The Babylonian World - Historia Antigua

— Trevor Bryce —
in the region would not extend into Babylonian territory. Kings do not attack the
lands of their fathers-in-law! Suppiluliuma clearly realised the importance of anticipating,
and eliminating by diplomatic means, any prospect of a Babylonian alliance
with Tushratta. Such an alliance might well have eventuated if Burnaburiash had
concerns about Hittite aggression against his own kingdom. Conversely, Burnaburiash
may have seen his marriage alliance with Suppiluliuma as providing some assurance
of Hittite military support in the event of a Mitannian attack on his own kingdom.
Marriage links between ruling dynasties almost certainly indicated the existence of
political and/or military agreements between the kingdoms ruled by these dynasties.
Like royal offspring throughout the Near Eastern Bronze Age, and indeed in many
ages throughout history, the Babylonian princess was a tool of international diplomacy.
Yet unlike the foreign princesses who faded into obscurity in Egypt, this princess
who assumed the prestigious and time-honoured title Tawananna as a personal name
quickly became one of the most powerful figures in the royal court, and the kingdom
of Hatti at large. She was a worthy Bronze Age counterpart to Augustus’ Livia – if
we can so judge from what her stepson Mursili says about her. Mursili was the second
youngest of Suppiluliuma’s sons from the marriage of the king’s first wife Henti,
now banished. On the basis of his reports about Tawananna, we might well say that
if Suppiluliuma ruled the Hittite world, Tawananna ruled Suppiluliuma. Her high
profile on the international scene already very early in her marriage is indicated by
the appearance of her name next to her husband’s on the document formalising
Suppiluliuma’s alliance with the Ugaritic king Niqmaddu. And in Suppiluliuma’s
later years, her influence and power in the kingdom’s internal affairs became ever
greater, no doubt due in part to her husband’s constant absences from the homeland
on military campaigns.
Mursili complains of her domineering behaviour and extravagance, and her
introduction of undesirable foreign customs into the Hittite kingdom (see Bryce
2005: 207–10). Whether he or his elder brother, the crown prince Arnuwanda, ever
expressed concerns to their father about her conduct remains unknown. But if they
did, Suppiluliuma may have been too preoccupied with military affairs, or too much
under his Babylonian wife’s influence, to pay much attention. And after her husband’s
death of plague, c.1322, Tawananna continued as reigning queen, in accordance with
Hittite tradition whereby a king’s chief wife retained her position throughout her
life, even if her husband predeceased her. Her alleged abuse of power continued,
according to Mursili. She allegedly stripped the palace of its treasures to lavish on
her favourites, or to bribe those whose support she sought. And her office as chief
priestess of the realm with its powers of allocating sacrifices, votive offerings, perhaps
even temple lands, allowed her to control and exploit in her own interests assets of
the state cult.
Mursili and his brother Arnuwanda, whom Mursili succeeded (as Mursili II) when
he died after a very brief reign, were apparently powerless, or at least unwilling, to
stop her. As Mursili informs us in one of his prayers:
But when my father became a god, Arnuwanda, my brother, and I did no harm
to Tawananna, nor in any way humiliated her. As she governed the house of the
king and the Land of Hatti in the lifetime of my father, likewise in the lifetime
of my brother she governed them. And when my brother became a god, I did
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