c. 14th century BCE–c. 14th century BCE
Hattusili III was a Hittite king who seized the throne after a successful military and administrative career. He concluded the famous peace treaty and dynastic alliance with Ramesses II, while defending his legitimacy against the claims of the displaced royal line.
Hattusili III was born in Hatti. Hattusili seized the Hittite throne from his nephew Urhi-Teshub and spent much of his reign securing recognition of the new regime; his treaty with Ramesses II and the later dynastic marriage with Egypt are among the best-documented acts of Bronze Age diplomacy.
Gordon Doherty’s Hattu novels turn the future Hattusili III into a protagonist whose private fortunes run through the crises of the late Hittite Empire. Son of Ishtar begins with the prophecy surrounding his birth and his difficult place in the royal family; Dawn of War makes him a commander trying to prevent the Hittite-Egyptian confrontation he fears is coming. In Thunder at Kadesh he marches with the Hittite host against Ramesses II, while The Crimson Throne carries him into the dynastic struggle with Urhi-Teshub after Kadesh. The Shadow of Troy imagines the older Hattusili trying to honour Hittite obligations to Troy while ruling an exhausted empire that can scarcely afford another war.
