members were located. (Some scholars believe that the Graeco-
Roman name Asia was derived from Assuwa.) In an attempt to
reduce, if not prevent absolutely, further threats from the
conquered regions, he took from them for resettlement in the
Hittite homeland some 10,000 infantry and 600 teams of horse
along with the confederacy’s elite charioteers–the so-called‘lords
of the bridle’.
A rebellion by the deported enemy militia was crushed and the
ringleader killed. So overall–and taking Tudhaliya’saccountatface
value–the king’s western campaigns were resoundingly successful.
Buthisvictoriescameatacost.AsinthereignofHattusiliI,the
commitment of Hittite military forces to campaigns in the far west
left the homeland vulnerable to attack by enemy forces from other
directions. Particularly the Kaska people, tribal groups who inhabited
the mountainous Pontic region onthe southern shores of the Black
Sea. While Tudhaliya and the bulk of his army werefighting in the
west, Kaskan tribesmen invaded and devastated parts of their
homeland. When the king got back home, he drove the invaders from
his lands, and followed this up in the next campaigning season with a
retaliatory invasion of Kaskan territory.
But it was not only the Kaska people he had to worry about. The
eastern frontiers of his kingdom were also dangerously vulnerable,
most critically at times when the kingdom lacked sufficient
defences to protect them while the bulk of the army was elsewhere.
They were susceptible particularly to renewed attacks by Mittani,
with the support of allies located in the frontier zone between the
two kingdoms. One of these, Isuwa,fluctuated in its backing for
Hatti and Mittani, and could certainly not be counted on by
Tudhaliya at times when his eastern frontiers were under threat of a
Mittanian invasion.
All this raises for us a major question.
WHY DID THEHITTITES GO WEST?
When Hittite core territory was left so exposed to enemy attacks
while the bulk of the kingdom’s forces werefighting elsewhere,
when the Hittites’ interests lay primarily in protecting their
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