained simply the most prominent of the sons of Abdi-Aširta. But this was not a political situation which was consistant with Hittite concepts of rule, and Šuppiluliuma did not permit its continuance,
“Aziru, king of the land [of Amurru], came up from the gate of Egyptian territory and became a vassal [of] My Sun, [King] of Ḫatti. And I, My Sun, Great King, [accordingly rejoiced] very much. Did not I, My Sun, Great King, accordingly rejoice very much? As I to Aziru [. . . . .] Because Aziru [knelt down] at the feet [of My Sun, and] came from the gate of Egyptian territory, and knelt [down at the feet of My Sun], I, My Sun, Great King, [took up] Aziru and ranked him (as king) among his brothers.” (HDT #5, §2)
The kingdom of Amurru was born. In this way some century and a half of Egyptian effort in Amurru ended in failure. Lost were the great port cities of Ṣumur and Ullaza, lost were Irqata, Ardata, and Tunip, and lost were the dark, rich forests of highland Lebanon. They had all simply been handed over to an upstart Hittite king. It had taken generations of bloodshed for the Egyptians to create some semblence of order in Amurru, but it didn’t take the single swing of a blade for the Hittites to gain a kingdom. And sitting on top of all of it, Aziru emerges as the uncontested victor.
Aziru’s voluntary submission to Šuppiluliuma actually created some problems for the Hittite scribes responsible for drawing up the vassal treaty. They had little practice in dealing with such a situation. As such, Aziru’s treaty, found in three Akkadian versions and one Hittite version, is a curious combination of generic features in an unusual structure. There was little need for a historical background justifying the Hittites annexation of the kingdom, and so this section did not play the preeminent role that it does in other treaties. In fact, it was not even the first section of the treaty. Since Aziru had submitted himself to the Hittite king, the treaty begins with his oath of personal loyalty to the Hittite dynasty. Included in this is, significantly, the statement of his annual tribute obligation of 300 shekels of the highest quality gold, weighed out in accord with the standards of Hittite merchants. Amurru, after all, was first and foremost a land rich in trade.
Only after these obligations was the historical “preamble” written down. As preserved it does little more than record that Aziru’s submission was voluntary and that Šuppiluliuma therefore made him king of Amurru. It also seems to have recorded the speech which Aziru made when he submitted to Šuppiluliuma, but this section of the treaty is unfortunately poorly preserved.
After this the treaty becomes rather standard. Aziru had to keep the same friends and enemies as the Hittite king, and he had to wholeheartedly support the Hittite king’s efforts against his enemies by mobilizing his own troops. Neutrality was definitely not an option,
“[If] you commit some [misdeed, thinking as follows]: ʻAlthough I am under oath, [either let him defeat the enemy], or let the enemy defeat him. [I don’t want] to know anything about it’ - you will have transgressed the oath.” (HDT #5, §4)
Aziru was likewise forbidden to write to an enemy to warn him of an impending Hittite attack.
Other obligations followed. He had to ransom any captured Hittites he knew about and promptly send them back to Ḫatti. It was not merely foreign aggression Aziru had to resist. If any internal rebellions occurred, Aziru (or at least one of his sons or brothers) likewise had to wholeheartedly come to his king’s aid. Šuppiluliuma likewise promised to send troops to Aziru’s aid should he experience any such difficulties.
In spite of Aziru’s voluntary submission (in fact, Šuppiluliuma disingeuously says because of it), Amurru became an occupied land. Šuppiluliuma sent forth imperial trooops to ʻprotect’ his new vassal,
“I, My Sun, [will send] noblemen of Ḫatti, and infantry [and chariotry, to him from] Ḫatti to the land of Amurru. [Because] they will go up to your cities, protect [them]. Treat them in a gracious(?) manner. They shall walk like brothers before [you], Aziru. If he seeks to carry off the spoils of a city or your(!) land, [then] he will have transgressed the oath.” (HDT #5 §7)
Then followed rather standard clauses about Aziru’s obligation to return fugitives to Ḫatti, even though the Hittite king had no such reciprocal obligation. But should Aziru ever desire anything, he should simply ask, as long as he was willing to accept whatever the Hittite king actually chose to give him. Aziru had to seek only the prosperity of Ḫatti, not that of any other land.
The Hittite version ended with the declaration that the Thousand Gods were called to assembly to witness the oath, but the Akkadian versions went on to enumerate these gods by either name or catagory and topped it all off with perfunctory curses and and blessings.
After Šuppiluliuma’s Great Syrian Campaign, the Hittite presence in Syria was largely withdrawn. The Hittite empire had made its might felt in Syria, but had left the region to gather itself together and take stock of its situation. A severly weakened Mitanni was about to undergo a trial of survival which it would ultimately lose. Since the Hittites didn’t leave a strong presence, and the Mitannians didn’t present a promising source of protection, the Syrian kings turned their attentions, and their loyalties, towards Egypt.
Akizzi, king of Qaṭna, returned his loyalties to Egypt almost as soon as the Hittites had left. His letter to Aḫen-aton trying to make good his losses is an intimate portrayal of what happens after the great battles of history.
“My lord, Aziru took men of Qaṭna, my servants, and has le[d] them away out of the country of my lord. They now d[wel]l outside of the country of my lord. If it ple[ases] him, may my lord send [(the ransom) money] for the men of Qaṭna, and may my lord ransom them. ... [...], my lord, the money for their ransom, as much as it may be, so I can hand over the money.
“My lord, your ancestors made (a statue of) Šuttarna, the god of my father, and because of him became famous. Now the king of Ḫatti has taken (the statue of) Šuttarna, the god of my father. My lord knows what the fashioning of divine statues is like. Now that Šuttarna, the god of my father, has been reconciled to me, if, my lord, it pleases him, may he give (me) a sack of gold, just as much as is needed, for (the statue) of Šuttarna, the god of my father, so they can fashion it for me. Then my lord will become, because of Šuttarna, more famous than before.” (EA #55)
Peace in Amurru - for the moment
(Chronologies for Amurru events need to be corrected.)
Akizzi’s problem with Aziru of Amurru and the king of Ḫatti highlight how important it was becoming for the Egyptians to deal with the Syrian problem. They had to take action. Since Šuppiluliuma’s defeat of Šuttarna of Kadesh, Šuttarna’s son had taken control of Kadesh. Aitaqqama insisted on his loyalty to the pharaoh, but he must have owed his return to power to the Hittites, and this would have made him look very suspicious to the Egyptians. So he was summoned to the Egyptian court where they could try to feel out his loyalties. The Egyptians were also willing to entertain the idea of the submission of Aziru, but they had had enough of his delays. They strongly insisted that Aziru travel to Egypt in order to petition for official appointment as the ḪAZZANU-official of Amurru. The future of Amurru was at stake. The trip was not a formality. While in Egypt Aziru would have to defend himself before the pharaoh against the accusations of his enemies.
Rib-Ḫaddu of Byblos was, of course, one of his principal opponents, and Rib-Ḫaddu’s follower Ili-Rapiḫ of Byblos sent a letter outlining Aziru’s crimes of assassination, conquest (specifically Ṣumur and Ullaza), and further that, even now, Aziru was in Egypt plotting with Aitaqqama of Kadesh. In spite of these accusations, Aziru met with approval, and the Egyptians granted him his appointment. The house of Abdi-Aširta had successfully gained recognition in the province of Amurru once again.
“There was Confusion Among the Hurrians”
Tušratta’s disastrous defeats at Hittite hands unleashed the forces of opportunism in the Mitannian empire. Sometime after the Great Syrian Campaign, perhaps as soon as the following year, Tušratta fell victim to a conspiracy by one of his sons in league with some of his subjects. Šuppiluliuma interpretted the assassination of Tušratta as the resolution of the dispute between Artatama and Tušratta, and he therefore recognized Artatama as the legitimate king of Mitanni. But Artatama, perhaps due to age, was no longer in control of his throne. Now his son, Šuttarna (III), seems to have either ruled in his father’s name or as a co-regent.
But all was not well in the land of Mitanni. As the Hittites put it, “there was confusion among the Hurrians”. Previously Artatama had been forced to make payments to Assyria and Alše in order to secure his position as “King of Ḫurri”. Now Šuttarna, in possession of Tušratta’s palace as the king of all Mitanni, continued this tradition, emptying out the treasures that Tušratta had managed to horde in his brighter days;
“[From the wealth] of his father and his brother he did not give anyone (in Mitanni) anything, but he threw himself down before the Assyrian, the subject of his ancestor, who no longer pays tribute, and gave him riches as a gift... The door of silver and gold which king Šauštatar... took by force from the land Assyria as a token of his glory and set up in his palace in the city Waššukkanni - to his shame Šuttarna has now returned it to the land Assyria. All the utensils of the storehouse of gifts of silver and gold he gave to the land Alše. He exhausted the house of the king of the land Mitanni, together with its treasures and its riches. He filled it with dirt. He destroyed the palace and exhausted the houses of the Hurrians. He had noblemen brought and extradited to the land Assyria and the land Alše. They were handed over and impaled in the city Taite. Thus he brought an end to the Hurrians.” (HDT #6B §2)
With this humiliating banality towards the Assyrians, the proud traditions of the Hurrian court at Waššukkanni waned. Even Waššukkanni itself was beginning to fade in favor of alternately two other rising cities, that of Taite, mentioned just above, and soon, Irrite. At some point Šuttarna seems to have chosen the city Taite as his capital city.
Such behavior naturally led to insurrection, and so Šuttarna set about cleaning his house of dangerous elements. Some of his oppenents fled to foreign lands. Two hundred chariots led by a man named Aki-Teššup fled to Babylonia. Among his retinue was a man named Kili-Teššup, one of Tušratta’s sons. Kili-Teššup would eventually return to his homeland and try to restore his family’s position. But Fortune still had more troubles in store for him, and at this time the Hittites were concerned with the current situation, not with the aspirations of a princely exile.
Initially Šuppiluliuma maintained good relations with the new Mitannian regime. After all, the Mitannian throne was now in the hands of his treaty partner, Artatama, and his son. Some of this early good will bubbled up later when Šuppiluliuma actually made the remarkable claim, “I, Great King, Hero, King of Ḫatti, had not crossed to the east bank, and had not taken even a blade or a straw or a splinter of wood of the land of Mitanni.” What technicality allowed Šuppiluliuma to make this astonishing statement is difficult to comprehend. Apparently, he viewed post-Tušratta Mitanni as a seperate entity from what had been before. In any event, his friendliness consisted of more than mere words. When it became clear to him that the land of Mitanni was falling into poverty, he sent cattle, sheep, and horses to its relief. For the moment, the Hittites enjoyed peace with their eastern neighbors.
Trouble in the south seems to have been avoided as well. In spite of Šuppiluliuma’s annexation of Ugarit, Kadesh, and Amurru, relations with Egypt continued, albeit under strained conditions. The death of Aḫen-aton set in motion a political crisis in Egypt which strained these relations even further. Smenḫkare, Aḫen-aton’s successor, failed to continue the practice of gift exchanges between the two lands. Šuppiluliuma wrote a contentious letter to Smenḫkare reminding the new pharaoh of the previous friendly relations between the two lands and how nothing that was asked for by one was held back by the other;
“Why, my brother, have you held back the presents that your father made to me when he was al[iv]e?
“Now, my brother, [yo]u have ascended the throne of your father, and just as your father and I were desirous of peace between us, so now too should you and I be friendly with one another. The request <that> I expressed to your father [I shall express] to my brother, too. Let us be helpful to each other.
“My brother, do not hold back anything that [I asked] of your father.” (EA #41)
Except for this letter, and some vague references to Hittite activity in Syria under the leadership of a Hittite commander named Lupakki who campaigned in Amqa, we now run into a lull in our available information. Unfortunately, this “lull” could cover more than 10 years - approximately the gap between his Great Syrian Campaign and his Second Syrian Campaign. At some point in this gap, Šuppiluliuma’s relations with Šuttarna of Mitanni appear to have fallen apart, but we do not know exactly when or why. But the stage for such a conflict had already been set. Having a treaty partner who paid tribute to other foreign powers was surely a source of concern and a blow to the Hittites’ own prestige. Further, the subordinate position of the Hurrians could have meant that the Assyrians could have pressured them towards an anti-Hittite policy. But the next information available to us does not concern the far east, but rather the north.
Troubled Northern Lands
Where the Deeds resumes, approximately two to four years before the Second Syrian War, we find Šuppiluliuma “returning” to Mt. Zukkuki, back in the Kaškan lands in the north. While at Mt. Zukkuki Šuppiluliuma fortified the towns of Atḫulišša and Tuḫupurpuna. While he was doing this, the Kaškans continually boasted that, “By no means will we let him down into the land of Almina!” But Šuppiluliuma had plans to the contrary. Upon completion of the fortifications, he did indeed go down into the land of Almina, wherein he soundly defeated his cocksure enemies. After this victory, he began the fortification of the city of Almina. He also organized the Hittite command of the territory, situating himself on Mt. Kuntiya and placing Ḫimuili, the Chief of the Wine, at the Šariya River and Ḫannutti, the Chief of the Chariot Fighters, in the town of Parparra. For an unspecifed amount of time all of Kaška was at peace, Hittite subjects established hostels in unwalled Kaškan towns or returned to their own towns, and the fortifying of Almina continued.
Not one to sit at home, Šuppiluliuma used this repast to extend his conquests even further. He sent out Urawanni and Kuwatna-ziti, the Chief Shepherd, against the land of Kašula. With the help of Šuppiluliuma’s gods, the commanders were victorious and returned with 1,000 civilian captives, cattle, and sheep.
Unfortunately, a plague broke out in the army, and the Kaškans seized not only the opportunity, but also the Hittites who were in their towns. Whoever they didn’t capture they killed. They then turned against the Hittite fortified camps that were in their land. But they were not strong enough to withstand the roused Hittite might, and were pacified once more by healthy Hittite armies.
With little fanfare the Deeds then go on to relate that Šuppiluliuma “conquered all of the land of Tumanna, fortified it, organized it, and made it part of Ḫatti again.” Small praise for the reconquest of such an important territory. This terse statement is somewhat supplemented by the Annals of Muršili II (Year 16), where he states that Šuppiluliuma had sent his nephew, Ḫutu-piyanza, son of Zita, into the land of Pala. At this time Pala had not been fortified in any way by the Hittites. So Ḫutu-piyanza, in spite of the fact that he didn’t have a large force at his disposal, set about defending and fortifying the land of Pala. They were forced to use guerrilla tactics, constructing hideouts in the mountains, but in spite of these difficulties they didn’t yield any of the land to any enemies.
After this, Šuppiluliuma returned to Ḫattuša to pass the winter there. After the celebration of the new year, he marched north once again. This time he marched against Ištaḫara, an important northern city that Kaškans had captured. He appears to have reconquered not only of Ištaḫara, but also Manaziyana, Kalimuna, and another town whose name is lost. All of these towns seem to have been (or become) subordinate to Ištaḫara. This seemingly insignificant campaign and reorganization must have been much more difficult than it appears to us, because it appears to have taken up the entire campaign season for the year, since Šuppiluliuma returned to Ḫattuša afterwards.
While Šuppiluliuma’s attention was focussed in the north, far to the south his Syrian possessions were being attacked by war parties (In the year after the Ištaḫara campaign?). His son Telipinu, the King of Ḫalap, successfully defended Hittite interests against them. As a result the territories controlled by the cities of Arziya and Kargamiš made peace with him, and so did the city of Murmuriga. The city of Kargamiš itself, however, refused to make peace with Telipinu. So Telipinu left 600 troops and chariots in Murmuriga under the command of Lupakki, the Commander of Ten of the army with whom we have met earlier, and then left for Ḫattuša in order to consult with his father. But because Šuppiluliuma was performing religious ceremonies in the city of Uda at the time, Telipinu altered his course and met with him there instead.
The Third Syrian Campaign
Once Telipinu left Murmuriga, the troops and chariots of Ḫurri came and beseiged the city and overwhelmed its garrision. At the same time, the Egyptians chose to reassert their authority in Syria by force and attacked Kadesh. It is likely that Nuḫašši also went over to the Egyptians at this time. The situation called for a response by the Great King himself. In 1327 he gathered his troops and marched to the city of Talpa in the land of Tegarama, where he conducted a troop review. But instead of marching against the Hurrians himself, he sent out his brother Zita, Chief of the Royal Bodyguards, and the crown prince Arnuwanda against them. These two men defeated the Hurrians in battle, and the enemy fled. This victory enabled Šuppiluliuma to undertake a much more important march; that against the city of Kargamiš.
Šuppiluliuma marched down to and laid seige to Kargamiš. While there he sent Lupakki and a man named Tarḫunta-zalma south against the land of Amqa in response to the Egyptian capture of Kadesh. They successfully brought back civilian captives, cattle, and sheep. The news of the attack on Amqa reached the Egyptians at a time which, from the Hittite point of view, can only be considered extremely fortuitous. Tut-Anḫ-Amon, the young Pharaoh of Egypt, had just died.
A Queen Without a King
The death of a king is usually a time of crisis in any empire, and the Egyptians were no exception. The death of Tut-Anḫ-Amon, who had no son, brought out the worst in Egypt’s upper class. The widowed queen felt that she could not trust her own subjects, so she wrote to the only person who seemed powerful enough to save her; the enormously successful Hittite general currently ransacking Egypt’s territories at his will. So, while in the midst of his seige of Kargamiš, Šuppiluliuma received an extrordinary letter from Daḫamunzu, Tut-Anḫ-Amon’s widow:
“My husband is dead. I have no son. They say sons are plentiful for you. If you would give one of your sons to me, then he would become my husband. I do not want to take (one of) my subjects and make him my husband. I fear tekri!”
Šuppiluliuma was so surprised by this message that he called together his commanders for council and declared, “Such a thing has never happened to me before!” He decided to send forth Mr. Ḫattuša-ziti, the Chamberlain, to Egypt to make sure that the message was not a deception, that there truly weren’t any sons of Tut-Anḫ-Amon.
While awaiting a reply, and somewhat anti-climatically considering what else was going on, Kargamiš finally fell to the Hittites after a seige which had only lasted into its eigth day. Šuppiluliuma preserved the city’s citadel, even worshipping there a Tutelary Deity and another deity whose name has been lost, but was probably Kubaba, the city’s patron goddess. But the rest of the city was not spared. The Great King personally claimed to return to Ḫattuša with silver, gold, bronze implements, and 3,330 civilian captives. He simply states the booty taken by his men was without number. Before returning to Ḫattuša he returned the land of Kargamiš to that city’s jurisdiction and made yet another son of his, Piyaššili (also known as Šarri-Kušuḫ), into a king; the King of Kargamiš. In this way Kargamiš began a long career as one of the most important of Hittite cities.
The following spring Ḫattuša-ziti returned to Ḫatti along with a messenger from Egypt called lord Ḫani. To the Great King’s inqueries the Queen of Egypt replied,
“Why did you speak in such a way, ʻAre they deceiving me’? If a son of mine was anywhere, would I write about the humiliation of myself and of my land to another land? You did not trust me. On the contrary you spoke to me in that way! He who is my husband is dead! I have no son! I do not want to take (one of) my subjects and make him my husband. I did not write to any other land, I wrote to you! They say sons are plentiful for you. Give me one of your sons. He will be my husband, and he will be king in Egypt!”
This time Šuppiluliuma complied. He brought forth the old treaty between the Hittites and Egyptians which related how the Storm God took the citizens of the Hittite city Kuruštama and carried them into Egypt to become Egyptians, and how the god established peace between Ḫatti and Egypt. On this basis, Šuppiluliuma declared a new friendship between Ḫatti and Egypt, and sent off one of his sons to marry the Egyptian queen and become the king of Egypt. The Deeds call him Zannanza, which it has been speculated is actually a Hittite transliteration of an Egyptian title.
It’s worth pausing now to contemplate Šuppiluliuma’s achievement. Simply put, it’s astonishing. Never in the ancient world had a kingdom had the opportunity to hold dominion over such a vast territory, stretching from the western shores of Anatolia, deep into Syria, all of Palestine, and on south down the Nile. Of the four great powers in the Near East at Šuppiluliuma’s accession - Ḫatti, Mitanni, Babylon, and Egypt - the Hittite Great King was on the verge of becoming the emperor of three of them. This was surely the most spectacular moment in Hittite history.
But history had its own cruel tricks in store for the Hittites. The Deeds become fragmentary, but it is clear that something went wrong. Šuppiluliuma accused the Egyptians of killing Zannanza and attacking Hittite territory. A fragmentary letter concerning this incident has actually survived in which is recorded an Egyptian plea of their innocence in Zannanza’s death. It was to no avail. The death of Zannanza meant war, and Šuppiluliuma submitted his case to the Sun Goddess of Arinna and the Storm God for judgement. The sporadic hostilities between these two lands would touch a further four generations of Hittite rulers.
The Final Campaigns of Šuppiluliuma
The immediate Hittite response to Egypt’s perfidy is unknown. The fragmentary letter concerning the matter seems to indicate a period of belicose correspondence before hostilities were actually initiated. Where the Deeds next resume Šuppiluliuma is not in Syria at all, but back in northern Anatolia. For the rest of his reign Šuppiluliuma would have to fight in order to retain his earlier conquests. He is seen campaigning in all of the places that he previously campaigned in except the Arzawan territories. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be because he retained control of this territory. Arzawa seems to have slipped out of Hittite control. Uḫḫa-ziti freed himself and became an ally of the King of Aḫḫiyawa instead. Not too many years later Šuppiluliuma’s son Muršili II would indicate that either Šuppiluliuma or Muršili’s brother Arnuwanda II (the name is unfortunately lost) had to station troops in the Lower Land in order to defend against Arzawa.
Where the Deeds pick up, Kaškans are mentioned and Šuppiluliuma burned down several towns, the name of two of which, the towns of Palḫwišša and Kammama, are preserved. After this, Šuppiluliuma is seen campaigning in a great many obscure places in the north. He is found in Ištaḫara again, although it is uncertain if he was attacking it or just passing through it on his way to enemy territory. Teššita and other lands were burnt down. He refortified the city of Tuḫpiliša. While he was there the people of Zidaparḫa unsuccessfully tried to influence the course of his campaign so that he would not enter their land. Šuppiluliuma marched on to Tikukuwa and stayed there for awhile before moving on to Ḫurna. He stayed in the city of Ḫurna and burned down its territory. He burned down a territory in Mt. Tiḫšina. This long list of obscure places is then momentarily relieved by the mention of the River Maraššanta. But we are immediately plunged into obscurity again when he moves on into the peaceful land of Darittara. A man named Pitakkatalli mobilized troops in the town of Šappiduwa, but Šuppiluliuma marched against him and defeated him. He then moved on to the town of Wašḫaya in Mt. Illuriya and stayed there awhile. He burned down Zina[...]. He moved on and burned down Ga[...]kilušša and Darukka. He burned down the lands of Ḫinariwanda and Iwatallišša and remained in Ḫinariwanda awhile. He then reached and burned down Šappiduwa itself. This at least suggests that the list of places starting with Mr. Pitakkatalli at Šappiduwa was part of a single campaign.
After destroying these lands, Šuppiluliuma decided to expand his northwestern conquests. To this end he went to Tumanna, ascended Mt. Kaššu, and then marched out against [...]naggara. River Daḫara Land revolted, so Šuppiluliuma burned it down and Tapapinuwa as well. He then turned back to Timuḫala. Timuḫala, “a place of pride of the Kaškans,” didn’t wait to be attacked before it surrendered. The badly divided lands of the north simply could not resist a Hittite imperial army.
Hittites, Hurrians, and Assyrians
Meanwhile, on a completely different front, the tribulations of the house of Tušratta continued. The reception of Aki-Teššup and his contingency in Babylonia was less than what they could have hoped for. The Babylonian king took away Aki-Teššup’s chariots and possessions and forced him to assume the rank of one of his charioteers. Finally it seems that he simply wanted to kill Aki-Teššup (Perhaps as a means of cementing relations with Šuttarna III’s dynasty?). The situation of the fugitive Hurrians in Babylonia was clearly deteriorating. Tušratta’s son Kili-Teššup, fearing for his own life, fled from Babylonia and sought refuge in, of all places, Ḫatti.
Of course, since relations between Ḫatti and Mitanni had changed in the intervening years, when Kili-Teššup reached the Maraššantiya River with only “three chariots, two Hurrians and two other attendants who set out with me, and a single outfit of clothes, which I was wearing, and nothing else”, and threw himself at Šuppiluliuma’s feet, the Great King’s reaction to his old nemesis’s son was not what one might have expected. Šuppiluliuma took him by the hand, rejoiced over him and questioned him at great length concerning the customs of Mittanni. Šuppiluliuma chose to help himself by helping Tušratta’s son. He now saw a way to secure his own blood line on the throne of Mittanni. He promised Šattiwaza,
“If I conquer Šuttarna and [the troops of] the land of Mittanni, I will not reject you but will adopt you as my son. I will stand by you and place you on the throne of your father.” (HDT #6B, §3)
To this, he added a comment which seems somewhat farcical to us, who know something of his earlier history,
“And the gods know My Sun, Šuppiluliuma, Great King, King of Ḫatti, Hero, Beloved of the Storm God. He never goes back on the words which issue from his mouth.” (HDT #6B, §3)
Tudḫaliya the Younger and the Egyptians may have been of a different opinion.
Unfortunately, in this particular case, his vow to Šattiwaza left Šuppiluliuma in a bit of a pickle. For he had already recognized Artatama as the legitimate ruler of Mittanni. But the example of Šuttarna’s rule guided him to a compromise which would allow him to assist Kili-Teššup without being accused of bad faith towards Artatama. Šuppiluliuma agreed that, if he should overcome Šuttarna in battle, then Kili-Teššup would take Šuttarna’s place as the successor of Artatama and ruler of Mitanni,
“If you, my lord, will give me life, and the gods will stand by me, then the Great King, King of Ḫatti, Hero, Beloved of the Storm God, shall certainly not remove king Artatama from his royal throne. Let me stand as his designated successor, and let me rule the land of Mittanni. Šuttarna treated the lands badly, but I will never do anything for ill.” (HDT#6B, §3)
The only detail remaining to be explained was how Šuppiluliuma would “adopt” Kili-Teššup as his son. This seems to be an indirect reference to the Hittite custom of antiyant-husbandship, and Šuppiluliuma’s treaties with Kili-Teššup stronly emphasize the importance of the position of a daughter who Šuppiluliuma gave to him in marriage (discussed in detail below).
After receiving rich gifts, including chariots mounted with gold and armored chariot horses to pull them - and some new clothes - Kili-Teššup was entrusted to Piyaššili, the King of Kargamiš, as one of his chariot warriors. The two men made their way to Kargamiš and then set out on a campaign to place Kili-Teššup on the Hurrian throne.
Piyaššili’s and Kili-Teššup’s campaign against Šuttarna began as every proper campaign began, with a letter to their intended victims, the people of the city of Irrite, located in the land of Ḫarran. But Šuttarna had already purchased their loyalty, so they wrote back to the Hittites, “Why are you coming? If you are coming for battle, come! But you shall not return to the land of the Great King!”
Having made their token effort at a peaceful resolution, the Hittite army crossed the Euphrates, burned down the territory of Ḫarran, and approached the city of Irrite. The imperial troops of Mitanni and the local chariotry of Irrite were waiting for them. When the Hittite army arrived, the Hurrians came out of the city and attacked them. The ensuing battle went to the Hittites, and thereafter the people of Irrite and of Ḫarran, too, came to the Hittites to sue for peace.
Meanwhile Šuttarna’s hold over Mitanni seems to have been slipping. The Assyrians sent forth an army under the command of a chariot fighter to pacify the city of Waššukkanni itself. The citizens refused to make peace, so the Assyrians laid siege to the city. Piyaššili and Kili-Teššup were in Irrite at the time, so the people of Waššukkanni sent a message saying that the Assyrians had come for battle against the Hittites. Piyaššili and Kili-Teššup promptly marched to Waššukkanni. The Assyrians, however, were not ready to tangle with the mightiest empire of the day, and they prudently withdrew. So the Hittites victoriously entered and took possession of Tušratta’s old capital city.
Another nearby land, that of Pakarripa, became frightened and submitted to the Hittites, so Piyaššili and Kili-Teššup left Waššukkanni and marched to Pakarripa. While they were there another message was brought to them saying that the Assyrians were coming against them for battle. In spite of the fact that the desolate environs of Pakarripa were unable to provide sufficient sustenance, the Hittites marched out in search of the Assyrians. They got as far as a city called Nilapšini, but again the Assyrians did not come out against them for battle. It is not known if the Assyrians ever faced the Hittites at this time. The Hittites marched against Šuttarna at the city of Taite, and the Assyrians, hearing of this, supposedly marched there. But this may simply have been one more false rumor circulating about the Assyrians, and the only two texts that discuss this campaign both break off at this point. If nothing else happened at this time, then it is clear that the Assyrians did not feel up to the challenge of taking on a Hittite army yet. It would be one of the last times that the Assyrians would react so docilely to the Hittite threat.
For the time being the final result was that Šuttarna disappears from the historical record, and Kili-Teššup took his proper place in Mittanni as Artatama’s successor and the ruler of Mittanni. Šuppiluliuma secured two treaties with Kili-Teššup, one from Šuppiluliuma’s point of view, and another from Kili-Teššup’s point of view. It’s interesting to note that, at the time these treaties were drawn up, Artatama was certainly still the nominative king of Mittanni, since Kili-Teššup is only referred to as a “prince”.
Also of importance is that Kili-Teššup took for himself the throne name of Šattiwaza. Like that of several of his predeccessors, this name is of Indo-Aryan etymology. But not just his name is Indo-Aryan. In his treaties, he invokes, among the many Hurrian and Mesopotamian deities, the Indo-Aryan deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and the Nasatyas.
As mentioned above, the principal means of securing the relation between these two men seems to have been through the action of having Šuppiluliuma take him as a son by means of making him into an antiyant-husband for a daughter of his. By doing this, Šuppiluliuma was able to install a “son” of his on the Mittannian throne, and secure the succession in Mittanni for descendents of his own line,
“As I have taken up Šattiwaza, son of king Tušratta, in my hand, I will seat him upon the throne of his father, so that the land of Mittanni, the great land, does not go to ruin. I, Great King, King of Ḫatti, have given life to the land of Mittanni for the sake of my(!) daughter. I took up Šattiwaza, son of Tušratta, in my hand, and I gave him a daughter in marriage.
“Prince Šattiwaza shall be king in the land of Mittanni, and the daughter of the King of Ḫatti shall be queen in the land of Mittanni. Concubines will be allowed to you, Šattiwaza, but no other woman shall be greater than my daughter. You shall allow no other woman to be her equal, and no one shall sit as an equal beside her. You shall not degrade my daughter to second rank. In the land of Mittanni she shall exercise queenship. The sons of Šattiwaza and the sons of my daughter - their sons and grandsons - [shall] in the future be equals in the land of Mittanni. In the future the Mittannians shall indeed not plan rebellion against Prince Šattiwaza, against my daughter, the queen, [against his sons], or against his grandsons. In the future Prince Šattiwaza shall be a brother and equal [to my sons], and the sons of Prince Šattiwaza - his(!) sons and grandsons [. . .] - shall be brothers and equals to my grandsons.” (HDT #6A, §§6-7)
The last bit about Šattiwaza’s descendents by Šuppiluliuma’s daughter being the equals of Šuppiluliuma’s own descendents supports the conclusion that this was an antiyant-husband marriage, in which Šattiwaza became a member of Šuppiluliuma’s family, rather than his daughter a member of Tušratta’s. In this light, it is useful to note that Šattiwaza emphasized his poverty when he first approached Šuppiluliuma, coming to him with “only three chariots, two Hurrians, two other attendants, who set out with me(!), and a single outfit of clothes - which I was wearing - and nothing else.” (HDT #6B, §4). In the normal course of events, it was poor men who were taken as antiyant-husbands.
A Hittite City in Syria
Šuppiluliuma I was possibly responsible for the refounding of Emar when the river course changed. Or it could have been his son, Muršili II.
Death of Šuppiluliuma
What man could not bring down, Nature did. Or, as the Great King’s son Muršili came to believe, the gods did, in order to avenge the death of Tudḫaliya the Younger, that long deceased brother betrayed and murdered by Šuppiluliuma and his fellow conspirators,
"But now, later, you gods, my lords, came to seek in my father that matter of Mr. Tudḫaliya the Younger. My father [died] on account of the blood of Mr. Tudḫaliya, and the princes, the lords, the overseer of clansmen, and lower officers who went over [to my father, they too] died on account of [that] matter." (CTH 378.1 - Plague Prayer of Muršili II, 1st Version, §4)
The instrument of the gods’ wrath would be another victim of Šuppiluliuma’s betrayal. The Hittite army which had been campaigning in Amqa brought back to Ḫatti Egyptian troops as prisoners. But they brought a plague with them. Šuppiluliuma's pleas to the gods to abate the plague were ineffective, and finally he himself fell victim to it.
There can hardly be a fitting enough tribute to this man's achievements. He seized a crumbling empire and raised it to the pinnacle of power. His energy was boundless, as his campaigns crossed and recrossed all of Anatolia and deep into Syria. He conquered Mitanni thereby overthrowing the existing balance of power, and subdued even Egypt. If his means were unscrupulous, he is hardly unique in the annals of powerful men.
His legend would loom large for the rest of Hittite history. His younger son Muršili would idolize him and write of his manly deeds, although the continuing affliction of the plague might ultimately temper his adulation. Up until its final demise, the Hittite empire would not again fall into the extreme duress experienced during the reign of Tudḫaliya III. Šuppiluliuma's legacy was the most powerful empire in the ancient Near East.
His chosen heir, crown prince Arnuwanda, succeeded to the throne without difficulty. The reputation of his father, and the fact that he himself was a mature and experienced military commander, was enough to guarantee the good behavior of the vassals.
Foreign Relations
Aḫḫiyawa: Friendly at beginning of Šuppiluliuma’s reign. But eventually Millawanda rebelled with Aḫḫiyawan assistance. Mira and Šeḫa River Land involved.
Arzawa: Arzawa peaked with its attack on Tuwanuwa in southeastern Anatolia. Šuppiluliuma appears to have driven the Arzawans under Anzupaḫḫaddu back into the west and even to have subjugated them. It freed itself during the Hurrian War (Campaigns related to the siege of Kargamiš), but no longer posed a threat to Hittite security. It allied itself with Aḫḫiyawa.
Kizzuwatna: Part of the Hittite realm. Šuppiluliuma installed his son Telipinu the Priest of Kizzuwatna in Kizzuwatna, and Telipinu later led troops to Šuppiluliuma’s support in his Syrian campaigns. (CTH incorrectly places the Šunaššura treaty in Šuppiluliuma I’s reign (#41). It belongs with the earlier king Tudḫaliya II)
Išuwa: Recovered by Šuppiluliuma (CAH 2.2 pg. 6.). It took two battles, one against the Išuwans, and then against the Išuwans and Tušratta of Mitanni.
Wiluša: Šuppiluliuma I, under his father, Tudḫaliya III, campaigned in Arzawa. He did not, however, have to campaign against Wiluša, since its king, Kukkunni, remained friendly with the Hittites, per tradition. See The Treaty with Alakšandu of Wiluša.
Ḫayaša: (Along with Azzi) A territory situated somewhere in north-eastern Anatolia. Before becoming king, Šuppiluliuma marched against this territory. He later marched against it as part of his Great Syrian campaign. Šuppiluliuma made a treaty with Ḫuqqana, whom Šuppiluliuma raised from an obscure stature to that of the foremost man among the Ḫayašans (not a king) (Beckman (1996) 22f.). Šuppiluliuma married his sister to him, and then, in the treaty itself, instructed Ḫuqqana that when her relatives visited her in Ḫayaša, he was not permitted to sleep with them, as he believed Ḫayašan custom permitted.
(Contemporary with Aššur-uballiṭ I of Assyria (See Peter Machinist (1987)))
Campaigned with his father, including a campaign against Egypt. Died from the same plague that killed his father after only about a year on the throne.
Šuppiluliuma’s reign ended with the Assyrians hostile to the Hittites, but unwilling to engage them. Muršili II’s reign began the same way. We do not know about Arnuwanda’s relations with them, though. Unless we actually gain real evidence, we would be best to assume that relations with Assyria did not change.
In the west, the ruler of the River Šeḫa Land died, resulting in dynastic unrest in his kingdom. A young son of this ruler named Manapa-Tarḫunta was driven out of his land by his brothers. Another man, Ura-Tarḫunta, had even desired to kill Manapa-Tarḫunta. So Manapa-Tarḫunta fled to the city of Karkišša. In Karkišša, his possessions were taken from him by the men of the city. But both Arnuwanda and his younger brother Muršili commended Manapa-Tarḫunta to the men of Karkišša, and sent them gifts. In this way Manapa-Tarḫunta came to be protected by the Karkiššans.
But Ura-Tarḫunta’s reign proved short. Soon, he too was driven out of the Šeḫa River Land. Now at the instigation of the Hittite ruler, Manapa-Tarḫunta was installed as the ruler of the Šeḫa River Land. And this was how it remained for the short reign of Arnuwanda II.
Like his father before him, Arnuwanda fell victim to the plague which was ravaging Ḫatti. His illness posed a serious danger to the empire. When the surrounding lands heard about his illness, they revolted against Hittite rule. Arnuwanda, however, could not do anything about this, since he soon died from his illness. The empire now faced an uncertain future, with no readily apparent successor and revolts on its borders.
(Contemporary with Aššur-uballiṭ I of Assyria (See Peter Machinist (1987))
“He who now sits upon the throne of his father is small and unable to protect the land of Ḫatti and its borders.” (Ten Year Annals §4)
So spoke the enemies of the new Great King. Muršili succeeded to the throne at a young age due to his brother Arnuwanda’s unexpected and undesired death. Always ready to take advantage of such a predicament, the Hittites’ conquered territories dutifully revolted. But Muršili was a much more pious man than his father, a trait which would become characteristic of all succeeding Hittite Great Kings, and he chose to begin his reign tending to his religious duties. His father had spent so much of his time setting up garrisons in Mitanni that he had neglected the festivals of the Sun Goddess of Arinna. The punishment for this was the plague that took his life, that of his son, and even yet continued to haunt Ḫatti. Muršili felt that he would need the help of the Sun Goddess in order to be successful.
“Oh Sun Goddess of Arinna, my lady! As to the surrounding enemy lands that keep calling me a child and keep belittling me, and who keep trying to take from me your territories, oh Sun Goddess of Arinna, my lady, come here to me, Sun Goddess of Arinna, my lady, and smite before me those surrounding enemy lands!” (Ten Year Annals §6)
But he could not smite all the enemy lands at once, and so he made arrangements for his military officers to protect the status-quo. The Assyrians under Aššur-uballiṭ were still a hostile factor on the Hittite’s eastern flank, and so Muršili sent Nuwanza, the Great Wine Man, along with troops and chariots, to the aid of his brother Šarri-Kušuḫ (a.k.a. Piyaššili), King of Kargamiš. Both men were explicitly instructed to retaliate against any Assyrian attack. And yet the Assyrian threat appears to have been as empty at the beginning of Muršili’s reign as it had been at the end of Šuppiluliuma’s. Having heard that Hittite imperial troops had come to Kargamiš, the Assyrian ruler chose not to attack. Further, while these troops protected the eastern frontier, other troops guarded against the Arzawan enemy towards the western frontier (Extended Annals of Muršili II, Year 2). Also in the west, Muršili tried to maintain the status quo by recognizing Manapa-Tarḫunta, whom he and his brother had helped earlier, in his position as ruler of the Šeḫa River Land.
“The Sun Goddess of Arinna heard my words”
Having duly attended to the proper religious festivals and the immediate security of his further borders, the following year Muršili began a long and distinguished series of campaigns which would affirm the Hittites’ newly regained position as a great power in the Near East. His attentions were first drawn to the Kaškans in the north, a region which would continue to trouble him for most of his reign.
(YEAR 1) In this first campaign, the Kaškans located near the city of Turmitta rose up and began to attack that city. Muršili responded by attacking, looting, and burning down the two major Kaškan cities in the area, Ḫalila and Dudduška. When the other Kaškans heard this, “all of Kaška” came to their comrades’ aid. It was of no avail. With the Sun Goddess of Arinna, the Storm God, and Mezzulla “running before him”, Muršili defeated his enemies and resubjugated the Kaškans near Turmitta. Having achieved this, he returned to Ḫattuša. But there was more trouble in Kaška. The Kaškans near the city of Išḫupitta stopped sending Muršili the troop contingents that they were obligated to, and so Muršili marched forth and re-subjugated them as well, burning down one of their cities in the process. This reconquest didn’t last very long beyond Muršili’s stay in Išḫupitta.
(YEAR 2) With his brother Šarri-Kušuḫ protecting Kargamiš against the Assyrians, and having further sent troops into the Lower Land to protect against the Arzawans, Muršili was free to turn his small army to another northern campaign. This time he marched to the Upper Land and attacked the land of Tipiya, because it had stopped providing the troop contingents that it owed to the Hittite Great King. Its most important city seems to have been Katḫaidwa, which Muršili attacked and burned down. He returned to Ḫattuša with his civilian captives and booty only to learn that there was trouble in Išḫupitta again. So he turned around and subdued Išḫupitta once more. But the leaders of the rebellion, Mr. Pazzanna and Mr. Nunnuta, former subjects of Muršili, escaped. Muršili marched after them. His first stop was at the city of Palḫwišša. At this city, Muršili was helped by the fact that his foes had to depend upon levied troops, which were no match for Muršili’s regular army. The Kaškan army broke and fled before the Great King. So Muršili was able to burn down and plunder the city. He then moved on to the city of Ištaḫara, where he encamped. From here he was able to send back some plundered grain to Ḫattuša. Meanwhile the rebel leaders seem to have holed up in the city of Kammamma, so Muršili wrote to that city demanding their extradition. He then seems to have threatened the men of Kammamma with total destruction - a threat that proved effective. The men of Kammamma seized the two rebels, killed them, and subjugated themselves to Muršili. This seems to have quited Kaška for the time being, and Muršili returned to the city of Ankuwa where he passed the winter months.
(YEAR 3) At the beginning of the third year Šarri-Kušuḫ seems to have been involved in some sort of altercation with troops from the city Ḫuwaršanašša and one other city whose name is lost. The fact that these men fled into Arzawa indicates that Šarri-Kušuḫ’s troops who had been stationed in the Lower Land had been attacked. Muršili’s response led to what should probably be considered the most momentous achievement of his reign - the conquest and dismemberment of the kingdom of Arzawa.
When Muršili’s enemies fled into Arzawa, Muršili sent messengers to its king, Uḫḫa-ziti, demanding their extradition. Uḫḫa-ziti refused. After all, he had no real reason to comply. The situation in the west seemed to have turned to the Arzawan’s advantage. He had allied himself with the King of Aḫḫiyawa, and as a result the King of Millawanda went over to the King of Aḫḫiyawa. Other leaders in the west were not slow to reassess their own positions. Manapa-Tarḫunta, the King of the Šeḫa River Land, went over to Uḫḫa-ziti. The land Ḫapalla and half of Mira-and-Kuwaliya (Mašḫwiluwa retained control of the other half) were also allied with the Arzawan ruler. Wiluša, whose relations with Ḫatti always seem to have remained friendly even when forced out of treaty relations by the presence of Arzawa, was also allied with Arzawa at this time. With the entire western region of Anatolia under his control, it's no wonder that Uḫḫa-ziti did not overly concern himself with the threatening demands of a distant and childlike enemy. It was a serious miscalculation.
But Muršili’s immediate attentions were still pulled to the north, so that instead of personally dealing with the situation in the west he sent out two men, Gulla and Malla-ziti, to attack the rebel king of Millawanda. They succeeded and returned to Ḫattuša with their plunder and civilian captives. Uḫḫa-ziti’s immediate response was directed towards that portion of the land of Mira which remained under the control of Mašḫwiluwa, Muršili’s brother-in-law. Uḫḫa-ziti attacked the city of Impaya. Mašḫwiluwa was able to repulse the attack, but not utterly defeat the Arzawan king, who moved on and attacked the city of Ḫapanuwa. So the situation stood in the west as Muršili occupied himself in the north once again with the Kaškans in the vicinity of the city Išḫupitta. The Kaškan city Pišḫuru was beginning its rise to prominence, and it revived the city Palḫwišša, which Muršili had burned down only the year before. Muršili was forced to march against this threat and burn down the city again. But this was not enough to pacify the territory. Kaškan troops occupied the city Kuzaštarina, and Muršili was forced to attack the city and conquer it. After this victory, Muršili pushed on as far as the city of Anziliya, reconquering the surrounding territories.
The Conquest of Arzawa
Having achieved a victory in the north, Muršili now turned his attentions to his problems in the west. It was time to deal with Uḫḫa-ziti;
“(Concerning) what servants of mine came to you - because I repeatedly requested them from you, and you did not send them back to me, and you kept calling me a child and belittling me; now, come! We will do battle! May the Storm God, My Lord, judge our case!” (10 Year Annals §16)
Muršili gathered his troops and began his march toward Arzawa. When he reached Mt. Lawaša near the Šeḫiriya River, he received what must be viewed as one of the most fortunate omens in history,
“The mighty Storm God, My Lord, showed his divinely righteous power and hurled a thunderbolt. All of my troops saw the thunderbolt. All the land of Arzawa saw the thunderbolt. The thunderbolt passed (us) and struck the land of Arzawa. It struck Uḫḫa-ziti’s (capital) city Apaša. It settled in Uḫḫa-ziti’s knees, and he became ill.” (10 Year Annals §17)
Having received such a favorable omen, Muršili continued his westward march. When he reached the city of Šallapa his brother Šarri-Kušuḫ joined forces with him, and then together they continued on. When Muršili reached the city of Aura, Mašḫwiluwa drove into his presence and informed his lord about the effects of the thunderbolt on Uḫḫa-ziti. The news could only have been seen as encouraging. Now was the perfect time to confront the Arzawan forces.
Having been made lame by this object - possibly a meteorite which might still have been worshipped in Ephesus in the 1st century A.D. during the life of the Apostle Paul - Uḫḫa-ziti could not come out against Muršili for battle himself. So instead he sent forth his son Piyama-Kurunta in his place. The forces met at the Aštarpa River near the city of Walma. The battle, once engaged, turned into a rout. Muršili pursued his fleeing enemies as far as Apaša itself. Uḫḫa-ziti did not remain to defend his capital. He boarded a ship and sailed across the sea, never to return to the site of his ultimate humiliation. Piyama-Kurunta, his son, seems to have also fled across the sea to the King of Aḫḫiyawa (It is not known if Uḫḫa-ziti and his son fled to the same place, or even at the same time). Now in control of the city, Muršili, a Hittite king with a central Anatolian capital, victoriously entered Apaša, a city with a port on the Aegean sea.
The capture of the capital city did not immediately result in the subjugation of the entire land. Arzawans fled in two large bodies to Mt. Arinnanda and to the city of Puranda. Others had joined Uḫḫa-ziti in his flight across the sea. Depending upon the assistance of his brother Šarri-Kušuḫ once again, Muršili chose to attack these places even though the year was growing short. He chose Mt. Arinnanda as his first target. It was a difficult goal. It lay on an island which was very high, overgrown, and rocky. It was impossible to attack it using chariots, and so Muršili used his infantry to climb up the mountain and lay seige to the fugitives. When the Arzawans began to suffer from hunger and thirst, they gave up and prostrated themselves at Muršili’s feet. As a result of this victory, Muršili claims to have personally gained 15,500 civilian captives, while his troops’ gains were beyond measure.
After returning from Mt. Arinnanda, Muršili lay seige to the city of Puranda, the other hold out of the fugitive Arzawans. After having laid seige to the city, he gave them a chance to turn themselves in,
“You were the subjects of my father. My father took you and gave you in subjugation to Mr. Uḫḫa-ziti. But he supported the king