tensions between the two kingdoms continued to mount from this
time onwards,finally culminating in the famous battle of Qadesh in
- We’ll get to this later.
THE END OFMITTANI AND THE RISE OFASSYRIA
With the fall of Carchemish to the Hittites, Tushratta’s days were
clearly numbered. He still eluded capture by the Hittites, and his
whereabouts remained unknown. If he had in fact gone into hiding,
he was finally tracked down by his own countrymen and
assassinated. Among the assassins was one of his sons, probably a
man called Shattiwaza.
But his death did not mark the end of Hittite campaigns in the
region. For another six years or so, the Hittites continued military
operations on both sides of the Euphrates. The throne of what
remained of the former Mittanian empire, now commonly known
by a traditional name Hanigalbat, was occupied by Artatama.
By then an old man, he appointed his son Shuttarna as regent.
We recall that Suppiluliuma had made a treaty with Artatama
many years earlier which probably promised Hittite support for his
succession, and presumably for that of his rightful heirs. But the fall
of Tushratta, and his empire with him, had created, for the Hittites,
another problem in its wake–the rise of Mittani’s former vassal
Assyria.
Already in Akhenaten’s reign, the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit
had made clear his aspirations of joining the‘Club of Great Kings’.
Worringly for the Hittites, Shuttarna began establishing close ties
with Assyria, which could in the future pose just as great a threat to
the security of Hatti as Mittani had done. Suppiluliuma dealt with
the problem by establishing close ties of his own, with Shattiwaza,
son and probably co-murderer of his father Tushratta. Marrying
off one of his daughters to Shattiwaza to strengthen further his
bonds with him, he then instructed his son Sharri-Kushuh, viceroy
of Carchemish, to conduct with Shattiwaza a series of military
campaigns through former Mittanian territory. These resulted in
the capture of the region’s most important cities, the demolition of
the current regime and the installation of Shattiwaza as the new
THE GREATEST KINGDOM OF THEM ALL 89