the text which tells us this (one of the prayers of Suppiluliuma’s son
Mursili II) doesn’t explicitly say that Suppiluliuma actually took
part in the murder. Of course he may well have dropped hints to
this effect in the hearing of his supporters. But he may have had in
mind a less drastic fate for Tudhaliya, like exile, where a number of
out-of-favour members of the royal family ended up at various
times in Hittite history. Even so, the usurper had obviously‘sinned’
by violating his oath of allegiance to Tudhaliya, and was at least
indirectly responsible for his death. Finally, according to Mursili,
the gods by whom oaths of allegiance were sworn took vengeance
on Suppiluliuma and his supporters for their treacherous behaviour
by wiping them all out in a plague.
But that was many years in the future. In the intervening period,
Suppiluliuma mounted the throne and proved himself the greatest
of Hittite kings–at least the greatest of the warrior-kings. He did
so by making his kingdom, which had recently teetered on the
brink of extinction, the supreme military power of the Near Eastern
world. The kingdom of Hatti could now truly be called an empire.
80 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA