Suppiluliuma’s naval operations off Alasiya’s coast. One of the chief
objects of these operations must have been to ensure safe passage
for the food shipments which were of vital importance for
sustaining the Hittite homeland’s population. We get some idea of
the seriousness of the crisis from an inscription of the pharaoh
Merneptah, who states that he has despatched a cargo of grain‘to
keep alive the land of Hatti’. And in a letter sent from the Hittite
court to one of the last kings of Ugarit an urgent demand is made
for a ship and crew to transport 450 tonnes of grain to Ura, whence
it will be transported to the Hittite homeland.‘It is a matter of life
or death!’the letter states.^7 Some scholars think that this claim may
be exaggerated. But even so, the text does point to Hatti’s increasing
dependence, in itsfinal years, on imports of grain from Egypt and
its vassal states.
This brings us back to Tarhuntassa and Suppiluliuma’s claim to
have entered it. In the context of what we’ve just been talking about,
we can see a specific, compelling reason why the king could not
afford to allow hostile forces to occupy this land and its capital. For
Tarhuntassa covered a large part of the southern Anatolian coast.
Figure 25.2Ugarit.
262 WARRIORS OF ANATOLIA