View source for Arnuwanda II

== Before accession to the throne ==
Arnuwanda was declared his father's heir apparent (''tuḫkanti'') and is attested as such in references to several events taking place during Šuppiluliuma's reign. Arnuwanda's absence from the record in the earliest events of his father's reign suggests he was too young to participate in them at the time. Together with his father, mother, and uncle Zida, Arnuwanda was mentioned in the description of the formal installation of his younger brother Telipinu as priest (and governor) of [[Kizzuwatna]].<ref>Bryce 2005: 160; Freu 2008: 17-18.</ref> 

By the time of the Six-Year War against the [[Mitanni|Mittanians]], Arnuwanda was ready for military command. When the Mittanians defeated a Hittite contingent in northern Syria, Šuppiluliuma dispatched against them advance forces under Arnuwanda and his uncle Zida; they chased off the enemy, allowing Šuppiluliuma to undertake the ultimately successful siege of [[Carchemish]].<ref>Bryce 2005: 177; Freu 2008: 18.</ref> Following the murder of Arnuwanda’s younger brother [[Zannanza]] en route to become king of [[New Kingdom of Egypt|Egypt]], Šuppiluluma sent Arnuwanda to raid and pillage the Egyptian possessions in southern Syria.<ref>Güterbock 1956: 111.</ref> Arnuwanda met with success, but the large number of captives that he brought back with him carried with them [[Hittite plague|plague]], which would ravage Hittite society for at least two decades, according to the ''Plague Prayers'' of Arnuwanda’s brother and eventual successor Muršili II.<ref>Beckman 1997: 158; Bryce 2005: 183; Freu 2007b: 278-279.</ref>