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$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.