Thebes, apparently one of the first Greek…

Arnuwanda I, who succeeds Tudhaliya I, proves unable to defend even the core of the revived Hittite kingdom against continuing attack from all sides. (His successors—Hattusili II, Tudhaliya II, and Arnuwanda II—will be no more successful.)

Suppiluliuma I (Shuppiluliuma), king of the Hittites from around 1358 BCE, had begun his career as advisor and general to Tudhaliya III, then based at Samuha.

In this capacity he had defeated the Hittites' enemies among the Hayasa and the Kaskas.

Both enemies then united around charismatic leaders to counter him; of these Karanni founded a semblance of a royal court in Hayasa, and Piyapili failed to do likewise for the Kaska.

Suppiluliuma and Tudhaliya defeated these threats in turn, to the extent that the Hittite court could settle in Hattusa again.

At some point, Suppiluliuma deposed and probably murdered his liege.

Some of the priests would later report this to Suppiluliumas's son, successor, and biographer Mursili II, holding it as an outstanding crime of the whole dynasty.

Saushtatar, a king of Hanilgalbat (Hurrians of Mitanni) in the fifteenth century BCE, had sacked Ashur and made Assyria a vassal.

Assyria continues to pay tribute to Hanilgalbat until Mitanni power collapses from Hittite pressure from the northwest and Assyrian pressure from the east, enabling Ashur-uballit I (1365 BCE–1330 BCE) to again make Assyria an independent and conquering power at the expense of Babylonia.

Suppiluliuma began his career as advisor and general to Tudhaliya III, then based at Samuha.

In this capacity he has defeated the Hittites' enemies among the Hayasa and the Kaskas.

Both enemies then united around charismatic leaders to counter him; of these Karanni founded a semblance of a royal court in Hayasa, and Piyapili failed to do likewise for the Kaska.

Suppiluliuma and Tudhaliya defeated these threats in turn, to the extent that the Hittite court could settle in Hattusa again.

At some point, Suppiluliuma deposes and probably murders his liege, ascending the imperial Hittite throne around 1358.

The Hittites retaliate against the Egypt-Mitanni entente by occupying Syria, around 1365, thus separating the allies so that Egypt is unable to aid Mitanni when the Hittites invade it from the west.

The energetic Suppiluliuma successfully campaigns to restore Hittite control in Anatolia and effectively extend the borders of his kingdom to the east and south.

Assyria allies for a brief time with a diminished Mitanni to liberate the Mitanni subkingdom of Hanigalbat from Hittite control.

Hittite monarch Suppiluliuma makes inroads in Syrian territory, including the capture of the powerful city-state of Carchemish.

Ashur-uballit I defeats Mattiwaza, the Mitanni king, despite attempts by the Hittite king Suppiluliuma to preserve his throne with military support.

The lands of the Mitanni are duly appropriated by Assyria, making it a large and powerful state.

Some of the earliest Egyptian records of Damascus are from the Amarna letters of around 1350 BCE, when Damascus (called Dimasqu) is ruled by king Biryawaza, who was ordered by his Egyptian overlords to take armed action against the sons of Labaya (EA 250), a Habiru, possibly Canaanite, warlord.

The name Biryawaza is Indo-European in origin.

Biryawaza may have been of an Indo-European maryannu caste similar to that which rules Mitanni and the Hittite kingdom.