Part XV

We have thus reached an entirely new state of affairs. The tables are turned about. The more vigorous Assyria feels called upon to suppress internal disturbances in Babylonia and to secure the legitimate succession to the throne. There are other indications of this momentous change in the relationships between the south and north.

From this period, the middle of the fourteenth century B.C., date the important official archives found some twenty years ago in Tell el-Amarna in Egypt, ^[1] containing a portion of the correspondence of governors and other officials of districts and cities in Palestine and Syria with the kings of Egypt, Amenophis III and Amenophis IV, in whose service they stood.

This correspondence is carried on in Akkadian, which, as a result of the spread of Babylonian culture, had become current beyond the borders of Babylonia. Included in the correspondence are also letters from Babylonian and Assyrian rulers which throw a further light on the change in the relationship between the two countries.

The Cassite king Burna-buriash reproaches Amenophis IV for having recognized Ashur-uballit as an independent monarch, as long as Babylonia still laid claim to a supremacy over Assyria. This complaint is a proof of the weakness to which the south had been reduced. A foreign power is appealed to, to make good a claim that had long since ceased to have any warrant and that had become merely a tradition handed down from an age that had passed away. The Cassite ruler is not content with sending costly gifts to Amenophis III; he adds his daughter and his sister to be incorporated into the harem of the Egyptian ruler, and it is indicative of the situation that Amenophis refuses the request of the Babylonian king for an Egyptian princess in return.

Enlil-nirari, the successor of Ashur-uballit, engages in battle with Kurigalzu II, despite the fact that the latter owed his throne to Assyrian interference. Assyria is victorious and apparently dictates terms in bringing about a rearrangement of the boundary line. From now on till towards the end of the Cassite dynasty, Assyria had a free hand in extending her power to the north, northeast and northwest, with occasional incursions even into Babylonia, which the latter, however, was able to resist, until, about 1290 B.C., she succumbed for a while to the authority of her northern foe.

All four rulers following upon Enlil-nirari stand out prominently as aggressive warriors. Erik-den-ilu, who leads his armies into the mountainous regions to the northeast as well as to the northwest, subdues the Guti in the Zagros range and the Hittite groups on the western side of Assyria and drives back the Bedouins, grouped under Akhlami and Suti, into the desert lands to the southwest.

His son, Adadnirari I, continues the work of his father and claims control of a large region to the east as well as to the northwest of Assyria. He appears definitely to have put an end to the Mitanni kingdom an important achievement as a road, leading again to a further extension of Assyria into and beyond the Taurus range.

Under the two successors, Shalmaneser I (c. 1300 B.C.) and Tukulti-Ninib (c. 1290 B.C.), the aggressive policy reaches the height of its success. Chronicles record attacks on Babylonia by Adadnirari I, by Shalmaneser I and by Tukulti-Ninib I, corresponding to the reigns of Cassite kings from Nazi-maruttash (c. 1332-1307 B.C.) to Kashtiliash II (c. 1261-1254 B.C.). Each attack meant not only a weakening of the vitality of the Cassite rule in Babylonia, but concessions to Assyria in the settlement of the boundary line between the northern and southern kingdoms.

Finally after several campaigns, Tukulti-ninib I actually besieges Babylon and captures the reigning king, Kashtiliash II. This happened about the middle of the thirteenth century. ^[2] Babylonia passes entirely into control of Assyria, as is indicated by the title, "King of Karduniash" (i.e., Babylonia ^[3] ) and "King of Sumer and Akkad" which Tukulti-Ninib I adds to his other claims.

With Tukulti-Ninib we reach the climax in this period of Assyrian aggressiveness. Had the strength which the north unfolded at this time been maintained, Babylonia would in a short time have become merely a province of Assyria. Tukulti-Ninib, however, is killed in an uprising instituted by his own son, and the decline of Assyria now sets in with such rapidity that she not only loses her prestige but is attacked on the north by the various mountain groups, while Babylonia regains her independence and forces her favorites on the throne of Assyria. For a short time indeed, extending from the reign of Ashur-reshishi to that of Tiglathpileser I, covering the second half of the twelfth century B.C., Assyria recovers her position.

The former succeeds in driving back the Lulumi and the Guti and other groups into their mountain recesses, holds the Bedouin hordes in check and successfully combats an attack from Babylonia, the purpose of which was to reduce the district recognized by previous treaties as constituting the extent of Assyria. His son, Tiglathpileser I (c. 1125-1100 B.C.), maintains the prestige recovered by his father and increases it by a series of campaigns to the northeast and northwest. He penetrates to the sources of the Euphrates, far up in the Nairi district, and erects a monument to himself there as the symbol of the extent of the dominion once more claimed by him.

He forces the troublesome Hittite groups in the northwest to submission, and coming into the Taurus range makes himself master of an extensive district that stretches far into central Asia Minor. Egypt once more acknowledges the independence of Assyria ; her kings send gifts to Ashur as in the days of Amenophis III and IV. Moreover, Tiglathpileser I surpasses the achievements of his predecessors on the throne of Assyria, and in imitation of the ambition of Babylonian rulers at various epochs plants his standards on the shores of the Mediterranean.

At the mouth of the Dog River he erects a statue of himself, with an inscription recording his achievements. Tiglathpileser I crowns his achievements by two campaigns against Babylonia, in the first of which he extends the boundary line of Assyria, while in the second he reaches and captures the chief cities in northern Babylonia, including the capital city, Babylon.

Once more, therefore, as in the days of Tukulti-Ninib, the supremacy of the north had to be acknowledged by the south, but the second epoch of glory was of even shorter duration than the first, and with Tiglathpileser's death Ms extensive kingdom once more crumbles to pieces. For two centuries Assyria, restricted in her activity to maintaining herself within her own very definite and limited boundaries, plays little or no part in the larger affairs of the ancient world.

It is not difficult to account for the rapid decay after the exhibition of such great force. The burden of military campaigns for a term of years, involving the annual loss of thousands of men, was too large to be borne, nor was the booty, though large, or the tribute imposed an adequate compensation for the cost and effort.

In a summary of five years of his reign, Tiglathpileser speaks of having conquered no less than forty-two countries, covering a territory that stretched west to the Mediterranean, north to the Black Sea and northeast to the lake of Van and beyond. In the case of a single engagement, ^[4] the king is opposed by a force of 20,000 men, of whom only six thousand escape. From such a statement we can infer what enormous hosts must have been gathered together by him to carry on wars successfully into difficult, almost inaccessible, regions.

Externally, indeed, everything seemed rosy for Assyria when Tiglathpileser I passed away. The old capital of Ashur had risen to new glory in the enlargement of her temples and palaces, in the strengthening of her fortifications and in the tribute that poured in from all sides. He laid out beautiful parks about this palace, bringing trees for this purpose from distant lands. The king appears also to have been the one who introduced wild hunting sports as a royal pastime.

He hunts elephants on the banks of the Chabur ; he boasts of having killed almost one thousand lions and all manner of big and little game besides. In ships he sails along the Mediterranean and catches a sea monster which may have been a whale. ^[5] Everything that the king thus does is on a huge scale and, making due allowance for the exaggerations of his chroniclers, zealous in flattering their royal master, enough remains to show that, in peace as in war, Tiglathpileser I played the part of the grand monarque with little concern, however, whether his successors would be able to keep up the grandeur and the glory.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See the Introduction to Knudtzon's standard work, Die El-Amarnatafeln (Leipzig, 1908) for further details.

[2]:

We have a definite indication for the date of Tukulti-Ninib in a statement in one of Sennacherib's' inscriptions. See King, Records of Tukulti-Ninib, I, p. 60, seq.

[3]:

For Kar-duniash ("Fortress of the god Duniash" as the Cassite name of Babylonia, see .Meyer, Geschichte I, 2, p. 659, seq., and the references there given.

[4]:

Rawlinson, I, PI. 9, Col. I, 74.

[5]:

So Haupt's view. See Amer. Journal of Semitic Languages, vol. xxiii, pp. 253-263. The Assyrian term is nakhiru.