Shalnianeser's son Tuklat-Nindar I.* was prob- ably still a contemporary of the Babylonian king Sharjarakti-shuriash (c. B.C. 1269-1257 ( ? ) ), certainly of his successors Bibeiash (B.C. r25(5-1249(?)), Bel- nadin-shumi (li.c. 1248), Kadashman-kharhi (u.c. 1247-6), and Ramman-shum-idina (B.C. 1246- 1240(?)). The last-mentioned was king only in name, for after Babylon had been enfeebled by the invasion of the Elamite king KkliH-kh^Ul•utash, Tuklat-Nindar seized the Bab. empire for himself for seven years, calling himself king of Sumer and Akkad. Finally, however, he was overthrown by his own son Assur-nazir-pal /., while the throne of Babylon was successfully occupied by Bammdn- shu)n-uztir,1 son of Ramman-shum-idina. A seal with the inscription ' overthrow of Kardunias,' which was struck at Babylon in the time of TukUit- Niiuhtr, was brought to Assyria 600 years later by Sennacherib. Of course 600 is a round number, and the event may reasonably be connected with the year 1246 of "the Chronicle of the Kings of Babyh)nia (coinp. above, p. 179'').
We do not know whether the next Assyr. king, Bi^l-kuditr-ttzur, was a son, or, as is possible, a bi-oilier of Assur-nazir-pal I. The Synchj-onistic History informs us that he was conquered by the powerful Babylonian king Ramnian-shum-uzur (li.c:. 12:!»-1209(?)) and lost his life in the battle. His successor Xindar-pal-isliarra had great diffi- culty in repulsing Uamman-shum-iizur's attack on the town of Assur. It appears, however, that he was successful at last in victoriously driving back the Bab. army. He was succeeded by liis son Asstir-dan I., who lived to an advanced age, and towards the end of his reign (B.C. 1181) con-
* Or Tukulti-Nindar (i.e. 'Nindar is inv help'). The Hebrew-'i write a similarly formed name, 7'«^'K??i-paI-ishnrra as Tiirlatli-jiiieser. Tliey seem therefore to have written Tuklat-p- lunteail of Tukulti-])-.
t The name ideopraphically written is liaimnan-MU-SIS. Possibly Kamman-nadin-akhi could also be read.
quered Zam&ma-shum-idlna of Babylon, and by this means extended the Assyr. frontier beyond the lower Zab.
In the reign of Assur-dan's son Mutakkil-Nusku, the Mosks (the biblical T^'c), a people from Asia Minor, made an incursion into North Syria and the contiguous district of North- West Mesopo- tamia. This incursion seems to have set in motion other waves. The Akhlami (who had been formerly subdued by the Assyrians) on the Middle Euphrates, the Lullumi* and the Guti to tlie north ami ea.st of Assyria, lifted up their heads again ; and so Mutakkil-Nuskn's son, the energetic ^sswr- rish-ishi (' Assur lifted u]) his head '), had to under- take the great task of reconquering these old enemies before he could think of subduing the Mosks. His Bab. contemporary Nabu-kudw-iizur I. (c. 1145-1122) had the glory of conquering the same LuUubi (as the Babylonians call them, instead of Lullumi), who had extended their settlements into the mountains between Armenia and Media, some distance within the frontiers of Assyria and Babylonia. Probably it came at last to a struggle between the two kingdoms, which was settled by the Assyr. king obtaining a victory over Nebu- chadrezzar I., who was, notwithstanding, a dis- tinguished and powerful prince.
The first really great Assyr. conqueror, liowever, was Assur-rish-ishi's son Tuklat-pal-isharra (Tig- lath-pileser) /., whose name means ' Help of the son of Isharra' {i.e. the god Nindar). While, in former times, only the Babylonian kings — and last of these Kadashman-kharbi and Nebuchadrezzar — had penetrated as far as the so-called ' Westland ' or Martu, he was the first Assyrian king to under- take campaigns in this direction, reaching even the frontiers of Palestine. He journej'ed on ships of Arvad in the north of Phoenicia, to the Mediter. Sea, and killed a great sea monster called a nCiklur ('snorting'), probably somewhere between Arvad and the Gulf of Issus. He also hunted wild oxen {rhnu, Heb. re'em) at the foot of Lebanon. His renown reached even to Egypt, and the Pharaoh of the day sent to Assyria a female pariti (probably an ape), a crocodile, and a hippopotamus for his zoological gardens.
In his annals, which contain about 800 lines, there is a detailed account of his first six cam- paigns (B.C. 1120-1115), the results of which are summed up in the following words: 'Altogether 42 countries with their rulers, reaching from beyond the lower Zab — the districts of the moun- tain forests on the other side of the Euphra- tes—to the land of the Khatti and the Upper Western Sea (Gulf of Issus), from the beginning of my reign to the end of the fifth year, have been conquered by my hand, and I have received tribute and taxes from them.' A further cainjiai^'n. which carried him to Lebanon, is not included, as it was undertaken in a later year. Unfortunately, up to the present we know of this last-named campaign only incidentally through another in- scription which describes his hunting expeditions. Tiglath-pileser was also the first A.ssyr. king who, besides the title ' King of the World ' (Sar kissati) which his predecessors had borne before him, assumed another title known to old Babylonian hi.story, viz. ' King of the Fimr Quarters of the World,' and rightly, for he was the first to reach the Mediterranean Sea. With regard to his special campaigns, by far the most important was the war against the ^iosks of Asia Minor (Mesliech, (}n 10-, Ezk 27'2 38-), who, 60 years before, had made an
• Luliratii means ' ring.' Probably by the Lullumi are meant the mountain races in peneral which were scattered round about, and formed, as it were, a rin^ from the tapper Euphrates to the little Zab, reaching to Mesopotamia and Assyria and eveo the IVontiers of Babylonia.