Hatti at War
In Hatti, an empire faced by threats on all fronts, life and history were dominated by warfare to an extent unknown in most other ancient Near Eastern empires. Because of this, war was seen by the Hittites as a normal part of the human c…
Hatti at War
In Hatti, an empire faced by threats on all fronts, life and history were dominated by warfare to an extent unknown in most other ancient Near Eastern empires. Because of this, war was seen by the Hittites as a normal part of the human condition, and the army was second only to the Great King as an institution in the Hittite empire. The army had a
complex command structure, headed by the king and staffed by a professional and experienced officer corps. The core of the army was the royal guard: professional, full-time soldiers recruited from among ethnic Hittites. They were supplemented on campaign by provincial levies and vassal troops. All Hittite troops swore oaths of loyalty to the Great
King. The main combat branches were the chariotry and infantry, organized into units on the decimal principle. The Hittite army also had sophisticated siege warfare capability and an excellent intelligence service.
The Climax and Collapse of Hatti
The apogee of Hittite imperial power came during the last half of the 2nd millennium B.C., in the period known as the Hittite New Kingdom. One of the Club of the Great Powers that dominated the Near East during that time, Hatti jockeyed with Egypt and Mitanni for control of northern Syria and the region between the upper Tigris and
Euphrates Mesopotamia. Hatti dominated but did not control all of Anatolia and had to deal with constant challenges to its authority in western Anatolia as well as dangerous attacks from the Gasga hill tribes that lived to the north of Hattusas. The cycle of rise and decline continued, often due to attacks by these enemies. Hatti reached the pinnacle
of its imperial power under Suppiluliumas I in the mid-14th century. But its fortunes declined in the 13th century, and suddenly, at the very end of that century, Hatti disintegrated and vanished from the pages of history.
Robert L. Dise Jr. has taught at the University of Northern Iowa since 1992; prior to joining its faculty, he taught at Clinch Valley College (now the University of Virginia’s College at Wise). He received his B.A. in History from the University of Virginia (at Charlottesville), concentrating on the history of the ancient world, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, specializing in the history of Rome.
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