Arnuwanda II was a Hittite king who reigned in the late 14th century BC, perhaps in c. 1322âÂÂ1321 BC. His reign was a brief interlude between those of his father à  uppiluliuma I and younger brother Murà ¡ili II.
Arnuwanda was the eldest surviving son of the Hittite great king à  uppiluliuma I and his first wife, Ḫenti, herself apparently the daughter of Tudḫaliya III (sometimes called Tudḫaliya II) and granddaughter of Arnuwanda I.
Arnuwanda was declared his father's heir apparent (tuḫkanti) and is attested as such in references to several events taking place during à  uppiluliuma'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.
By the time of the Six-Year War against Tushratta of the Mittanians, Arnuwanda was ready for military command. When the Mittanians defeated a Hittite contingent in northern Syria, à  uppiluliuma dispatched against them advance forces under Arnuwanda and his uncle Zida; they chased off the enemy, allowing à  uppiluliuma to undertake the ultimately successful siege of Carchemish. Following the murder of ArnuwandaâÂÂs younger brother Zannanza en route to become king of Egypt, à  uppiluluma sent Arnuwanda to raid and pillage the Egyptian possessions in southern Syria. Arnuwanda met with success, but the large number of captives that he brought back with him carried with them plague, which would ravage Hittite society for at least two decades, according to the Plague Prayers of ArnuwandaâÂÂs brother and eventual successor Murà ¡ili II.
In 1322 BC, Arnuwanda II seems to have succeeded his father à  uppiluliuma I on the Hittite throne without incident, having long been the recognized heir apparent, and having been entrusted with military command in the conflicts with Mittani and Egypt. Because his stepmother, the Babylonian Tawananna (Malnigal?), was still alive when Arnuwanda became king, she continued to occupy the position of chief queen throughout his brief reign and into that of his successor. Once king, Arnuwanda was forced to attend to the Kaà ¡ka threat on northern frontier, which had preoccupied à  uppiluliuma's last years. Apparently already ill, Arnuwanda seems to have intended conferring that command to his father's veteran general Ḫannutti, but the latter died soon after meeting with the king. Fragmentary texts suggest Arnuwanda renewed the treaties of vassalage that his father had concluded with his younger brothers, particularly Piyaà ¡à ¡ili (à  arri-Kuà ¡uḫ) of Carchemish. Like his father à  uppiluliuma and his younger brother Murà ¡ili II, Arnuwanda seems to have interceded on behalf of the exiled ruler of the à  eḫa River Land Manapa-Tarḫunta with his hosts in Karkià ¡a; later, Murà ¡ili would restore Manapa-Tarḫunta to his throne as a vassal king, and forgive him a subsequent rebellion.
Most modern scholars assume, from the contemporary attestation of plague and the premature death of Arnuwanda, that both à  uppiluliuma and Arnuwanda contracted the disease and succumbed to it. It is uncertain whether Arnuwanda left any children, but at any rate he was succeeded by his younger brother Murà ¡ili II.