Mursili I
Mursili I | |
---|---|
Title | King of the Hittites |
Successor | Hantili I |
Spouse | Kali[1][2] |
Parent | Ḫaštayara |
Relatives | Ḫarapšili (sister) |
Mursili I (also known as Mursilis; sometimes transcribed as Murshili) was a king of the
Accession
Mursili came to the throne as a minor. Having reached adulthood, he renewed
Conquest of Yamhad (Aleppo)
He conquered the kingdom of
Thera eruption decreased the Hittites' harvests.[7]
Sack of Babylon
The raid on Babylon could not have been intended to exercise sovereignty over the region; it was simply too far from
Amorite dynasty of Hammurabi and allowed the Kassites to take power, and so might have arisen from an alliance with the Kassites or an attempt to curry favor with them.[8] It might also be that Mursili undertook the long-distance attack for personal motives, namely as a way to outdo the military exploits of his predecessor, Hattusili I.[9]
Assassination
When Mursili returned to his kingdom, he was assassinated in a conspiracy led by his brother-in-law, Hantili I (who took the throne), and Hantili's son-in-law, Zidanta I.[10] His death inaugurated a period of social unrest and decay of central rule, followed by the loss of the conquests made in Syria.
In popular culture
Mursili I is a playable leader (as the
Latinized form "Mursilis") of the Hittite state in the 2001 video game Civilization III
.
See also
- History of the Hittites
References
- ^ Gojko Barjamović, A Historical Geography of Anatolia in the Old Assyrian Colony Period.
- ^ Yoram Cohen, Amir Gilan and Jared L. Miller, Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and Their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer.
- ^ Manning, Sturt W., et al. (2016). "Integrated Tree-Ring-Radiocarbon High-Resolution Timeframe to Resolve Earlier Second Millennium BCE Mesopotamian Chronology", in PLOS ONE, Published: July 13, 2016.
- ^ Shoshana R. Bin-Nun, The Tawananna in the Hittite kingdom. Online version.
- ^ Margalit Finkelberg, Greeks And Pre-Greeks: Aegean Prehistory And Greek Heroic Tradition.
- ISBN 978-0-19-928132-9.
- ^ Broad, William J. "It Swallowed a Civilization. " New York Times, D1. 21 October 2003.
- ^ Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites, 99.
- ^ Bryce, "The Kingdom of the Hittites," 99–100.
- ^ The Hittites and their World
- Reign of Mursili I
- Trevor Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites, Oxford: University Press (1998)