Hattusili, the Hittite Prince Who Stole an Empire Partner and Rival of Ramesses the Great

Cover
Halftitle page
Also available from Bloomsbury
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
Contents
Illustrations
Abbreviations
Introduction
	IMPORTANT NOTE
1 ‘He Will Not Live Long’
	Place
	Time
2 Our Sources
	Our ancient written records
	Our modern sources
	Some digital sources
3 Benefactors of a Young Prince
	A dysfunctional family
	Divine patronage
	Literacy at the highest levels of the hierarchy?
	The benefactors
	Soldier and priest
	Our story resumes
4 The Prince Goes to Court
	The ill-fated governor of the Upper Land
	The missing years
	A victim of the ‘hate factions’
	Summons to His Majesty’s court
	A dogged pursuit for justice
	The resort to witchcraft
5 Unseating the Rightful King
	The Prince Who Stole an Empire
6 ‘And She Gave Us the Love of Husband and Wife’
	After Qadesh
	The Hurrian factor
	Puduhepa’s new home
	A throne shared
	A marriage bed shared
	A brood of royals
	Tawananna – a title stigmatised
	Prayers for a beloved husband
	A Hittite bride for the pharaoh
	The fate of the Hittite bride
7 ‘Uneasy Lies the Head . . .’
	A restless exile
	Hattusili seeks validation
	A new regime in Babylon
	Some requests and an embarrassing admission
	Back to the Apology
	The Apology’s audience
	Hattusili’s successor
	The Apology ’s ultimate purpose?
8 The Eternal Treaty
	The Aftermath
	The curious absence of Qadesh from the Apology
	The ‘Eternal Treaty’
	Engraved on silver
	The Egyptian tablet on display?
	How close were the two versions of the treaty?
	An endorsement of Hattusili’s successor
	The extradition of fugitives
	A wishful piece of ideology
	What were the treaty’s real aims?
9 The Royal Mail
	The hazards of travel
	Diplomatic missions
	Travel times
	The royal postmen
	The personalities behind the diplomatic masks
	The pharaonic endorsement
	The barren princess
	Other royal letter-writers
	Ensuring the mail got through
10 Managing an Empire
	What’s in an empire?
	How did imperial rule by Hatti work?
	A House of Cards?
	How many people lived in Hattusa?
	How many people lived in the whole empire?
	Managing the empire’s population losses
	Was there a pax Hethitica during Hattusili’s reign?
	The Assyrian Menace
	What to do about Hanigalbat?
	Elsewhere in the east
	The kingdom of Tarhuntassa
	The western subject states
	What did it really mean to be a member of the Hittite empire?
	The empire’s homeland subjects
	A tangible expression of the empire’s might
	Postscript
11 ‘Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts1
	The Classical tradition
	Troy in its historical context
	The Hittite dimension
	What precisely was the Greek kingdom called Ahhiyawa?
	A major seagoing power
	Relations between Hatti and Ahhiyawa
12 ‘Bleating in Cuneiform Across the Wine-Dark Sea’
	Who and what is this document all about? Was Hattusili its author?
	First perspective
	Second perspective
	A tough, elusive enemy
	An enigmatic reference to Wilusa
	What is the actual nature and purpose of our document?
	Were there treaties between Hittite and Ahhiyawan kings?
13 A Poisoned Chalice
	A smooth transition
	Long did she (co-)reign!
	A foiled assassination attempt
	The beginning of the empire’s disintegration
	What happened to Ahhiyawa?
	Tudhaliya claims the conquest of Alasiya (Cyprus)
	What became of Kuruntiya?
	The old order changeth
	‘Gods Carved in Stone’
14 Hattusili’s Reign in Review
	Pivotal events in Hittite history
	Hittite history’s most signifi cant event
	Hattusili’s early years
	Puduhepa’s likely ‘role behind the scenes’
	The overthrow of the rightful king
	The pathway to supreme power
	Assessing Hattusili’s reign
	Acceptance by his subjects and royal peers
	The turbulent former king
	The wild card in the royal pack
	Maintaining authority in the west
	Human resources
	In the aftermath of Qadesh
	Puduhepa’s role in the empire in her husband’s last years
	The men behind the masks
APPENDIX 1
APPENDIX 2
Notes
Bibliography
Index