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Ḫilakku

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Ḫilakku (𒆳𒄭𒋃𒆪[1][2][3][4][5]), later known as Pirindu, was a Luwian-speaking Syro-Hittite state which existed in southeastern Anatolia in the Iron Age.

𒆳𒄭𒋃𒆪 (Ḫilakku: earlier)
(Pirindu: later)
Unknown–713 BC
Ḫilakku among the Neo-Hittite states
Ḫilakku among the Neo-Hittite states
Common languagesLuwian
Religion
Luwian religion
GovernmentMonarchy
King 
• r. c. 858 BC
Piḫirim
• r. c. 718 BC – 713 BC
Ambaris
• r. c. 662 BC
Sandašarme
• r. c. 557 BC
Appuwašu
Historical eraIron Age
• Established
Unknown
• Disestablished
713 BC
Preceded by
Tarḫuntašša
Today part ofTurkey

Name

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The native name of this kingdom is still unknown due to a lack of Hieroglyphic Luwian inscriptions from the Iron Age.[6]

Ḫilakku

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Ḫilakku was the name given by Neo-Assyrian Akkadian sources to this kingdom, and the name of the region which in Graeco-Roman times was called Cilicia was derived from that of Ḫilakku.[7][6]

Pirindu

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Geography

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Location

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The kingdom of Ḫilakku was located in the western section of the territory which later in Classical Antiquity became known as Cilicia which was referred to as Rough Cilicia (Ancient Greek: Κιλικια Τραχεια, romanized: Kilikia Trakheia; Latin: Cilicia Aspera),[8][9][6] more specifically in the region of the Taurus and Bolkar mountains between Ḫiyawa and the Tabalian region.[10]

The exact boundaries of Ḫilakku are however uncertain, and this name might have been primarily used to designate a region and its people. Since Ḫilakku was inhabited by a mountaineer population, whatever boundaries it might have had were instead likely very fluid.[10]

Neighbours

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The neighbours of Ḫilakku were Ḫiyawa to its east and the kingdoms of the Tabalian region to its north,[8][11], hence why Neo-Assyrian records associated Ḫilakku with Que (Ḫiyawa) and Tabal.[10]

Cities

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Neo-Assyrian sources recorded the existence of a city of Ḫilakku, although this cannot be taken as evidence for the kingdom being a city-state, and its attempted identification with the city of Mazaka, corresponding to modern-day Kayseri is inaccurate. These sources also mention the existence of "21 strong towns and their surrounding villages" (Neo-Assyrian Akkadian: 𒌋𒌋𒁹 𒌷𒈨𒌍𒋙𒉡 𒆗𒉡𒋾 𒅇 𒌷𒈨𒌍 𒌉𒈨𒌍 𒁲 𒇷𒈨𒋾𒋙𒉡, romanized: 21 ālānišunu dannūti u ālāni ṣeḫrūti ša limētišunu) in Ḫilakku.[10]

During the Neo-Babylonian period, the capital of Pirindu was Urā/Urâ/Uraʾa, and another of its royal cities was Kirši.[12]

History

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Bronze Age

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In the Late Bronze Age, the region which would later become Ḫilakku was part of the kingdom of Kizzuwatna and later of the southeastern border regions of the kingdom of Tarḫuntašša.[9][6]

Iron Age

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Kingdom of Ḫilakku

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In 858 BC, the king Piḫirim of Ḫilakku and his neighbour Katiyas of Ḫiyawa contributed troops to an alliance of northern Syrian states which were trying to oppose the advance of the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III to the west of the Euphrates river. This allied force was however defeated by the Neo-Assyrian army.[10][8][13][6]

Although Shalmaneser III campaigned against Ḫiyawa in 839 BC, into the Tabalian region in 837 BC, and later campaigned into Ḫiyawa again in 834 and 833 BC, he however made no attempt to attack Ḫilakku, which was further to the west of his campaign route and more isolated and inaccessible.[10][8][6]

While both Ḫilakku and Ḫiyawa were mentioned in the records of the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III, Ḫilakku was not listed as one of his tributaries, showing that Ḫilakku had remained independent from Neo-Assyrian imperialism.[14]

As part of Bīt-Burutaš
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Ḫilakku remained independent of Neo-Assyrian rule until the late 8th century BC, but both it as well as Ḫiyawa (under the name of Que) had become provinces of the Neo-Assyrian Empire at some point during the reigns of the Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser V or Sargon II.[8][15]

Following the union of the Phrygians and the Muški under the Phrygian king Midas,[16] this latter king was able to extend his kingdom to the east across the Halys river into the former core territory of the Hittite Empire[17] and build a large empire in Anatolia which reached the Aegean Sea in the west and the environs of the Euphrates and borders of the Tabalian region in the east and south.[17][18] The eastward expansionist ventures of Midas in the east soon led to his fledgling Phrygian empire becoming a major rival to Neo-Assyrian power in eastern Anatolia, especially when Midas initiated contacts with Neo-Assyrian vassals, causing the Tabalian region which bordered on Ḫiyawa to the north to become contested between the Neo-Assyrian and Phrygian empires.[16]

Since the Tabalian region was a subject of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, this Phrygian expansion increased the possibility of war between the two rival empires. Thus, the Tabalian region found itself wedged between the Neo-Assyrian and Phrygian empires, both of whom saw it as a strategically useful buffer zone to contain the other's expansionist ambitions.[19]

Therefore, Midas tried to persuade the still independent local rulers of the Tabalian region to switch their allegiances to Phrygia:[16] the loyalty of the Tabalian kings to the Neo-Assyrian Empire was unsteady, and those among them who were diplomatically approached by Midas might have preferred renouncing their allegiance to the Neo-Assyrian Empire and instead allying with Midas.[20] Thus, the kings of the Tabalian region found themselves having to choose whether aligning themselves with the Neo-Assyrian or the Phrygian empire was in their interests,[21] and several of them did accept Midas's offer.[16]

In addition to the wavering loyalty of the Tabalian kings, the possibility of an alliance between Midas and Rusa I of Urartu further threatened Neo-Assyrian power not only in southeastern Anatolia, but also throughout all of eastern Anatolia and in northern Mesopotamia.[22]

To counter the threat of the rising power of Phrygia, Sargon II tried to establish a centralised authority under a ruler whom he could trust in the Tabalian region, and he therefore reorganised the kingdom of Tabal proper into the state of Bīt-Burutaš under the rule of the king Ambaris, who was himself the son of the former Tabalian king Ḫulliyas, to whom he had married his daughter Aḫat-abiša: as part of this arrangement, the new kingdom of Bīt-Burutaš consisted of the kingdom of Tabal which had been significantly enlarged with the territory of Ḫilakku, which had itself been offered to Ambaris as Aḫat-abiša's dowry.[23][24][25][26]

Since Ḫilakku was a country with a rough terrain and its inhabitants were extremely independent, the Neo-Assyrian rule on it was itself nominal at most, and it is unlikely that Ambaris would have had any significant involvement in managing Ḫilakku.[15]

However, Midas continued pressuring the western Neo-Assyrian territories and intensified his efforts to persuade the local rulers of this region to renounce their vassalage to the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and he even launched attacks until as far south as the territories of Ḫiyawa.[22] In addition to finding themselves pressured by Phrygia or Urartu, several of the western vassals of the Neo-Assyrian Empire might also have themselves initiated contacts with Phrygia and Urartu with the hope of freeing themselves from Neo-Assyrian suzerainty, thus leading to a series of anti-Assyrian uprisings by the Anatolian vassals of the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the rest of Sargon II's reign.[27]

Ambaris himself came under pressure from Midas, who attempted to persuade him to renounce Neo-Assyrian allegiance and join him, initially through diplomatic means and later through military threats.[28] This situation left Ambaris with little choice but to accept an alliance with Phrygia and renounce his allegiance to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Facing increased pressure from both Midas of Phrygia and Argišti II of Urartu, Ambaris communicated with them seeking guarantees that they would protect him should he break his ties with the Neo-Assyrian Empire.[23][29][28]

Neo-Assyrian intelligence however intercepted Ambaris's messages to Phrygia and Urartu,[28] causing him to lose favour with Sargon II, who accused him of conspiring with these rival powers and consequently deported Ambaris, his family and his chief courtiers to Assyria in 713 BCE, after which a Neo-Assyrian governor was imposed on Bīt-Burutaš, Ḫilakku and Ḫiyawa by Sargon II,[16] with the first of these being Aššur-šarru-uṣur, who possibly as early as 713 BCE was appointed as governor of Ḫiyawa and also held authority on Ḫilakku and the Tabalian region.[23][29][30][31]

Thus, after the deposition of Ambaris in 713 BC, Ḫilakku and Bīt-Burutaš were both placed under direct Neo-Assyrian rule as provinces.[24][8][15]

Regained independence
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Ḫilakku regained its independence during the anti-Assyrian rebellions which followed the death of Sargon II in battle in 705 BC.[8]

Although Sargon II's son and successor Sennacherib had managed to restore Neo-Assyrian rule on Ḫiyawa, Ḫilakku was able to maintain its independence,[8] as exemplified by the revolt against the Neo-Assyrian Empire which Kirua of Illubru had incited in Ḫilakku and in the cities of Tarsus and Ingirā in Ḫiyawa, and which Sennacherib campaigned against in 698 BC. However, Sennacherib was only able to deport some inhabitants of Ḫilakku and destroy their towns, showing that Ḫilakku was independent of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by then.[24]

Although Sennacherib's son and successor Esarhaddon claimed to have conquered the rebellious people of Ḫilakku,[8] his actions there only amounted to a raid against its population, whom Esarhaddon himself conceded was unruly and insubmissive.[24]

By the reign of Esarhaddon's son and successor Ashurbanipal, Ḫilakku was fully independent, and Ashurbanipal himself described Ḫilakku as not having submitted to his predecessors.[24][32]

Cimmerian invasions
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Some time around c. 675 BCE,[33] the Cimmerians invaded and destroyed the Phrygian empire and sacked its capital of Gordion, due to which Midas committed suicide.[34][35] The Cimmerians consequently settled in Phrygia[36] and subdued part of the Phrygians[37] so that they controlled a large area consisting of Phrygia from its western limits which bordered on Lydia to its eastern boundaries neighbouring the Neo-Assyrian Empire,[38] after which they made the Tabalian region into their centre of operations.[39][40][41][42]

Neo-Assyrian sources from around this same time therefore recorded a Cimmerian presence in the area of Tabal,[43] and, between c. 672 and c. 669 BCE, a Neo-Assyrian oracular text recorded that the Cimmerians, together with the Phrygians and the Cilicians, were threatening the Neo-Assyrian Empire's newly conquered territory of Melid.[42][44][37][45] The Cimmerians were thus active in Tabal, Ḫilakku and Phrygia in the 670s BCE,[37] and, in alliance with these former two states, were attacking the western Neo-Assyrian provinces.[46][45]

Thus, the Cimmerians became the masters of Anatolia,[47] where they controlled a large territory[48] bordering Lydia in the west, covering Phrygia, and reaching Cilicia and the borders of Urartu in the east.[36][49] The disturbances experienced by the Neo-Assyrian Empire as result of the activities of the Cimmerians in Anatolia led to many of the rulers of this region to try to break away from Neo-Assyrian overlordship,[50] with Ḫilakku having become an independent polity again under the king Sandašarme[51] by the time that Esarhaddon had been succeeded as king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by his son, Ashurbanipal (r. 669 – 631 BCE), so that by then the Cimmerians had effectively ended Neo-Assyrian control in Anatolia.[52]

The defeat of the Cimmerians by the Lydian king Gyges between c. 665 to c. 660 BCE weakened their allies, Mugallu of Tabal and Sandašarme of Ḫilakku, enough that they were left with no choice but to submit to the authority of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in c. 662 BCE,[53][54] forcing Sandašarme to send an embassy as well as one of his daughters with a large dowry to the Neo-Assyrian capital of Nineveh for the royal harem.[24][32]

Thus, Ḫilakku was beyond the limits of concrete Neo-Assyrian control,[10] and whatever control the Neo-Assyrian Empire might have had on it was weak and temporary at most, unlike Ḫiyawa, which the Neo-Assyrian Empire was able to keep as a province under three governors.[24]

Kingdom of Pirindu

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Following the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Ḫilakku was mentioned in the records of the Neo-Babylonian Empire under the name of Pirindu, and a text from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II mentioned prisoners from Pirindu captured in 592 or 591 BC.[12]

Campaign of Neriglissar
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In 557 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II's son-in-law, the Neo-Babylonian king Neriglissar, campaigned against the king Appuwašu of Pirindu, possibly as a result of tensions regarding the control of Ḫumê, that is of Ḫiyawa.

Neriglissar marched to Ḫumê, where Appuwašu launched a failed ambush attempt on him before being defeated, after which Neriglissar pursued Appuwašu into Pirindu itself, where he captured Ura and Kiršu as well as the island fortress of Pitusu, before marching till Sallunê, which was the most western city on the coast of Cilicia, and to the borders of the Lydian Empire before returning to Babylon.[12]

Population

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Like Ḫiyawa and the kingdoms of the nearby Tabalian region, the population of Ḫilakku was descended from the largely Late Bronze Age Luwian inhabitants of the region and remained so until the Hellenistic and Roman periods.[9][55][6]

Esarhaddon's description of the population of Ḫilakku as "evil Hittites" (Neo-Assyrian Akkadian: 𒇽𒉺𒋼𒂊 𒅆𒉡𒌑𒋾, romanized: Ḫattê lemnūti) attests of the predominantly Luwian character of the population of Ḫilakku throughout the 1st millennium BC,[10] and Luwian personal names would remain attested in Ḫilakku until the Roman period.[9]

List of rulers

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References

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  1. ^ "Hilakku [CILICIA] (GN)". Textual Sources of the Assyrian Empire. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  2. ^ "Hilakku [CILICIA] (GN)". Archival Texts of the Assyrian Empire. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  3. ^ "Hilakku [CILICIA] (GN)". Archival Texts of the Assyrian Empire. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  4. ^ "Hilakku [CILICIA] (GN)". Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration. State Archives of Assyria Online. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  5. ^ "Hilakku [CILICIA] (GN)". Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration. State Archives of Assyria Online. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Bryce 2012, p. 161.
  7. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 39.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bryce 2009, p. 309.
  9. ^ a b c d Bryce 2012, p. 38.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Hawkins 1975, p. 402.
  11. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 49.
  12. ^ a b c Bryce 2009, p. 310.
  13. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 155.
  14. ^ Hawkins 1975, p. 402-403.
  15. ^ a b c Bryce 2012, p. 162.
  16. ^ a b c d e Bryce 2009, p. 685.
  17. ^ a b Bryce 2012, p. 42.
  18. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 277-278.
  19. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 41-42.
  20. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 280-281.
  21. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 43.
  22. ^ a b Bryce 2012, p. 281.
  23. ^ a b c Ebeling 1932, p. 93.
  24. ^ a b c d e f g Hawkins 1975, p. 403.
  25. ^ Bryce 2009, p. 684.
  26. ^ Baker 2023, p. 298.
  27. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 232.
  28. ^ a b c Bryce 2012, p. 283.
  29. ^ a b Weeden 2010, p. 42.
  30. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 152.
  31. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 158-159.
  32. ^ a b Bryce 2009, p. 309-310.
  33. ^ Ivantchik 1993a, p. 73-74.
  34. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 44.
  35. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 160.
  36. ^ a b Adalı 2017, p. 63.
  37. ^ a b c Ivantchik 1993a, p. 74.
  38. ^ Ivantchik 1993a, p. 69.
  39. ^ Grousset 1970, p. 8.
  40. ^ Phillips 1972, p. 136.
  41. ^ Sulimirski & Taylor 1991, p. 559.
  42. ^ a b Tokhtas’ev 1991.
  43. ^ Ivantchik 1993a, p. 73.
  44. ^ Ivantchik 1993a, p. 68.
  45. ^ a b Olbrycht 2000a, p. 92.
  46. ^ Ivantchik 1993a, p. 123.
  47. ^ Diakonoff 1985, p. 95.
  48. ^ Parzinger 2004, p. 23.
  49. ^ Adalı 2017, p. 70.
  50. ^ Phillips 1972, p. 132.
  51. ^ Adalı 2017, p. 68.
  52. ^ Grayson 1991c, p. 145.
  53. ^ Ivantchik 1993a, p. 124.
  54. ^ Adalı 2017, p. 71.
  55. ^ Bryce 2012, p. 49-50.
  56. ^ "Pihrim [RULER OF HILAKKU] (RN)". The Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  57. ^ "Pihrim [RULER OF HILAKKU] (RN)". The Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  58. ^ "Ambaris [KING OF TABAL] (RN)". Ancient Records of Middle Eastern Polities. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  59. ^ "Sanda-šarme [KING OF CILICIA] (RN)". The Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  60. ^ "Sanda-šarme [KING OF CILICIA] (RN)". Textual Sources of the Assyrian Empire. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  61. ^ "Sanda-šarme [KING OF CILICIA] (RN)". Textual Sources of the Assyrian Empire. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  62. ^ "Sanda-šarme [KING OF CILICIA] (RN)". Ancient Knowledge Networks online. Corpus of Ancient Mesopotamian Scholarship. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  63. ^ "Sanda-šarme [KING OF CILICIA] (RN)". The Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online. Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
  64. ^ Grayson 1975, p. 103-104.
  65. ^ Glassner 2004, p. 232-233.

Sources

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