• Titles Tabarna, Great King (See Easton (1981) 38, 41).

• Queen Šummiri, wife. See Hittite Offerings Lists section D

Changing Landscape in the South

In 1458, in the 22nd year of his official reign, Thutmose III of Egypt (1479-1425) began the sole rule of his reign, no longer having to deal with Hatšepsut, the dowager queen and co-regent of Egypt, who had been the real power on the throne up until that time. Thutmose appears to have spent most of that co-regency with the army, and the beginning of his sole rule would fundamentally alter Egypt’s role in the Near East.

Thutmose’s grandfather, Thutmose I, had conducted previously unparalled military campaigns as far north as the land of Mittanni. But he accomplished little more than the plundering of distant Syrian territories and the establishment of Egyptian claims in this region. His son, Thutmose II, had a short reign of perhaps eight years and restricted his activities to Palestine. Thutmose II’s wife, Hatšepsut, did not seem to take a great interest in Syria. So it was that after the death of Thutmose I Syria more or less slipped away from the Egyptians, and it is surely no coincidence that this was also the greatest period of Mitannian expansion into Syria. Also during this period the cities of Kadesh, under a king named Duruša, and Tunip appear to have become dominant regional powers in Syria, perhaps under Mittannian aegis (this seems certain for Tunip, at any rate). Kadesh even controlled territory as far south as the Palestinian city of Megiddo. So when Thutmose III came into his own, the Syrian vassals either rebelled, or had already freed themselves from the Egyptian yoke.

Thutmose decided to reassert Egyptian authority in Syria, and he began the process right from the very beginning of his sole rule. His first target was the powerful coalition created by Duruša of Kadesh. Duruša had made the city of Megiddo his headquarters for his stand against the Egyptian invasion, and this was where he concentrated his army. Thutmose marched out of Egypt and engaged the enemy before the city and drove them back behind the walls. It took a seven month seige for Thutmose to force the city to surrender to him. At the seige’s successful conclusion, he claimed to have secured the allegiance of 119 towns and cities, although this number seems to include towns taken by the pharaoh and his army in sub-campaigns during the course of the seige. The important city of Damascus, located in the district of Apa, was among the list, although Kadesh itself managed to avoid being taken by the Egptians at this time.

Thutmose’s second, third, and fourth campaigns seem to have been little more than shows of strength in his conquered territories in an attempt to put down what fighting spirit remained in Palestine. In his twenty-fourth regnal year - during the second campaign - a sign of Hurrian weakness was revealed by the fact that Thutmose received a large lump of lapis lazuli as a gift from the king of Assyria.

It was not until his twenty-nineth year that Thutmose campaigned in Syria again. For this campaign, he constructed a fleet which could quickly carry his troops directly to Syria by sailing along the Palestinian coast rather than by marching overland through Palestine. The fleet landed on the coastal plains before Mt. Lebanon and captured the port city Ullaza (just north of modern Tripoli), which up until that time had belonged to the territory of Tunip, a Mitannian vassal. On his homeward journey the pharaoh moved inland from Ullaza and captured the city Ardata.

The capture of Ullaza was an important victory for the furthering of Thutmose’s Syrian ambitions. It gave him a port to which he could bring his troops over water, and it also gave him easy access to inland Syria, especially to the troublesome and still independent Kadesh. Not one for hesitation, Thutmose followed up his advantage the very next year by marching on Kadesh. Unfortunately, his Syrian possessions were anything but secure. Kadesh’s territory was plundered, but the city remained uncaptured, and when Thutmose returned, he had to pacify Ardata again. In spite of these setbacks, Thutmose successfully added a new conquest to his territory, that of Ṣumur, another important port city located north of Ullaza. This city, like Ullaza, would come to play an important role in Egypt’s Syrian empire.

Thutmose spent the next two years preparing for a major offensive against the Mitannian king himself. A battle was inevitable. The Mitannian ruler could hardly continue to let the Egyptian pharaoh crush his vassals with impunity. In the meantime Tunip attempted to recapture Ullaza from the Egyptians by instigating a revolt there, and Thutmose had to put down that rebellion in his thirty-first year.

His eigth campaign, in his thirty-third regnal year, was the crowning achievement of his Syrian campaigns. Probably sailing his troops to Ullazu, he then struck inland across the Lebanese mountains and the Orontes river and into the territory of Qatna. From here he turned and marched northwards. His hope was to encounter the Mitannian king, but the Mitannian king apparently did not feel up to the challenge, and he fled before the oncoming pharaoh, abandoning his territories to their fate. Thutmose engaged the enemy west of Halap, and then continued north and fought the enemy again in the land of Kargamiš. At some point in this journey, he cut down some of the cedars of Lebanon in order to make boats to be used in a crossing of the Euphrates, into Naharin, the Egyptian name for the Mitannian homeland. The ships were placed on cattle drawn carts and brought to the Euphrates somewhere near Kargamiš. When Thutmose reached the Euphrates, he found the stela of his grandfather, Thutmose I, and set up a stela of his own next to it. He then crossed over the Euphrates, into Mittanni proper, and turned southwards, plundering the towns he came across while the defending armies fled before him.

Thutmose probably crossed back over to the west side of the Euphrates somewhere near Emar, and then struck out across the desert towards the coast. When he entered the land of Niya, which either now or earlier when he marched north fell into Egyptian hands, he took great pride in his feats of hunting, wherein he took 120 elephants. After this he turned south, and marched against the still defiant city of Kadesh. Finally, Thutmose’s army would prove too much for this Syrian kingdom, and after a siege the city fell into Egyptian hands.

This campaign was a great victory for Thutmose. The kings of Babylonia, Assyria, and Hatti all sent gifts to him in recognition of his accomplishment. Huzziya II may have been the Hittite king who sent the Hittite gifts, although this is uncertain. The fact that the Mittannian ruler did not send gifts is hardly surprising, but at least indicates that he was not prepared to accept his losses and seek out peaceful co-existance. After this campaign Thutmose seems to have attempted to establish some sort of permanent Egyptian authority in Syria. He bragged about his eighth campaign conquests that,

“Every year there is hewed [for me in Dja]hi genuine cedar of Lebanon, which is brought to the Court - life, prosperity, health! Timber comes to Egypt for me, advancing ... New [wood] of Negau [is brought], the choicest of God's Land ..., to reach the Residence City, without passing over the seasons thereof, each and every year. When my army which is in garrison in Ullaza comes, [they bring the tribute], which is the cedar of the victories of my majesty, through the plans of my father [(the god) Amon-Re], who entrusted to me all foreign countries. I have not given (any) of it to the Asiatics, (for) it is a wood which he loves.” (ANET 240)

Mitanni and the campaigns of Thutmose III of Egypt. This map shows the extent of territory Thutmose took from Mitanni. His actual campaigns took him as far north as Kargamiš and across to the eastern side of the Euphrates River.

Whatever Thutmose’s ambitions may have been, the Syrian states weren’t so enthusiastic about Egyptian suzreignity. Thutmose was back in his nineth campaign in order to suppress the land of Nuhašši. Thutmose installed prince Taku on the Nuhaššian throne. In his thirty-fifth year, Thutmose engaged a Mitannian army at Ara'na, northwest of Halap, and sent them fleeing towards Naharin. His campaigns for the next two years are lost, but in his thirty-eigth year he was back campaigning in Nuhašši. This victory resulted in Alalah sending gifts to the pharaoh for the first time. Little information is available for the next few years, but information about his seventeenth and final campaign, in his forty-second year, has been preserved. In this year Thutmose captured the city of Irqata, located between Ṣumur and Ardata. Ṣumur, Ullaza, Ardata, and Irqata would all come to play an important role in the conflict between Egypt and Hatti several generations later. Having captured Irqata, Thutmose then turned inland and captured the proud city of Tunip. On his return march, he encountered Mitannian garrisons in three of Kadesh’s cities and duly took them prisoner.

This campaign seems to have stablized the situation in Syria, and for the last twelve years of his reign the old pharaoh did no campaigning. Egypt’s Asiatic empire had been established in all its essentials, reaching as far north as Nuhašši and perhaps some territory around Halap.

The Death of Huzziya

Huzziya II was killed by Muwattalli I.

Here we have possibly the first complete break with the ancient royal blood line. Without evidence, we cannot say one way or the other.

Foreign Relations

Kizzuwatna: Contemporary with Talzu of Kizzuwatna (A king before Šunaššura. See Beal (1986) 432.).