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Hittites: Kings
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A major battle between the Hittites under Muwattalis and the Egyptian King Ramses II was fought at Kadesh on the Orontes River c.1286BC with victory going to the Hittites. They were realistic enough to recognize the limits of their power and far-sighted enough to appreciate the value of peace and an alliance with Egypt. Although there was no real victor in this battle, each side claimed to have won.
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One of the racial types among the Hittites wore pigtails. These head adornments appear on figures in certain Cappadocian sculptures and on Hittite warriors in the pictorial records of a north Syrian campaign of Rameses II at Thebes. It is suggestive, therefore, to find that on the stele of Naram-Sin of Akkad, the mountaineers who are conquered by that battle lord wear pig-tails .... Their split robes are unlike the short fringed tunics of the Hittite gods, but resemble the long split mantles worn over their tunics by high dignitaries like King Tarku-dimme, who figures on a famous silver boss of an ancient Hittite dagger. Naram-Sin inherited the Empire of Sargon of Akkad, which extended to the Mediterranean Sea. If his enemies were not natives of Cappadocia, they may have been the congeners of the Hittite pigtailed type in another wooded and mountainous country.
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The Hittites only knew of the deification of deceased kings. The texts say of a dead king: He has become a god. Yet it seems that at the end of the Empire the Oriental custom of deifying the king in his life-time was introduced in Hattuşa. In the large cult room of the shrine at Yazılıkaya Tudhaliya IV had had himself represented as a god standing on a mountain. As this relief was probably carved during his reign, it appears to point to an Oriental conception of apotheosis at this time. It is ... striking that on one of his seals found at Ras Shamra this same king is wearing a sacred cap with horns.
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When the Hittites invaded Mesopotamia, they adapted many of the ways of life of the Babylonians and even the Sumerians, which had been in place for centuries. Specifically, they adopted the religion of the region, worshipping and embracing the gods of Babylonia and Sumeria as their own. One governmental modification they made was to modify the stringent laws that had been put into place by former kings like Hammurabi. The strictness of the legal system was eased, and far fewer deaths resulted from crimes. The king ... became sole owner of all the land in his territory, which was vastly different from empires like the Sumerians, whose king allowed the ownership of private property. Under the Hittites, in order for a person to control (not own) land of any kind, he had to serve in the army of the king.
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Eventually, the Hittites recovered - thanks to the military and administrative geniuses Tudhaliyas III and his chief advisor Suppiluliumas, later king himself. The "Deeds of Suppiluliumas" is the primary source here too (CTH 40). Tudhaliyas destroyed the Arzawan fort Sallapa (which became the Hittites' staging post for future campaigns) and reconquered the Lower Land. He then retook Tuwanuwa. The Arzawan leader Anzapahhadu routed an incursion under the Hittite general Himuili, but succumbed to the next one under Suppiluliumas. (Bryce pp.
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The Hittites remained the leading power north of Egypt until 1590, when the brother-in-law of the Hittite king, Mursilis, assassinated him. More palace intrigues and murderous struggles for power followed -- among Hittite princes, priests, nobles, regents and ambitious widows. It was to be a recurring development at other royal palaces in the world, and for the Hittites it brought what it would often bring other ruling families: decline in power.
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