Editing Cimmerians (section)

=====Activities in Anatolia=====
When Esarhaddon conquered the nearby state of Šubria in 673 BC, Rusa II supported him, attesting of a period of non-aggression between Urartu and Assyria under the reigns of Rusa II and Esarhaddon.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=67}}

Assyrian sources from around this same time also recorded a Cimmerian presence in the area of the Neo-Hittite state of [[Tabal (state)|Tabal]].{{sfn|Ivantchik|1993a|p=73}}

And between {{c.|672}} and {{c.|669 BC}}, an Assyrian oracular text recorded that the Cimmerians, together with the Phrygians and the Cilicians, were threatening the Neo-Assyrian Empire's newly conquered territory of [[Melid]].<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Tokhtas’ev|1991}}|{{harvnb|Ivantchik|1993a|p=68}}|{{harvnb|Ivantchik|1993a|p=74}}|{{harvnb|Olbrycht|2000a|p=92}}}}</ref>

The western Cimmerians were thus active in Tabal, Ḫilakku and Phrygia in the 670s BC,{{sfn|Ivantchik|1993a|p=74}} and, in alliance with these former two states, were attacking the western Neo-Assyrian provinces.{{sfn|Ivantchik|1993a|p=123}}{{sfn|Olbrycht|2000a|p=92}} At unknown dates, the western Cimmerians also invaded [[Bithynia]] and [[Paphlagonia]].<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Grousset|1970|p=8}}|{{harvnb|Sulimirski|Taylor|1991|p=559}}|{{harvnb|Tokhtas’ev|1991}}|{{harvnb|Ivantchik|1993a|p=69}}|{{harvnb|Adalı|2023|p=217}}|{{harvnb|Adalı|2023|p=221}}}}</ref>

In the early 660s BC, the power of the Cimmerians grew drastically and they became the masters of Anatolia,{{sfn|Diakonoff|1985|p=95}} where they controlled a large territory{{sfn|Parzinger|2004|p=23}} bordering Lydia in the west, covering Phrygia around Gordion and the Sangarios river, and reaching the Taurus Mountains in [[Cilicia]] and the borders of Urartu in the east, and encompassing the area bounded by the Black Sea in the north and the Mediterranean Sea in the south.<ref>{{unbulleted list citebundle|{{harvnb|Adalı|2017|p=63}}|{{harvnb|Adalı|2017|p=70}}|{{harvnb|Fuchs|2023|p=757}}|{{harvnb|Adalı|2023|p=217}}}}</ref>

The core territories of the western Cimmerians were in Central Anatolia between the Konya Plain and the Neo-Assyrian province of Que, but also extended to parts of the Konya Plain itself, including its western parts, and to Cappadocia, as well as to the west of Tabal,{{sfn|Adalı|2023|p=213}}{{sfn|Adalı|2023|p=216}} implying that some of the Neo-Hittite states in and near the Konya Plain had become subjected to the Cimmerians.{{sfn|Summers|2023|p=116}}

The disturbances experienced by the Neo-Assyrian Empire as result of the activities of the Cimmerians in Anatolia led to many of the rulers of this region to try to break away from Neo-Assyrian overlordship,{{sfn|Phillips|1972|p=132}} with Ḫilakku having become an independent polity again under the king Sandašarme{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=68}} by the time that Esarhaddon had been succeeded as king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by Ashurbanipal, so that by then the Cimmerians had effectively ended Neo-Assyrian control in Anatolia.{{sfn|Grayson|1991c|p=145}}