CHAPTER III. THE RISE OF ASSYRIA

Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.

The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.

Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.

All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.

Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.--_Ezekiel_ xxxi. 3-7.

The Assyrian Empire is in some respects unique in history. Despite the proverbial tendency of history to repeat itself, there has been no duplication of the tragic history of this wonderful body politic. It rose to be the most powerful of nations; it reached out and gained the widest empire that had hitherto been seen; its capital, Nineveh, was for a few centuries the metropolis of the world. But in the very fulness of its imperial flight it was struck down and utterly destroyed.

Other empires have been subjugated; Nineveh was annihilated. The very name “Assyrian” became only a memory and a tradition. Late in the seventh century B.C. Nineveh was the boasted mistress of the world; two centuries later the mounds that covered her ruins were noted by the Greek historian Xenophon, who marched past them with the ill-fated Ten Thousand, merely as the relics of some ancient city of unknown name. So brief may be the highest fame! Yet the sequel is stranger still. As we have seen, these forgotten mounds treasured secrets of history which they have since given up to the explorer, and our own generation has seen Assyria restored to its place in history. The details of its career are more fully known to us than those of almost any other nation of antiquity. Such a phœnix-like regeneration is a fitting sequel to the fantastic career with its tragic dénouement, which is about to claim our attention.

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 3000-1120 B.C.]]

It must not be supposed that the Assyrian Empire came suddenly to the height of power just suggested. On the contrary, its rise was slow, and accomplished by intermittent impulses. Naturally enough, the growing nation has left us no such exhaustive records of its history during earlier days as have come to us from its time of might. Indeed, for some centuries after Assyria began to assume importance, we have but fragmentary records of its history. Only here and there a great monarch puts the stamp of his achievements upon an epoch so indelibly that time itself cannot wipe it out. Such names as Sargon II, Shalmaneser, and Tiglathpileser were remembered by posterity as the names of great heroes whose deeds various successors strove to emulate, and whose names were taken up, sometimes by usurpers of the throne, sometimes by legitimate descendants of royalty, and thus doubly perpetuated.

It is not till we are well within the last thousand years of the pre-Christian era, however, that the monarchs of Assyria come to be so well known to us as to seem like true historic personages in the same sense in which these terms would be applied to the Alexanders and Cæsars of a later period. Such kings as Sargon II, Asshurnazirpal, Tiglathpileser III, Shalmaneser II and a little later, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Asshurbanapal, left records so voluminous and so perfectly authenticated as to bring their authors into the clearest light of history. Nowhere else outside of Egypt have such full records been preserved of the deeds of ancient monarchs as in the case of these Assyrian kings. Naturally enough, the record ceases before the destruction of Nineveh; there was no Assyrian scribe left to tell of that tragic event.

But now the scene shifts to Babylon; the kings of that principality take up the broken record, and for a few generations supply us with historical documents of the utmost importance. And where the Babylonian records end, the Persian chronicles begin. These are supplemented in due course by the reports of the Grecian historians, beginning with Herodotus, so that the historical sequence is practically unbroken.

We have seen that these Assyrian and Babylonian records were quite unknown throughout later classical times, and from then on until restored late in the nineteenth century. A peculiar interest, then, attaches to the comparison of these records with the traditions of Babylonian and Assyrian heroes which the classical writers have preserved. In general, it can hardly be said that the comparison is flattering to the classical mind. No Assyrian tablet tells us of any such person as Ninus, the alleged founder of Nineveh. Nor is there any royal cylinder that tells of the mighty conquests of Queen Semiramis. There is, indeed, a queen of that name mentioned, but she is the consort of a late king of Nineveh, and there is nothing recorded to suggest that her achievements were in any respect noteworthy. We are forced to conclude, then, that the Greek historians, in recording the alleged history of Assyria, depended upon verbal traditions. They appear to have been altogether ignorant of the contents of the authentic historical documents, many of which were still accessible in the libraries of Babylonia when Herodotus visited that city. It is interesting to note, however, that the Greeks had a vivid realisation of the sometime greatness of Assyria, even though they were unable to form a clear and correct image of the picture. Semiramis was really an idealised impersonation of the general conception of the Assyrian conqueror. Sargon, Tiglathpileser, and their successors were forgotten in name, but their deeds were vaguely remembered, and out of the reminiscences of their actual conquests arose the conception of a mythical ruler, whose name was destined for centuries to supplant the names of actual heroes. What happened here is but a repetition of what has happened elsewhere under similar conditions. There is no myth without its background of fact. Had there never been great conquerors ruling over Assyria, there would never have arisen the legend of Semiramis. That “there is no smoke without some fire” is a maxim which the historian should never overlook; it is a maxim to which the story of Assyrian history gives peculiar emphasis.

So much has been said about the sources of Assyrian history that only a word need be added here. We shall have occasion as we proceed, to call attention in greater detail to the specific records of various kings. In addition to these, however, there are certain historical documents of a more general character, which have been largely instrumental in enabling the modern investigator to reconstruct Babylonian and Assyrian history. The most important of these are certain Babylonian king-lists and a so-called Synchronistic History, in which the succession of rulers in Babylonia and in Assyria is synchronised. These chronological documents taken together do not enable us fully to reconstruct the history of the long periods in question, but the gaps are relatively insignificant, in particular after about the year 1000 B.C.; and for the later monarchs of Assyria the records are often so voluminous as to furnish accurate details regarding all the events of importance.

It has already been pointed out that the earliest history of Assyria is no less obscure than that of early Babylonia. As nearly as the facts can now be restored to us, it would appear that for some centuries the people to the north of Babylonia were struggling for supremacy against the older civilisation of the South. Gradually the northerners--the Assyrians, as they became known--gained in strength until, finally, about the beginning of the fourteenth century B.C., under Shalmaneser I, Asshur obtained a position at least equal to Babylonia. After the death of this monarch Assyria seems to have weakened for a time, and it is not until about 1100 B.C. that another great monarch appeared to put the stamp of his personality upon the epoch. This new ruler was known as Tiglathpileser I. He has been called the first of the great Assyrian conquerors, though perhaps this estimate does scant justice to certain of his predecessors. In any event, he restored the influence of Assyria, subjugated Babylonia, and is said to have been the first Assyrian ruler to be crowned as “King of the Four Corners of the Earth.” It is believed that Nineveh was established as the capital of the empire in the reign of the son and successor of Tiglathpileser, who bore the unfamiliar name of Asshur-bel-kala.

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 950-825 B.C.]]

It is curious how largely the personality of an individual monarch dominates the history of an epoch among oriental nations. An illustration of this familiar fact is shown by antithesis in the scantiness of the records for about a century after the death of Tiglathpileser. Imperfect records reappear about 950 B.C., but it is not till about three-quarters of a century later that Assyria rises again to a time of might. Then, under Asshurnazirpal, one of the most enterprising and most cruel of conquerors, the stamp of Assyrian influence was put upon all surrounding nations. Shalmaneser II largely sustained the traditions of his father, and the power of Assyria was upheld, if not extended, by the next rulers, Tiglathpileser III and Shalmaneser IV.

How fully the deeds of these later Assyrian monarchs are known to us will appear in the succeeding pages. Monarchs of even greater celebrity were to come after; yet perhaps the reign of Asshurnazirpal (885-860 B.C.) may not unjustly be regarded as the period when Assyria obtained its greatest power and its highest civilisation. The bas-reliefs from the palace of Asshurnazirpal, which were exhumed by Layard and which are now exhibited in the British Museum, are in some respects the most perfect examples of Assyrian art that have been preserved. It is true that the artists of two centuries later had developed a more elaborate fashion in the matter of details; but the rugged outlines of the earlier masters tell of art in its creative period. The models produced in this epoch were never to be altered in their essentials during the entire course of Assyrian history. Such hunting scenes as that in which Asshurnazirpal, standing in his chariot, is seen shooting an arrow at an enraged and wounded lion, were perhaps never quite equalled by any Assyrian artist of a later epoch. The art of this time shows examples also of massive sculptures, such as the human-headed bulls and lions, in relative abundance. A curious feature of the later sculptures is that they usually present inscriptions written across pedestal and figure alike. Needless to say, these inscriptions record deeds of the great conqueror. Unfortunately, many of them are repetitions, but even so they preserve relatively comprehensive records of the achievements of the great king.

Even fuller records are preserved of Shalmaneser II. In particular, the black obelisk on which the deeds of this king are presented, both in graphic pictures and in extensive inscriptions, is one of the most famous of Assyrian antiquities. The exact character of this inscription and of the other records in question will be detailed in the succeeding pages.[a] Before proceeding to the history proper, let us study the theatre where the drama was played and the origins of the actors.

LAND AND PEOPLE

The land of Assyria, in the more restricted sense of the term, lies for the most part on the left bank of the Tigris, and is bounded on the south by the Lower Zab. Hence, strictly speaking, it would not form part of Mesopotamia were it not that the capital importance of the Tigris to the country and the trend of its other rivers make it a kind of appendage to the alluvial plain, and that the mountain ranges of the North constitute a boundary which cuts it off from the rest of the world, and thus naturally assigns it to Mesopotamia. Consequently, as soon as the Assyrians gained their independence and started on a career of conquest, it was natural that they should first extend their borders in that direction.

Mesopotamia consists of a great low-lying plain divided by no physical barrier. It was natural, therefore, that the policy of all powerful rulers in that region should have had for its aim the political unification of all parts of the country, united as they were already by a common civilisation and economic interdependence. The efforts of the Assyrians were likewise directed towards this end, though it was long before they obtained it. In the kingdom of Babylonia, which asserted its sway over the whole southern portion of the plain and its dependent provinces, they were at first confronted by an adversary strong enough to resist them, and all that fell to them for the time being was the northern half of Mesopotamia, the greater part of which remained under their dominion, and was merged into an Assyrian empire, just as the whole of Babylonia had been merged into a Babylonian empire. We shall see, however, that the memory of the separate existence of the two component parts of the empire at an earlier stage still subsisted in certain customs and relics of civil law, just as it did in Babylonia.

The Assyrians were a Semitic race, and, but for slight differences of dialect, spoke the same language as the Semitic-Babylonians. The Assyrian branch of the race constituted, in the first instance, an outpost on the left bank of the Tigris, where it developed on somewhat different lines from the Semites who remained in Mesopotamia. We have every reason for assuming that, before the Assyrians made their way into the country, the whole of Mesopotamia, the north no less than the south, was occupied by a Semitic population, distinct from the Aramæans--themselves probably recent immigrants--and united by a common civilisation. This is the race which we have styled Babylonians, as distinguished from the Sumerians, or, more exactly, Semitic-Babylonians, in treating of Babylonia. We are absolutely in the dark as to the extent to which these Semites of the North may have absorbed elements of an elder Sumerian population that may have survived, for in the earliest times concerning which we have any historic testimony the Semites were predominant even in northern Babylonia, much more, therefore, in northern Mesopotamia.

The Assyrians must have developed on independent lines, for in all other respects they differ materially from the Babylonians. In the latter we have made the acquaintance of a people peaceably disposed, nay, actually unwarlike, concerned mainly with the development of their civilisation--qualities which, when we compare them with the Assyrians, we are inclined to set to the account of their Sumerian blood. The latter were probably the most warlike of all the Semitic nations of the East, and maintained the purity of their racial type; for the features of the figures in their sculptures exhibit to a marked degree the characteristics which strike us nowadays as peculiar to the Jewish race. They also differ from the Babylonians in figure, for the latter are usually represented as short and thick-set, while the Assyrians are of somewhat lofty stature and powerful build.

The land of Assyria is very different from Mesopotamia proper. The nearness of the mountain ranges makes the climate cooler, and the soil is probably less productive than that of the lowlands along the river. Nor were the means of transport within its borders as good as in Mesopotamia proper, for the Tigris only constituted the frontier, and the swiftness of its current made it less well adapted for traffic than the Euphrates, which formed the most convenient natural line of communication in the plain of Mesopotamia.

In Babylonia we made the acquaintance of a country which had developed its own civilisation, and one where the inhabitants held in proud and honourable remembrance the various stages of its economic and political development,--a sentiment reflected in the religious cults of the ancient cities, the centres of civilisation. With Assyria it is otherwise. That country began to play its part in Mesopotamian history with the set purpose of appropriating what Babylonia had achieved. The Assyrians had no such gains, hallowed by the associations of thousands of years to boast of in their own country. They were a tardy supplement to the Semitic immigration. They felt themselves an appendage to the Semitic population already settled in Mesopotamia, and consequently regarded its ancient cults as, in a measure, their own. The fact implies an unconscious confession that they had nothing analogous or equivalent to set against the old centres of Babylonian civilisation, and, as a matter of fact, the chief towns of Assyria cannot for a moment be compared in importance with those of Babylonia. The most famous of the former owed their day of splendour to the rise of the Assyrian Empire or even, to some extent, to the fancy of individual kings; and when the Assyrian Empire passed from the stage of history these, its artificial creations, were abolished with it.

Babylonia rose again after every fresh blow, because her rise to the position she held had its root in a vital need of the peoples of anterior Asia; while soon after the fall of the Assyrian Empire the very names of the great cities of Assyria had passed from the memory of the dwellers in the land. The case is different with the cities of northern Mesopotamia, which belonged to the Assyrian Empire, but existed before its rise, and survived its fall. The only other exception among the large Assyrian cities is Arbela, which, being situate at the junction of the trade routes to northern Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Media, had probably been in existence before the time of the Assyrian Empire, and likewise retained its importance to a later period.

ASSYRIAN CAPITALS: ASSHUR AND NINEVEH

The oldest capital of Assyria was Asshur, situated on the right bank of the Tigris, on the site of the present Kalah Sherghat. It was originally the seat of rulers called patesis, who were probably subjects of the Babylonian monarchy. In the first half of the second millennium B.C. these rulers extended their sway over the district which they styled “the land of the city of Asshur,” and assumed the title of “king.” Asshur was always held in honour as the ancient capital, but it lay so far to the south (being, in fact, almost beyond the borders of the country), that it soon became imperative for the “kings of Assyria” to transfer the centre of government to a more convenient place. Shalmaneser I (_circa_ 1300) accordingly chose Calah for his residence. The natural result was the decline of the importance of Asshur, since its situation was not such as to assure it a leading position. In later times it subsisted mainly upon its old reputation, and enjoyed special privileges, which were confirmed even by Sargon. It was the seat of Asshur, the chief national divinity. The kings of Assyria, from Shalmaneser I to Sargon, held their court at Calah (Nimrud). Its consequence seems to have declined after the reign of Tiglathpileser I, for his son, Asshur-bel-kala removed to Nineveh, which remained the royal residence till the reign of Asshurnazirpal. The latter rebuilt Calah and so improved it that it remained the capital until Sargon chose Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad), which in turn Nineveh replaced as capital.

Nineveh (Ninua), situated above Calah, on the left bank of the Tigris, and opposite the present town of Mosul, is now represented by the two mounds of Kuyunjik and Neby-Yunus. It was one of the oldest and most important cities of the province of Assyria, and was highly esteemed from the very earliest times of the Assyrian Empire as being the seat of a cult of an Ishtar known as “Ishtar of Ninua,” to distinguish her from the Ishtar of Arbela. We must therefore look upon it as a city which originally stood on an equal footing with Asshur, and was subjugated by the patesi of the latter city. It became the royal residence in the reign of Asshur-bel-kala, the son of Tiglathpileser (or even earlier), and remained so until the reign of Asshurnazirpal. But it really owed its fame as the capital and chief city of Assyria, which it represented in the eyes of other nations, to Sennacherib. He built an entirely new Nineveh, which was to show forth worthily the power and glory of the Assyrian Empire. His successors continued to reside there, and contributed to its splendour. Esarhaddon and Asshurbanapal built palaces there, and Nineveh formed the last bulwark of the Assyrian Empire.

In the Euphrates Valley, and mainly on the right bank, between the bank where the river turns towards the southwest and Babylonia, various states had come into being which, by the force of their natural connection with Babylonia, inclined towards that kingdom rather than towards Assyria and northern Mesopotamia. There are Laqi, Khindanu, and (east of the latter) Sukhi, or Shuhi, which last extended from somewhere near the mouth of the Khabur to Babylonia, and was under Babylonian ascendency down to a late period. These states had probably in the first instance been dependencies of the Babylonian Empire, but had enjoyed virtual independence from the time of the fall of Babylonia and the rise of Assyria. Asshurnazirpal was the first to subjugate these “governors,” who, up to this time, had “paid no tribute” to the Assyrian kings, and who were supported by Babylonia in their struggle with Assyria. The population of these states was composed of the same elements as that of Mesopotamia. The original Semitic-Babylonian settlers had been ousted by Aramæan immigrants. This was most evident in Laqi, the westernmost, which was not a homogeneous body politic in the reign of Asshurnazirpal, but was governed by various sheikhs. And, generally speaking, these states were semi-nomadic commonwealths.

THE RISE OF ASSYRIA

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1741-1300 B.C.]]

The city of Asshur was originally a patesi-ship. The situation of Asshur seems to point to a close connection with Babylonia rather than with northern Mesopotamia, and for the present, at least, it seems most likely that we ought to regard it as a vassal state to Babylonia or the Kingdom of the Four Quarters of the World. Nor must we ignore the possibility that it may have formed part of the realm of the “Kishshati.”

A record left by an Assyrian king enables us to determine one point of time, at least, when Asshur was still a dependency and ruled by a patesi. Tiglathpileser I built that part of the great temple of Asshur which was intended for the worship of the gods Anu and Ramman (Adad), and in the record he has left he observes that this temple was built by the patesi Shamshi-Adad, the son of Ishme-Dagan, patesi of Asshur, six hundred and forty-one years before the reign of his own great-grandfather Asshur-dan, sixty years earlier. Accordingly Asshur must have been ruled by patesis sixty plus six hundred and forty-one years before 1100, when Tiglathpileser was on the throne, and its exaltation to the rank of a kingdom must have taken place later than that. The names of two patesis of Asshur and those of their fathers are known to us from inscriptions of their own. One of them, Shamshi-Adad, and his father, Igur-Kapkapu, we may place before or after Shamshi, the son of Ishme-Dagan, with equal probability, while the form of the other two names, Irishum and his father Khallu, being simple and exhibiting nothing of the compound character of later Assyrian names, leads us to conjecture that they belong to an earlier period.

The names of these six patesis and their work in the building of the temple of Asshur represent our whole stock of knowledge concerning Asshur before it rose to be a royal city. The first king of Assyria of whom we know anything is Asshur-bel-nish-eshu, who is introduced to us by the Synchronistic History as a contemporary of the Kossæan[22] king Karaindash of Babylon. As this monarch reigned some time about the first half of the fifteenth century B.C., there is an interval of over three hundred years between him and the patesi Shamshi-Adad, an interval of which we know nothing except that the rise of Asshur and the establishment of the kingdom of Assyria must fall within it. Of the circumstances and conditions under which these events took place we know nothing in detail, but an explanation naturally suggests itself from the state of Babylonia. During this same period Babylonia had sunk to such a depth of decrepitude that her own strength was no longer adequate to secure her against hordes of invaders, and she could continue to exist only under the protection of the Kossæan kings and their armies. These disorders, which inevitably attend such a state of things, served, as they invariably do in the East, to promote the formation of new states under energetic and enterprising leaders, and to these circumstances the kingdom of Asshur probably owed its rise.

From the reign of Shalmaneser I (_circa_ 1300) onwards the kings of Assyria bear the title of “Shar Kishshati” and even place it before that of “King of Asshur.” “Shar Kishshati” means “King of the World,” and the title is thus formed in the same fashion as the Babylonian “King of the Four Quarters of the World.” And the Assyrian title, like the Babylonian, was not merely general in scope, but was bound up with the possession of a particular district and particular cities.

It is doubtful whether Assyria subdued the kingdom of the Kishshati from the outset, or gained possession of it at a later period. According to the scanty records at present open to us, the latter hypothesis seems the more probable. The first Assyrian king to bear the title of “Shar Kishshati” is Shalmaneser I (about 1300), and he gives it to his father, Adad-nirari I (or Ramman-nirari), although the latter does not assume it in his own inscription. Shalmaneser attaches so much weight to this title that on a couple of bricks, which date from his reign, he actually styles himself “King of Kishshati” alone, and omits the royal title of Assyria; and we therefore may conclude that the union of northern Mesopotamia and Assyria was the work of Adad-nirari and of Shalmaneser.

This would be at least one fixed point in the earliest history of Assyria from which to trace the development of the empire. Before Shalmaneser we have to do only with the little kingdom of Asshur, which was chiefly engaged in struggles with Babylonia and its eastern neighbours, and after his time with the united dominions of Assyria and northern Mesopotamia, the leading power of Mesopotamian civilisation against the West and the attacks of barbarians on every side. The Synchronistic History is our principal guide to Assyrian history, as it was to the history of Babylonia before it came into touch with Assyria. We have but few inscriptions of the kings of this early stage of Assyria’s existence, and only by the aid of the above-mentioned document can we more or less connectedly trace the course of history. Before the reign of Asshur-bel-nish-eshu, at which the chronicle now begins, we can be sure of nothing but a great blank.

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1450-1325 B.C.]]

With Asshur-bel-nish-eshu, who reigned in the first half of the fifteenth century, begins a line of kings with a certain degree of continuity. Of himself we only know what is told in the Synchronistic History, namely, that he concluded an alliance with Karaindash of Babylon by which they guaranteed one another in possession of their dominions. He was presently--though perhaps not immediately--succeeded by Puzur-Asshur [probably about 1420 B.C.] of whom we are told the same thing. He entered into friendly alliance with Burna-buriash.

Of his supposed successor, Asshur-nadin-akhe, we know, from the letters of his son Asshur-uballit to Amenhotep IV, that he, like his Babylonian contemporary, held communication with the kings of Egypt. In an inscription of a later king mention is made of a building of his, the foundation of a palace at Asshur. For the rest, it is by no means impossible that he may have reigned before Puzur-Asshur, and that the latter, as well as Asshur-uballit, was his son.

We possess a letter written by Asshur-uballit to Amenhotep IV of Egypt. It gives an account of presents made to the king of Egypt--a war chariot yoked to two white horses, and a seal cylinder--makes excuse for the tardy return of Egyptian ambassadors on the plea that they had been stopped by the (nomadic) Sutu, and contains the usual importunate requests for richer presents in return. In Babylonia, Asshur-uballit succeeded in making a way for Assyrian interference, and thus came a step nearer to the goal all kings of Assyria longed to reach, the suzerainty of Babylon. Apart from the attempt of Asshur-narara and Nabu-daian, which presumably came to nothing, the little kingdom of Assyria had been on friendly terms with Babylonia, and had made alliance which probably contributed more to her own security than that of the other party. Internal troubles were the pretext which first rendered feasible his successful interference in Babylonian affairs.

The assassination of the Babylonian king by the malcontent Kossæans, and the elevation of Nazibugash to the throne, gave Asshur-uballit an admirable pretext for restoring “order” in Babylonia and placing Kurigalzu, his other grandson, on the throne. Adad-nirari mentions another expedition of his against the Shubari. His successor, Bel-nirari I [about 1370 B.C.], boasts in his inscription that he conquered the Kasshu (Kossæans) and enlarged the borders of the land. This probably refers to a distinct campaign against the Kasshu, and not to the war with Kurigalzu II, in which he was likewise victorious. The latter enterprise also resulted in territorial expansion, which does not necessarily seem to have been made permanent.

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1325-1275 B.C.]]

Pudi-ilu (about 1350), the son and successor of Bel-nirari, waged war, we are told by his son, Adad-nirari, against the otherwise unknown Turuki and Nigimkhi, who probably dwelt somewhere in the direction of Armenia, and extended the Assyrian frontier to the north (Gutium). Adad-nirari I (about 1325) has left an inscription which has been discovered at Kalah Shergat (Asshur). According to it, he, like his predecessors, waged most of his wars on the northeastern frontier of his kingdom, and endeavoured, by building cities, to revive the prosperity of the region occupied by the Shubari, Lulumi, Guti, and Kasshu of the northeast, which had been laid waste by previous wars. His inscription relates mainly to the buildings he erected in connection with the temple of Asshur. It is the first from Assyria with a definite date. It was indited in the limmu (_i.e._ the year of office) of Shulman-kharradu.

His son, Shalmaneser I (about 1300), was one of the mightiest Assyrian kings, and probably the first who raised Asshur to a position equal, if not superior, to that of Babylonia. We do not know much about him from inscriptions left by himself, and are therefore obliged to depend on occasional statements of succeeding kings. He ruled over Mesopotamia westward to the Balikh at least, if not to the Euphrates, and assured to Assyria the possession of the northern tract between the Euphrates and Tigris, which was afterward the provinces of Gumathene and Sophene. He founded colonies there, and planted them with Assyrian settlers to form a bulwark to Mesopotamia against the tribes of the North. Afterwards, when the power of Assyria was impaired, these colonies were in great straits, but they held their own, and were then reinforced by Asshurnazirpal, to whom they served as a welcome basis for the new Assyrian province of Tuskhan which he established there.

With the extension of the kingdom and the inclusion of northern Mesopotamia, the need of another capital than Asshur, which lay too far to the south, made itself felt. The city Shalmaneser chose for this purpose was Calah, which remained the capital down to the time of Sargon, except during the period of decline which followed upon the reign of Tiglathpileser I. His object in this change of residence was clearly to give expression to the altered state of things which had come about in Assyria and Mesopotamia. Assyria was not to be the privileged kingdom, but the two political organisations, Asshur and the Kingdom of the Kishshati, were to be equal members of the new empire, each retaining its own centre in Asshur and Kharran respectively, while the king founded his own capital for himself, to avoid giving the preference to either.

Shalmaneser’s son, Tukulti-Ninib I (about 1275) [but probably somewhat earlier] was no less fortunate in his enterprises than his father. He was the first to achieve the object of every king in Assyria--dominion over Babylon. Adad-nirari III, in his list of his ancestors, styles him “King of Sumer and Accad,” from which we may certainly conclude that he held the same sort of position toward the whole of Babylonia, and the kingdom of Babylon more particularly, as was afterward attained by Shalmaneser II--that is to say, he must have ruled over the several provinces of all Babylonia and exercised a kind of suzerainty over Babylon.

The rapid rise of Assyria seems to have been followed by equally rapid decline. For a hundred years we have hardly any information concerning it, and do not even know the names of the kings who reigned during that period. The lack of inscriptions, or, at any rate, of vaunting records in the reigns of later kings, seems in itself to indicate a time of humiliation, while the conditions which we find prevailing when our sources of information become more copious, show that soon after the reign of Tukulti-Ninib, and therefore probably before the end of the thirteenth century B.C., the power of Assyria must have been seriously curtailed and exposed to grievous shocks. Whence they arose we shall presently see.[b]

There is scarcely a year in which additional information concerning this obscure period does not come to light. A recently deciphered fragment of the Babylonian Chronicle mentions an Assyrian king, Tukulti-Asshur-Bel, contemporaneous with Tukulti-Ninib, but of the relation of the two kings nothing is stated. Professor Winckler in _Altorientalische Forschungen_, suggests that the former was the latter’s son, and co-regent while he was engaged in ruling and reducing Babylon. Professor Rogers sums up the end of Tukulti-Ninib’s life: “For seven years was this rule over Babylonia maintained. The Babylonians rebelled, drove out the Assyrian conquerors, and set up once more a Babylonian, Adad-shum-usur (about 1268-1239 B.C.), over them. When Tukulti-Ninib returned to Assyria he found even his own people in rebellion under the leadership of his son. In the civil war that followed he lost his life, and the most brilliant reign in Assyrian history up to that time was closed.”

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1275-1235 B.C.]]

This rebellious son was not the above mentioned Tulkulti-Asshur-Bel, but Asshurnazirpal I. His reign continues the period of decline, and in it it is believed that Adad-shum-usur actually attacked Assyria. Next come two kings, Asshur-narara and Nabu-daian, whose reigns seem to have been contemporaneous (about 1250 B.C.). A fragment of a clay tablet was found containing a letter from Adad-shum-usur to these two kings, in which he remonstrates on their folly in taking up arms against him, which shows that Babylon’s power was still waxing.[a]

We do not know how it came to pass that Assyria lost the ascendancy she had gained over Babylonia under Tukulti-Ninib, but it is certain that some fifty years later Bel-kudur-usur found himself relegated to Assyria proper, and was obliged to fight for the possession of his capital. [According to Professor Rogers, Meli-Shipak (about 1238) and Marduk-apal-iddin (about 1223-1211) were the Babylonian kings in this war. He places Adad-shum-iddin’s death at 1269, and Adad-shum-usur’s at 1238 B.C., basing these dates on some recent illuminative suggestions of Professor Hommel.] The Synchronistic History, which is incomplete at this point, states that Ninib-apal-esharra (who was probably the son of Bel-kudur-usur) was forced to retreat. The Babylonians appear to have pursued and besieged him in his own capital of Asshur, and there a battle was fought, in which, according to the apparent purport of the Synchronistic History, the Assyrians were beaten. But the victory, if victory it were, cannot have been decisive, for after the battle the Babylonians withdrew without making any further attempt to invade the remoter parts of the country. The defeat of the Assyrians must, therefore, have been more like a successful defence of their city. Slight as this clew is, it makes it evident that for a while Assyria had to fight for her life against Babylon, and that she held her own with difficulty. The development of this state of things must be sought in the great hiatus made by the reign of Bel-kudur-usur. The titles of the Babylonian kings of the period also go to prove that at this time Babylonia had actually repossessed herself of northern Mesopotamia.

Since we find Tiglathpileser in possession of much the same dominions as Tukulti-Ninib (though Sumer and Accad did not belong to him), the course of events during all the twelfth century, from Ninib-apal-esharra to Asshur-rish-ishi, is self-evident. The business in hand was the reconquest of what had been lost, and at it the succeeding rulers steadily and successfully laboured.

Of Ninib-apal-esharra, the Synchronistic History says nothing except that he successfully withstood the Babylonian attack, nor does Tiglathpileser mention any other deeds of his. The latter, however, expressly gives him the character of a capable commander, “who led the troops of Asshur aright,” presumably with reference to his retreat after the death of Bel-kudur-usur and the repulse of the Babylonian king.

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1200-1116 B.C.]]

His son and successor, Asshur-dan (about 1200 B.C.), won some victories over Babylon and reconquered some parts beyond the Zab from Samana-shum-iddin (king of Babylonia). Tiglathpileser lays stress upon the fact that he lived to a great age (to about 1150 B.C.). Of his son, Mutakkil-Nusku, no particulars are known. He probably carried on the work of his predecessors, for Assyria gradually regained all she had lost.

Then Asshur-rish-ishi (about 1140 B.C.), the father of Tiglathpileser I, reports that he had reconquered the Lulumi and Kuti, whom Adad-nirari had formerly subjugated, and who had either fallen under the sway of Babylon or made themselves independent; and that he had repulsed the nomads, whom Adad-nirari had likewise driven back, and who had naturally taken advantage of Assyria’s weakness to press forward again. His war with Nebuchadrezzar I, king of Babylon, seems to have been waged mainly for the possession of Mesopotamia, which the defeat of the nomads was also intended to secure. It is most probable that he gained his end, the evacuation of the kingdom of Kishshati, of which Nebuchadrezzar styles himself king in one of his inscriptions.[b]

THE FIRST GREAT ASSYRIAN CONQUEROR

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1116-1050 B.C.]]

Asshur-rish-ishi’s son, Tiglathpileser I (Tu-kulti-apal-esharra, meaning “My help is the son of Esharra,” _i.e._ the god Ninib), is the first of the great Assyrian conquerors. Directly after his accession to the throne he marched against the Mushke (Mushkaya) to conquer the districts previously taken by them. The Mushke (the Meshech of the Old Testament, and the Moschi of the Greeks) were defeated, as well as the people of Kummukh and the mountainous races of the Kharia and Qurkhi country stretching from the north of the Tigris to the Upper Zab. In the next campaign the same district was traversed, but the king then crossed the Lower Zab, and thence proceeded northward into the mountains. The whole mountainous district was then incorporated with the Assyrian kingdom, and Tiglathpileser was then able to proceed to the subjugation of the lands of western Armenia and Pontis, never before entered by the Assyrian rulers.

He crossed sixteen mountains, reached (what he calls the land of the Nairi) the upper Euphrates, which he crossed, and defeated in a great battle twenty-five kings [twenty-three according to others], who encountered him with their troops and war chariots. The enemies were pursued as far as the banks of the Black Sea, when all the princes swore fealty and bound themselves to pay tribute. On the return march the town Milidia, _i.e._ Melitene on the Euphrates, was taken and forced to pay tribute.

The next, the fourth campaign of the king was directed against the Aramæans, of the North Mesopotamian steppe; he penetrated as far as the Euphrates, and conquered several places in the vicinity of Carchemish. Then followed an expedition to the east against [the Musri and] the then unknown race of the Qumani. In later years Tiglathpileser undertook campaigns in the west. An inscription at the source of the Supnat, the first easterly tributary of the Tigris, tells us that he traversed the country of Nairi (Armenia) three times, and that he subjugated all the country “from the great sea of the west country to the sea of Nairi.” In particular we learn that he made a voyage in ships from Arvad (Aradus) on the Mediterranean Sea, that he hunted in Lebanon (he was a passionate hunter), and that the kings of Egypt sent him some rare sea fishes as a present. It is very probable that one of the mutilated inscriptions which the Assyrian kings had put up on the Dog River (the Nahr-el-Kelb, north of Beirut), quite close to the victory monuments of Ramses II, related to Tiglathpileser. He also made war against Marduk-nadin-akhe of Babylon, but with no success; at least we learn that the Babylonian king, in the year 1110 B.C., carried off images of gods from an Assyrian city. [According to Professor Rogers, Tiglathpileser marched to Babylon and was there acknowledged King of the Four Quarters of the World.]

However, Tiglathpileser in a second campaign was completely victorious in a battle of the Lower Zab, and took all the capitals of the northern half of Accad: Dur-Kurigalzu, the double town Sippar, Babylon, and Upi. The steppe district on the western bank of the Euphrates (the land of the Shuhi or Sukhi) was also subjugated by him. Thus did Tiglathpileser create a great kingdom, which included the whole district of the Euphrates and Tigris, as far as Babylon, as well as the mountainous country of western Armenia and eastern Asia Minor, as far as Pontis; and his supremacy was also recognised by northern Syria.

Of the organisation of the kingdom, we only know that the contiguous districts, such as the valley of the Khabur, eastern Kummukh, and Qurkhe were incorporated with the state, and governed by Assyrian ministers, whilst the more distant countries retained their native rulers, and were only bound to the payment of tribute. The kingdom has no enduring position. We hear that Asshur-bel-kala (about 1090 B.C.), the son of Tiglathpileser, lived in the greatest peace with Marduk-shapik-zer-mati, the Babylonian king. When, after the latter’s fall, Adad-apal-iddin, the son of Esagila-shaduni, was raised to the throne, Asshur-bel-kala married his daughter and brought her home to Assyria, with many presents. [In this reign, according to Rogers, the seat of empire was probably established at Nineveh.]

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1050-884 B.C.]]

Babylonia had evidently regained her complete independence, though the Assyrian chronicles fail to relate the means whereby it was achieved. Asshur-bel-kala was succeeded by his brother Shamshi-Adad (about 1080 B.C.), of whom we know nothing further; and then follows a great gap in the line of kings. [Here may be inserted the names of Asshurnazirpal II about 1050 B.C., Erba-Adad, and Asshur-nadin-akhe.]

Of King Asshur-erbi it is only mentioned that under him the districts conquered by Tiglathpileser, namely, the country Pitru on the Sagur near Carchemish, and the city of Mutkinu, east of the Euphrates, were taken by the Aramæan king. This was evidently the king of the country of Bit-Adini, whose chief dominion lay east of the Euphrates, the capital being Tel-Barsip, which is probably Birejik, opposite the Zeugma of the Greeks. At the beginning of the ninth century we again have more accurate information about Assyria, and so find that, beyond a part of the mountainous district east and southeast of Nineveh, the kings now have only the country on the upper Tigris (around Amida), Kummukh, and a great part of the cultivated land of Mesopotamia.

The district on the Euphrates, opposite Carchemish, is independent and split up into several princedoms (Bit-Adini, Nila, Bit-Bachiani, and farther north, Tel-Abnai), the exact boundaries of which it has hitherto been impossible to determine. The country on the Balikh seems to have remained Assyrian; it is very remarkable that the city of Kharran is not mentioned in any of the later campaigns. The district farther east, Nisibis and the neighbouring Gozan, the fruitful valleys of the Khabur and its tributaries, even the city of Suru in the land of Bit-Khalupe on the Euphrates (Sura, east of Thapsachos), were governed by Assyrian ministers. The government of Assyrian ministers in the lower valley of the Khabur is of special interest to us.

The whole district of this river, as well as the land of Sangara farther east, is full of heaps and ruins, which mark the localities of old and later times. The most important are the ruins at the place now called Arban on the Khabur. Here are the remains of an ancient palace, built in the Assyrian style, with four winged oxen, with men’s heads, an open-mouthed lion, the portrait in relief of a warrior, etc. The oxen bear the inscription “Palace of the Mushesh-Ninib.” The possibility of getting at a satisfactory date for this palace is unfortunately not yet apparent. That scarabs of Tehutimes III and Amenhotep III have been found in Arban and Calah, is no sufficient clew. As King Asshurnazirpal III of Assyria went down the Khabur in the year 884 B.C., Shulman-khaman-ilani of Sadikkan and Ilu-Adad of Shuma brought him heavy tribute. Doubtless one of these two places is the Arban of to-day, and their governors were semi-independent Assyrian ministers, known as the Mushesh-Ninib, for the names, writing, and style of art show us that we have not here to do with a native government. The population of the valley of the Khabur was doubtless Aramæan, like that of Kharran and Nisibis.

[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1090-885 B.C.]]

The eleventh and tenth centuries B.C. confirmed the complete freedom of the local government of the countries of Western Asia. Whilst the kingdom of the Pharaohs was decaying from age, a new nation was rising in Syria and evolving an active intelligent life of its own.

The Phœnician merchants circulated the products of the civilisation of Syria along all the coasts of the Mediterranean, and the dwellers on the Ægean Sea having already entered the circle of cultured races, competing with the Phœnicians in trade and the traverse of the sea, took possession of the coasts one after another and thereby developed a complete political and intellectual life. The fate of Western Asia was determined by the evolution of Syria’s culture not taking a wide-reaching, powerful, political form, but rather hindering it. Since the days of the Kheta kingdom’s glory, there has been no great power in Syria. So when a conquering, military state was now formed on the Tigris, under a fearless, warlike prince, it met with no sustained resistance.

The success of Assyria was due to her military organisation. Little as we know of its particulars, there can be no doubt that the whole race regarded war and conquest as the real aims of existence, and the more successful they were, the more they ignored all other sides of life; whereas the little states of Syria made tillage, trade, and industry the chief occupations of their life, albeit every inhabitant was presumably bound, like the Israelites, to take up arms in case of need, in the defence of his country. The sole great military power was Egypt, but her warrior caste was composed of foreign mercenaries who exploited the country, although from a military point of view they evidently did not benefit it more than the generality of their class in similar cases.

The outcome of events was thus a foregone conclusion. The Assyrian campaigns of two centuries ended in the political and national fall of the races of Syria. The progress of events then led further to the annihilation of nationality in the whole of Western Asia. The kingdom of Tiglathpileser I fell, soon after his death, and there now ensues a little later a gap of more than a century in our information about Assyria. The very scanty notices commence about 950 B.C. Asshur-dan II, mentioned as “the maker of a canal,” reigned at that time. [A recently discovered inscription of Adad-nirari II speaks of his grandfather Tiglathpileser. Therefore, a new Tiglathpileser, the second of his name, is now reckoned in the list of kings, and the approximate dates 950-930 B.C. assigned to his reign. Nothing is known of him except that he is called “King of Kishshati and King of Asshur.” Asshur-dan II’s reign is now put down as beginning 930 B.C., and Adad-nirari II’s at 911.] Asshur-dan’s successor, Adad-nirari II, mentioned with the building at the “Gate of the Tigris” (890 B.C.), conquers King Shamash-mudammik of Babylon in a battle on Mount Yalman, and made war against his successor, Nabu-shum-ishkun [who was also defeated and yielded certain cities]. In the peace made by an alliance, the boundary was fixed near the city of Tel-Bari, south of the Lower Zab.

The next king, Tukulti-Ninib II (890-885 B.C.), fought in the northwest mountains, and at the source of Supnat, the first tributary of the Tigris, he had his statue (stele) erected near that of Tiglathpileser. In spite of repeated attacks, the mountainous districts on the east as far as the lake of Van, the chief part of the land of Qurkhi, retained essentially their independence. The warlike efforts of these rulers had been hitherto directed against the races of the mountains of Kasjar (Masius), the south of the Tigris, and close to Aramæan Mesopotamia, which, in spite of numerous campaigns, had never been subjugated. If Nisibis, Gozan, and the valley of the Khabur, and apparently also Kharran, belonged to the Assyrians under Asshurnazirpal, they either remained independent after the twelfth century, or were subjugated by the kings of this period. In the east, the mountainous races of Khubushkia and Kirruri (on the Upper Zab, and as far as the lake of Urumiyeh) are tributary, and on the Lower Zab, we find under Asshurnazirpal, an Assyrian governor of Dagara, in the land of the Euphrates, whose fortified citadels were mostly situated on the banks of the river, or like Anat, on an island, paid tribute. Tukulti-Ninib’s son, Asshurnazirpal III (885 to 860), entered on fresh conquests directly after his accession to the throne.[c]

THE REIGN AND CRUELTY OF ASSHURNAZIRPAL

[Sidenote: [885-880 B.C.]]

Tiglathpileser’s work of conquest was to be begun over again; Asshurnazirpal felt the full force of the mission, and he accomplished it with a cruelty worthy of the hero he took for pattern, and his successors applied themselves, as did he, to avenge, arms in hand, Asshur’s temporary humiliation.

Scarcely was Asshurnazirpal seated on the throne, when he turned attention to his armies,--his war chariots and armed men were numerous and well equipped; they were ready to take the march. It was the land of Numme which received the first blow. Accustomed to prolonged and uninterrupted peace, the inhabitants had never even thought of measures for defence, and they fled to the mountains at the approach of the Assyrians, who made bloodless captures of the towns of Libe, Surra, Abuku, Arura, and Arubi, situated at the base of Mounts Rime, Aruni, and Etini. “These majestic peaks,” relates Asshurnazirpal, “rise up like daggers’ blades, and only the birds of the sky in their flight can reach their summits. The natives entrenched themselves among them as though in eagles’ nests. None of the kings, my fathers, had ever penetrated so far. In three days I reached those heights; I brought terror in the midst of their hiding places, I shook their nests; two hundred defenders perished by the sword, and I seized their flock and a rich booty. Their corpses strewed the mountains like leaves from the trees, and those who escaped had to take refuge in caves.” These proceedings terrified the peaceful inhabitants of the Kirruri district, who hastened from Simirra, Ulmania, Adanit, Khargai, and Kharasi, to throw themselves at the conqueror’s feet and offered all that he was wont to seize--horses, oxen, sheep, and brazen vessels. They were given an Assyrian governor. Such was the fright throughout the whole of Nairi that while he still lingered in Kirruri, Asshurnazirpal received ambassadors from the people of Gozan and Khubushkia who came from far to the east, bringing presents asking for the chains of slavery.

From Kirruri the Assyrian king went a little to the east into the district of Qurkhi, pillaging in turn at least a dozen towns and finally arrived at the borders of Urartu. The only serious resistance he encountered was under the walls of Nishtum, which paid dear for its courage. These beginnings were a forecast of the future, and Asshurnazirpal did not even wait for the following year to recommence. While still wearing the dignity of “limmu,” on the 24th day of the month Abu (July-August), he set out to lay waste the country now called the Bohtan district, between the Tigris and the western spurs of the Judi Mountains. Here were the districts of Nippur and Pazati, comprising more than twenty important towns, among which Atkun and Pilazi were burned. Asshurnazirpal then crossed the Tigris and invaded Kummukh to claim the annual tribute it had forgotten to furnish. [It is possible that he went for the purpose of quelling a rebellion.]

At the moment he was thinking of going on to the Moschi, more to the northwest, a messenger brought him a letter which contained the following news: “The city of Suru (Surieh of the present day), which is subject to Bit-Khalupe, is in revolt; the inhabitants have put Khamitai, their governor, to death, and have proclaimed Akhi-yababa, son of Lamaman, whom they have brought from Bit-Adini, as their king.” Furious at this information, Asshurnazirpal invoked Asshur and Adad, counted his chariots and soldiers, and flew to the seat of trouble by descending the course of the Khabur. His progress was hampered by the arrival of many persons, their hands filled with presents and their mouths with protestations of fidelity. There were Shulman-khaman-ilani of Sadikkan, Ilu-Adad of Shuma, and a hundred others.

The city of Suru took fright, and the rebels came out to meet him, bringing the keys of the citadel. They kissed his feet, but Asshurnazirpal was inflexible. “I killed one out of every two of them,” he says, and one-half of the remainder was reduced to slavery. Akhi-yababa, a prisoner, witnessed the pillage of his palace, he saw his wives, sons, and daughters in chains, and his tutelary gods, his chariot, his armour, and his treasure carried off. He saw all his ministers flayed alive as well as the leaders of the rebellion. A pyramid erected at the city gate was covered with their skins; some were walled up in the masonry, others were crucified and exposed on stakes along the side of the pyramid. One would hesitate to believe all this and would willingly take the Assyrian monarchs for boasters of their cruelty, if the bas-reliefs with which they decorated their palace walls, and which to-day ornament our museums, did not speak to our eyes or their accompanying inscriptions speak to our intelligence. We must tax our wits to imagine more refinement of torture or of methods of execution.

Before Asshurnazirpal returned to Nineveh, he made a military tour of the regions about the junction on the Khabur and Euphrates, which formed the country of Laqi. All the petty dynasties of this land brought their tribute. Then he advanced as far as Khindanu, on the Euphrates, the frontier of the Shuhi country. On returning to his capital the king was followed by an endless file of slaves, horses, oxen, sheep, chariots laden with stuffs of wool and linen, ingots of gold, bronze and iron, copper and leaden vessels, and wooden framework; the booty, he says, was as numberless as the stars of the sky. The soldiers had laid hold of every manner of object, and in the division a use was found for everything.

At Nineveh the king occupied himself with embellishing his palace while he waited for the spring. In one of the inner courts he erected a statue to himself of colossal size, and the history of his recent conquests was engraved on the palace gates. He was daily obliged to receive the homage of ambassadors who arrived from all parts to acknowledge his suzerainty, offer presents, and claim the sad honour of serving such a master, for they had learned by experience that it was too late for a city to offer its submission when the king was at its gates.

[Sidenote: [880-876 B.C.]]

It happened that Asshurnazirpal was _en pleine fête_ surrounded by his court when news came of a rebellion in the region situated around the sources of the Tigris. The leader of this insurrection was an Assyrian, Khula by name, whom in former days Shalmaneser had appointed governor of Darudamusa and Khalzilukha. The king set out at once, and, arriving at the sources of the Tigris, he sought out the steles which his predecessors, Tiglathpileser and Tukulti-Ninib, had erected, and by their side set up one for himself. On the way he stopped to levy tribute on the country of Izalla and took by assault the cities of Kinabu, Mariru, and Tela. After a bloody contest under the walls of the last place he put out the eyes and cut off the noses and ears of the prisoners whose lives he spared. Khula was flayed alive.

There stood in this region, within the land of Nirbu, a city which bore the name of Asshur and had probably been built by Tiglathpileser in order to control the surrounding country. Since this town had also taken part in the rebellion, Asshurnazirpal caused it to be razed to its foundations as well as the city of Tushka, upon whose ruins he built a pyramid surmounted by his statue and bearing an inscription which related the conquest of the land of Nairi. Here he received tribute of the kings of Nairi. The districts of Urumi and Bituni also brought their gifts. But scarcely had Asshurnazirpal turned his back when all the tribes of Nairi revolted, and he had to return and prosecute a regular man-hunt among the mountains.

The year had been very full, and it was easy to foresee that the disasters following the reign of Tiglathpileser would soon be repaired. In three campaigns Asshurnazirpal had carried the torch over a portion of the land of Nairi, to the south and east of Lake Van, to the sources of the Tigris, through the Khabur Valley, and down the Euphrates. But like the effect of a tempest which passes and devours everything, the Assyrian domination founded only in fear was fatally ephemeral and became shaky just as soon as the chastising arm was observed to withdraw.

[Sidenote: [876-854 B.C.]]

Feeling secure in the direction of Nairi, which he had treated so harshly, Asshurnazirpal turned his attention to the fertile slopes along the left bank of the Tigris. He risked encountering the Babylonians, but these latter had no longer any fear for him, and the weakened, scattered Kassite (or Kossæan) tribes could scarcely be called formidable. Babitu, Dagara, Bara, Kakzi, and twenty other places underwent the fate reserved for cities taken by assault; one hundred and fifty towns were pillaged and burnt, and the whole land of Nishir was devastated. The rainy season suspended hostilities, and Asshurnazirpal returned to winter quarters at Nineveh, but as soon as the weather permitted on the first of Sivan (May) he returned to Zamua. The capital of Zamua was Zamri, and there King Amikha resided, in no condition to resist. He fled to the mountains where Asshurnazirpal dared not pursue him, and contented himself with laying hands on the riches of the palace. All the surrounding districts hastened to offer their submission with the exception of the city of Mizu, which was taken by assault.

The following year was consumed in military expeditions to the sources of the Tigris, in the lands of Kummukh, Qurkhi, and Kashiari, where certain cities like Mattiate and Irisia had neglected to pay tribute or manifested symptoms of rebellion. Asshurnazirpal experienced no serious or well-organised resistance except beneath the walls of Bit-Ura in the land of Dirra. “The city,” he says, “crowns a height, is surrounded by a strong double enceinte and lifts itself like a great thumb above the mountain. With the help of Asshur--my lord--I attacked it with my valorous soldiers, and besieged it for two days from the side of the rising sun. Arrows fell upon it like the hail of the god Adad. Finally, my warriors, whose zeal I had encouraged, fell upon the city like vultures. I took the citadel, I put eight hundred men to the sword, and I cut off their heads. I made a mound with their corpses before the city gate; the prisoners were beheaded and I put seven hundred of them to the cross. The city was pillaged and destroyed; I transformed it into a heap of ruins.” Passing thence into the land of Qurkhi, Asshurnazirpal committed the same atrocities: two hundred captives had their heads cut off, and two thousand others were reduced to slavery. One of the kinglets of the land who had succeeded in winning the king’s good graces from the time of the first war, Ammibaal, by name, son of Zamani, had become odious to his people, because of his friendship for the tyrant, and he was put to death by his own officers. The king of Assyria hastened to avenge his faithful vassal. When the culprits saw the storm advancing, they tried to ward it off by offering all they possessed to the invader, and for once he remained satisfied.

He had under his authority all the regions between the source of the Supnat and the borders of the land of Shabitani on one side; between the land of Kirruri and that of Kilzani on the other, from the banks of the Zab to the city of Tel-Bari which is above Zaban from Tel-Sa-abtan to Tel-Sa-zabtan; besides this he annexed to his empire the cities of Kimiru and Kuratu, the land of Birut and of Kardunyash, and he imposed tribute upon the whole of Nairi.

What was to be done with so much wealth constantly accumulating in the storehouses of Nineveh, and for whom was this gold, these jewels, this bronze, these rich stuffs? To what use could he put these thousands of slaves who ran the risk of becoming so many idle mouths to feed? Asshurnazirpal had the idea of building a palace which would surpass the wildest dreams of his predecessors, and he fixed its location in the city of Calah, which was particularly _the_ city of his dynasty.

British archæologists, who have made a special study of the ruins of Calah, astonished at the treasures they found buried under the mound Nimrud, have attempted to reconstruct from their own imaginations and the recovered documents the general aspect of the city in the days of Asshurnazirpal, who has left his name and inscriptions in every corner of it. “In a strong and healthy position,” says George Rawlinson, “on a low spur of the Jebel Maklub, protected on either side by a deep river, the new capital grew to greatness. Palace after palace rose on its lofty platforms, rich with carved woodwork, gilding, painting, sculpture, and enamel, each aiming to outshine its predecessors; while stone lions, sphinxes, obelisks, shrines, and temple towers embellished the scene, breaking its monotonous sameness by variety. The lofty ziggurat (pyramid) attached to the temple of Ninib, dominating over the whole, gave unity to the vast mass of palatial and sacred edifices. The Tigris, skirting the entire western base of the mound, glossed in its waves, and, doubling the apparent height, rendered less observable the chief weakness of the architecture. When the setting sun lighted up the whole with the gorgeous lines seen only under an eastern sky, Calah must have seemed to the traveller who beheld it for the first time like a vision of fairyland.”

From the pyramid of the temple of Ninib the Assyrian priests observed the motions of the heavens, calculated the return of eclipses, and questioned the future. In the temple searched by Layard traces were everywhere found of Asshurnazirpal and what he himself calls “the glory of his name.” His portrait has been found repeated a dozen times on the bas-reliefs; he has all the features of a corrupt and cruel monarch. His low, retreating forehead lacks nobility; the eyes are unusually large; the cheekbones stand out prominently; the nostrils of the round, aquiline nose are too large; the clipped moustache, brushed and curled at the ends, reveals thick, sensual lips, while the chin and face are covered with that heavy false beard which falls upon the breast in symmetrical twists, and was worn by all the kings. The thick, short neck, the broad shoulders and thick-set body, gave the king a robust, vigorous aspect. His statue in the British Museum represents him standing. In one hand he holds a scythe, in the other a sceptre. On his breast is written, “Asshurnazirpal, great king, powerful king, king of legions, king of Assyria, son of Tukulti-Ninib (?), great king, powerful king, king of legions, king of Assyria, son of Adad-nirari, great king, powerful king, king of Assyria. He possesses lands from the shores of the Tigris as far as Labana [Lebanon]; he has subjected to his power the great sea, and all the lands from the rising to the setting of the sun.”

Several years after this statue was erected Asshurnazirpal would not have fixed the Lebanon range as the western limit of his empire, for the fortunes of war still smiled upon him. The last portion of his reign is filled with two great expeditions in which he covered himself with glory. The definite submission of the middle and lower Euphrates region, including the land of Kardunyash, and the conquest of a part of Syria and Phœnicia. A revolt in the lands of Laqi and Shuhi, on the Middle Euphrates, was an excellent pretext for recommencing the war interrupted by the work of embellishing Calah. [He marched upon Suru, levying tribute at every step.] For a long time this little land of Shuhi had been warring with the Assyrians, and though unceasingly beaten and ransomed, it nevertheless managed to hold up its head, and had been able hitherto to maintain its independence. Its sovereigns appear to have had continual friendly relations with their neighbours the kings of Babylon, at least on the occasions when it was necessary to resist the men of the North.

This time the Shuhites again appealed to the Chaldeans, whom the inscription, through tradition, doubtless, still calls the Kassites or Kossæans. [Suru was taken, and among the prisoners were the brother and the general of Nabu-apal-iddin, king of Babylon.]

Then terror seized the soul of the weak Nabu-apal-iddin, king of Babylon, and all Chaldea trembled. Unfortunate wars and intestine quarrels had put Babylon out of condition to fight against the all-pervading Assyrian superiority. Nevertheless Asshurnazirpal does not say that he entered Babylonia, which he even seems to have prudently respected. He contents himself with telling us that he erected his statue in the city of Suru, and spread terror throughout Chaldea and all the lands watered by the Euphrates.

The following year he was compelled to suppress a revolt of the mountaineers inhabiting the southern slopes of Mount Masius in the very heart of Mesopotamia. This was the state of Bit-Adini, whose principal cities were Kaprabi and Tel-Aban. Asshurnazirpal scattered an army of eight thousand horsemen, and brought back to Calah two thousand four hundred slaves to work at the embellishment of his capital.

In spite of the peace which ruled in the Tigris and Euphrates basins, whose resources were, moreover, completely exhausted, Asshurnazirpal now resolved to strike a great blow on their western side, which would be a field for rapine in which no Assyrian had ever yet set foot. The occasion seemed favourable, for on the west of the Euphrates the Hittites were in no condition to wage war; they had not yet recovered from the terrible blows dealt them by Tiglathpileser, and their resistance in any case would not be very great.

Asshurnazirpal went right ahead [starting on the 8th day of Airu (April), 876.--ROGERS], traversing the states of Bit-Bahian, Amila, and Bit-Adini as far as the Euphrates, which he crossed on floats in sight of Carchemish. Into the city he made a bloodless entry, receiving the homage and tribute of King Sangara. A Hittite prince, Lubarna, who ruled in the valley of the river Apre (modern Afrin) [in a state called Patin] and possessed places of considerable importance such as Hazaz and Kunulua (the capital). Lubarna made preparations to oppose the march of the invader, but on seeing him approach fell on his knees and stripped himself of all he possessed for offerings. He was soon master of both slopes of the Lebanon, and he could see the great Phœnician Sea (Mediterranean). There, in astonishment, and grateful to the gods for all their blessings, he offered them a sacrifice of thanks on a wave-washed rock. “I received,” he says, “the tribute of the kings of the land of the sea, the people of Tyre, Sidon, Byblus, Makhallat, Maiz, Kaiz,[23] Akharri, and of Arvad, which is situated full on the sea; they brought me silver, gold, tin, iron, iron utensils, garments of wool and linen, ‘pagut,’ large and small, of sandal and ebony wood, skins of marine animals, and they kissed my feet.”

Asshurnazirpal, protected by Ninib and Nergal, the gods of strength, embarked on a vessel which he captured in the harbour of Arvad and took a sea trip, during which he killed a dolphin. Several days later he hunted among the steep gorges of Lebanon, killed buffaloes and boars, capturing a number of them alive, which he sent to Assyria. He boasts of having killed one hundred and twenty lions himself, and claims that these animals succumbed to fright before his almightiness. He further enumerates troops of wild animals which he drove back to their lairs,--antelopes, deer, ibexes, gazelles, tigers, foxes, leopards; he also killed some eagles and vultures. Among these mountains this true son of Nimrod quite forgot himself until the king of Egypt, whom the fame of his deeds had reached, sent a congratulatory embassy asking for his friendship. When later the kings of Egypt and Assyria met on the shore of the Mediterranean, it was by no means for mutual congratulation and the exchange of presents.

After this, Asshurnazirpal turned northward into the Amanus Mountains, where he cut down cedar, pine, and cypress trees for his great buildings in Calah. No one will ever know how much effort, nor the lives of how many slaves it cost, to transport those gigantic logs cut in the Amanus forests over the mountainous and trackless country to the banks of the Tigris.

Asshurnazirpal never revisited the shores of the Mediterranean, and like Moses he but caught a glimpse of the promised land which his successors were destined to conquer, and whose inexhaustible riches they so long exploited. What we know of the remainder of his reign is the story of unimportant expeditions, principally for the collection of tribute in the north of Mesopotamia and around the sources of the Tigris. The district of Khipani and its capital, Khuzirina, as well as the states of Assa, Qurkhi, and Adini, underwent new trials; the city of Amida, the modern Diarbekir, witnessed a pyramid of human skulls rising before its walls, and three thousand slaves--those whose eyes were not put out or who were not crucified--were sent to Nineveh, where they were employed in digging a great irrigation canal to make use of the waters of the Upper Zab, the borders of which were planted with trees torn from the forests of Syria.

The last eight years of his life seem to have been more peaceful than their predecessors, although we can scarcely suppose that he passed them in profound peace, which would be as hard to reconcile with his turbulent and sanguinary nature as with the terrible condition of the lands he had conquered, all of which were trying to regain their freedom. At all events, he left his successors an immense empire, an unbroken frontier, and an Assyrian domination recognised from the Zagros to the Amanus Mountains, and from the sources of the Euphrates to the gates of Babylon.[d]

SHALMANESER II AND HIS SUCCESSORS

Aside from the ruthlessness of his conquests, Asshurnazirpal was chiefly remarkable for rebuilding the city of Calah, constructing a canal, erecting himself a wonderful palace, whose ruins have been found at Nimrud, and the building or rebuilding of a great aqueduct. He, who had butchered and battled so liberally, died in 860 B.C. in peace.

His son, Shalmaneser II (Shulman-asharid) (860-824 B.C.) commenced warlike operations at once. After a campaign eastward (860) he entered upon a systematic conquest of the western countries. After several campaigns (859-856) Akhuni’s district of Bit-Adini, on both sides of the Euphrates, was completely subjugated, incorporated with the kingdom, and peopled with Assyrian colonists, and Tel-Barship on the Euphrates was changed into an Assyrian residence city under the name of Kar-Shulman-asharid (City of Shalmaneser). Finally he succeeded in capturing the prince who had fled across the Euphrates into the mountains. Next followed the campaigns on the west of the Euphrates. In the year 859 he twice defeated a coalition of North Syrian princes, the rulers of Carchemish, Patin, Sama’al, etc., joined by the kings of Que, and Khilukha; then he subjugated the Amanus district and the district on the lower Orontes (the country of Patin). In the following year, the annual tribute of all the North Syrian states was definitely settled.

[Sidenote: [854-829 B.C.]]

In the year 854 B.C. Shalmaneser advanced farther south. Khalman made submission, but a strong coalition was formed against him in the district of Hamath by Hadad-ezer, or Ben-Hadad II, of Damascus, Irkhulina of Hamath, and Ahab of Israel. The adjacent smaller states of the princes, Matinu-Baal of Arvad (Aradus), Baasha of Ammon, etc., followed suit.

The Syrian states evidently recognised the full extent of the danger threatening them; Ahab of Israel probably made peace with Damascus so as to be able to withstand the Assyrians. Only the Phœnician cities were obdurate; whilst the Arabian prince, Gindibu, sent a thousand camel riders, and even the Egyptian king sent one thousand men. A battle took place at Qarqar in the vicinity of the Orontes. Shalmaneser boasts of a complete victory. [His inscription says: “Fourteen thousand of their warriors I slew with arms; like Adad I rained a deluge upon them, I strewed hither and yon their bodies, I filled the face of the ruins with their widespread soldiers; chariots, saddle-horses, and yoke-horses I took from them.”]

But he attained no further successes, and his power was limited to northern Syria. In the years 850, 849, and 846, Shalmaneser renewed his attacks upon central Syria, the last time with one hundred and twenty thousand men, but without great success. Their tribute money was not much safeguard to the North Syrian princes, the places in the district of Carchemish and in the Amanus Mountains were again and again plundered and burned, and the inhabitants massacred. Only the king of Patin, who was farthest away, and therefore the most powerful of the vassals, seems to have been better treated.

The fifth campaign, in 842, was more successful, but in the meanwhile the revolutions in Damascus and Samaria overthrew the old dynasties, and Hazael and Jehu ascended the throne. In a battle at the foot of Mount Lebanon, Hazael was conquered and shut up in his capital; but Damascus was not taken. Shalmaneser laid waste the Hauran, then repaired to the coast, where Tyre and Sidon, and also Jehu of Israel, paid him tribute. The tribute payment of the latter (gold, lead, vessels, etc.) is depicted on Shalmaneser’s black obelisk. In the year 839 the campaign was repeated without any far-reaching success; and Tyre, Sidon, and Byblus paid tribute. When the people of Patin slew their king, the Assyrian general, Asshur-daian (or Dan-Asshur), took fearful revenge for the death of the faithful vassal. But Shalmaneser extended his dominion in this district northward only. In the years 838 and 837, twenty-four kings of Tabal (in Cappadocia), as well as the king of Milid (Melitene), were compelled to pay tribute; and in 835 and 834, King Kati of Que; _i.e._ East Cilicia west of Mount Amanus, was vanquished, and the town Tarzi (_i.e._ in all probability Tarsus), was taken and given to his brother Kirri.

Shalmaneser II had the same success in the east and north of his kingdom. After the mountainous district on the Tigris had been conquered, the Assyrians came into direct contact with the powerful race of the Alarodians, whose territory extended on both sides of the Lake of Van, from the source of the Euphrates to the land of Garzan, or Gozan, on Lake Urumiyeh. After making a fearful visitation to Khubushkia and its vicinity, Shalmaneser had already attacked their king, Arame, on the east in 860. In 857 he invaded his district on the west, after crossing the Arsanias. In 845 he penetrated as far as the source of the Euphrates, and in 833 Asshur-daian, his commander-in-chief, repeated the same campaign. It seems that Arame and his successor, Siduri (or Sarduris), in the year 833, made, on the whole, a valiant defence.

Much greater success attended the campaigns against the southeasterly mountainous races of Urartu on the “sea of the land of the Nairi,” _i.e._ the lake of Urumiyeh, and the districts of Manna, Parsua, Amada[24] (Media), etc., at the south and east of the same as well as that against the land of Namri southeast of the Zab. In the years 844, 836, 830, and 829 the campaigns in these districts were conducted sometimes by the king himself, and sometimes by his commander-in-chief.

The famous representations on Shalmaneser’s black obelisk show how King Sua of Gozan and the Lord of Musri (_i.e._ the eastern mountainous district) sent him a collection of wonderful animals, double-humped camels, apes, a rhinoceros, an elephant, and a yak, besides gold, silver, bronze vessels, and horses.

Between the great campaigns there were a few smaller struggles; in 855 in the Masius Mountains, in 853 against the kings of Tel-Abnai, and in 847 against the town of Ishtarat and the country of Yati, districts south of the source of the Tigris; in 848 against the unknown land of Paqarakhubuni, west of the Euphrates, and finally in 831 against the Qurkhi. The black obelisk records that the desert district of Sukhi, on the other side of the Euphrates, subjected by Asshurnazirpal, remained dependent, and Marduk-bel-usur of Sukhi brings to the king as tribute silver and gold, elephants’ teeth, garments, and also stags and lions. In the years 852 and 851 Shalmaneser advanced to Babylon. The king of Babylon, Nabu-apal-iddin, had just died, and his brother Marduk-bel-usate had taken up arms against Marduk-nadin-shum, the son of Nabu-apal-iddin. Shalmaneser went to the assistance of the rightful king, defeated the rebels in two expeditions, and presented rich gifts in the sacred cities of Babylon, Borsippa, and Kutha to the chief gods enthroned there. Then repairing farther southward into the land of Chaldea proper, he vanquished the kings of Bit-Adini and of Bit-Dakkuri, and exacted tribute from Mussallim-Marduk and Yakin, who was ruler of the sea country, which was subsequently called Bit-Yakin after him.

We see that the unity of the kingdoms of Sumer and Accad was now no more; but that south of Kardunyash, the district of Babylon, there arose a line of smaller states. Perhaps the South was always separated from Kardunyash after the Kossæan conquest.

[Sidenote: [829-783 B.C.]]

In the last years of Shalmaneser’s reign his son Asshur-danin-apli rebelled against him with a great portion of the kingdom, including Asshur, Arbela, the town of Imgur-Bel, founded by Asshurnazirpal, Amido, and Tel-Abnai, on the upper Tigris, Zaban on the Zab, etc. But another son, Shamshi-Adad IV, quelled the insurrection [and it took him four years of hard fighting to dissipate the opposition] and succeeded his father on the throne. The first campaigns of the new ruler were directed against the Nairi countries, the mountains on the north and east of the Tigris, and his general, Mushaqqil-Asshur, penetrated as far as the “Sea of the Sunset,” which means as far as the Black Sea. Then the king attacked Babylonia; a line of frontier places was taken, and [in the battle of Dur-Papsukal, in northern Babylonia] King Marduk-balatsu-iqbi, who had been supported by the rulers of Chaldea, Elam, Namri, and the Aramæan races of eastern Babylonia, was slain.

This expedition was repeated in the years 813 and 812; and other wars the king mentioned, in shorter notices, cannot be more accurately localised. He made no attempt of any encroachment of Syria’s rights.

[Sidenote: [806-774 B.C.]]

The successes of [his son] Adad-nirari III (811-783 B.C.) are of greater importance. In the North and South all the races hitherto subjugated, including the Medes, the people of Parsua, etc., were kept in subjection. Frequent mention is made of expeditions against Manna, Khubushkia, Namri, and Aa. The king says that his kingdom was extended as far as the coasts of the “great Sea of the Sunrise,” _i.e._ the Caspian Sea. In 803 mention was made of an expedition “to the sea coasts” (_i.e._ Babylonia, not Syria). As in Shalmaneser’s time, all the kings of the land of Kaldi (Chaldea) paid tribute; in the chief cities of Babylonia the king offers sacrifice, gains rich booty, and fixes boundaries. Many expeditions were moreover made against the Aramæan race of Itu’a which dwelt in Babylonia, and these were repeated in subsequent reigns. “On the west of the Euphrates,” says Adad-nirari, “I subjugated the land of Khatti, the whole land of Akharri, Phœnicia, Tyre, Sidon, the kingdom of Israel (Bit-Khumri), Edom and Philistia as far as the coasts of the West Sea, and imposed taxes and tribute upon them.” He makes special mention of an expedition against Mari, king of Damascus, who was besieged in his capital and forced to capitulate, and pay 2300 talents of silver, 20 talents of gold, 300 talents of bronze, 5000 talents of iron, so that the loot of the Assyrian king was very considerable. These events cannot be accurately fixed, chronologically. The chronological lists mention campaigns in 806, 805, and 797, against Arpad, Khazaz, and Mansuate in northern Syria. The war against Damascus was included in one of them, for it led to the payment of tribute by the Phœnician cities and the southern states (Israel, Edom, and Philistia). [There exists an inscription of this reign referring to Sammuramat as “Lady of the Palace and its Mistress.” There is some reason for conjecturing that this might have been the woman round whose name and undoubted prestige in so glorious a reign, clustered the legends of Semiramis. No previous Assyrian king ruled over so great a territory, or collected so much tribute as Adad-nirari III, or, as it is sometimes written, Ramman-nirari III. After him came a period of decline in which there are no royal inscriptions, and of which our knowledge comes from brief notes in the Eponym lists.]

[Sidenote: [774-745 B.C.]]

The next king Shalmaneser III (782-773) also went to Syria and made war against Damascus, 773, the land of Khatarikka, 772, and the land of Lebanon.

His successor Asshur-dan III (772-754) also made war against Lebanon in the years 767 and 755, and against Arpad in the year 754. The subjugation of Hamath probably occurred in one of these expeditions. Battles are mentioned against Babylonia (in the district of the Aramæan race, Itu’a and the city of Gannanat) in 777, 771, 769, and 767, in which the city of Kalneh was presumably taken. But Shalmaneser III was chiefly concerned in the subjugation of the land of Urartu, the Alarodians. He is mentioned not less than six times as taking the field against them (781-778, 776, 774); but his efforts met with no, or at least no enduring, success.

In all probability the formation of a great Armenian kingdom with the city of Van (Thuspa of the Greeks) as the central point dates from this period. Its founder was Sarduris, the son of Litipris, who was probably identical with the king Sarduris who was conquered in 833 by Shalmaneser. In two inscriptions written in Assyrian, he calls himself “King of the land of Nairi.” His successors (Ispuinish, Minuas, Argistis I, Sarduris II) then utilised the Assyrian writing for inscribing the language of their country. For in the same record they call their kingdom Biaina, whilst it is called Urartu by the Assyrians. The inscriptions of the rulers are rather numerous and written quite in the Assyrian style. They record the buildings of the kings in Van itself, where a citadel was built by Argistis, sacrifices and gifts to Khaldi and the numerous other deities of the Armenian Pantheon, campaigns and conquests.

When still co-regent with Ispuinish, his father, Minuas erected monuments in the two high passes south of Lake Urumiyeh which record his conquests, and other inscriptions also relate his successes against the land of Manna and its vicinity. These battles presumably occurred in the latter time of Adad-nirari III, and are the continuation of his campaigns in the eastern mountains. Minuas also fought against the land of Alzi, against the king of the city of Milid (Melitene), and against the Kheta. An inscription on a wall of rock on the Arsanias below an old castle (near Palu) records among others his successes in this direction. In the north he penetrated to and beyond the Araxes; one of his inscriptions is to be found on the right bank of the river opposite Armavir, and two others, written by his son Argistis, north of Eriwan. The latter seems to have been the most powerful ruler of Urartu. A long inscription on the rock of the citadel of Van records his successes in the land of Manna, which he seems to have subjugated, and also in the west, against Melitene, the land of Khatti (Kheta), etc.

Repeated victories over the Assyrians are mentioned, which were evidently won against Shalmaneser III and Asshurdan III, or their generals. Sarduris II, the son of Argistis, was also very successful in both districts. For it appears from his inscriptions, confirmed by later events, that Melitene, Kummukh, Gurgum, and other princedoms on the Amanus, became feudal states of the kingdom of Urartu, which included the whole Armenian plateau from the sources of the Euphrates and Araxes across Lake Urumiyeh. How Sarduris II succumbed to the Assyrian will be shown later.

The reign of Asshur-dan III seems to have been much more peaceful than the preceding ones, for the short chronicle of this period repeatedly records that the king remained “in the land,” and therefore undertook no campaign.

The successes of Argistis were of great importance. Insurrections also broke out in the interior in the years 763 to 758, first in the city of Asshur, then in Arrapachitis (Arpakha), a city situated in the vicinity of the Upper Zab, east of Nineveh, and finally in Guzanu, in the Khabur country. After its subjugation, Asshur-dan, as already related, repaired twice more to Syria (755 and 754), but it was not possible with the increasing extension of the Armenian power in this direction to retain supremacy over the smaller states of Syria.

[Sidenote: [747-740 B.C.]]

The next reign, that of Asshur-nirari II (754-745) was still less eventful. He took the field only in the years 749 and 748 against the mountainous country of Namri, in the southeast [and in 754 against Arpad]. Otherwise, he remained “in the land.” In the last year of his reign the chronicle mentions an insurrection in Calah. The fact doubtless was that in the spring of the following year (746) the throne was ascended by a usurper who called himself after the first of the great Assyrian conquerors, Tiglathpileser.

The overthrown dynasty, which went back to Ishme-dagan and Shamshi-Adad and the ancient Bel-kap-kapu, had held the throne in uninterrupted succession for more than a thousand years.[c]

TIGLATHPILESER III (745-727 B.C.)

The eminent Dutch historian Tiele calls the new monarch Tiglathpileser II, but a recently discovered inscription of Adad-nirari II speaks of his grandfather, Tiglathpileser, and so the latter, of whom nothing is known beyond his name, is now denoted the second ruler of his name. Therefore the subject of the present chapter is here called Tiglathpileser III.

Tiglathpileser III mounted the throne of Assyria on the 13th Airu (about April) of the year 745 B.C., and resided, says Tiele, during the greater part of his reign at Calah and Nineveh, where he built palaces. He was without any doubt an Assyrian, and not a Chaldean, as has been supposed. Whether he was the rightful heir, or whether he was even of royal blood, remains undecided. His real name was Pulu (Pul, Poros), and there is reason to suppose that he was either a military commander or a younger son of the king, who took advantage of the confusion during the last years of the reign of Asshurnirari II to put the crown on his own head. He assumed the name of the great conqueror, Tiglathpileser.

He may have employed the first months of his reign in restoring quiet in the country and establishing himself securely on the throne. It is only in September of the year 745 (month Tasrit) that he marches into the field and turns his arms against Babylonia. Nabonassar (Nabu-nasir) had ruled at Babylon since 747, but nothing else is known of him, though he seems to have been the founder of a new method of reckoning time. Tiglathpileser’s first campaign was not, however, directed against him, at least not immediately; his first object was to destroy the Aramæans’ and Chaldeans’ ever-increasing power in that country. After he had won possession of the city of Sippar, which lay between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and perhaps even of Nippur also, and had conquered Dur-Kurigalzu, together with some other less important strongholds of Kardunyash, as far as the Ukni, he subdued the nomadic Aramæans east of the Tigris, reorganised the government of the conquered territory, dividing it into four provinces, over which Assyrian governors were placed, founded two cities [Kar-Asshur was one and probably Dur-Tukulti-apal-esharra the other] as administrative centres to preserve the allegiance of the new territory, and peopled the new settlements with the prisoners of war. The priesthood of Babylon, Borsippa, and Kutha brought gifts from the temples of their gods into the king’s headquarters, and thus averted the danger which threatened their towns also. For the time Tiglathpileser contented himself with the successes gained. It was not at present his intention to subdue all Babylonia, or perhaps he was not yet strong enough to do so. Apparently all he desired was to secure the southern frontiers of Assyria against the invasions of the Aramæans and Chaldeans, who were becoming more and more audacious, before he ventured farther afield.

The security of the eastern border was of scarcely less importance. In the year 744 he marched against the ever turbulent Namri which lay in this direction; here, too, he compelled all to bow to his victorious arms, even penetrated the western portion of the future Media, and exacted tribute from all the Median princes as far as the eastern mountains of Biknu. He did not proceed in person to further conquests, but entrusted the punishment of those Medians who dwelt farther east to his general, Asshur-daninani, who returned victorious, bringing with him rich booty, especially in horses. However, this country was not incorporated in the empire.

His hand was now free for the re-establishment of the weakened power of Assyria in the west. But one of his most powerful enemies who had, perhaps, already stirred up Namri to resistance, namely Sarduris II of Urartu, or Chaldia, sought to prevent this. When Tiglathpileser had reached Arpad in Syria, he found his flank, and when he would have marched still farther, his rear, threatened by a considerable army at whose head was Sarduris, and which besides the latter’s troops consisted of those of the northern Hittite states of Melid, Gurgum, Kummukh, and Agusi. The defeat of the allies was complete. Sarduris had to abandon his camp and seek refuge in flight. About seventy-three thousand prisoners fell into the Assyrians’ hands.

[Sidenote: [740-732 B.C.]]

The three following years were not fortunate. When Tiglathpileser marched against Kummukh he does not appear to have left an adequate garrison behind him in Arpad, for in the year 742 the town, and with it the key of the west country, was in the power of his enemies, and he found himself obliged to besiege it for three years. Not till the year 740 did he take it, and thither came Kushtashpi of Kummukh, Rezin of Damascus, Hiram of Tyre, Uriakki of Que, Pisiris of Carchemish, and Tarkhulara of Gurgum, to offer him rich presents. One of the Hittite princes, Tutammu of Unqi, a district between the Orontes and the Afrin, refused his submission. His capital, Kinalia, was taken for the second time and the whole country placed under an Assyrian governor. In the year 739 Tiglathpileser continued his conquest northeast of Arpad, devastated Kilkhi, a district belonging to Nairi, and conquered Ulluba, where he founded an Assyrian capital under the name of Asshuriqisha. But it was long before the land of the Khatti (Syria) was pacified. Between 740 and 738 no less than nineteen districts belonging to the Syrian kingdom of Hamath, and some other adjacent districts, broke away from Assyria, and from some mutilated parts of the inscriptions it is believed we may conclude that they asked for help from Azariah [Uzziah], the warlike king of Judah. At all events, the latter at that time ventured to defy the power of Assyria, and Tiglathpileser connected this hostile attitude with the rising of the people of Hamath. About 738 Azariah was defeated and the country of Hamath added to Assyria. Then the king had recourse to his favourite means for the suppression of the sentiment of nationality--namely, the transplantation of prisoners of war in the most extensive fashion. Whilst all princes of any consideration and even an Arabian queen now offered the conqueror their submission and presents, he received the joyful tidings of important successes won by his generals on the other frontiers of the empire. The eastern Aramæans had shaken off the Assyrian yoke and advanced to the Zab, but were driven back, though with some difficulty. At the same time the governor of Lullume was harassing the Babylonians, whilst the governor of Nairi held in check the populations on the northern frontier. Booty and prisoners were sent to the king in the land of the Khatti.

The three following years (737-735) he was occupied with expeditions in the east and northeast. Some districts of Media were then under the Babylonian rule, and now passed to that of the Assyrians. But the most important event of this year was the march to Turushpa, the capital of Urartu [Chaldia], the residence of Sarduris, on the Lake of Van. No Assyrian conqueror had penetrated so far as this, nor did Tiglathpileser succeed in taking the town in which Sarduris had fortified himself after his first defeat; but the power of this dangerous rival was broken for a long time.

[Sidenote: [732-731 B.C.]]

Tiglathpileser now determined to bring the west under his yoke, and did not rest until he had brought all the Hittite and Semitic countries to the coast of the Mediterranean and the frontiers of Egypt, except some Arabian districts, under his sway. This took him three years, from 734-732. The immediate inducement to this expedition was probably that Ahaz of Judah, threatened by Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel, called in the aid of Assyria. Moreover, the last two had probably paid no tribute, and, generally speaking, Assyria needed little persuasion to fish in troubled waters. The first attack was directed against Rezin. Beaten in the open field, he was compelled to retreat to his capital. Here Tiglathpileser shut him in “like a bird in its cage”; he conquered all the towns round about, including the important city of Sam’ala, and marched on, after having destroyed, according to his wont, all crops around Damascus, and thus increased the difficulty of transporting the means of existence. He marched into Israel (Bit-Khumri), wasting whole districts, some of which he added to his empire,--for the present, however, leaving the capital undisturbed. The immediate goal was now the Philistine Gaza, whose king, Hanno (Khanunu), probably trusting in Damascus and Israel, had at first renounced his allegiance, but now on the approach of the Assyrian army fled to Egypt. The town was taken, and a rich booty fell into the hands of the victors. Askalon, whose prince Mitinti had made an attempt at rebellion, was punished--though probably not till later--and Rukipti, Mitinti’s son, raised to the throne. Shamshi, “the queen of Arabia in the land of Sheba,” also offered resistance, but was likewise utterly defeated and with difficulty escaped with bare life. Her country, which is certainly not to be confounded with the Sheba of the South, became an Assyrian province. Other Arab tribes submitted voluntarily, and amongst them the well-known Tema; and Tiglathpileser appointed the powerful tribe of the Idibi’il, as being nearest to Egypt, to be wardens of the marches at the gates of that still mighty empire. Now came the turn of Samaria, the only city of Israel which the conqueror had not yet reduced. He appears, indeed, to have visited it, but not to have besieged and taken it, yet he raised Hoshea, who had meantime slain Pekah, to the throne, or confirmed him in its possession. It was longer before Damascus fell. It continued to hold out for two years more. That it was then taken is probable.

Of all the kingdoms of the West there now remained only Tyre and Tabal, which latter lay much farther north. The king did not go in person against either of these towns, but he sent Rabshakeh, who subdued them and changed the government in Tabal, while on Tyre he imposed a tax of not less than one hundred and fifty talents [about £60,000, or $300,000]. Whether this took place now or later, cannot be said with certainty.

[Sidenote: [731-726 B.C.]]

Victorious over all rebellious subjects in his colossal empire, and dreaded by all his neighbours, Tiglathpileser now felt himself strong enough to make a direct attack on the Aramæans and Chaldeans of Babylonia, and to conquer the holy city itself. In the year 731 he ventured and accomplished this act of daring. In Babylonia itself no one seems to have resisted him, and the population seem rather to have received him as a deliverer. He entered Sippar, Nippur, Babylon, Borsippa, Kutha, Kish, Dilbat, and Erech, each in their turn, and received the protection of the great gods, by offering them sacrifices. Then he fell on the Aramaic-Chaldean tribe of Pekud (Pekod), subdued it as far as the frontiers of Elam, continued his victorious march through the Chaldean states of Bit-Silani and Bit-Sha’alli, which soon succumbed to his arms. Nabu-ushabshi, the king of the former state, was impaled before the gate of his capital, Sarrabani, and the town levelled with the ground; Zakiru of Sha’alli was sent to Assyria in chains, and the capital, which still offered resistance, was starved into surrender. Bit-Amukkani, whose king, Ukinzer (Chinziros), who appears to have been at that time the leading chief of the Chaldeans, and consequently regarded as king of Babylon, was not so easily overcome. It is true that the whole country was ravaged and the king shut up in his capital of Sapia; that a sortie of the garrison miscarried; that in fear of the overwhelming strength of Assyria, Balasu of Bit-Dakkuri, Nadin of Larak (Bit-Shala), and even Marduk-bal-iddin [Merodoch-baladan] of Bit-Yakin on the seacoast, the man who was later to become so terrible an enemy to Assyria, came here to offer their costly gifts and their submission; but Sapia was not taken and Ukinzer not conquered, so that nominally he shared the rule over Babylon for yet another year. Still, from this time forward it was not without reason that Tiglathpileser styled himself king or overlord of Babylon, king of Sumer and Accad; he might boast that he ruled from the Persian Gulf to the far East, over the coasts of the Mediterranean as far as Egypt, and that he had extended his kingdom farther than any of his predecessors. He reigned for three years more, for the most part in peace, as far as we know. Of his last two years it is reported that he clasped the hands of Bel; that is, that he received the highest religious consecration as king of Babylon. In the year 727 Shalmaneser IV succeeded him on the throne. The latter only ruled for five years, and of his short reign little is known.

SHALMANESER IV

In the list of the Babylonian kings for these five years, there stands, not his name, but that of Ulule, who was neither, as has been believed hitherto, an independent prince nor a viceroy appointed by Shalmaneser, but none other than Shalmaneser himself, who also probably resided at Babylon. Perhaps his expedition against Phœnicia and Israel falls as early as the year of his accession. The occasion of the war against Tyre, whose king, Elulæus, at that time stood at the head of the Phœnician towns, is said to have been an expedition undertaken by the latter against the Khittim of Cyprus. It is more probable that the Tyrian king, like Hoshea of Israel, had taken advantage of Tiglathpileser’s death to renounce his allegiance to Assyria. Shalmaneser again subdued Hoshea and raised tribute from him. At the same time he sent into Phœnicia a part of his army, which devastated the whole country, and once more made it tributary. After this the whole empire seems to have quieted down, for the following year (726) was a year of peace. But the calm was not of long duration. Scarcely had the Assyrian troops marched away, when Hoshea turned to the Egyptian king, in the hope that with his aid he might free himself from the yoke of Assyria, and from thenceforward once more refused the tribute.

We have here probably a great conspiracy, in which Elulæus was also concerned, for Shalmaneser now marched against both kings. He took Hoshea prisoner, evidently after a struggle, wasted the whole land of Israel, but at Samaria, whose population may very likely have incited the king to revolt, he encountered an obstinate resistance. Meantime the whole Phœnician mainland, either from fear or under pressure from the superior force of Assyria, hastened to desert from Elulæus and to submit to Shalmaneser. The Tyrian king found himself under the necessity of retreating to his fortress on the island of Tyre, where he was at once besieged. It was only under Shalmaneser’s successor that Samaria was taken after a three years’ siege, and Tyre after one of five years. We cannot but experience a feeling of respect for these two cities, which ventured unaided--for the help from Egypt failed, as usual, to appear--to defy the gigantic power of Assyria.

[It is by no means undisputed that Shalmaneser marched against both Elulæus and Hoshea, as Professor Tiele states. Some of the historians believe that no action was taken against the king of Tyre, and that since there are no allusions to the five years’ siege in any of the inscriptions, Josephus, the sole authority, made a mistake in attributing to Shalmaneser an attack on Tyre that was really made by Sennacherib.]

The scanty records of Shalmaneser’s reign bear witness to material prosperity. That he was, as has been thought, a feeble ruler, under whose administration the empire declined, is entirely unproved. His early death prevented him from acquiring the same glory as his predecessor, and if, immediately after his decease, the vassals of the empire raised the standards of rebellion in every direction, this speaks rather for than against the influence of his personality.[e]

FOOTNOTES

[22] [It is so uncertain that Karaindash, etc., were actually Kossæans that the word Kassite or Kasshite is kept by some scholars, as Hilprecht,[f] Goodspeed,[g] McCurdy,[h] and Rogers.[i]]

[23] [According to the best authority Makhallat, Maiz, and Kaiz formed Tripolis.]

[24] [Also written “Mada” in a later inscription of Adad-nirari III. This is the true land of Media, which the Greeks confused with that of Manda.]