RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Assyria
the next three years he carried his arms into the mountain regions northeast, northwest, and southeast with the uniform result of success and immense booty A confederation of twenty-three kings from the neighborhood of Lake Van was overcome, and heavy tribute imposed. Muzri was once more subdued, and Babylonia had to submit. At the end of his fifth year Tiglath-Pileser claimed to have subdued " forty-two countries with their rulers." Mention of the Hittites first occurs in his reign.
At this point it is well to note, in explanation of the preceding and of much that follows, a characteristic of early Semitic rule. Con-
4. Semitic stant reconquest of subjected territory Rule Un- was necessary The order of events
stable. was: subjection and a light tribute if submission had been ready, a heavy one if strong opposition had been offered; this was invariably followed by rebellion at the first seeming opportunity, and a change in the ruler was always considered an opportunity; then new subjection and a heavier tribute; when rebellion again arose, the case of the rebels was desperate, and further revolt was eliminated by almost complete desolation of the refractory territory. The creation of an empire by unifying peoples under a beneficent rule had not yet been conceived. On the other side was the inherent tendency to segregation, which was a characteristic of the Semites. An invader could reduce city after city, throwing against it the force of his united army, while other cities awaited their fate in trembling. Confederations invariably fell apart. Assyria was the one Semitic power thoroughly unified; and this unity was the cause of its victorious progress until the wars of centuries had sapped its strength.
Tiglath-Pileser's activities were not all warlike;
he rebuilt Asshur, restored its temples and palaces,
and fostered agriculture and arbori-
5. A Time culture. He was followed by two of Quies- of his sons in succession, who re-
cence,noo- moved the capital to Nineveh once 950 B.C. more, restoring its great Ishtar-temple, A new period of quiescence or of exhaustion for Assyria had come, and its enemies organized themselves for new resistance. This resistance coincides with that of the expansion of the Hebrew kingdom. The Arameans had settled in Mesopotamia and fallen heir to the Hittite possessions including Hamath, Aleppo, and Damascus. They were traders, and, holding the caravan routes, directly menaced Assyrian commerce. The Phenicians, too, had been making of their cities strong fortresses. Between Tiglathrileser I and II were several rulers whose names are known and little else, while there is also a gap in the known succession. But the period was not the time of entire weakness generally supposed; the outburst of vigor which followed and continued with little intermission for three and one-half centuries proves it a time of development of power which was used in a series of campaigns which have not ceased to astonish since knowledge of them has been regained. Tiglath-Pileser II (c. 950 b.c.) began a succession
of kings, all of whose names are known, though of what either he or his son Asshur-Dan II (c. 930 b.c) did, little is certain. During the next reign, that of Ramman-nirari II (911-891 b.c), the 6. Tiglath- struggle with Babylonia was renewed, Pileser II, the latter losing territory to its op- 950 B.C. ponent. Tiglath-Ninib (890-885 b.c) -Asshur- placed under tribute the highlands nasirpallll, of the north from Urumiah to the 885-860 Mediterranean. Asshurnasirpal III B.C. (885-860 b.c), son of the foregoing, carried forward the work of conquest. One of the finest inscriptions extant is his, on alabaster in 389 lines, corroborated by other texts. His first campaign in Armenia was so savage that with a single exception, severely punished, all tribes in his line of march hastened to submit. While on a campaign against Kummuh, he heard of the rebellion of an Aramean community at Bit-Kalupe on the Euphrates. He at once countermarched, took and plundered the city, cut off the legs of the officers engaged in the rebellion, flayed the nobles and stretched their skins on a pile built for the purpose, and sent the rebel governor to Nineveh to be flayed. The result was immediate submission of the district and of all in his line of march. While he was thus engaged in the west, rebellion broke out in the east and southeast, was crushed, broke out again, and was again put down with plundering, devastation, and slaughter. Sedition among the Arameans, fomented and assisted by Nabupaliddin of Babylonia, was overcome, and Suru, the capital, destroyed. The fomenter of the trouble in turn found work in repelling the Aramean hordes and occupation in rebuilding the temple of Shamash at Sippar. Continued rebellion among the Arameans revealed the fact that the little state of Bit-Adini, the Bene- 'Edhen of II Kings xix, 12, was the cause of the rising. This the Assyrians assailed and destroyed, and showed that they would permit no strong state on the Euphrates. The Mediterranean coast was next visited; tribute was received from the Phenicians; wood was gathered for the new works at Calah; and a memorial was left on the rocks at Nahr-el-Kalb (near Beirut). Asshurnasirpal made the Assyrian name a synonym for ferocity and savagery. Yet war was not his whole occupation. Calah had fallen into ruins while Asshur had been the capital. He rebuilt it, erected there a great palace, and conducted to the city a water-supply from the Lower Zab.
With Shalmaneser II (860-824 B.C.) began contact of the Assyrians with the Hebrews. In the Black Obelisk and the Monolith 7. Shalman- texts this king has left some of the eser II, 860- finest inscriptions known. These with 824 B.C. supplementary records show a personal leadership by the king of his armies for twenty-six consecutive years. Under him began that battering at the gates of Damascus which continued from his time till the city fell in 732 B.C., and then was directed against the Hebrews, Arabs, and Egyptians till about 660 b.c The three prominent Syrian powers at the time were centered at Hamath, Patin, and Damascus.
Assyria