Muršili II
Mursili II (also spelled Mursilis II) was a king of the
King of the Hittites
Mursili was the third born son of King
Mursili assumed the Hittite throne after the premature death of Arnuwanda II who, like their father, fell victim to the plague which ravaged the Hittites in the 1330s BC. 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 Arzawa kingdom in southwest Asia Minor and the Hayasa-Azzi confederation in the Armenian Highlands. This was because he was perceived to be an inexperienced ruler who only became king due to the early death of Arnuwanda. Mursili records the scorn of his foes in his Annals:
You are a child; you know nothing and instill no fear in me. Your land is now in ruins, and your infantry and chariotry are few. Against your infantry, 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)[3]
While Mursili 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] Had he been 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 (i.e.: Sarri-Kush) and Aleppo respectively.[3]
Mursili II would prove to be more than a match for his successful father, 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. During his ninth year his cupbearer Nuvanza decisively defeated Hayasan forces at the Battle of Ganuvara, after which the Hayasa-Azzi would be reduced to Hittite vassals. 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 Hayasa-Azzi.
While Mursili II's highest confirmed date was his twenty-second year,[4] 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 his son Muwatalli II.
The eclipse
Mursili's Year 10 solar eclipse is of great importance for the dating of the Hittite Empire within the
Family
Mursili is known to have had several children with his first wife
Through his son Muwatalli he had a grandson who also ruled the kingdom,
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References:
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Notes:
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See also
- History of the Hittites
In fiction
- Janet Morris wrote a detailed biographical novel, I, the Sun, whose subject was Suppiluliuma I. Mursili II is an important figure in this novel, in which all characters are from the historical record, which Dr. Jerry Pournelle called "a masterpiece of historical fiction" and about which O.M. Gurney, Hittite scholar and author of The Hittites,[7] commented that "the author is familiar with every aspect of Hittite culture".[8] Morris' book was republished by The Perseid Press in April 2013.
- Chie Shinohara wrote the manga series Red River (also known as Anatolia Story), about a fifteen-year-old Japanese girl named Yuri Suzuki, who is magically transported to Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia. She was summoned by Queen Nakia who means to use Yuri as a human sacrifice. Yuri's blood is the key element needed in placing a curse upon the princes of the land so that they will perish, leaving Nakia's son Juda as the sole heir to the throne. As the story progresses, however, Yuri not only repeatedly manages to escape Nakia's scheming, she also becomes revered as an incarnation of the goddess Ishtar and falls in love with prince Kail. Mursili II is portrayed as Prince Kail Mursili. In the end, Yuri decides to stay in the past, and after Juda renounces his claim out of disgust towards his mother, Kail and Yuri ascend as the rulers of Hattusa.
- Mursili II is a major figure in all three books of the Amarna Trilogy by Grea Alexander. In the series, Mursili becomes obsessed with appeasing the gods and regaining their favor after his father's betrayal of the Telepenus's Proclamation and the disasters that befall the Hittites following the so-called Zannanza affair.
- Mursili II is an important presence in Gordon Doherty's novel, Empires of Bronze: Son of Ishtar (2019), whose protagonist is Mursili's third son, Hattusilis III.
References
- ISBN 978-1-136-75548-4.
- ^ Bryce 1999, p. xiii.
- ^ which?], p.208
- ^ Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites: New Edition (2005), p. 215 (two references to Mursili II's "twenty-second year").
- ^ "Total and Annular Solar Eclipse Paths: -1319 – -1300 (1320 BCE–1301 BCE)". Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum. NASA. Archived from the original on January 18, 2006. Retrieved March 29, 2006.
- S2CID 220269600.
- ^ Gurney, O.M. (1952). The Hittites. Penguin.
- ^ Morris, Janet (1983). I, the Sun. Dell.
Sources
- ISBN 91-7081-072-9.
- ISBN 978-0-19-924010-4.
- Bryce, Trevor (2004). Life and society in the Hittite world. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924170-8.
External links
- "Late Empire: Part I". Hittites.info. June 24, 2000. Archived from the original on July 29, 2013.