in the Syrian region, only after he felt confident that his hold over
his kingdom was fully secure.
AWORTHY SUCCESSOR
In any case, his last wishes for the succession were fulfilled, and his
grandson (and adopted son) Mursili did succeed to the throne. But
Hattusili may well have continued to reign for some years to
come before then. In terms of his military responsibilities, Mursili
followed in his grandfather’s footsteps, quite literally, as he
conducted further campaigns in Syria. The culmination of these
was hisfinal capture of the prize that had eluded Hattusili–the city
of Aleppo. And with its capture and destruction, he delivered the
finalcoup de grâceto the kingdom of Yamhad. From a fragment of
text which tells us this, we learn that in capturing Aleppo, Mursili
‘avenged his father’s (i.e. his grandfather’s/predecessor’s) blood’.
Thismaymean that Hattusili had been killed in his ongoing contest
with Aleppo, leaving hisfinal mission unaccomplished. Hence the
suggestion that Hattusili did not die in Kussar, but later on, perhaps
much later on, in Syria.
And now his successor,flushed with his victory over Aleppo,
sought another world to conquer. Leading his troops to the
Euphrates river, he marched them downstream to Babylon. Laying
siege to the city, he captured, looted and destroyed it. Thus in the
reign of the Babylonian king Samsu-ditana, the dynasty that had
ruled Old Kingdom Babylonia for almost 300 years came to an
abrupt and violent end. (See the BBC documentary The Dark
Lords of Hattusafor a graphic and bloodthirsty re-enactment of
Babylon’s fall to the Hittites.) Mursili’s sack of Babylon‘made the
gods sick’, according to the king’s brother-in-law Hantili. But as we
shall see, Hantili was grinding his own personal axe – almost
literally–when he made this statement.
Laden with the spoils of his conquest of Aleppo and Babylonia,
Mursili began his homeward march. Like his predecessor, he made
no attempt to annex or establish sovereignty over any of his
conquered territories. In fact, his conquests paved the way for other
powers tofill the vacuum left by the fall of the Babylonian dynasty.
THE LEGACY OF AN AILING KING 39