Mursili II

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Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire (New kingdom) from ca. 1322 BCE to ca. 1295 BCE^[1]. He was the younger son of Suppiluliuma I, one of the most powerful rulers of the Hittite Empire. RH Beal believes that before his accession, his name was written in Luwian hieroglyphic seals with the combined Sumerian and Akkadian glyphs, GAL-MEŠEDI (NABU 2001/4); which elsewhere is understood as the title, "chief of the bodyguards".

This prince assumed the throne after the premature death of his elder brother Arnuwanda II who, like their father, fell victim to the plague which ravaged the Hatti in the 1320s BCE. He took the name "Mursili" afterward. He was greeted with contempt by Hatti's enemies and faced numerous rebellions early in his reign, the most serious of which were those initiated by the Kaskas in the mountains of Anatolia, but also by the kingdom Arzawa in southwest Turkey because he was perceived to be an inexperienced ruler who only became king due to the early death of Arnuwanda II. Mursili II records the scorn of his foes in his this Annal document:

You are a child; you know nothing and instill no fear in me. Your land is now in ruins, and your infantry amd chariotry are few. Against your infantrty, I have many infantry; against your chariotry I have many chariotry. Your father had many infantry and chariotry. But you who are a child, how can you match him? (Comprehensive Annals, AM 18-21)^[2]

While Mursili II was a young and inexperienced king, he was almost certainly not a child when he took the Hittite throne and must have reached an age to be capable of ruling in his own right.^[3] If he was indeed a child, other arrangements would have been made to secure the stability of the Empire; Mursili after all had two surviving elder brothers who served as the viceroys of Carchemish (ie: Sarri-Kush) and Aleppo respectively.^[4] Mursili II would prove to be more than a match for his successful father, Suppiluliuma I, in his military deeds and diplomacy. The Annals for the first Ten years of his reign have survived and record that he carried out punitive campaigns against the Kaska tribes in the first two years of his reign in order to secure his kingdom's northern borders. The king then turned to the West to resist the aggression of Uhhaziti, king of Arzawa who was attempting to lure away Hittite allies into his camp. The Annals also reveal that an "omen of the sun," or solar eclipse, occurred in his tenth year as king, just as he was about to launch his campaign against the Kaska peoples. While Mursili II's highest confirmed date was his twenty-second year^[5], he is believed to have lived beyond this date for a few more years and died after a reign of around 25 to 27 years. He was succeeded by Muwatalli.

1 The eclipse
2 Mursili II in fiction
3 References
4 External links

[edit] The eclipse

Main article: Mursili's eclipse

Mursili's Year 10 solar eclipse is of great importance for the absolute dating of the Hittite Empire within the chronology of the Ancient Near East. There are only two possible dates for the eclipse: 13 April 1308 BCE or 24 June 1312 BCE. The 1312 date is accepted by most Hittitologists such as Trevor Bryce (1998), while Paul Astrom (1993) has suggested the 1308 BCE date. Most scholars accept the 1312 BCE event because this eclipse's effects would have been particularly dramatic with a near total eclipse over the Peleponesus region and Anatolia--where Mursili II was campaigning--around Noon. In contrast, the 1308 BCE astronomical event began in Arabia and then travelled eastwards in a northeasterly direction; it only reached its maximum impact over Mongolia and Central Asia. Its effects over Anatolia would have been wholly unremarkable according to various astronomical programs such as Win Ecl and from this NASA chart.[1].

[edit] Mursili II in fiction

A fictionalized version of Mursili II appears in the Japanese manga Red River. He is "Kail Mursili", which according to Beal would be an anachronism - since he is not named "Mursili" in any texts prior to those of his own reign, and was likely named something else. Kail is one of the comic's main protagonists and is portrayed as noble and brave, as well as a sexy playboy.

[edit] References

^ Bryce, Trevor (1998). The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford University Press. p.xiii
^ Bryce, op. cit., p.208
^ Bryce, op. cit., p.208
^ Bryce, op. cit., p.208
^ Bryce, op. cit., p.234

Paul Astrom, 'The Omen of the Sun in the Tenth Year of the Reign of Mursilis II', in Horizons and Styles: Studies in Early Art and Archaeology in Honour of Professor Homer L. Thomas (1993)