Hittite Empire

Legacy

The Hittite-Egyptian treaty is a landmark of international diplomacy, and the Hittite archives revealed a lost civilisation known before only from brief mentions in the Bible and in Egyptian records.

Timeline of Hittite Empire

1. 1650 BCE
   Hattusili I (or Labarna) founds the kingdom with Hattusa as capital

   The Hittites, speakers of an Indo-European language, had formed small kingdoms in central Anatolia around Kussara and Kanesh. Around 1650 BCE (middle chronology), Hattusili I, who may also have used the name Labarna, moved the capital from Nesha (Kanesh) to Hattusa, inside the great bend of the Kizilirmak (Halys) river, and took his throne name from it. His annals describe campaigns against Arzawa in the west and into northern Syria, where he attacked but did not take Aleppo, and a crossing of the Euphrates. Central Anatolia became the core of a kingdom that would last over four centuries.

2. 1595 BCE
   Mursili I raids Aleppo and sacks Babylon

   Hattusili's grandson and chosen heir, Mursili I, renewed the wars in Syria. He destroyed Aleppo, capital of the kingdom of Yamhad, which had resisted his grandfather, then led an unprecedented march of some 2,000 kilometres down the Euphrates and sacked Babylon around 1595 BCE, ending Hammurabi's dynasty. Babylonia was far too distant to hold and passed to the Kassites. Back home, Mursili was murdered by his brother-in-law Hantili. Decades of royal murders followed, the Hurrians seized Aleppo and the south-eastern coast, and the Hittite realm shrank back towards central Anatolia.

3. 1525 BCE
   Telipinu's reign closes the Old Kingdom after years of internal strife

   By the time Telipinu took the throne (c. 1525 BCE), murders and coups had shaken the royal family, and the kingdom had lost its conquests to Arzawa in the west, Mitanni in the east, the Kaska in the north and Kizzuwatna in the south. Telipinu won back some ground by allying with Kizzuwatna. He is best known for the Edict of Telipinu, which set out who should inherit the throne (first-rank sons, then lesser sons, then the husband of a first-rank daughter) to end the bloodshed. After him the Hittites entered a poorly recorded 'Middle Kingdom' of about seventy years.

4. 1350 BCE
   Suppiluliuma I takes Aleppo and overruns Mitanni's capital Washukanni

   After a long period of weakness and invasion, the Hittites recovered under Suppiluliuma I (c. 1350–1322 BCE), a successful general who seized the throne after supporters murdered the young heir Tudhaliya. His great rival was Mitanni, the Hurrian kingdom of northern Mesopotamia. In the so-called One-Year War he overran Mitanni's vassals, captured and plundered its capital Washukanni, and crossed into Syria, taking Aleppo, Alalakh, Qatna and other small kingdoms, while Ugarit became his ally. Mitanni was broken, and the map's Hittite realm now spread from Anatolia deep into northern Syria.

5. 1323 BCE
   Carchemish captured; Egypt's widowed queen asks him for a son to wed

   The last Mitannian stronghold west of the Euphrates was Carchemish. While besieging it, Suppiluliuma received an astonishing letter from Egypt's widowed queen, most likely Tutankhamun's widow Ankhesenamun: she had no son and asked for one of his sons to marry, so that he would become king of Egypt. After some hesitation he sent his son Zannanza, who was killed on the way. Carchemish fell, and Suppiluliuma made his sons viceroys at Carchemish and Aleppo to rule Hittite Syria. Blaming Egypt for Zannanza's death, he attacked Egyptian territory, opening a long period of hostility.

6. 1322 BCE
   Suppiluliuma I dies of a plague that ravages Hatti for two decades

   Suppiluliuma's revenge raids into Egyptian territory brought back prisoners of war, and according to the 'Plague Prayers' of his son Mursili II, those prisoners carried an epidemic into Hatti. People went on dying for at least two decades; some historians suggest the disease was tularaemia. It is often considered the cause of Suppiluliuma's death c. 1322 BCE and of his eldest son and successor, Arnuwanda II, soon afterwards. Mursili II inherited a strong position in Syria but a stricken homeland, and blamed the gods' anger on his father's broken oaths.

7. 1274 BCE
   Muwatalli II fights Ramesses II at Kadesh

   Egypt's new 19th Dynasty wanted to win back Syria, and Ramesses II invaded Amurru, a borderland both powers claimed. In May 1274 BCE (by the usual chronology), the Hittite king Muwatalli II ambushed the Egyptian army near Kadesh on the Orontes, after sending spies to mislead Ramesses. Some 5,000–6,000 chariots may have taken part, probably the largest chariot battle ever fought. Ramesses rallied his troops and reinforcements drove off the Hittites, but the battle ended in stalemate. Ramesses withdrew, while Muwatalli went on to seize the Egyptian province of Upi around Damascus, keeping Syria Hittite.

8. 1259 BCE
   Hattusili III and Ramesses II make a peace treaty

   After Muwatalli's death, his son Urhi-Teshub (Mursili III) was overthrown by his uncle Hattusili III, who wanted foreign recognition, while Assyria was seizing the former lands of Mitanni and threatening both empires. Around 1259 BCE, in Ramesses II's 21st year, the two powers agreed the 'Eternal Treaty', the oldest known surviving peace treaty, preserved in both an Egyptian version and Akkadian tablets from Hattusa. Each side promised not to invade the other, to help against attackers or rebels, and to return political refugees. A Hittite princess later married Ramesses, and the Syrian frontier stayed fixed.

9. 1207 BCE
   Suppiluliuma II, the last known Great King, comes to the throne

   Hattusili's son Tudhaliya IV lost ground to Assyria, which defeated him at Nihriya, though he briefly took Cyprus. Around 1207 BCE his younger son Suppiluliuma II succeeded his brother Arnuwanda III amid signs of disloyalty at court. He fought to restore control of southern Anatolia, crushing the rebel city of Tarhuntassa, and his fleet won the first recorded naval battle in history off Cyprus. But urgent grain shipments from Egypt point to famine, and enemies were advancing along the coasts from the west. He is the last Great King of Hatti known for certain.

10. 1190 BCE
    Hattusa is gradually abandoned as the empire collapses

    Around 1190 BCE, as the Late Bronze Age collapse swept the eastern Mediterranean, the Hittite capital came to an end. Excavations suggest Hattusa was gradually abandoned over several decades, possibly amid regional drought; the court may have moved elsewhere, and fire destroyed what remained only after the elites had left. Suppiluliuma II's fate is unknown, and no Hittite king ever returned. The empire vanished as a state and disappears from the map. Only an offshoot survived at Carchemish, whose ruler Kuzi-Teshub, a descendant of Suppiluliuma I, later claimed the title 'Great King'.

11. 1185 BCE
    Ugarit, a Hittite vassal on the Syrian coast, is destroyed

    Ugarit, a wealthy port on the Syrian coast, had been a Hittite vassal since the days of Suppiluliuma I, trading with Egypt, Cyprus and the Aegean and shipping grain around the region. Its last king, Ammurapi, sent his troops to help the Hittites and his ships to Lukka in Anatolia, leaving his own kingdom exposed. In a famous letter he described enemy ships arriving and his cities burned. Around 1185 BCE Ugarit was destroyed, one of many cities lost in the Late Bronze Age collapse, and with it the Hittites lost their last great ally on the Mediterranean coast.

Periods and reigns

• Hattusili I 1650–1620 BCE
• Mursili I 1620–1590 BCE
• Hantili I 1590–1560 BCE
• Telipinu 1560–1500 BCE
• Suppiluliuma I 1350–1322 BCE
• Arnuwanda II 1322–1321 BCE
• Mursili II 1321–1295 BCE
• Muwatalli II 1295–1272 BCE
• Mursili III (Urhi-Teshub) 1272–1267 BCE
• Hattusili III 1267–1237 BCE
• Tudhaliya IV 1237–1209 BCE
• Arnuwanda III 1209–1207 BCE
• Suppiluliuma II 1207–1180 BCE

Rulers

• Hattusili I c. 1650 – 1620 BCE

  Founder of the Old Kingdom at Hattusa

• Mursili I c. 1620 – 1590 BCE

  Sacked Babylon in 1595 BCE

• Suppiluliuma I c. 1350 – 1322 BCE

  Destroyed the Mitanni and took Syria

• Muwatalli II c. 1295 – 1272 BCE

  Fought Ramesses II at Kadesh

• Hattusili III c. 1267 – 1237 BCE

  Signed the peace treaty with Egypt

• Suppiluliuma II c. 1207 – 1178 BCE

  Last known Hittite king

Realms on the map

• Hittites 1600–1180 BCE
• Neo-Hittite states 1150–801 BCE

Chapters

• The world in 1500 BCE: Chariots and Empires
• The world in 1000 BCE: Out of the Collapse