Hittites years of the Old Hittite Kingdom, can be explained in part by the nature of the Hittite kingship at that time. During the Old Hittite Kingdom period prior to 1400 BC, the king of the Hittites was not viewed by the Hittite citizenry as a "living god", like the Pharaohs of Egypt, but rather as a first among equals. Only in the later period of the Hittite Empire, from 1400 BC until 1200 BC, did the kingship of the Hittites become more centralized and powerful. Also in earlier years the succession was not legally fixed, enabling the "war of the
Timeline of the Assyrian Empire Madius and then Cyaxares the Great, were both in turn subjugated by Ashurbanipal, remaining his vassals. At around this time, Gyges king of Lydia in western Asia Minor, offered his submission to Ashurbanipal. Mass alliances against Assyria were not a new phenomenon. During the Middle Assyrian Empire (1365–1020 BC), peoples such as the Hittites, Babylonians, Mitannians/Hurrians, Elamites, Phrygians, Kassites, Arameans, Gutians and Canaanites had formed various coalitions at different times in vain attempts to break Assyrian power. During the Neo-Assyrian Empire, in the reigns of Shalmaneser III in the 9th century BC, Sargon II in the 8th century BC, and