bases for attacking ships with lucrative cargoes passing through or
across the eastern Mediterranean.
Despite the mounting pressures from almost every part of his
empire, and despite a devastating defeat by his Assyrian counterpart,
Tudhaliya proved an able leader of his kingdom and achieved some
considerable successes in the course of his long reign. Not least of
these was his consolidation of Hittite authority in the west, including
the apparent elimination of Ahhiyawan influence in the region, the
crushing of rebellions in other parts of his kingdom, the stabilisation
of his Syrian territories, and the conquest of Alasiya. Yet on his death
his kingdom had almost run its course. Within a few years, the
Hittite empire and its royal capital would be no more–despite all
that Hatti’s multiplicity of gods, its warriors and its last Great Kings
could do to save them.
THE EMPIRE’S STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL 239