underestimated the new king. Inexperienced he may have been,
but more than just a child. Already in his twenties at the time of
his accession, he would certainly have already been blooded
on thefield of battle, perhaps many times. His father would have
seen to that.
With all the courage, determination and ruthlessness of his
greatest forebears, Mursili set about the task of defeating and
repelling his enemies, bringing his rebellious vassals to heel and
restoring to the kingdom its superpower status. The main account
of all this is contained in the remains of Mursili’s own Annals,
which survive in fragmentary form in two series. One is a
summary account of Mursili’s own campaign achievements in the
criticalfirst ten years of his reign.^1 Theotherisamoredetailed
account of Hittite military campaigns covering this ten-year
period but extending over some 27 years and including a record of
the exploits of the king’s military commanders. The two accounts
are commonly referred to as the‘Ten-Year Annals’ and‘The
Comprehensive Annals’respectively. Unfortunately, much of the
latter is now lost to us.
THE NEWARZAWA CAMPAIGNS
But from what we can piece together from the remains of the
Annals, we learn that Mursili spent thefirst two campaigning
seasons of his reign driving the Kaska occupation forces from his
homeland and carrying out punitive expeditions against them in
their own territory. These were sufficient, it seems, to keep this
perennial enemy subdued for the time being. That enabled their
conqueror to set his sights on his western enemies and rebel states.
Notable among these were the territories of the Arzawa lands.
An added complication was that the leader of the most powerful of
these lands, King Uhhaziti, ruler of what we have called‘Arzawa
Proper’, had formed an alliance with the king of Ahhiyawa, that is,
with a Mycenaean king (if our Ahhiyawan-Mycenaean equation is
correct). And the Land of Milawata (Classical Miletos) had done
likewise. Milawata was brought to heel and destroyed by a Hittite
expeditionary force despatched by Mursili. But the king himself led
KING BY DEFAULT 109