might reasonably be concerned that a Hittite conquest of Mittani’s
Syrian subjects would pave the way for Suppiluliuma’sseizureof
Egypt’s territories to the south.
Hence Suppiluliuma made a point of maintaining friendly
relations with the pharaoh, as he recalled in a letter he wrote to one
of hisfirst successors:
Neither my messengers whom I had sent to your father, nor
the request which your father had made in these terms:‘Let
us establish between ourselves nothing but the friendliest of
relations’–I have not refused these. All that your father said
to me, I did absolutely everything. And my own request, that
I made to your father, he never refused it; he gave me
absolutely everything.^1Whatever diplomatic overtures Suppiluliuma made to the pharaoh
were apparently successful. Relations between the two kingdoms
remained peaceful throughout the period of Suppiluliuma’s
Mittanian and Syrian campaigns. This was despite complaints
from some of the pharaoh’s Syro-Palestinian vassals about alleged
Figure 10.1 Suppiluliuma I.
82 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA