Suppiluliuma I

Suppiluliuma I (reigned c. 1344-1322 BCE) was a king of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia who transformed the Hittite state into one of the dominant powers of the ancient Near East. Through a combination of military campaigns and diplomatic marriages, he brought the rival kingdom of Mitanni to its knees, extended Hittite control into northern Syria, and established a network of vassal states ruled by his own sons. His reign is also notable for a famous episode preserved in Hittite records in which an unnamed Egyptian queen, widely identified with Ankhesenamun, widow of Tutankhamun, requested one of his sons in marriage to become pharaoh, an offer that ended in the prince's murder before he could take the throne.