This raises several questions. Firstly, who was this regional
overlord? The best answer, I believe, is provided by David Hawkins.
I earlier mentioned (in Chapter 6) the relief sculpture located in a
mountain pass near Izmir, the so-called Karabel monument. The
inscription indicates that thefigure depicted in the relief was a man
called Tarkasnawa, ruler of the Arzawan kingdom Mira, at that
time the largest and most powerful of the western Anatolian states.
Hawkins has proposed, convincingly, that Tarkasnawa was
Tudhaliya’s partner in the attack on Milawata. In an attempt to
provide a lasting solution to the constantly recurring problems in
his western territories, Tudhaliya may now have given the king of
Mira extensive authority over much of the western Anatolian
region, from as far south as Milawata to Wilusa in the north.
In effect, the local king may have been granted powers as
substantial as those exercised by the king’s viceroys in Syria.
All this obviously begs an important question. Where, if
anywhere, does Ahhiyawafit into this scenario? We have noted
that Milawata had been subject to Ahhiyawan overlordship
since at least the reign of Muwattalli some decades earlier. But
there is no reference at all to Ahhiyawa in the Milawata letter, or
at least in what survives of it, so we cannot be sure that Ahhiyawa
was still in control of Milawatan territory at the time of the Hittite
attack on it.
But wemayhave indirect evidence that at some time during
Tudhaliya’s reign, if not already before, the Ahhiyawan king had lost
control over his Anatolian base and had therefore ceased to be an
influential player in the region. This is perhaps to be inferred from a
passage in the draft of a treaty which Tudhaliya drew up with one of
his Syrian vassals, Shaushgamuwa, king of the land of Amurru.
In one of the treaty’s clauses, Tudhaliya provides a list of all the Great
Kings who are his peers, and potential enemies:
And the kings who (are) of equal rank with me, the king of
Egypt, the king of Karadunia (¼ Kassite Babylonia), the
king of Assyria,the king of Ahhiyawa, if the king of Egypt is
a friend of My Sun, let him also be a friend to you, if he is an
enemy of My Sun, let him be your enemy also [...]^6236 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA