Arnuwanda II

Arnuwanda was the eldest surviving son of the Hittite great king Šuppiluliuma I and his first wife, Ḫenti, herself apparently the daughter of Tudḫaliya III (sometimes called Tudḫaliya II) and granddaughter of Arnuwanda I.

Crown Prince

Arnuwanda was declared his father's heir apparent (tuḫkanti) and is attested as such in references to several events taking place during Šuppiluliuma's reign. Arnuwanda's absence from the record in the earliest events of his father's reign suggests he was too young to participate in them at the time. Together with his father, mother, and uncle Zida, Arnuwanda was mentioned in the description of the formal installation of his younger brother Telipinu as priest (and governor) of Kizzuwatna.

The Great Syrian Wars

By the time of the Six-Year War against Tushratta of the Mittanians, Arnuwanda was ready for military command. When the Mittanians defeated a Hittite contingent in northern Syria, Šuppiluliuma dispatched against them advance forces under Arnuwanda and his uncle Zida; they chased off the enemy, allowing Šuppiluliuma to undertake the ultimately successful siege of Carchemish. Following the murder of Arnuwanda’s younger brother Zannanza en route to become king of Egypt, Šuppiluluma sent Arnuwanda to raid and pillage the Egyptian possessions in southern Syria. Arnuwanda met with success, but the large number of captives that he brought back with him carried with them plague, which would ravage Hittite society for at least two decades, according to the Plague Prayers of Arnuwanda’s brother and eventual successor Muršili II.

In 1322 BC, Arnuwanda II seems to have succeeded his father Šuppiluliuma I on the Hittite throne without incident, having long been the recognized heir apparent, and having been entrusted with military command in the conflicts with Mittani and Egypt. Because his stepmother, the Babylonian Tawananna (Malnigal?), was still alive when Arnuwanda became king, she continued to occupy the position of chief queen throughout his brief reign and into that of his successor. Once king, Arnuwanda was forced to attend to the Kaška threat on northern frontier, which had preoccupied Šuppiluliuma's last years. Apparently already ill, Arnuwanda seems to have intended conferring that command to his father's veteran general Ḫannutti, but the latter died soon after meeting with the king. Fragmentary texts suggest Arnuwanda renewed the treaties of vassalage that his father had concluded with his younger brothers, particularly Piyaššili (Šarri-Kušuḫ) of Carchemish. Like his father Šuppiluliuma and his younger brother Muršili II, Arnuwanda seems to have interceded on behalf of the exiled ruler of the Šeḫa River Land Manapa-Tarḫunta with his hosts in Karkiša; later, Muršili would restore Manapa-Tarḫunta to his throne as a vassal king, and forgive him a subsequent rebellion.

Most modern scholars assume, from the contemporary attestation of plague and the premature death of Arnuwanda, that both Šuppiluliuma and Arnuwanda contracted the disease and succumbed to it. It is uncertain whether Arnuwanda left any children, but at any rate he was succeeded by his younger brother Muršili II.

(1) = 1st spouse (2) = 2nd spouse Small caps indicates a Great King (LUGAL.GAL) of the Land of Hatti; italic small caps indicates a Great Queen or Tawananna. Dashed lines indicate adoption. Solid lines indicate marriage (if horizontal) or parentage (if vertical).

• Trevor Bryce (1997). The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
• Trevor Bryce (2005). The Kingdom of the Hittites (new edition). Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
• Trevor Bryce (2012). The World of the Neo-Hittite Kingdoms. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
• Jacques Freu (2007). Les débuts du nouvel empire hittite. Paris, France: L'Harmattan.
• Volkert Haas (2006). Die hethitische Literatur. Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter.

• Janet Morris wrote a detailed biographical novel, I, the Sun, whose subject was Suppiluliuma I. Arnuwanda II is an important figure in this novel, in which all characters are from the historical record, which Dr. Jerry Pournelle called "a masterpiece of historical fiction" and about which O.M. Gurney, Hittite scholar and author of The Hittites, commented that "the author is familiar with every aspect of Hittite culture". Morris' book was republished by The Perseid Press in April 2013.
• He is also a character in Chie Shinohara's historical manga Red River or Anatolia Story. In this manga he is a frail-bodied man who appoints Yuri's boyfriend, his half-brother Mursili, as his successor. He is later murdered in very shady circumstances, and Yuri is falsely accused of killing him but her maid Ursula claims that she's the true murderer and is executed. The culprit isn't found until much later.
• Arnuwanda II also appears in the Historical novel, "Amarna Book I: Book of Ida" by Grea Alexander. In it, he is pitted against his brother, Mursili II, who is protecting Queen Ankhesenamun's emissary, Idaten, following the murder of their brother Prince Zannanza. This book was published by SeaMonkey Ink, LLC in 2012 and is the first of a three part trilogy.