It was all too good to be true. Successful though they were in
military terms, Tuthmosis’campaigns failed to establish permanent
Egyptian authority in either Syria or Palestine. Towards the end of
his reign there were local uprisings against Egyptian rule, and after
his death Egypt withdrew from all further involvement in the
region–for the time being. That provided the current Mittanian
king Saushtatar with a fresh opportunity to restake his kingdom’s
claim over a large part of Syria, spearheaded by the formidable
might of themaryannu. First he invaded Assyria in northern
Mesopotamia, and sacked its capital Ashur, reducing the former
great kingdom to vassal status. Then he crossed the Euphrates and
led his forces on a trail of conquest and devastation through
northern Syria to the Mediterranean coast. And just beyond lay the
southern territories of the kingdom of Hatti. Once more, the
kingdom, still suffering from a long period of internal instability,
faced a crisis of major proportions from its most dangerous enemy.
All this leads us up to the early fourteenth century, and the
beginning of a new era in Hittite history. Sometimes called the
Hittite New Kingdom, it started with yet another assassination.
The current king Muwattalli was bloodily despatched by the
supporters of a man called Tudhaliya who now assumed the
throne in his place. It was an inauspicious start to his reign.
But Tudhaliya consolidated his position on the throne, and
launched his armies on a series of new military enterprises which
paved the way for Hatti’s re-emergence as a great international
power–one of the four Great Kingdoms of the Late Bronze Age
Near Eastern world.
‘NOW BLOODSHED HAS BECOME COMMON’ 45