We have only the Assyrian version of this battle and its outcome.
This is preserved in a letter which Tukulti-Ninurta wrote to
Tudhaliya’s vassal, the king of Ugarit, probably with the intention
of winning the king away from his Hittite allegiance.^7 But as far as
we can judge from it, the Hittite forces were routed, the survivors,
including Tudhaliya, returned home, and the triumphant Assyrian
completed his conquest of the Hurrian lands. Tukulti-Ninurta
might well have set his sights now on what Tudhaliya had tried to
prevent, a full-scale invasion across the Euphrates leading to the
conquest of a large swathe of Hittite subject-territory in Syria. But
fortunately for the Hittites, Tukulti-Ninurta turned his attention
south–to the kingdom of Babylon and created havoc in the land
before hefinally fell victim to an assassination plot.
TUDHALIYA’SCYPRUS CAMPAIGN
With all the problems confronting him throughout his Anatolian
and Syrian territories, one would have thought that Tudhaliya had
enough problems on his plate without taking his operations further
afield –especially given his apparent defeat by the Assyrians in
northern Mesopotamia. But we thenfind him embarking, perhaps
towards the end of his reign, on a fresh new enterprise–against the
land of Alasiya, the eastern Mediterranean island we know as
Cyprus.
How did he get there? Since Hatti’s core region had no sea
outlets, its kings would have needed ships supplied by vassal or
allied states with coastal territory and seaports for any Hittite
ventures involving naval operations. The Syrian states Ugarit and
Amurru were so endowed. Very likely one or both of these
provided Tudhaliya with sufficient naval resources to launch an
attack on Alasiya.^8 He succeeded in conquering the island, or at
least parts of it, taking prisoner its king and his family, deporting
them to his homeland, and declaring Alasiya henceforth a Hittite
tributary. We do not know what Alasiya had done to provoke the
Hittite attack. Quite possibly Hatti’s increasing dependence on
grain supplies from abroad prompted disruption of these supplies
by a hostile regime on the island, or by pirates who used its ports as
238 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA