### q7 Hittite kings had their sons as vassals > It was the Hittite conquests in Syria in the Late Bronze Age that led to the rise of the Syro-Anatolian (or "Neo-Hittite") kingdoms in the Iron Age. Around 1350 BCE, the Hittite king Šuppiluliuma I installed two of his sons as vassal kings of Aleppo and Carchemish, and their sons, grandsons, and subsequent descendants followed them on the throne. The kings of Carchemish and Aleppo became independent rulers as the Hittites lost their grip on northern Syria toward the end of the Late Bronze Age, and the cadet branches outlasted the main royal line of Ḫattuša by at least a couple of centuries. By the 10th century BCE, the two rump states of Carchemish and Aleppo had fragmented into still smaller kingdoms – Malatya, Patin, Hama, Gurgum, Que, and so on – some of which incorporated Phoenician and Aramaean cultural elements in addition to Anatolian (Hittite/Luwian) iconography, writing, and material culture. Reminds me of how various other kingdoms fragmented (East and West Francia). #articleseed because this definitely isn't limited to the Middle Ages but that would be the paradigm most people are used to. - [[Assyrian imperialism#q7 Hittite kings had their sons as vassals|View in Vault]]