Suppiluliuma II
Hittite · scion · late bronze age · Recorded classification
Last certain Great King of the Hittite New Kingdom (r. 1207-c. 1178 BCE). Scion-tier under the Hittite divine-kingship convention — kings are titled dUTU-ŠI ("My Sun") and are the Sun-goddess of Arinna's representative on earth, with the Sun-goddess running before them in battle; the divine-line claim runs through the deified-king-ancestor chain back to Hattusili I and the Hattic dynastic foundation. Defeated a Cypriot fleet in 1210 BCE — the first recorded naval battle in human history. His reign witnessed the unraveling of the Hittite Empire amid Sea Peoples invasions, late-13th-century famine, and the abandonment of the imperial capital Hattusa c. 1190-1178 BCE. Final fate unknown; alive at c. 1172 BCE is plausible but uncertain.
Parentage
- father: Tudhaliya IVHittite royal genealogies (primary)
Powers
- Becomes a god upon death (posthumous deification)
Epithets
- dUTU-ŠI My Sun (royal title of the Hittite Great King)Südburg hieroglyphic inscription; Hittite royal titulary (primary)
Relations
- father: Tudhaliya IVHittite royal genealogies (primary)
- sibling: Arnuwanda IIIHittite oath-tablets (primary)
- enemy: Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria (Middle Assyrian, contemporary) · MesopotamianKBo 28.61-64 (letter from Tukulti-Ninurta to Suppiluliuma II) (primary)
- ally: Talmi-Teššub (vassal king of Carchemish; Hittite royal house member) · HittiteHittite-Carchemish treaty fragments (primary)
- overlord of: Ammurapi of Ugarit (last king of Ugarit, c. 1215-1180 BCE; vassal under Suppiluliuma II) · LevantineRS 34.129 ("Great King" letter) (primary)
Sources
- existence: Hittite Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions (Nişantepe, Chamber 2 at East Pond); Hattusa archives; KBo 28.61-64 (Tukulti-Ninurta correspondence); Ugarit-Hatti correspondence (primary)
- parentage: Hittite royal genealogies (primary)
- fate: Cessation of Hittite imperial records; Hattusa abandonment archaeology (primary)