$Unique_ID{how01486} $Pretitle{} $Title{History Of The Babylonians And Assyrians Ashurnacirpal III. And The Conquest Of Mesopotamia. 885-860 B.C.} $Subtitle{} $Author{Godspeed, George} $Affiliation{} $Subject{king assyrian ashurnacirpal city mountains brought euphrates tigris years upper} $Date{1903} $Log{} Title: History Of The Babylonians And Assyrians Book: Part III: The Ascendancy Of Assyria Author: Godspeed, George Date: 1903 Ashurnacirpal III. And The Conquest Of Mesopotamia. 885-860 B.C. 158. The year 950 B.C., by which date the confusion of the past century had spent itself and in the various districts bordering on the Mesopotamian valley was beginning to yield to order and progress, affords a convenient point from which also to observe the revival of the ancient kingdoms whose activity had been so suddenly interrupted during the preceding years. In Egypt a Libyan general, Sheshonk, high in position at the court, had usurped the throne and founded the twenty-second dynasty. His accession was soon followed by a forward movement into Palestine and an attack upon the Hebrew kingdoms. In Babylonia the eight dynasty (sect. 152) ruled under a king of unknown name and origin, who remained on the throne for thirty-six years and was followed by ten or eleven rulers of the same line. Assyria, however, showed most clearly the beginnings of recovery. There also a new dynasty occupied the throne, and thenceforth the crown descended in the same family, from father to son, through at least ten generations. Of Tiglathpileser II., the founder of the line, nothing is known. His son, Ashurdan II. about 930 B.C., comes forward somewhat clearly as a canal-builder, a founder of fortresses, and a restorer of temples in Assur. With Adadnirari II. his son (911-890 B.C.), the upward movement was accelerated. The Assyrian limu list (sect. 38), that invaluable document of ancient chronology, begins with him, as though the compiler regarded his reign as a new epoch in the national history. He built upon the walls of Assur, and, according to one of his descendants, "overthrew the disobedient and conquered on every side." No record has been preserved of any of his wars except that with Babylonia. A difficulty about boundaries between the countries seems to have brought on the conflict. A forward movement by the Babylonian king Shamash-mudammiq was met by Adadnirari near Mount Yalman (Holwan) in the eastern mountains. The Babylonians were driven back, and the defeat apparently cost their king his life, for he was immediately succeeded on the throne by a usurper, Nabushumishkun. Adadnirari advanced against him, defeated his army, spoiled several cities, and brought him speedily to terms. A treaty was made in which the kings exchanged daughters, and the boundaries were adjusted, no doubt to the satisfaction of Assyria. The son of Adadnirari II. was Tukulti Ninib II., in whose case the direct report of a campaign in the north has been preserved. At the sources of the Tigris, where Tiglathpileser I. had recorded his victories (sect. 146), his successor also inscribed his name and exploits, how with the help of his god he traversed the mighty mountains from the rising of the sun to its setting, and reduced their peoples to submission. It is evident that the work of his predecessor of two centuries before had to be done over again. He valiantly undertook the task. It is not probable that his own campaigns extended beyond the valley of the upper Tigris between the first two ranges of mountains. He reigned but six years (890-885 B.C.), giving promise of what Assyria was about to achieve and winning from his successors characteristic appreciations of his valor; his son asserted that he "laid the yoke on his adversaries and set up their bodies on stakes," and his grandson, that "he subjugated all his enemies and swept them like a tempest." 159. With Ashurnacirpal III. (885-860 B.C.), the son and successor of Tukulti Ninib II., dawns the bright morning of the Assyrian revival. The brief reign of his father brought him to the throne at an early age, and, like Tiglathpileser I., he plunged immediately into a series of warlike activities. Of the eleven campaigns recorded in his inscriptions, out of his twenty-four full years on the throne, seven were carried through before the first quarter of his reign was over. His first concern was with the north, whither his father had already led the way. There important changes had taken place since Tiglathpileser had made his campaigns. The commotions in the far north had pushed the tribes and peoples out of their old seats, crowded them together, or brought new peoples on the scene. The Nairi (sect. 144) were now to the southwest of Lake Van, and partly within the southern valley to the east of the sources of the Tigris. The Kirkhi had been pressed together and lay toward the south of the same valley. On the western side Aramean tribes had crowded up on the east of the Qummukhi, and formed several communities about Amid and to the west of the upper Tigris, pushing the Qummukhi back towards the mountains through which the Euphrates flows. Several tribes about the upper Tigris had retired into Kashiari, and there occupied the passes and valleys on the border of the Mesopotamian plain. On the east and northeast the mountain peoples had been thrown forward to the ridges overlooking the valley, and constituted a new problem for the Assyrian rulers. Ashurnacirpal marched into the very centre of the disturbed region to check the advance of the Nairi, found their easternmost tribe (the Nimme) already to the south of Lake Van, and crushed them. A dash over the mountains to the east brought the Kirruri to terms, and secured the homage of peoples to the far east in the upper valleys of the greater Zab (Gilzan and Khubushkia). 160. The western plateau south of the Armenian Taurus was then entered. Back and forth and up and down from the Bitlis to Qummukh and from Taurus to Kashiari, he marched and fought in the four campaigns of the years 885, 884, 883, and 880 B.C. The upper Tigris was first cleared by the overthrow of the Kirkhi, and the tribute of Qummukh was gathered. At this time apparently the Aramean communities of that valley submitted. Then followed the recovery of the southwestern part of the plateau, where vigorous opposition had developed under the leadership of a city which had once been an Assyrian outpost. The trouble was spreading northward among the Aramean cities. Reaching the sources of the Tigris, where he set up his image by the side of those of his predecessors, Ashurnacirpal marched southward along the ridge overlooking Qummukh to Kashiari, on whose southwestern flanks were the strongholds of the enemy. Here the cities of the Nirbi were destroyed, and a fortified post on the right bank of the Tigris was established in the city of Tushkha, as the centre of Assyrian influence in the southwestern plateau. The reduction of the Nairi in the northern valleys was undertaken in the campaign of 880 B.C., and their tribute brought to Tushkha. With this the conquest of the various peoples of these districts was completed. A governor was appointed for the whole region, with his seat in that city. 161. The king's movement into the north, in the beginning of his reign, seems to have been regarded by the hill peoples of the eastern border as a menace, against which it behooved them to prepare. That they were growing into a sort of confederacy is shown in the common name attached to the region - Zamua. A chieftain whose tribe occupied the outermost fringe of mountains at the head of the pass of Babite, succeeded after two years in uniting all Zamua in an alliance. The united tribes presented an independent front to Assyria and proceeded to fortify the pass. To Ashurnacirpal this move was equivalent to rebellion. Besides, it threatened the security of his eastern border as well as the control of the trade with the hinterland. He withdrew, therefore, from active operations in the northwest, and for two years (882-881 B.C.) campaigned among these eastern mountains. His first attack had for its purpose the opening of the pass. The struggle was a severe one, and the summer was gone before the first line of defences was pierced. The king then withdrew to the Assyrian border. Winter came on early in the high mountain valleys, and the inhabitants must have felt secure for the time, but in September the Assyrian army appeared again within the mountain barrier. A fortified camp was established, and expeditions sallied out in all directions into the heart of the enemy's country, striking hard blows, and retiring swiftly on their base of operations. All Zamua was terrified and hastened to do homage. The next year's campaign was in the southeast, where some Zamuan chiefs continued in rebellion. A rapid march to the sources of the Turnat brought the king into the centre of the disaffected region, which was laid waste; thence the army turned northward, burning and plundering through the upper, valleys, and descended to the fortified camp of the previous winter. A second time all the chieftains of Zamua came and kissed the king's feet. While the leading rebels had escaped the vengeance of the king, the confederacy had been broken up, and the country severely punished. From the northern border were brought down the gifts of Gilzan and Khubushkia, lands which had tendered their submission in his opening year. Fortified posts were established in Zamua, and a governor was appointed with his seat at Kalkhi. 162. These six years of campaigning (885-880 B.C.) make up a cycle of vigorous achievement of which any warrior might be proud. From the head- waters of the river Turnat on the southeast, to the northwestern mountains through which the Euphrates flowed, the long arc of mountain borderland had been brought under Assyrian authority. The advancing tribes had been repressed and Assyria's borders relieved. A change of capital followed, possibly was occasioned by this extension of territory. In connection with his eastern wars the attention of Ashurnacirpal had been directed to Kalkhi. Its favorable situation, in the angle where the greater Zab falls into the Tigris, and equidistant from the eastern and northern mountain borders, may have been the ground which induced him to remove the seat of government thither. His first work was piously to rebuild the temple of his patron god, Ninib, and place in it a colossal statue of that divinity, to set up his shrine and appoint his festal seasons. Building went forward from this time upon the various edifices which were to adorn the site, while the king himself turned to a new field of warfare, and undertook a series of expeditions that occupied him for at least four years. 163. While in Qummukh, on the expedition of 884 B.C., word was brought to Ashurnacirpal that the communities on the Khabur River were in commotion. The Arameans had already established petty principalities in the rich plains bordering on the Euphrates from the Khabur to the mountains (sect. 154). One of these states was aspiring to something more than local supremacy. This community, to the north of the Balikh, and situated in a fertile region, the seat of an ancient civilization, and an immemorial centre of trade, was called by the Assyrians Bit Adini from a certain Adinu, probably the founder of a dynasty of ambitious chiefs. How far it had extended its influence by this time cannot be determined, but its interference in the affairs of Suru on the Khabur had brought about a revolution there, whereby a chief from Bit Adini was raised to the throne. When the king heard of it, he at once recognized the gravity of the situation. A union of these communities was a serious danger to Assyria, and, as in the case of the tribes of the eastern mountains, he regarded it as an act of "rebellion," warranting immediate action on his part. Marching southward to the upper waters of the Khabur, he descended along the river bank to the scene of disturbance. A portion of the inhabitants of Suru submitted. The remainder, showing resistance, were cruelly punished, and their new chief carried off to be flayed alive at Nineveh. The neighboring tribes up and down the Euphrates brought tribute. 164. The four years following saw the completion of the work undertaken in the north and east (sects. 160, 161). Not till 879 B.C. did the king undertake another western expedition. Unfortunately, the three expeditions that follow 879 B.C. are left undated in his inscriptions, and it is uncertain whether these occupied the years immediately following (i.e. 878- 876 B.C.), though it is usually assumed that they did. In the first two campaigns (879-878) he took Suru on the Khabur as a base of operations, and chastised the tribes north and south on either bank of the Euphrates. The southern tribes, the Sukhi, were supported by Babylonian troops under the command of Zabdanu, the brother of Nabupaliddin, king of Babylonia, and Ashurnacirpal proudly claims to have "stricken with terror" the land of Babylonia and the Kaldi, by taking prisoner the Babylonian general and three thousand of his troops. He obtained boats, and, sailing across and down the Euphrates, plundered the villages, burned the grainfields, and marched into the desert. Somewhere in the region between the Khabur and the Balikh he built two fortresses on either side of the Euphrates, called Kar Ashurnacirpal and Nibarti Ashur. The third expedition (877?) was aimed directly at Bit Adini, and the resistance offered by Akhuni, its king, collapsed with the storming of his citadel of Kaprabi. With the submission of this Aramean kingdom Ashurnacirpal was in control of all upper Mesopotamia. 165. The last western campaign (876?) had the Mediterranean for its objective point. From Bit Adini the Euphrates was crossed, and Karkhemish, the capital of Sangara, king of the Khatti, surrendered without fighting. Ashurnacirpal now had before him the plateau of upper Syria, which, lying behind the Euphrates hills, stretched away westward to the mountains and the seacoast in a series of fruitful plains, filled with inhabitants. Petty city-states divided the land between them and occupied themselves in perpetual warfare. At this time the leading state was that of Patin, which, under its king Lubarna, controlled the country about the lower Orontes and its northern affluents. Ashurnacirpal marched directly on Patin. Lubarna offered no resistance, and was left in possession of his kingdom as an Assyrian vassal. The march led across the Orontes southward through the mountains. The city of Aribua was selected as an Assyrian outpost and base of supplies. From thence the march may be told in the king's own words: Then I approached the slopes of Lebanon. To the great sea of Akharri [i. e. the Mediterranean] I ascended. In the great sea I purified my weapons and offered sacrifices to the gods. Tribute of the kings on the shores of the sea, of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Makhallata, Maica, Kaica, Akharri, and Aramada [Arvad] in the midst of the sea, silver, gold, lead, copper, copper vessels, variegated and linen garments, a large and small pagutu, ushu and ukarinu wood, tusks of the nakhiri, the sea monster, I received in tribute. They embraced my feet (Standard Inscr., col. iii. 84- 88). Returning northward, he went up into the Amanus mountains to cut choice timber for his palaces and temples, and, after setting up the usual image of himself with a memorial of his deeds, made his way back to Assyria. 166. The chronicle of these conquests naturally suggests comparison with those of Tiglathpileser I. That warrior undoubtedly extended Assyria's fame and influence more widely than did Ashurnacirpal, whose campaigns did not carry him beyond the upper Euphrates, or the boundaries of Babylonia. In many of his measures the later king imitated the earlier, - in the personal leadership of his troops, in the imposition of tribute upon conquered countries and the requirement of hostages, in the deportation of subdued populations, and in the treatment of enemies. On the other hand, in some respects, Ashurnacirpal shows himself in advance of his predecessor. His army was improved by the addition of a calvary squadron, supplementing the infantry and chariots. This first appears in the Zamuan campaigns, and is developed in the western wars, where it may have been modelled after the Aramean cavalry. It was certainly useful in following up the Bedouin when foot-soldiers and chariots would have been useless; it formed thenceforth a constantly enlarging division of the Assyrian force. Another measure of the king was the incorporation of the troops of subject peoples in his army. This appears on the largest scale in his Syrian expedition, in which he added, successively, the soldiers of the Aramean communities on the Euphrates, of Karkhemish, and of Patin. While the desire to leave no enemies in his rear may have been a partial ground of this action, it is probable that these detachments continued to remain under his control and were carried with him to Kalkhi. There he seems to have established a great military centre, where these and other troops were maintained and drilled. In this procedure he solved a standing problem of Assyrian politics, namely, how to continue the wars without drawing too heavily on Assyria's citizens. While thereby introducing elements of serious danger into the state, he was, nevertheless, enabled thus to hand down to his successor an undiminished power, and make it possible for him to undertake an even greater series of military operations. 167. In organizing his conquered territory the king made a distinct advance. A line of Assyrian outposts was established. Some of these guarded exposed districts; others formed the central points of regions more or less geographically compacted. Of the former class were Atlila, called Dur Assur, in Zamua on the Elamite-Babylonian border, the fortified post of Tukulti-ashur-acbat among the eastern mountains, the city of Ashurnacirpal at the sources of the Tigris, the "royal cities" Damdamusa in the northwest and Uda in Kashiari, the two fortresses on opposite sides of the Euphrates (sect. 164), and Aribua in Patin, apparently guarding the Orontes valley. To the latter type belonged Kakzi, in the eastern Assyrian plain, the starting-point of the Zamuan campaigns, and Tushkha in Kirkhi, where the king built a palace and granaries. Various officials represented Assyria in these districts. Their names and jurisdiction are not altogether clear. Sometimes the former rulers were confirmed in their dignities on submission to the conqueror, or native nobles were chosen, whose exaltation to posts of honor and influence would be expected to insure their fidelity. Thus, the zabilkuduri, stationed among the northern peoples, had charge of the collection and delivery of tribute to the king. The exact duties of a qipu, the honorable title given to local chiefs, are not defined. An office of higher and wider jurisdiction is that of shaknu, which may be held by a native chief or, in some cases apparently, by an Assyrian noble who, in important territories like those of the Kirkhi and Nairi, is responsible directly to the king. The position of the urasi, another personage mentioned in the inscriptions, may have been hardly more than that of "resident" in cities under Assyrian control. The placing of Assyrian colonists in some of the cities, though not a new measure, is with all the rest a significant indication of the new beginning of systematic endeavors toward close supervision and control of the subjugated lands. 168. The method of Ashurnacirpal in reducing many of these regions to subjection was so severe as potently to aid in holding them to Assyrian allegiance. One illustration, drawn from the conqueror's own account of the overthrow of Tela on the slopes of Kashiari, is sufficient: I drew near to the city of Tela. The city was very strong; three walls surrounded it. The inhabitants trusted to their strong walls and numerous soldiers; they did not come down or embrace my feet. With battle and slaughter I assaulted and took the city. Three thousand warriors I slew in battle. Their booty and possessions, cattle, sheep, I carried away; many captives I burned with fire. Many of their soldiers I took alive; of some I cut off hands and limbs; of others the noses, ears, and arms; of many soldiers I put out the eyes. I reared a column of the living and a column of heads. I hung up on high their heads on trees in the vicinity of their city. Their boys and girls I burned up in the flame. I devastated the city, dug it up, in fire burned it; I annihilated it (Standard Inscr., col. i. 113-118). Such punishment was reserved for those communities which once under Assyrian authority now offered opposition. This was regarded as rebellion and punished by extermination, or by penalties which rendered the unhappy survivors a warning to their neighbors. Native officials, once trusted by their Assyrian masters, but afterwards rebellious, were, when captured, flayed alive and their skins hung upon the city walls. Communities for the first time summoned to submit to Assyria, if they resisted, were subject to the ordinary fate of the conquered, but not otherwise treated with special cruelty. The opposition encountered by Ashurnacirpal was usually not very strong; the cities were beaten in detail; they had not yet learned how to unite against the common enemy. The numbers definitely mentioned in the inscriptions indicate a total of less than thirty thousand soldiers slain by the Assyrians in all these campaigns, but this estimate does not probably include more than a third of the persons who perished in the storming of the cities. Without doubt the stress of suffering fell upon the northern mountaineers, for more than half of the slain recorded by the king belong to this region, which evidently had caused the chief trouble and required the most strenuous efforts to keep under control. In fact, the last campaign of Ashurnacirpal, in his eighteenth year (867 B.C.), directed against the districts to the northwest, was something of a failure. The city of Amid seems to have held out, and further trouble was promised for the future. 169. The importance of the conquests is shown in the long lists of the spoil and tribute obtained, beside which the booty of Tiglathpileser I. seems insignificant. Least productive were the lands of Zamua, yet they had one important and indispensable product, the splendid horses raised on their plateaus and famed throughout the Orient. From all the mountain regions came cattle and sheep in countless numbers, besides wine and corn. Of precious metals, these districts produced copper, which was manufactured in various forms, and gold and silver. The Aramean communities of the western Mesopotamian plain were the most remunerative, and their spoil reveals the wealth and civilization of that region. Even the Aramean states to the west of the sources of the Tigris contributed, besides horses, cattle, and sheep, chariots and harness, armor, silver, gold, lead, copper, variegated garments and linen cloths, wood and metal work, and furniture in ivory and gold. To these the chief of Bit Adini added ivory plates, couches and thrones, gold beads and pendants and weapons of gold; the king of Karkhemish, cloths of purple light and dark, marvellous furniture, silver baskets, precious woods and stones, elephant tusks and female slaves; and Syria, her fragrant cedars and the other woods of her mountain-forests. 170. Abundant opportunity for the use and bestowment of these spoils of war was given in the king's building enterprises at his capital of Kalkhi. Besides the temple already referred to (sect. 162), his crowning work was his magnificent palace. This stood on the western side of a rectangular platform which was reared along the east bank of the Tigris from north to south. Around its base to the north and east lay the city. The palace itself was about three hundred and fifty feet square; its entrances looked northward upon the great temple structure that occupied the northwestern corner of the platform and overhung the city and the river. A series of long narrow galleries, lined with sculptured alabaster slabs, surrounded a court in size one hundred and twenty-five by one hundred feet. The chief of these rooms, probably a throne chamber, one hundred and fifty-four by thirty-three feet, still contains at its eastern end the remains of a dais which once may have supported the throne. On the slabs were wrought, in low relief, scenes from the life and experiences of the king. Now he offers thanksgiving for the slaying of a wild ox or a lion; now he pursues the fleeing enemy in his chariots; now his army besieges a city, or advances to the attack across a river, or, led by the king, marches through the mountains. Everywhere inscriptions commemorate his achievements and recite his titles. At the doorways stood the monstrous man-headed bulls, or lions, only head and shoulders completely wrought out, as if leaping forth from the wall, the rest still half sculptured in the stone, - divine spirits guarding the entrances. Scenes of religious worship abound, gods, spirits, and heroes engaged in exercises of which the meaning is not yet clear. Everywhere is the combination of energy with repose, of massive strength with dignity; though crude and imperfect in the technique of the sculptor, the reliefs are the most vivid and lifelike achievements of Assyrian art, the counterpart in stone of the grandiose story of the king's campaigns, which is written above and on either side of them. The narrow galleries were spanned with cedar beams and decorated with silver and gold and bronze. The priceless ivories of the west, showing by subject and style the unmistakable influence of Egypt, have been picked up from the palace floors by modern explorers. All was a wonderful commentary upon Ashurnacirpal's own words: A palace for my royal dwelling-place, for the glorious seat of my royalty, I founded for ever and splendidly planned it. I surrounded it with a cornice (?) of copper. Sculptures of the creatures of land and sea carved in "alabaster," I made and placed them at the doors. Lofty door-posts of . . . wood I made, and sheathed them with copper and set them up in the gates. Thrones of "costly" woods, dishes of ivory containing silver, gold, lead, copper, and iron, the spoil of my hand, taken from conquered lands I deposited therein. (Monolith Inscr., concl. 12-24). The king had a place in Nineveh also, and built temples there and elsewhere. The evidence of his having contributed to the inner development of his country is not abundant. An aqueduet to supply Kalkhi with water drawn from the upper Zab was referred to; it brought fruitfulness to the surrounding country, as its name "producer of fertility" proves. The rebuilding of Kalkhi, and the wealth in cattle and sheep, as well as other property, brought in by the successful wars, must be regarded as most important contributions to Assyrian economic resources. 171. Varying judgments have been passed on the character of Ashurnacirpal. Of his energy there can be no question. As hunter and warrior he was untiring and resistless. But to some he is chiefly a monster of remorseless cruelty, whose joy it was to maim, flay, burn, or impale his conquered enemies. If this verdict is finally to be rendered, he will be convicted out of his own mouth, for the evidence is derived solely from his frank, unsoftened narrative of his own ruthless barbarities. But while they are not to be palliated, it must be remembered that war has since engendered even more hideous crimes, of which his narrative shows him to be guiltless; that in an iron age, when Assyria was recovering from a century of dishonor and collapse, fierce and bloody vengeance had come to be the rule; and that in almost every instance these last penalties were inflicted upon communities which, from the Assyrian point of view, had violated their pledges to God and man. It is evident, moreover, that the statements of the king are not inspired by the lust of cruelty and blood, but have been inscribed with the same purpose as that with which the punishments were inflicted, - to strike terror into the heart of the opposer and to warn the intending rebel of his fate. That this verdict is more reasonable is strengthened by the probability that, with the sole exception of the campaign of 867 B.C., the king's wars ceased before his reign was half over. The lesson had been learned, and the king, having taught it in this savage fashion, was well content to turn his energies to the pursuits of peace. Of these latter years there is but scanty record. Wisely to govern a peaceful empire had not yet come to stand among the glories of monarchs. Nevertheless in the remarkable statue of Ashurnacirpal found in the temple of Ninib, not far from his palace, "the only extant perfect Assyrian royal statue in the round," a suggestion is given of the statesman as well as the warrior. A rude heroic figure, he stands upright before the god, looking straight forward, his brawny arms bare, the left hand holding to his breast the mace, weapon of the soldier, but the right dropped by his side, grasping the sceptre, emblematic of the shepherd of his people.