Foreign Relations: Changing Relations with Foreign Powers: Mitanni, Hittites

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

Early 18th Dynasty

• Mitanni were the strongest power in the north, often forming alliances with the towns of Syria, such as Kadesh
• Amenhotep II: sought peace with the Mitanni upon recognising the futility of trying to dominate northern Syria
• Amenhotep III: began a policy of diplomatic marriage with Mitanni princesses to Egyptian kings, allowing Egypt foreign trade free of the burden of constant warfare

Question 2

Amenhotep III

Answer 2

• Continued the diplomatic policy established by his predecessors
• Maintained the balance of power in the Near East by applying the policy of dynastic marriage to other important powers (Babylon, Syria, Arzawa, Mitanni)
• Maintained friendly relations with other powers, especially the Hittites

Question 3

Hittite expansion (Suppiluliumas)

Answer 3

• Suppiluliumas succeeded to the Hittite throne towards the end of Amenhotep III’s reign, marking the beginning of a period of aggressive Hittite expansion
• Overpowered the Mitanni kingdom and moved into north Syria, conquering the former allies of Mitanni → Rib-addi of Byblos wrote to Akhenaten and said: “the Hittite king has taken over all the countries affiliated with the king of Mitanni”
• Threatened Egypt’s interests by trying to detach the vassal princes from their Egyptian overlord
• When Akhenaten became pharaoh, Suppiluliumas wrote to him congratulating him. Though he avoided direct military attack on Egypt’s vassals in Syria or on the Phonecian coast, he prepared to attack Mitanni and aimed to win over Egypt’s vassals by diplomacy or warfare
• during Akhenaten’s reign: the Hittites invaded Syria, capturing most of it. The King of Cyprus wrote to Egypt warning Akhenaten of his friendship with the Hittites: “…do not bind yourself to the King of Hatti!” (Amarna Letter 35)

Question 4

Akhenaten’s Hittite War (First Syrian War?)

Answer 4

talatat recovered from the 2nd and 9th pylons of Karnak temple: Akhenaten fought a war against the Hittites between years 1 and 4

• scenes record sieges against a Hittite city and a Syro-Palestinian city
• Egyptian forces attack a fortified city with Hittite soldiers within
• Akhenaten rides in an army procession and kills prisoners, with the rays of the Aten shining down on him

Historiographical Issue

• Donald Redford argues that “Akhenaten refused to apply himself to the necessary organisation required to send forth an expeditionary force” and that “his hesitancy and lack of foresight…on his northern frontier…lost him the initiative”
• however, evidence of the Hittite war and the diplomatic correspondence of the vassals shows that Akhenaten did at least try to limit the damage that Hittite aggression was causing on Egypt’s northern frontier
• Akhenaten kept an eye on developments: some requests for military and other assistance were granted, some refused/ignored
• the cold war between Egypt and the Hittites indicates “not the indecision of a pacifist Akhenaten but entirely reasonable caution on both sides” (William Murnane)

Question 5

Post-Amarna period

Answer 5

Tutankhamun

• towards the end of Tutankhamun’s reign, Hittite sources recorded a victory against an alliance of Egyptian and Assyrian forces at Kadesh.
• the Hittites followed up the victory with a raid into the territory of the Amki (territory under the direct control of Egypt, at the headwaters of the Orontes River). A number of Egyptians were taken captive

Horemheb

• the campaigns of Tutankhamun’s reign were probably organised and led by Horemheb (army commander)
• Memphis tomb depicts a number of victorious campaigns in Syria-Palestine when he was still a general
• “he [Horemheb] was the guardian of the footsteps of the lord on the battlefield, on this day of smiting Asiatics” (Memphis tomb)
• Hittite records indicate that in about year 10 of Horemheb’s reign, attempts were made to regain Kadesh and Amurru, but without success