Šuppiluliuma I built a Hittite empire, then a plague followed his captives home
A widowed Egyptian queen asked a Hittite king for a son to marry and make pharaoh. Šuppiluliuma I agreed, but prince Zannanza never arrived. The killing set off years of Egyptian hostility, and the captives Hittite armies brought back carried a plague that struck their homeland for at least two decades.
His origins are murky. Scholars once believed his father was Ḫattušili II, but seal impressions naming him as a son of Tudḫaliya III changed most minds. Before becoming king he served as that ruler's adviser and top general, fighting the Kaška in the north and the Arzawa confederacy in the southwest, where he retook the city of Tuwanuwa, probably Tyana. Much of the kingdom's recovery was credited to him, although settling the west took around 20 years.
The throne should have gone to Tudḫaliya the Younger, to whom Šuppiluliuma had sworn loyalty. Instead that heir was murdered along with several brothers by Šuppiluliuma's supporters, and Šuppiluliuma ruled from about 1350 BC. He used marriages as statecraft: a daughter wed the king of Mira-Kuwaliya, his sister married Huqqana of Azzi-Ḫayaša under a treaty full of morality clauses, and his last queen was a Babylonian princess. His first wife, Ḫenti, may have been banished to Aḫḫiyawa.
Against the rival kingdom of Mittani, a first strike failed, and its king Tušratta boasted of victory to Amenhotep III of Egypt. The later One-Year War went differently: Hittite forces sacked the Mittanian capital Waššukanni, then crossed the Euphrates to take Aleppo, Qatna and other Syrian kingdoms, drew wealthy Ugarit into alliance, and captured the king of Kadesh. Mittani became effectively a Hittite dependency, and his sons Telipinu and Piyaššili ruled as viceroys at Aleppo and Carchemish.
The Zannanza Affair, possibly involving the widow Ankhesenamun, soured this success. Šuppiluliuma died around 1322 BC. His son and second successor Muršili II, author of the Deeds of Šuppiluliuma, blamed the plague on his father's ruthlessness.
Source: Šuppiluliuma I
