Suppiluliuma I

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Suppiluliuma I

Suppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites

Hittites

The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian people who spoke a Hittite language of the Anatolian languages of the Indo-European languages family, and established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia ca....
(ca. 1344 – 1322 BC (short chronology)). He achieved fame as a great warrior and statesman, successfully challenging the then-dominant Egyptian empire

New Kingdom

The New Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian History of Ancient Egypt between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt, and Twentieth dynasty of Egypt....
for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates

Euphrates

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia which flows from Anatolia....
.

Suppiluliuma began his career as the chief advisor and general to Tudhaliya II

Tudhaliya II

Tudhaliya II was a king of the Hittite empire ca. 1360? ? 1344 BC .The Hittite empire suffered serious losses of territory during Tudhaliya's reign, with even the capital itself being burnt down....
, then based at Samuha

Samuha

Samuha was reputedly a city of the Hittites, a religious centre and for a few years military capital for the empire. Samuha's faith was syncretistic....
. In this capacity, he defeated the Hittites' enemies among the Azzi-Hayasa and the Kaskas

Kaskas

When the Kaska were not raiding or serving as mercenaries, they raised pigs and wove linen, leaving scarcely any imprint on the permanent landscape....
.

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Suppiluliuma I was king of the Hittites

Hittites

New Kingdom

Euphrates

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia which flows from Anatolia....
.

Suppiluliuma began his career as the chief advisor and general to Tudhaliya II

Tudhaliya II

Samuha

Kaskas

When the Kaska were not raiding or serving as mercenaries, they raised pigs and wove linen, leaving scarcely any imprint on the permanent landscape....
. Both enemies then united around charismatic leaders to counter him; of these Karanni founded a semblance of a royal court in Hayasa, and Piyapili failed to do likewise for the Kaska. Suppiluliuma and Tudhaliya defeated these threats in turn, to the extent that the Hittite court could settle in Hattusa

Hattusa

Hattusa was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age. The region is set in a loop of the Kizil River in central Anatolia.Hattusa was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1986....
again.

When Tudhaliya II died, Tudhaliya III

Tudhaliya III

Tudhaliya III was a short-lived king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1344 BC ; he may have been the son and successor of Hattusili II, however he is normally viewed as the son and immediate successor of Tudhaliya II ....
('the Younger') succeeded to the throne. Soon afer his accession, however, he was overthrown and succeeded by Suppiluliuma I who was the younger brother of Tudhaliya III. Some of the Hittite priests later reported this to Suppiluliumas's son, successor, and biographer Mursili II

Mursili II

Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1321 ? 1295 BC . He was the younger son of Suppiluliuma I, one of the most powerful rulers of the Hittite Empire....
, holding it out as an outstanding crime of the whole dynasty.

Suppiluliuma married a sister to the Hayasan king Hukkana, and his daughter Muwatti to Maskhuiluwa of the Arzawa

Arzawa

Arzawa was the name of a region or kingdom in Western Anatolia, which later to be known as Lydia in the post-Hittite era. It was the western neighbour and sometimes vassal of the Hittites, and probably bordered on the Assuwa league to the north....
n state Mira. He retook Arzawan territory as far as Hapalla. His most permanent victory was against the Mitanni

Mitanni

Mitanni or Hanigalbat was a loosely organized Hurrian-speaking Hittite vassal state in northern Syria from ca. 1500 BC-1300 BC."The Assyrians called the lands of Mitanni Hanigalbat while to the Hittites it was the land of the Hurrians....
kingdom, which he reduced to a client state under his son-in-law Shattiwazza. He was also a master builder of large stone structures decorated with stone reliefs. It was during his reign that concepts of the sacred nature of royal leaders developed.

Suppiluliuma then took advantage of the tumultuous reign of the Pharaoh

Pharaoh

Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt, only during the New Kingdom, specifically, during the middle of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt....
Akhenaten

Akhenaten

Akhenaten , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, who died 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for attempting to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheism worship of Aten, although there are doubts as to how successful he was at this....
, and seized control of Egyptian territory in Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
, inciting many Egyptian vassals to revolt.

His success encouraged the widow (who is called Dakhamunzu

Dakhamunzu

Dakhamunzu is the name of an Ancient Egypt queen known from the Hittite annals The Deeds of Suppiluliuma, which were composed by Suppiluliuma I's son Mursili II....
in the annals) of the Egyptian king Nibhuruyira (usually identified with Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun , Egyptian language was an Ancient Egypt Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt , during the period of History of Egypt known as the New Kingdom....
, but it's also possible he was Akhenaten) to write to him, asking him to send one of his sons to be her husband and rule Egypt, since she had no heir and was on the verge of being forced to marry "a servant", usually thought to be the general Horemheb

Horemheb

Horemheb was the last Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt from 1319 BC to late 1292 BC, although he was not related to the preceding royal family and is believed to have been of common birth....
or her late husband's vizier Ay

Ay was the penultimate Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. He held the throne of Egypt for a brief four-year period , although he was a close advisor to two and perhaps three of the pharaohs who ruled before him and was the power behind the throne during Tutankhamun's reign....
. Suppliluliuma dispatched an ambassador to Egypt to investigate; he reported that the situation was accurately described, and the king decided to take advantage of this windfall; unfortunately, Prince Zannanza

Zannanza

Prince Zannanza was a son of Suppiluliuma I, king of the Hittites. He is best known for almost becoming the Pharaoh of Egypt and because his death caused a diplomatic incident between the Hittite Empire and Egypt, that resulted in warfare....
was murdered on the way, and the marriage alliance never was consummated.

Suppililiuma was furious at this turn at events and unleashed his armies against Egypt's vassal states in Canaan and Northern Syria capturing much territory.

Unfortunately, many of the Egyptian prisoners carried a plague which would eventually ravage the Hittite heartland and lead to the deaths of both Suppiluliuma I and his successor, Arnuwanda II

Arnuwanda II

Arnuwanda II was a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1322 ? 1321 BC . He succeeded his father Suppiluliuma I, who succumbed to the plague which Egyptian captives from his Canaan campaign had brought with them to the Hittite heartland....
.

The Deeds of Suppiluliuma, compiled after his death by his son Mursili II

Mursili II

Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire ca. 1321 ? 1295 BC . He was the younger son of Suppiluliuma I, one of the most powerful rulers of the Hittite Empire....
, is an important primary source for the king's reign. One of Suppiluliuma's letters, addressed to Akhenaten, was preserved in the Amarna letters

Amarna letters

The Amarna letters are an archive of correspondence on clay tablets, mostly diplomatic, between the Ancient Egypt administration and its representatives in Canaan and Amurru during the New Kingdom....
(EA 41) archive at Akhetaten. It expresses his hope that the good relations which existed between Egypt and Hatti under Akhenaten's father-(Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1391 BC-December 1353 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died....
) would continue into Akhenaten's new reign.

In modern fiction

Suppiluliuma is a major villain

Villain

A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a history narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters....
in the historical novel

Historical novel

A historical novel is a novel in which the story is set among historical events, or more generally, in which the time of the action predates the lifetime of the author....
"The Egyptian

The Egyptian

The Egyptian is a historical novel by Mika Waltari. It was first published in Finnish language in 1945, and in an abridged English language translation by Naomi Walford in 1949....
" by Mika Waltari

Mika Waltari

Mika Toimi Waltari was a Finland historical novelist, best known for his magnum opus The Egyptian ....
. Though never appearing onstage, throughout Waltari's book the Hiittie king is seen as a malvolent, fearsome threat by the Egyptian protagonists.

The book was published in 1945, in the direct aftermath of the Second World War, and the writer clealry intended to present Suppiluliuma as an ancient Hitler.

Whether or not historically accurate, this depiction by Waltari is nearly the only reference to Suppiluliuma which lay people who are not historians or scholars are likely to encounter.

Suppiluliuma I

In modern fiction

See also

External links