Wasusarmas
Great King, Hero
The Topada inscription of Wasusarmas, 8th c. BCE. The first line reads "Great King Wasusarmas, Great King, the Hero, son of Tuwaddis, Great King, Hero" [1] In Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔐒𔓬𔖢𔑙𔒅𔗔𔐒𔐕𔕬𔓬𔑣‎𔕣𔐒𔐕𔔹𔗔𔐰‎, romanized: Uris ḫantawattis Wasusarmas uris ḫantawattis ḫastallis Tuwaddi(ya)s uras ḫantawatti(ya)s ḫastalli(ya)s nimuwizzas [2] [3] [1] [4]
Great king of Tabal
Reign	r.  c. 740 BC – 730 BC
Predecessor	Tuwaddis II
Successor	Ḫulliyas
Luwian	𔓬𔖢𔑙𔒅𔗔‎ [5] [3] Wasusarmas
Akkadian	𒁹𒌑𒊍𒋩𒈨 [6] [7] Wassurme or Uassurme [8]
House	Dynasty of Tuwaddis I (?)
Father	Tuwaddis II
Religion	Luwian religion

Wasusarmas ( Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔓬𔖢𔑙𔒅𔗔‎, romanized: Wassusarmas, ^{[5] [3] [9]}) was a Luwian king of the Syro-Hittite kingdom of Tabal proper in the broader Tabalian region who reigned during the mid-8th century BC, from around c. 740 BC to c. 730 BC. ^{[10] [8]}

Name

The Luwian name 𔓬𔖢𔑙𔒅𔗔‎ ^{[5] [3]} was pronounced as Wassusarmas, and was composed of the term affixed to the Luwian form of the name of the Hurrian god Šarruma. ^{[9] [11]} Another possible pronunciation of this name might however have been Wassu-Sarrumas. ^{[9] [12]}

However, it was proposed in 2020 on phonetic grounds that the name 𔓬𔖢𔑙𔒅𔗔‎ should instead be interpreted as Wasu-Armas, containing the name of the Luwian Moon-god Armas. ^[13]

Wasusarmas is referred to in Neo-Assyrian Akkadian sources as Wassurme or Uassurme (𒁹𒌑𒊍𒋩𒈨 ^{[6] [7]}). ^{[14] [15] [16] [17] [9] [18] [12]}

Life

Wasusarmas was the son of the previous king of Tabal, Tuwaddis II. ^[10] Both Wasusarmas and Tuwaddis II may have been part of a dynasty which had ruled Tabal for much of the 1st millennuum century BC, with an earlier king, Tuwaddis I, having ruled Tabal in the late 9th century BC, and who might have been an ancestor of Tuwaddis II and Wasusarmas. ^[19]

Subjection to the Neo-Assyrian Empire

By c. 738 BC, the Tabalian region, including Tabal proper under the reign of Tuwaddis II, ^[20] had become a tributary of the Neo-Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III ( r. 745 – 727 BCE), either after his conquest of Arpad over the course of 743 to 740 BC caused the states of the Tabalian region to submit to him, or possibly as a result of a campaign of Tiglath-pileser III there. ^{[16] [21] [22] [23] [8]}

Reign

Wasusarmas had styled himself using the prestigious titles of "Great King" ( Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔐒‎, romanized: uras ḫantawattis) and "Hero" ( Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔐕‎, romanized: ḫastallis). ^{[24] [25]} Along with the revival of this title by the possibly contemporary king Ḫartapus who ruled a state further to the west, this was the first time that a Luwian ruler had adopted these titles after the end of their use by the rulers of Karkamiš in the 10th century BC, ^{[21] [26]} thus making Wasusarmas the first king in Central Anatolia to have used them after the fall of the Hittite Empire. ^{[27] [28] [29]}

Wasusarmas's Topada inscription also arranged the hieroglyphic signs in which it was written into a royal aedicula, which was the first use of this practice since the Late Bronze Age. ^[27]

Thus, like the king Ḫartapus who ruled a kingdom further west to the Tabalian region, Wasusarmas also used traditional Hittite name and titles, showing that, despite Tabal and the kingdom of Ḫartapus being located in the western peripheries of the post-Hittite world, they were still fully culturally part of the heritage of the Hittite Empire. ^[30]

Expansionism

During the century which followed the first attestation of the kingdom of Tabal in 837 BC, it had grown from a small city-state into the largest and strongest of the states of the Tabalian region through aggressive expansionism. ^[21]

The location of Wasusarmas's inscriptions, especially the ones located at Suvasa, Topada and Göstesin, suggest that Tabal was consolidating its power in northwestern Cappadocia from a base located either in the north-east of the region around the cities corresponding to present-day Kululi and Sultanhan, or in the region to the north of the Halys river. ^[27]

War against Phrygia

Wasusarmas's continuation of these expansionist ventures brought him into a four year-long ^[4] conflict with a coalition of eight enemy rulers ^[21] led by the king of Phrygia that was itself attempting to encroach on the Tabalian region. ^{[31] [32] [33]}

Wasusarmas claimed to have defeated this rival coalition with the help of the kings Warpalawas II of Tuwana, Kiyakiyas of Šinuḫtu, and the otherwise unknown king Ruwandas who might possibly have been identical with the king Ruwas who was a vassal of Tuwaddis II. ^{[14] [24] [34] [27] [33]} These conflict of Wasusarmas against Phrygia and the conflict opposing the contemporary king Ḫartapus might have been different conflicts within the same war opposing an eastern Syro-Hittite coalition to a western Phrygian coalition. ^[29]

This Tabalian coalition successfully crossed the Halys river and invaded Phrygia, where it burnt the Phrygian capital of Gordion and deported most of its civilian population to the Tabalian region. ^{[27] [35] [4]} Later, while Wasusarmas was campaigning elsewhere, Phrygia counter-attacked the Tabalian region with the help of the Phrygians who had previously been deported there after the attack on Gordion. Wasusarmas claimed in his inscription at Topada that this Phrygian attack was deflected due to divine intervention, resulting in a victory for the Tabalian coalition. ^{[36] [4]}

This victory allowed Wasusarmas to expand his borders to the west of the Nevşehir region ^{[14] [37] [24]} as part of a project of his to turn Tabal into a significant power in Central Anatolia, ^[22] thus turning Wasusarmas into the most prominent king of the Tabalian region, ^[38] after which he appears to have regarded himself as its local hegemon. ^{[16] [39]}

An alternative identification for the king against which the coalition Was might however have been the kingdom of the king Ḫartapus, located in the Konya-Karaman Plains. According to this hypothesis, the river which the coalition of Wasusarmas crossed was instead the Melendiz river between the Lake Tuz and the Melendiz Mountains. ^{[37] [27] [35]}

Deposition

Despite being Neo-Assyrian tributary, Wasusarmas continued using the titles of "Great King" and "Hero," and he started taking hostages as slaves and collecting tribute from his enemies, leading to Tiglath-pileser III accusing him of acting as his equal and of imitating the Neo-Assyrian Empire. After he withheld his tribute to Tiglath-pileser III and failed to respond to his overlord's summons, some time between c. 732 to c. 739 BC the Neo-Assyrian king finally decided to put an end to the ambitions of Wasusarmas by sending a eunuch to depose him and replace him as king of Tabal with an individual named Ḫulliyas. ^{[14] [40] [16] [21] [41] [22] [23] [8] [27] [12] [30]}

Although Neo-Assyrian sources referred to Ḫulliyas with descriptor "son of a nobody" usually denoting commoners, his identity is still uncertain, and he could possibly have been identical with a certain Ḫulis who was the nephew of the king Ruwas who was a vassal of Wasusarmas's father Tuwaddis II. ^[27]

The deposition of Wasusarmas led to a power vacuum in the Tabalian region, and other local ruler ever claimed the title of "Great King" again after him. ^[42]

Inscriptions

One inscription of Wasusarmas is known from the site of Topada. This inscription makes use of a very original form of archaising or uncommon Anatolian hieroglyphic signs, as well as of a royal cartouche topped by a winged disc meant to create a connection with the Hittite imperial family, which is a feature it shares with the inscriptions of the king Ḫartapus. ^[43] The Topada inscription commemorates a war waged by Wasusarmas against a coalition led by the king of Phrygia, and it names Tuwaddis II as Wasusarmas's father. ^{[8] [31]}

The Topada inscription of Wasusarmas might contain the only reference to the name of Phrygia outside of Graeco-Roman sources. This name, rendered in the inscription as Prizundas ( Hieroglyphic Luwian: 𔕸𔖱𔗥‎), that is a contracted form of Prizuwandas, itself formed from the term Priz-, which was a cognate of the Ancient Greek stem Phrug-, as found in the ethnonym Phrugia (Φρυγια), of which the Macedonian variant was Brig-, as found in the ethnonym Briges (Βριγες). ^[44]

Three inscriptions by servants of Wasusarmas are also attested from the sites of Sultanhan, Kayseri and Suvasa. ^[8]

References

Bibliography