Ancient Warfare Magazine Vol. IX.3 - Powerful Rulers of Anatolia

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Ancient warfare magazine vol ix.3 - powerful rulers of anatolia: the hittites and their successors



Topic: Arianna Sacco, the Hittites and their successors: historical introduction



Anatolia juts out from Asia and forms an important gateway to Europe. It is essentially a large peninsula, bordered by Syria to the south, Mesopotamia to the east and the Aegean to the west. Over time, it has been home to a remarkable number of distinct peoples, speaking a wide variety of different languages. In the second millennium BC, a powerful kingdom emerged from the shoulders of its leaders, who rubbed shoulders with powerful rulers from other parts of the Near East: the kingdom of the Hittite Empire.



The source: Sean Manning, reading a Hittite clay tablet: The government of the Hittite guard



Organizers of parades, reviews, and ceremonial guards must deal with the tension between human frailty and the desire for security and order. The Hittites were no exception. Sometime in the mid-2nd millennium BC, an anonymous official proclaimed how one such conflict was to be resolved (tr. Jared L. Miller): However, if someone is concerned about the insides, then one comrade says it to another comrade, so that this also reaches the head of the personal guard (like this): 'Can you go and urinate?' then the head of the guard will say: 'You may go.' Any bodyguard who goes to urinate (without asking),
Although his majesty will take note.



Topic: Konstantin Nossov, Bronze Age Fortification Art - Hittite Defensive Structures



The Hittites were builders of unsurpassed fortifications. The defences of their cities, particularly those of Hattusa, demonstrate the perfect development of the art of fortification in the Near East in the Bronze Age. The formidable defensive structures of the Hittite city encompassed all the achievements of the Near East at the time. Today they lie in ruins, but with the help of archaeology we can attempt to reconstruct them.



Subject: Steven Weingartner, a Mitanni Horse Master - Kikkuli



Sometime between the late 15th and 14th centuries bc, a Mitannian horsemaster named Kikkuli entered Hittite service to train horses for the Hattian chariot. In pursuance of this assignment, he wrote a training manual that laid out a seven-month regimen designed to prepare young horses both physically and psychologically for chariot combat. Preserved primarily on four clay tablets (plus a fragment of a fifth) and written primarily in the Hittite language, the 1,080 lines of cuneiform inscriptions that constitute the so-called "Kikkuli text" exhibit a genius for horse care and conditioning that anticipated the scientific methodologies of modern-day equine behaviorists.



Subject: Sidney E. Dean, The Hittite War Machine, 1700-1200 BC - Bronze Age Superpower



During its roughly 500-year span, the Hittite Kingdom (old and new) repeatedly rose to the rank of regional superpower. Hittite armies sacked Babylon, destroyed the Mittani Empire, occupied northern Syria and Lebanon, and repelled the Egyptian army. At its height, the Hittite Empire stretched from western Anatolia to upper Mesopotamia and the northern Levant. The efficient Hittite war machine made this possible.



Topic: Erich B. Anderson, Rise and Fall of Minor Kingdoms - The Last of the Neo-Hittites



When the last king, Suppiluliuma II, abandoned the royal city of Hattusa in 1185 BC, the Hittite Empire collapsed. However, the land of Hatti did not fade away, but rather changed and transformed into several independent kingdoms and city-states spread throughout southeastern Anatolia and northwestern Syria. With Carchemish, the former provincial capital of a Hittite viceroy, at the center of the region, these Neo-Hittite states prospered for several centuries with very little outside intervention. By the 9th century BC, however, foreign enemies gradually forced the small kingdoms into submission, until the revitalized Assyrian Empire finally completely eradicated their sovereignty and turned the entire region into several imperial provinces.



Topic: Robert Holmes, A Greek Tradition of Anatolian Invention - The Armorers of Caria



While the hoplite panoply is a hallmark of the ancient Greek soldier, a Greek tradition dating back to before the time of Herodotus credits the Carians, a non-Greek people of Anatolia, with the invention of several of the panoply's key features. Although several ancient sources attest to this tradition, archaeological evidence is virtually nonexistent.



Special: Marc G. Desantis, Octavian's disastrous first expedition to Sicily - against Pompey



In 40 BC, Rome was groaning under the pressure of endless war, famine and economic upheaval. Although the civil war between Julius Caesar and the Senate had been over for some time, with Caesarian forces victorious, there was still much fighting and misery throughout the empire. Octavian, as heir to the now deified Caesar, had assumed the mantle of fallen dictator in his own bid for supreme power after the assassination of his great-uncle in 44 BC. Marcus Antonius, Caesar’s brave and trusted officer during his campaigns in Gaul and the civil war, was also seeking power.



The debate: Duncan B. Campbell, what was the ballista really like? - euthytones & palintones



Even after a century and a half of scholarly research, the names by which the ancients identified the different types of catapult still cause confusion. But no two terms have proven so intractable and spawned as many theories and explanations as “euthytone” and “palintone.” Ancient writers claimed that all two-armed catapults fell into one or the other of these categories. There has always been consensus on the design of the euthytone arrow launcher, but over the years, scholars have disagreed on the design of the palintone, its projecting stone counterpart, known to the Romans as a ballista. So will we ever be able to say precisely what the ancient ballista really looked like?



Hollywood novels: David L. Reinke, the eternal queen - Cleopatra



Despite not being very historically significant, Cleopatra has always been popular with modern audiences, a fact that would please her no end. Recent years have seen the publication of new biographies about the Ptolemaic queen and the publication of several historical fiction books, including a well-received young adult novel by Vicky Alvear Schecter about Cleopatra’s daughter. Hollywood has not been sitting on its hands either, with new feature films in the works.

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