Tiglath-Pileser and Sargon
After 780 b. c.e. both Babylonia and Assyria were economically in decline. Sealand was controlled by five Chaldaean tribes whose territories varied in size depending on the might and charisma of their individual sheikhs. Several succeeded in seizing power in Babylonia; of these Eriba-Marduk, who ruled around 770, was regarded as the founder of the Chaldaean dynasty, although after his death Babylonia was plunged back into anarchy. North of Assyria, Urartu was becoming a powerful state, gaining control of its smaller southern neighbors. Several unsuccessful engagements showed the Assyrians the wisdom of avoiding direct conflict with Urartu.
In 746 there was an uprising in Kalhu, the Assyrian capital, from which in 744 Tiglath-Pileser III emerged as king. In his inscriptions he was reticent about his parentage, suggesting he was not royal. Tiglath-Pileser rapidly began rebuilding Assyria's empire, attacking and defeating its neighbors in all directions. His success was founded on many public reforms. The army now became a professional body with an elite cavalry core. A network of roads and an efficient messenger service kept the king in control of army and administration. Tiglath-Pileser created numerous small provinces, ruled by governors who were generally eunuchs: a strategy widely used to obtain a cadre of administrators without dynastic ambition. To promote stability and reduce the possibility of organized rebellion Tiglath-Pileser deported conquered peoples on a scale hitherto unknown. The deportees were often kept together as a community, frequently working as farmers or state employees, and were generally well treated.
In the second year of his reign, Tiglath-Pileser faced a powerful coalition of western states under Sarduri II, king of Urartu, and defeated them at the battle of Kummuh (Commagene). In subsequent years he brought many city-states in northwest Syria and Phoenicia under Assyrian control. By the end of his reign, Assyria directly ruled or received tribute from most of the region to its north and west, including parts of the Taurus. Rival states occasionally sought Assyrian backing in their wars and faithful allies of Assyria could expect generous and lasting support.
In 737-736 Tiglath-Pileser moved to the east, gaining control of the central Zagros region and advancing into Media. Returning via Urartu in 735, he besieged its capital, Tushpa. Although he did not capture it, the invasion discouraged further trouble from Urartu. Meanwhile a coalition of Israel, Damascus, and other states was threatening Judah, who appealed to Assyria for help. The Assyrians soon defeated the coalition and seized additional lands in the Levant.
Three years before Tiglath-Pileser came to power, Nabu-nasir (Nabonassar) acceded to the Babylonian throne. He was on friendly terms with Tiglath-Pileser, who aided him in dealing with internal problems. Tiglath-Pileser defeated the perennially hostile but generally fragmented Aramaean tribes in north and east Babylonia and Chaldaean tribes as far south as the Gulf, and followed this by receiving offerings in the temples of Babylon, Kutha, and Borsippa, a royal prerogative. Although he styled himself king of Sumer and Akkad, he did not displace Nabu-nasir or his successors. However, when a Chaldaean sheikh, Nabu-mukin-zeri, usurped the throne, Tiglath-Pileser intervened. After three hard years' campaigning, in 729 Tiglath-Pileser gained control. He played the key role in the New Year festival in 728 and 727 but generally ruled Babylonia through eunuch governors. Most cities in northern Babylonia were content to accept Tiglath-Pileser as king, while the Chaldaean south became a hotbed of dissidence, often actively supported by Elam—a situation that was to continue until the end of the Assyrian Empire.
In 726 Tiglath-Pileser was briefly succeeded by his son, Shalmaneser V, as king of Assyria and Babylonia. Israel seized the opportunity of Tiglath-Pileser's death to rebel, in alliance with Egypt, which had controlled Phoenicia until Tiglath-Pileser conquered the region. The Egyptians were not at this time powerful enough to attack Assyria themselves but actively encouraged revolts among Assyria's vassals. The Assyrians captured the Israelite capital, Samaria, after a three-year siege. Leading Israelites were deported and many people from other parts of the Assyrian Empire were settled in Israel.
In 722 Sargon II gained the Assyrian throne: He may have been the leader of a rebellion in Assur against Shalmaneser's taxes. The name "Sargon" means "legitimate king," a title frequently assumed by usurpers; and his inscriptions give no clue to his parentage. In alliance with Elam, Babylonia seized this opportunity to reassert its independence, led by a Chaldaean, Marduk-apla-iddina (Merodach-Baladan), sheikh of the powerful Bit-Yakin tribe. He succeeded in uniting the disparate factions within Babylonia and acted as a model king, restoring temples, maintaining irrigation systems, and piously following tradition.
Marduk-apla-iddina saw himself as Marduk's representative on Earth, charged with overcoming Babylonia's enemies. Chaldaea was solidly behind him in his revolt against Assyria, the cities of northern Babylonia less so. In 720, the third year of his reign, Sargon marched south against the rebels. Battle was joined between the Elamites and the Assyrians at Der; the Babylonians were not engaged, either because they arrived after the fighting or because their forces were held in reserve. Both sides claimed the victory; but for the next ten years Sargon turned his attention to other fields.
Many cities in the west had risen against Assyria after Shalmaneser's death. Sargon quickly put down this revolt, extending the area under Assyrian control as far south as the Egyptian border. In 712 Egypt encouraged a number of Levantine states to rebel, but after their defeat it established good relations with Assyria, paying it tribute, and Palestine remained quiet for the remainder of Sargon's reign.
Between 717 and 712, Assyria annexed a number of smaller states farther north, including Que, Kummuh, and Carchemish, and entered an alliance with Mida (King Midas of Greek fable) of Mushki (Phrygia). In 716 Urartu replaced the ruler of Mannai in western Iran with its own candidate, Bagdati. Mannai was crucially important as the supplier of horses for the Assyrian army's elite cavalry, so Sargon reacted swiftly, killing Bagdati and installing a sympathetic ruler. The war seesawed between Assyria and Urartu, with successes on both sides; in 714 Sargon sacked the holy city of Musasir in southern Urartu, gaining enormous booty. Cimmerian attacks on its northern borders made Urartu ready to accept a truce with Assyria: This endured for a century.
In 710 Sargon returned his attentions to Babylonia, where he won support among northern cities and was able to drive out Marduk-apla-iddina, who took refuge in his fortress of Dur-Yakin, seizing hostages from major disaffected Babylonian cities. The following year Sargon celebrated the New Year festival as ruler of Babylonia. Marduk-apla-iddina sought Elamite support, but this was no longer forthcoming. In 707 Sargon sacked Dur-Yakin, freeing the hostages but failing to capture Marduk-apla-iddina, who escaped to the marshes of the south (see photo p. 9). More than 100,000 Chaldaeans and Aramaeans were deported to western provinces of the empire, their place being taken by deportees from Kummuh (Commagene). Sargon appointed Assyrian governors throughout Babylonia and the kingdoms were again united.
In 717 Sargon had begun construction of a new capital, Dur Sharrukin ("Sargon's fortress"—modern Khorsabad), near Kalhu, and in 707 the city was officially inaugurated. But in the following year Sargon was killed in battle while campaigning in the northwest. His body was not recovered, a terrible and ill-omened disaster. His successor, Sennacherib, consulted oracles to avert the divine displeasure that this implied; Dur Sharrukin was abandoned and Sennacherib moved the capital to Nineveh.
Nineveh’s Glorious Kings
Nineveh was a small but ancient and prestigious city with an excellent strategic location controlling both extensive arable land and a major crossing on the Tigris. Sennacherib rebuilt and enlarged the city, enclosing it with a massive wall and building a long canal and aqueduct to bring water to the city, which boasted orchards, fields, and a royal park. On the citadel he constructed his
Nineveh, located across the Tigris River from modern-day Mosul, was occupied from the Halaf period onward and was made the capital of the Assyrian Empire by Sennacherib (704-681 B. C.E.). (Ridpath, John Clark, Ridpath’s History of the World, 1901)
"Palace without a Rival." He also sponsored building in many other Assyrian cities.
Sargon's death sparked off revolts in many parts of the empire. Judah and adjacent kingdoms formed a league with Egypt against the Assyrians. Sennacherib savagely put down this revolt, fighting the Egyptians in Philistia, defeating Sidon and Ascalon, and besieging and sacking Lachish in 701—as he vividly depicted on his palace walls (see photo p. 180). He sacked many other towns in Judah and besieged, but failed to take, Jerusalem. Defeated Judah was forced to pay massive tribute.
More problematic was Babylonia, where in early 703 a Babylonian official had seized power, to be quickly supplanted by Babylonia's veteran Chaldaean king, Marduk-apla-iddina, supported by Elam and Aramaean tribes. Sennacherib defeated one combined army at Kutha and marched on Babylon, where he captured Marduk-apla-iddina's family and court but again not the elusive king. Sennacherib pursued him into Chaldaea, seizing eighty towns and taking 208,000 prisoners. He installed a puppet king, replacing him in 700 with his own eldest son, Ashur-nadin-shumi, who proved an effective king under whom Babylonia enjoyed peace and prosperity.
Marduk-apla-iddina disappeared from the records after 700 and presumably died in exile. The Chaldaeans and Elamites still posed a threat, and in
The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (668-627 B. C.E.) hunting wild asses, a detail from one of the reliefs decorating his palace at Nineveh. (Zev Radovan/Land of the Bible Picture Archive)
694 Sennacherib initiated a new campaign against them. He won substantial victories in Elam; at the same time, however, the Elamites launched an attack in the north, capturing Sippar. Rebels in Babylon handed over prince Ashur-nadin-shumi, who disappeared into Elam where he presumably died. The Babylonian throne was eventually seized by a Chaldaean sheikh, Mushezib-Marduk (Shuzubu). In 691 an enormous combined force of Babylonians and Elamites marched on Assyria. Sennacherib met them at Halule on the Tigris. The Assyrians won an indecisive victory, claiming to have killed 150,000 of their enemies but being forced to retreat afterward. The following year Sennacherib renewed his activities in the south, placing Marduk-apla-id-dina's son on the throne of Sealand and campaigning against Babylonia's Arab allies. He then laid siege to Babylon, whose defenders held out for fifteen months, suffering terrible famine and disease. In November 689 they surrendered.
Breaking with the honor and pious respect traditionally accorded to Babylon even in defeat, Sennacherib exacted a terrible revenge, sacking the city and smashing or carrying off the venerated statues of the gods, including Marduk. For this sacrilege Sennacherib paid an awful price: His authority was undermined not only in Babylonia but probably even in Assyria, and after eight years he was murdered in an uprising by several of his sons.
Sennacherib had appointed his youngest son, Esarhaddon, the child of his favorite wife, as his heir, provoking family friction. When Sennacherib was assassinated, Esarhaddon was quick to march on the rebels. Many of their troops defected to him, and he soon defeated his brothers, although it was not until 674, seven years later, that he was able to pursue and execute them. Though implacable in righteous vengeance, Esarhaddon won popular support throughout his realms by his sympathetic and clement treatment of former enemies, including Arabs, Aramaeans, and Elamites. He reversed his father's harsh and impious approach to Babylon, rebuilding the city and its shrines. His fair administration eventually won over most Babylonians. He also encouraged the worship of Babylon's gods, Marduk and Nabu, in Assyria. Under his rule Assyria's trade reached its apogee and its empire its maximum extent.
Esarhaddon dealt effectively with the usual problems with subject and neighboring groups, putting down revolts in the Levant, mixing military action and diplomacy in handling attacks by the Cimmerians and Scythians, raiding on the Iranian plateau, making alliances with several Median princes and with the Aramaean people of Gambulu on the lower Tigris, and successfully intervening in Elamite domestic affairs. He carried the traditional hostility with Egypt onto Egyptian soil, repeatedly campaigning there between 679 and 671, capturing the city of Memphis, driving the pharaoh Taharqo far into the south, and seizing vast amounts of booty. Much of this wealth he spent on rebuilding Babylon.
Esarhaddon's many successes were offset by his perennially poor health and consequent addiction to omens. Although placing a temporary substitute king on the throne to circumvent a predicted threat to the real king was a time-honored Mesopotamian practice, it had actually occurred only a few times in the course of Mesopotamian history; Esarhaddon, however, invoked it six times during the twelve years of his reign. A number of planned military expeditions were canceled or postponed because of the king's bouts of ill health. Aware of his frail hold on life, in 672 Esarhaddon appointed his son Ashurbanipal to succeed him in Assyria and Ashurbanipal's elder brother Shamash-shuma-ukin (whose mother was Babylonian) as heir to Babylonia, obliging his nobles and officials to swear allegiance to the princes. When in 669 the king died on his way to deal with an Egyptian rebellion, the succession took place without a hitch.
Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal (see photo p. 20) attributed his peaceful accession to the goodwill of Marduk, whose temple in Babylon was now ready for the god's return, in the person of his statue, which was reinstalled with great ceremony. After the New Year festival the following year, Shamash-shuma-ukin took up office as king of Babylon.
Ashurbanipal proved an able administrator as well as a great patron of the arts. He employed many people to trace and copy ancient texts, which he
Bas-relief sculpture from the palace of King Ashurbanipal depicting him hunting and killing lions, on horseback and on foot. (Library of Congress)
Amassed in a great library, and constructed a magnificent palace at Nineveh, which is famous for its fine reliefs depicting the king in the royal sport of lion hunting and his many military successes. A year passed before Ashurbanipal was ready to tackle the situation in Egypt, defeating Taharqo, who again fled, leaving the Assyrians in control of Egypt. In 664, Taharqo's successor, Tanutamani, invaded the Assyrian-held lands and defeated Assyria's allies, but fled when a fresh Assyrian army arrived. The Assyrians recaptured Memphis and sacked the venerable city of Thebes, seizing a huge quantity of booty from the temple treasury. Psamtek (Psammetichus), an Egyptian prince in the delta region, was made king of Egypt as Assyria's vassal.
Trouble now appeared on a new front. Esarhaddon had made a treaty with Urtagu, king of Elam, which was honored in Ashurbanipal's early years. In 664, however, Urtagu invaded northern Babylonia, perhaps to divert attention from internal unrest. He was quickly defeated and died shortly afterward, whereupon a revolution took place. The families of both Urtagu and his predecessor Humban-haltash II fled to Assyria, and the throne was taken by an unrelated king (called Te-Umman in the Assyrian records—probably Tepti-Huban-Inshushinak). No further trouble came from Elam for a decade. In the intervening years, the Assyrians campaigned farther north against Mannai and the Medes and concluded alliances with the Scythians and Lydia.
The year 653 saw trouble on two fronts. Te-Umman had repeatedly demanded the return of the refugee Elamite princes, and Ashurbanipal had repeatedly refused. The Elamites made common cause with Gambulu and prepared to attack. Ashurbanipal made a preemptive strike, and the armies met at Til Tuba on the Ulai River. The Assyrians were victorious, many Elamites were slaughtered, and Te-Umman lost his life. A punitive raid on Gambulu was mounted, and Elam was divided between two of Urtagu's family, Humban-Nikash III and Tammaritu I.
Meanwhile, Psamtek used Greek mercenaries to expel the Assyrians from Egypt. The Assyrian army was tied up in the east and could not respond. Events now unfolding in Babylonia were to eclipse Egypt's loss.
Decline and Fall
For sixteen years, Shamash-shuma-ukin had accepted his brother's considerable interference in the affairs of his kingdom. In 652, however, his discontent, particularly with Ashurbanipal's failure adequately to protect Babylonia from attack, came to a head. Obtaining the support of other disaffected or antiAssyrian groups, including Arabs, Egypt, and many Levantine states, as well, surprisingly, as Humban-Nikash, Ashurbanipal's appointee in Elam, Shamash-shuma-ukin rose in rebellion. Most Chaldaean and the two principal Aramaean tribes were firmly behind him, as were central and northern Babylonia, but Ashurbanipal found support among the cities of southern Babylonia and some Aramaean tribes. The war raged for four years, with successes on both sides, but by 649 Ashurbanipal controlled all of the south. Civil war had broken out in Elam, depriving Shamash-shuma-ukin of one of his principal allies. In 648, after a terrible famine in which cannibalism was attested, Babylon fell and Shamash-shuma-ukin perished. By the end of the year, Ashurbanipal controlled all Babylonia. He now turned his vengeful attentions on Elam, sacking around thirty cities, including Susa. After several savage campaigns, by 645 Elam was firmly subdued.
Babylonia now enjoyed twenty-one years of peace under the rule of Kandalu, a mysterious figure who may have been Ashurbanipal himself. A paucity of records means that little is known of Ashurbanipal and Assyria after 645. It is generally thought that he died in 627, but there is no record that he was still ruling after 630. If he and Kandalu were separate individuals, Ashurbanipal would have been succeeded on the Assyrian throne by his son Ashur-etil-ilani. Kandalu died in 627, and trouble at once broke out. Another son of Ashurbanipal, Sin-shar-ishkun, declared himself Babylonia's king, but his main concern was to wrest the throne of Assyria from Ashur-etil-ilani. This he achieved in 623. Meanwhile in 626 the Babylonian throne had been seized by Nabopolassar (Nabu-apla-usur), who had formerly ruled Sealand. War between Nabopolassar and Sin-shar-ishkun occupied much of the following decade, Sin-shar-ishkun being supported by Egypt, Mannai, and some proAssyrian towns in Babylonia, while Nabopolassar enjoyed widespread support in Babylonia and was aided by disaffection among the Assyrian vassal states in the Levant. By 616 Nabopolassar controlled Babylonia and was posing a threat to Assyria itself. In 615 he led an army up the Tigris and besieged Assur but was driven back and himself besieged in Tikrit. A timely invasion by the Medes, now the most powerful people in western Iran, forced the Assyrian army to withdraw. The Medes took Arrapha and the following year sacked Kalhu and captured Assur. The Babylonian army joined them there, and a pact, was made between Nabopolassar and the Median king Cyaxares, later cemented by a royal marriage. Domestic troubles forced both armies to withdraw before they could follow up the Median victories. The Assyrians seized the initiative, marching against Babylonia, but by the following year the tables had turned again and the Medes and Babylonians were laying siege to Nineveh itself. The city fell after three months, during which King Sin-shar-ishkun died.
This was virtually the end for the Assyrian Empire, so recently all-powerful. While most Assyrian cities fell by the end of 612, an Assyrian general, Ashur-uballit II, held out at Harran in the west until forced to abandon the city as the Babylonians advanced. The Egyptians had regained control of Palestine, either opportunistically on their own behalf or in support of the remnants of Assyria. The final blow came in 605 when Babylonia's crown prince Nebuchadrezzar twice defeated the Egyptians, at Carchemish and at Hamath on the Egyptian border, virtually annihilating their army. Assyrian resistance was at an end, and its lands became part of the rising Babylonian Empire.
World History
