The politics of the Wilusiad
Although The Wilusiad is a work of fiction the world it inhabits is based to a large extent on the real world of Late Bronze Age Anatolia, which was a land dominated by the Hittite Empire. This domination however was increasingly challenged in the West by the rising power of the Ahhiyawans, people history records as the Mycenaean Greeks. This left the Luwian Kingdoms on the Western edge of Hittite influence trapped between two powers whilst trying to retain some measure of autonomy for themselves. It is this background that I used as a starting point to develop the political life of Wilusa, a city with roots going back thousands of years by the Late Bronze Age and yet facing political currents and turmoil that threaten to sweep all this away.
The Mysterious Luwians
The luwians were a people living in Western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age in the area marked out in map on the right. They were divided into a series of individual Kingdoms, including The Seha River Land, Arzawa and of course Wilusa (Troy), in the extreme North West of the territory, as seen on the map on the left. The Luwians shared a common indo-european language and hieroglyphic script ( lower left) which has been discovered at Hisarlik on the seal stone pictured on the right, which was discovered at Hisarlik, which is the modern hill which contains the ruins of Wilusa today. This evidence was key to my decision to portray the basic culture of Wilusa as a Luwian one.
Hittite Enemies, Hittite Allies?
Although Anatolia of the Late Bronze Age was dominated by the Hittite Empire, whose emperors ruled from their capital Hattusa whose iconic Lion Gate entrance is pictured on the top level. In the Citadel of Hattusa archaeologists found a treasure trove of clay tablets within the purpose built archive building within the great temple (pictured centre). These archives gave us a record of Hittite diplomacy over two centuries, including with the Luwian Kingdoms of Western Anatolia.
This diplomacy could be fractious - around a century prior to the events of The Wilusiad the kingdom of Arzawa united the Luwians of Western Anatolia, including Wilusa, into a confederation which revolted against the Hittite Empire. This uprising was eventually put down and the Luwian Kingdoms reduced to client Kingdoms of the Hittite Empire, which is the situation we find Wilusa in at the start of the Wilusiad.
Unsuccessful though this uprising proved, introduced a new player into Anatolian politics. Among the booty returned to Hattusa once the uprising was crushed was this Mycenaean Greek style blade, indicating that the Luwians had received assistance from The Mycenaeans against the Hittite Empire prior to their defeat and reduction to client states of the Hittite Empire.
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​By Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany CC BY-SA 2.0 - The Lion Gate flanked by two towers, located at the southwest of the city, the lions were put at the entrance of the city to ward off evil, Hattusa, capital of the Hittite Empire
By Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany CC BY-SA 2.0, - The area of the Great Temple with storerooms surrounding the temple proper, Hattusa, capital of the Hittite Empire.
Mycenaean Sword found at Hattusa - this sword was presented to the Hittite gods following the suppression of the Arzawa uprising.
Caught Between Two Powers
Wilusa became an allied Kingdom to the Hittite Empire and even sent troops to fight with the Hittite Emperor Muwatalli II in the Battle of Kadesh against Rameses II. It is interesting to note that the WIlusan King who agreed to do with is names Alaksandu, an obvious derivative of the greek name Alexandros (see the Alaksandu treaty, top left). This is interesting for many reasons, but it has drawn comment due to the fact that Paris, the Trojan Prince whose abduction of Helen of Sparta triggered the Trojan War in The Illiad, is also referred to as Alexandros.
The biographies of the mythical Paris, who died during the Trojan War and never ascended to its throne and the historical Alaksandu, who ruled Wilusa as king for around 35 years are different enough to suggest that this similarity is co-incidental. However, it is interesting to note that the name of a Greek ally of the Hittites is given to a character who in the Illiad is depicted as a coward whose thoughtless selfishness caused the war in the first place.
Whatever the truth of that may be, it is clear that the relations between the Hittite Empire and the Mycenaean Greeks could be fractious, a good example of this can be seen in the Tawagalawa letter (bottom left), in which a Hittite King complains about an unknown Mycenaean King's support for a rebel warlord named Piyamaradu and reminds him that although they have previously been at odds regarding Wilusa, they are now at peace. The information in these letters and similar ones can be (and have been - not least by me in The Wilusiad) interpreted in many different ways, but the clear implication that Wilusa in the Late Bronze Age was a state caught between two powers vying for control of Western Anatolia is a constant throughout the archives.
The Alaksandu Letter, in the Troy Museum, Turkiye - By Dosseman - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
Paris (or Alexandros as he is also known) as depicted in the Illiad. This statue is in the Pius-Clementine Museum in the Vatican, Rome - Photo by Ilya Shurygin.
This death mask from the Royal Grave circle at Mycenae and currently in the National Archaaeologiccal Museum in Athens, Greece was made about two centuries before the events of the Trojan war, but a King like him may well have been the recipient of the Tawagalawa letter