750-725BC in the Near East

Urartian statue

This blog post will look at the Near East from 750-725BC. Because so much is happening and each region affects the regions around it, I will try and tell the story chronologically as best as I can, rather than describing region by region. The source material for this period includes Greek legends, Assyrian records, later Hebrew sacred writings and contemporary Hebrew inscriptions and artefacts, Egyptian and Nubian records and occasional inscriptions from Urartu and other smaller kingdoms.

When we left off from the last blog post about the Near East, Urartu was ascendant, Kush was threatening a weakened Egypt, the smaller kingdoms in the Levant were thriving and Assyria and Babylonia were weak.

In 750 BC Urartu was at the peak of its strength, under the rule of Sarduri II, with heavily developed irrigation systems and fertile lands. The Urartian military led frequent and successful campaigns against their neighbours, taking captives, either for slaves or conscripts for their armies depending on the situation. With their strong network of well-supplied fortresses, large stocks of war horses and military predominance among their neightbours there was little reason to fear that their hegemony was about to end.

Further to the west, in Anatolia, the small kingdom of Lydia was ruled by Alyattes I, of whom we know little save the name. He was succeeded by Meles, who was succeeded by Candaules (also referred to as Myrsilus and Sadyattes), who is one of the few people to have the odd distinction of having a type of voyeurism named after him. But that is a story for the next blog post and will be dealt with there. All that can be said of Lydia at this time is that it exists and was probably subject to Phrygia. Speaking of the Phrygians, if the identification of the later Mita with Midas is correct than this would place the mythical figure of Gordias at this time.

The legend of Gordias states that the Phrygians were ordered by an oracle to crown as their new king the one who would arrive in their city in an oxcart. Gordias, who had been sent with his wife and son by supernatural guidance to the city unsuspectingly fulfilled the prophecy. Upon being hailed as king (or his son as king), he sacrificed the oxen and left the cart as a memorial in the temple, tying the cart to the temple with an elaborate knot. There was then a prophecy that whoever could undo the knot would rule all Asia. Many tried; all failed, until Alexander the Great arrived in the city many centuries later. Slashing the knot with the sword he was held to have fulfilled the prophecy.

Ruins of Gordion in Phrygia

The Phrygians interpreted the oracle to mean that this was the man whom the gods had told them would come in a wagon; so they made Midas king, and he brought an end to the civil strife, and he placed his father’s wagon on the acropolis as an offering to Zeus the King for sending the eagle.
In addition to this, there was a story about the wagon, that whoever undid the knot of the yoke of the wagon was destined to rule Asia.
Arrian: Anabasis of Alexander 2:3

This is actually one of my favourite legends but it should be noted that Gordias is entirely legendary at this point, that if he existed he probably existed much earlier and also that the entire legend is probably late and either exaggerated or outright invented by the many biographers of Alexander. But it is a good story. Either way, Phrygia existed as a powerful kingdom in Anatolia at this time period, even if they had no wagons laden with omens of destiny.

I appointed Marduk-šarra-usur to the governorship of …
One of the very few fragmentary inscriptions of Ashur-Nirari V, of whom we know so little

In Assyria, in the year 750, Ashur-Nirari V reigned. There are few records of his rule, however there are fascinating documents that are known as limmu lists. "Limmu" roughly corresponded to the Greek Eponym or Roman consular years, in that the Assyrians would appoint an official to take charge of the New Year ceremonies in the capital. This person’s name would then be used to describe the name of the year in Assyrian documents (although the years of the king’s reign would also be used for chronology). The limmu lists give the names of these individuals and tiny scraps of information of what the king and army were doing for that year. We can see that for the year 752 Shamshi-ilu the general was the limmu. Presuming that this was the same Shamshi-ilu who had been so influential under Adad-Nirari III this means that Shamshi-ilu must have been very old at this point (likely to have been at least 80 years old). A general who was this long-lived and powerful would have left a major power vacuum in Assyrian politics when he died and he is likely to have died shortly after this date. However, it may simply have been another official with the same name.

752: Shamshi-ilu, commander, in the land.
…
750: Bel-dan, chief butler, in the land.
…
747: Sin-shallimanni, of Rasappa, in the land.
Limmu lists showing the names of the officials who named the year, their place of command and where the army was at that time

The Limmu lists show that rather than going on campaign for the years 750 and 747 the king (and probably the army) stayed in the land and accomplished nothing. It was customary for there to be a campaign or large building project every year so this may infer weakness in the Assyrian military.

Temple at Jebel Barkal near Napata, Piye's capital

In Egypt, the fractured and divided Libyan dynasties of the Delta and Thebes were faced with the powerful Kushite kingdom from the south. The Kushites were led by Kashta (this may well not have been his actual name, as it seems to just mean “Kushite”). Around 747 Kashta was succeeded by his son Piye (referred to as Piankhi in older scholarly works) who continued the conquest, encroaching further north up the river Nile and cementing the hold on Thebes. Thebes was the sacred city of Amun, and the temple establishment was powerful enough to be a political force in Egypt. Piye appear to have made additions to a temple in Kush to honour Amun, at the sanctuary of Jebel Barkal. Whether this was done to weaken the temple of Thebes or as an act of devotion cannot be known. As often happened in the ancient world it might simply be that devotion and desire for personal power were identical and without contradiction.

In 747 we see Nabonassar coming to the throne of Babylon. Nabonassar is best known for the calendrical reforms that took place during his reign. Thus we can say with some confidence (or as much confidence as one can have with history) that the date of Nabonassar’s reign began in 747, on what would be for us February 26, at noon, which is a level of precision that is extremely unusual for this period of history, where chronology is so disordered.

From the reign of Nabonassar only are the Chaldeans (from whom the Greek mathematicians copy) accurately acquainted with the heavenly motions: for Nabonassar collected all the mementos of the kings prior to himself, and destroyed them, that the enumeration of the Chaldean kings might commence with him.
Fragment of Berossus Caldaeus —Syncel. Chron. 207.

In the year 746 the Limmu lists of Assyria record that there was a revolt at Calah. This revolt was almost certainly the work of Pul. Pul, or Pulu as he was known, was a commander of the Assyrian army and had had enough of the reign of Ashur-Nirari V. If Shamshi-ilu died around 750, Marduk-sharra-usur may have replaced him as Turtanu (chief general) and this may have triggered a coup by those unhappy with the replacement. All of this is speculation, but we do know that in 746 there was a rebellion and that it seems to have been successful.

746: Nergal-nasir, of Nisibin, revolt in Kalah.
Limmu list

Tiglath-Pileser III

In 745 Pulu had dethroned Ashur-nirari V and had declared himself king of Assyria, taking the throne name Tiglath-Pileser III. He kept his old name though for matters pertaining to Babylon. He claimed to be a son of Adad-Nirari III, a rather unlikely, though theoretically possible claim, and seems to have erased the records for the three kings who had preceded him, to maximise his own legitimacy.

At the beginning of my reign, in my first palû, in the fifth month after I sat in greatness on the throne of kingship, the god Aššur, my lord, encouraged me and I marched against the Aramean tribes
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III

The new king faced challenges on every front and quickly went into action. His first year saw him fight the Aramean tribes that had been at the south-western edges of Assyria for centuries, thus securing his border against these foes, as well as pushing southwards into the troubled region of Babylonia on his southern border and annexing the regions adjoining Assyria. To repopulate certain regions and to punish rebellious subjects, Tiglath-Pileser III immediately began the policy of deportations, where thousands of conquered subjects were forcibly removed from their homelands and moved hundreds of kilometres away to new regions where they would be less likely to rebel. While he had attacked Babylonian territory and taken away statues of some of the gods, Nabonassar of Babylon seems to have acquiesced in this. Tiglath-Pileser never attacked Nabonassar and his attacks were directed against the tribes and clans of Arameans and Chaldeans who had taken control of the Babylonian hinterlands. The crushing of these clans actually seems to have strengthened Nabonassar in Babylon, who in turn remained at peace with Assyria.

The third year of Nabonassar king of Babylon: Tiglath-Pileser ascended the throne in Assyria. In that same year the king of Assyria went down to Akkad, plundered Rabbilu and Hamranu and abducted the gods of Šapazza.
Babylonian Chronicle from Nabonassar to Shamash-Shuma-ukin

In 744 Tiglath-Pileser III moved to strengthen his eastern borders and led an expedition into the Iranian mountains. Here he fought against the kingdom of Namri, burning and destroying and annexing wherever he went.

In my second palû, I marched to the lands of Namri … I cut them down with the sword and carried off their booty. I placed a eunuch of mine as provincial governor over the land Parsua…
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III

Helmet from the period of Sarduri II

In 743, with his southern, western and eastern borders secured the Assyrian monarch then turned to his main rival, Sarduri II of Urartu. Sarduri was confident enough in his strength that he had styled himself as King of the Universe, and his father had raided within 30 miles of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. A showdown between the two kings was inevitable. Strengthened by promises of aid from Urartu, the kingdom of Melid (near present day Malatya in Turkey) made an alliance with a number of other kings and awaited the Assyrian assault. The Assyrians circled around the mountains to the west in a forced march and attacked the Urartian force that had crossed the bridge over the Euphrates. The Urartians were heavily defeated and Tiglath-Pileser boasts of capturing the royal emblems of Sarduri, who had had to flee ignominiously across the bridge to safety. The balance of power had shifted back to Assyria. Tiglath-Pileser III followed up his crushing victory by wheeling to the south and attacking the strong fortress city of Arpad. The siege would last around three years, with the city finally falling in 740, during which time Tiglath-Pileser III had consolidated his empire and began to seek tribute submissions from the kings further south. The fall of Arpad would be a brutal warning to the other kings of the region of the fate that awaited those who resisted.

I marched for a distance of seven leagues, day and night, and I did not allow the troops of Assyria to rest, did not give them water to drink, and did not pitch camp nor bivouac my soldiers allowing them to recover from their weariness. I fought with them, defeated them, and took their camps away from them.
They fled to save their lives and Sarduri of the land Urarṭu rode off alone on a mare and escaped during the night. … who like a crawling creature … crawled away and vanished. He returned to his land.
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III

Drawing of an Assyrian weight

In Israel, a bloody series of coups had seen Jehu’s descendants wiped out and his dynasty ended. Menahem had become king, after annihilating the city of Tiphsah that had refused to open its gates to him after he had killed the previous pretender to the throne. The dates are a little confused for the Israelite kings (mainly because they have a tendency to count their regencies oddly and also because of the high number of coups). Notwithstanding this confusion, Menahem appears to have been king when Tiglath-Pileser became interested in the region. Israel had enjoyed might and prosperity under the reign of Jeroboam II and had controlled a lot of the trade of the region, amassing large quantities of silver bullion through trade, as the kingdom had no silver mines.

Then Menahem son of Gadi went from Tirzah up to Samaria. He attacked Shallum son of Jabesh in Samaria, assassinated him and succeeded him as king. The other events of Shallum’s reign, and the conspiracy he led, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel. At that time Menahem, starting out from Tirzah, attacked Tiphsah and everyone in the city and its vicinity, because they refused to open their gates. He sacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women.
2 Kings 15:14-16

In 739 Tiglath-Pileser III moved into the Levant, attacking and conquering cities and annexing large sections of the kingdom of Hamath. The kings of the region were forced to pay tribute, with the book of Kings recording that Menahem of Israel was forced to pay around 34 metric tons of silver as tribute. Judah did not as yet pay tribute, but was probably forced to contribute by the Israelite kingdom. Menahem was insecure in his kingdom and may have used this tribute to gain a promise of Assyrian support for his rule, although he died shortly after this and was succeeded by his son Pekahiah. Tiglath-Pileser stayed in the region for another year to conquer Kullani (Calneh) along the Euphrates River, while his generals attacked Urartu. The generals brought the spoils of Urartu straight to the king rather than the capital, suggesting that large amounts of treasure were needed to pay the army, which at this point was well over one hundred thousand strong.

Then Pul (Tiglath-Pileser III) king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave him a thousand talents of silver to gain his support and strengthen his own hold on the kingdom. Menahem exacted this money from Israel. Every wealthy person had to contribute fifty shekels of silver to be given to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria withdrew and stayed in the land no longer.
2 Kings 15:19-20

Assyrian relief showing cavalry battle

In 737 and 736 the Assyrians moved away from the Levant and threw their armies against the Medes, who at this point were in north-western Iran. The campaign was successful, forcing the Mannean kingdom (an Iranian kingdom to the east of Urartu) to submit to the Assyrians, depriving the Urartians of allies to both the east and west. This submission was followed up by a campaign striking against Urartu itself, with Sarduri II fleeing to the safety of the fortress of Van and Tiglath-Pileser marching unopposed through the land. It seems that around the time and possibly because of the invasion, that Sarduri II either died or was deposed and Rusa I became king of Urartu in his stead.

Iranzu of the land Mannea heard about the glorious valour of the god Aššur, my lord, and all that I had accomplished again and again throughout all of the mountain regions, and the terrifying radiance of the god Aššur, my lord, overwhelmed him. … He came before me and kissed my feet.
Sarduri, I confined to the city Ṭurušpâ, his city, and inflicted a great defeat upon him before his city gates. I erected my royal image in front of the city Ṭurušpâ.
Inscriptions of Tiglath-Pileser III

The kingdoms of Syro-Palestine had been shocked by the speed and power of the revived Assyrian armies and were unsure how to deal with the new balance of power. As Menahem and his son Pekahiah had proved so incapable of responding to the threat it seems that a rebellion took place, with Pekah setting himself up as king and presumably having a civil war take place. As part of this conflict it seems that Pekah began to raid Judah and may have set himself up as a rebel against Assyrian power in the region. Pekahiah was assassinated by Pekah, who became sole king and probably sought alliances with the other kingdoms in the region to resist the Assyrians on their return.

One of his chief officers, Pekah son of Remaliah, conspired against him. Taking fifty men of Gilead with him, he assassinated Pekahiah, along with Argob and Arieh, in the citadel of the royal palace at Samaria. So Pekah killed Pekahiah and succeeded him as king.
2 Kings 15:25

The kingdoms of Israel and Judah now had parties that either favoured following Assyria, seeking help from Egypt or maintaining independence. The problem was that there was no clear counterpart to Assyria, with the Egyptian kings divided against each other and now under the suzerainty of the Kushite Pharaoh to the south. In 735 (possibly, the dates are very unclear) Ahaz was appointed co-regent with Jotham of Judah. Ahaz followed the pro-Assyrian faction and may have been appointed as a method of appeasing that party. Shortly afterwards Jotham died and Ahaz became sole king.

Ephraim (Israel) has been like a dove, easily deceived and lacking discernment. They called to Egypt for help; they turned to Assyria for protection.
Hosea 7:11

A later cuneiform tablet showing astronomical calculations

In 734 Nabonassar died after a reign of around thirteen years having accomplished little of note, apart from his keeping his subjects safe and prosperous, passing on the kingdom peacefully to his son and having been a patron of the arts and sciences. I suppose there are worse epitaphs for a king. A peaceful transition of power in Babylon had not been had for sixty years so the work of Nabonassar was actually quite impressive. He was succeeded by his son Nabu-nadin-zeri, who leaves few records.

The fourteenth year Nabonassar fell ill and went to his destiny in his palace. For fourteen years Nabonassar ruled Babylon. Nabu-nadin-zeri, his son, ascended the throne in Babylon.
Babylonian Chronicle from Nabonassar to Shamash-Shuma-ukin

In 734 Tiglath-Pileser III moved against the coastal cities of Philistia, pushing down towards the borders of Egypt. This did not directly threaten Jerusalem, but it meant that the main army was only around 50 kilometres away. It is extremely likely that Ahaz made some form of submission to Assyria at this point but without sending large tribute. In 733, Tiglath-Pileser returned northwards to begin to attack the Arameans of Damascus and the Arabs who lived in the region. The campaign against the Arabs was tough, with their queen Samsi offering spirited resistance before suing for peace.

I set the rest of Samsi’s possessions and her tents on fire.
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III

This attack on the kingdom of Damascus led to an alliance between Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus. The two kings probably wanted to have Judah as part of the alliance, however Ahaz was pro-Assyrian. To force his hand and possibly trigger a coup, the two kings of Samaria and Damascus moved against Ahaz of Judah. Ahaz was quite weak in comparison to the two kings and the soldiers of Jerusalem stayed within the fortifications while their enemies besieged them. Despite pleas and prophecies from the court prophet Isaiah, who begged Ahaz to remain neutral, Ahaz sent a large tribute to Tiglath-Pileser III and proclaimed his submission to the Assyrian ruler, making Judah an Assyrian vassal state and bringing them under Assyrian protection.

Then Rezin king of Damascus and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem and besieged Ahaz, but they could not overpower him. … Ahaz sent messengers to say to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, “I am your servant and vassal. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Damascus and of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.”
2 Kings 16:5,7

This episode shows the desperation of all involved. It was almost suicidal for Rezin to move his armies away from Damascus while the Assyrians were nearby. They cannot have dared to risk a battle and could not have forced Jerusalem to surrender without a siege. It is hard to know what Pekah and Rezin were thinking when they made this decision to remove their armies south to try force Judah to join them. But they may have had no other options. The Biblical writers of Kings excoriate Ahaz for this decision, implying that this brought down the Assyrians to the region. In fairness to Ahaz, the Assyrians were already in the region and submission was quite a sensible policy. However, if he had waited, as Isaiah counselled, Damascus would have been attacked anyway and Rezin and Pekah would have had to retreat. Ahaz could then have submitted from a much stronger position. The messy events of this attempt to form an anti-Assyrian coalition benefited no one except the Assyrians. It is probable that similar events took place in different regions when the Assyrians attacked. In any event, Tiglath-Pileser accepted the tribute and moved against Damascus in late 733.

Assyrian troops assaulting a city (probably in Iran)
Note the siege ram and impaled prisoners

With the blood of his warriors I dyed the river… a raging torrent, red like a flower… I broke their weapons, captured their horses, his warriors, archers, shield bearers and lancers, dispersing their battle array. In order to save his life, Rahianu (Rezin) fled alone and entered the gate of his city… I impaled his foremost men alive while making the people of his land watch.
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III

The attack on Damascus was vicious. Damascus had been an enemy of Assyria for over a century and they were one of the last remaining major kingdoms of the hated Arameans, who had been enemies of Assyria for the previous five centuries. The last Assyrian attack on Damascus had been around seventy years previous, but this time the Assyrians would not fail.

Like ruined cities washed over by the Deluge I destroyed 591 cities of 16 districts of the land of Damascus
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III

Damascus was assaulted for forty-five days. The armies of Samaria and Damascus had apparently been broken and Rezin only had his bodyguards to defend the city, as they watched the Aramean nobles being impaled by the Assyrians in front of the city. Damascus fell in 732 and Rezin was executed. Tiglath-Pileser III remained in the region for some months to receive the homage of the kings and chieftains of the region and to destroy the majority of the cities of Israel, forcing deportations of much of the populace and army, and only sparing the capital Samaria. In Israel, Pekah was dethroned and murdered by his people for his failed attempt to stand against Assyria. Hoshea was appointed as king of Israel by the Assyrians and made submission, along with every king south of Damascus to the borders of Egypt.

Mitinti of Ashkelon neglected the oath of loyalty, sworn to the great gods, and revolted against me. He saw the defeat of Rahianu (Rezin), and became afraid…
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III

A king of Sam'al

Some off the kings who submitted seem to have done so willingly. A stela was set up by Barrakib, son of Panamuwa, king of Sam’al, recording how his father had “run at the chariot wheel of his lord, Tiglath-Pileser” and had fought and died at Damascus with the Assyrians. Sam’al had a history of submitting to the Assyrians. While other states tried to form coalitions against the Assyrians, the smaller states that were bullied into joining these coalitions would try to claim protection. For the rulers of Sam’al and Judah it was better to submit to a powerful ruler that was far away than to submit to a nearby enemy who had not the strength to protect them. Barrakib spoke of the monument set up for his father’s grave in Damascus and Ahaz copied altars from there to be used in Jerusalem. Neither the kingdom of Judah nor the kingdom of Sam’al were particularly important at the time, but their surviving records are a good example of the smaller kingdoms currying favour with Assyria.

He ran at the wheel of his lord, Tiglath-pileser (III), king of Assyria, in campaigns from the east to the west and from the north to the south, over the four quarters of the earth. The population of the east he brought to the west; and the population of the west he brought to the east.
Inscription of Barrakib, king of Sam’al, commemorating his father Panamuwa who had submitted to Assyria

Assyrian soldiers, one archer, one shieldbearer

It is interesting that only the Assyrian record of Judah’s submission to Tiglath-Pileser III gives Ahaz’s true name (Jehoahaz, meaning “Jehovah has held”). The Biblical writers were so disgusted with his submission to Assyria that they dropped the name of the god from Jehoahaz’s name, leaving only Ahaz, by which he is known to posterity. In a reverse irony, the imperious conqueror of the Israelites is best known by an Israelite corruption of his name. Tiglath-Pileser’s real name was closer to Tukulti-apil-Esarra but, he is recorded as Tiglath-Pileser in the Bible. Thus he is renamed in death by the records of the peoples he had trampled underfoot in life.

…Sanīpu of the land Bīt-Ammon, Salāmānu of the land Moab, ...[... of ..., ... of ..., Mi]tinti of the land Ashkelon, Jehoahaz of the land Judah, Qauš-malaka of the land Edom,…
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III giving a list of the kings who submitted to him. This is only a small section of the list.

The taking of Damascus had far reaching effects. Damascus survived as a city, but would not again be the capital of a state until AD 661. Most importantly however, the Arameans had been deported to various parts of the empire and their language was now spoken in all corners of the empire, more so even than Assyrian. Tiglath-Pileser allowed Aramaic to be used as a language of administration and commerce within his borders, making it the lingua franca of the Middle East (this took about fifty years to happen however). When the Persians took over the region, they too used Aramaic and it would spread even further, affecting the development of the Kharosthi script in India and being the language spoken by the disciples of Jesus over seven hundred years after Tiglath-Pileser. The taking of Damascus may have also allowed items from the treasury of Hazael to be looted by the Greeks and be taken to various shrines in Greece, suggesting that Tiglath-Pileser may have had Greek mercenaries in his army. The Greeks were trading with (and occasionally raiding) the coastal region north of Lebanon, which they named “Syroi”; their way of saying “Assyrian”. The very name of the region bears the hallmarks of the Assyrian conquest of the region to this day in the name of the country; Syria.

Ruins of the city of Nimrud

In Babylon, in the year 732, Nabu-nadin-zeri was deposed by Nabu-suma-ukin, whose usurpation of the throne only lasted for one month and two days before he too was overthrown by Nabu-mukin-zeri. As there had been peace between Nabonassar and Assyria, the destruction of his short-lived dynasty was a matter of grave concern to Tiglath-Pileser III. A vicious war broke out in the chaos of Babylonia, with the Assyrians playing off the various factions against each other. There were a large number of Aramean tribesmen who still lived in Babylonia, a number of powerful Chaldean tribes in the south of the region that occasionally acted together but were not organised, there were the native Akkadians/Babylonians of the city and countryside who disliked the Chaldean and Aramean tribes and the sacred cities of the south, such as Uruk and Nippur, that had large temples and substantial treasuries that could support any of the factions. Nabu-mukin-zeri was a Chaldean and Tiglath-Pileser III withdrew his forces from the west to step into the competing maelstrom of Babylonian politics.

Nabû-šuma-ukin, a district officer and leader of the rebellion, ascended the throne. For one month and two days, Nabû-šuma-ukin ruled Babylon. Nabû-mukin-zeri, the Amukanite, removed him from the throne and seized the throne for himself.
Babylonian Chronicle from Nabonassar to Shamash-Shuma-ukin

Ring from the graves of the Assyrian Queens

Tiglath-Pileser III may have been growing old at this point and it appears that he did not accompany his army on campaign to Babylon. However, his generals sent him reports of the war. The army reached the gates of Babylon. Standing in front of the Marduk gate, they ignored the representatives of the Chaldeans and instead spoke to the Babylonians who were with them, offering them amnesty and privileges if they surrendered the city. Nabu-mukin-zeri had fled to the south but the people of Babylon would not surrender the city. They apparently were afraid of the Chaldeans and distrustful of the two Assyrian commanders, Shamash-bunaya and Nabu-nammir. However, even if Babylon did not surrender it seems to have remained neutral in the war. The Assyrian commanders moved south, using improvised boats to navigate the rivers, canals and marshes of the southern Mesopotamian plain, while their armies were supplied by hundreds of boats that were sent down the Tigris and Euphrates from Assyria.

We spoke many words with them, but some 10 powerful men refuse to come out and speak with us; they keep sending messages to us. We told them: “Open the city-gate, so we can enter Babylon.” They refused, saying: "If we let you enter Babylon, what can I say to the king, when the king himself comes?" They will open the gate only when the king comes, and they do not believe that the king will come.
Letter from Shamash-bunaya and Nabu-nammir to Tiglath-Pileser III

Nabu-mukin-zeri had fled south to his stronghold of Saqia, which was surrounded and besieged in 731. The other Chaldean chieftains were bought off, threatened or destroyed. The powerful Chaldean tribe of Bit-Yakin made peace with the Assyrians. Their leader is known to history as Merodach-Baladan and he will be mentioned again. Outmanoeuvred and outnumbered, Nabu-mukin-zeri was defeated, Babylon surrendered and the king of Assyria came to the conquered city to be enthroned in the sacred city of Babylon.

The third year of Nabû-mukin-zeri: Tiglath-pileser, having come down to Akkad (Babylonia), ravaged Bit-Amukanu and captured Nabû-mukin-zeri. For three years Nabû-mukin-zeri ruled Babylon. Tiglath-pileser ascended the throne in Babylon.
Babylonian Chronicle from Nabonassar to Shamash-Shuma-ukin

Assyrian King

The Babylonian and Assyrian religions were almost identical. The main difference between them was that Assur was the main god of the Assyrian religion, while Marduk was the main god of the Babylonian religion. But they were effectively the same god. In many ways it resembled Greco-Roman paganism, where the Greeks and the Romans acknowledged and worshipped the same basic pantheon, acknowledged the validity of each other’s gods, oracles and prophets and had considerable respect for the older of the two religions. Babylon was a city sacred to Marduk and the Assyrians respected its sacred status. Thus, when Tiglath-Pileser III was crowned in Babylon he took care to observe the proper ceremonies, including the great New Year Festival (known as the Akitu). This was a twelve day ceremony where the statue of the god Marduk would be taken out from the Esagila sanctuary and lodged in the Etemenanki ziggurat to recreate the Babylonian creation myth. During this period the king would approach and be stripped of his finery and ritually humiliated before the god before rising having been imbued with the power and legitimacy of the god. For Tiglath-Pileser III to have conquered his enemies in all directions and then to have undertaken this ceremony for two years in succession must have been seen as the crowning glory of the new Assyrian world order.

730: Bel-lu-dari, of Tille, in the land.
729: Liphur-ilu, of Habruri, the king took the hands of Bel.
728: Dur-Ashur, of Tushhan,to Hi[...]; the king took the hands of Bel.
Eponym List of Assyria showing Tiglath-Pileser III observing ceremonies in Babylon

While Tiglath-Pileser was solidifying his control over Babylonia, another conquest was taking place elsewhere in the world. Piye, king of Kush, to the south of Egypt, had exercised a loose control over the Egyptian and Libyan princes to the north of Egypt.  While Thebes was under the effective control of the Kushites, the Nile Delta region was controlled by a number of tiny kingdoms that were often no more than city-states. Around the year 728, if the sources are to be believed, the kings of the Nile Delta formed a coalition to resist the Kushites. They followed a ruler of the city of Sais called Tefnakht who brought together the warring kings to attack the city of Heracleopolis. The war that followed between these kings and Piye is documented in an extraordinary stela that has been preserved so we can follow the events in great detail.

Tefnakht has seized the whole west from the back-lands to Ithtowe, coming southward with a numerous army, while the Two Lands (Upper and Lower Egypt) are united behind him, and the princes and rulers of walled towns are as dogs at his heels.
Piye Stela

The city of Hermopolis was loyal to Tefnakht so the commanders of the Kushite army in Egypt were ordered to move north past the city of Thebes, observe the rituals of Amun to strengthen the army and then attack the city of Hermopolis while Piye gathered troops in his capital of Napata. A river battle was fought with ships on the Nile north of Hermopolis where the Kushite commanders were victorious. They pushed further north, leaving Hermopolis behind to fight the rebels near Heracleopolis. They faced six rulers and a host of smaller chieftains in battle. The Kushites crossed the river early in the morning and routed their foes who fled along the river to the north and south.

They sailed down-stream upon the river, they found many ships coming up-streams bearing soldiers, sailors, and commanders, every valiant man of the Northland, equipped with weapons of war, to fight against the army of his majesty.
Piye Stela

Ruins of a temple at Thebes

Hearing of the successful yet incomplete victory of his generals, Piye himself went north. Early in the year 727 Piye celebrated the Opet festival in Thebes before sailing north to join his army in attacking Oxyrhynchus where they had slain Tefnakht’s son and taken a number of fortresses. The king and his army then turned south again to finish the siege of Hermopolis, where the people were now beginning to starve. The mobility of the Kushite armies along the river is very impressive. Piye accepted the surrender of Hermopolis after receiving deputations from its queen and mourned for the suffering of the starving horses that he saw in the royal stables when he entered the conquered city. After the fall off Hermopolis, Heracleopolis re-affirmed its loyalty and sent more tribute. The gateway to Lower Egypt was now open.

He set up for himself the camp on the southwest of Hermopolis and besieged it daily. An embankment was made, to enclose the wall; a tower was raised to elevate the archers while shooting, and the slingers while slinging stones, and slaying people among them daily.
Piye Stela

Piye moved further north, receiving the surrender of forts and cities along his route. Those who surrendered were not killed however and it seems that Piye even captured another of the sons of Tefnakht and did not put him to death. The victorious march continued until the king had reached the city of Memphis, which was strengthened by Tefnakht with 8000 troops who marched in secretly during the night, however Tefnakht himself left the city on horseback, leaving the garrison to fend for itself while he organised resistance among the cities of the Delta. Memphis was surrounded by high walls and arms of the river encompassed it on the eastern side. Some of his generals advocated a long siege, however Piye decided on the element of speed and surprise, commandeering all boats available, plus his own fleet, and rushing against the river walls. The city was taken by siege and put to the sword. By the second day the looting and killing had stopped and Piye had taken full control of the city.

Then he sent forth his fleet and his army to assault the harbor of Memphis; they brought to him every ferry-boat, every cargo-boat, every transport, and the ships, as many as there were, which had moored in the harbor of Memphis, with the bow-rope fastened among its houses.
Piye Stela

The bloody siege of Memphis and the incredible speed it had been taken left the northern princes, chiefs and little kings no choice but to surrender. Osorkon of Tanis, probably the second strongest of the kings of the Delta after Tefnakht, surrendered in Heliopolis and gave tribute. The other kings followed suit shortly in the city of Athribis. While Piye organised his armies, a city in the western delta, called Mesed rose up against the Kushites, but was crushed by the Kushite armies and the forces of Pediese. Pediese was a Libyan king who had submitted to Piye. After this final defeat Tefnakht finally gave up the struggle, but refused to come to meet Piye and bow down before him. Tefnakht had fled, perhaps to Crete or Cyprus, and refused to risk his life or humble his pride. The last remaining chieftains submitted to Piye, where they were humiliated by not being allowed inside the palace due to their ritual uncleanliness. Instead they had to kiss the ground at the feet of Piye outside the palace and were left outside once the surrender was complete.

Drawing of the Piye Stela showing the surrender of the rebels

Then came those kings and princes of the Northland, all the chiefs who wore the feather (meaning Libyans rather than Egyptians), every vizier, all chiefs, and every king's confidant, from the west, from the east, and from the islands in the midst, to see the beauty of his majesty.
Piye Stela

Piye had the stela written glorifying his exploits in the style of the great Egyptian warrior kings of old, like Tuthmosis III or Ramesses II. He stressed his reliance on the Egyptian gods and his ritual purity, the innovative tactics he had used, the mercy he showed to those who surrendered and the retribution he gave to those who did not, although his methods of waging war were humane by the standards of the day and almost humanitarian compared to the Assyrian methods. But most of all he stressed that this was not merely a civil war, nor an invasion from the south, but that he, a true Egyptian, was finally ridding Egypt of the sway of unclean Libyan foreigners. His account has sometimes been compared to a religious crusade, although that is probably overstating matters. Piye’s capital however was in Napata, in present day Sudan, so after having set the Delta in order and reconfirmed the now loyal sub-kings, he returned to Napata with all the spoils of victory. The sub-kings would not rise again against the Kushites.

Then the ships were laden with silver, gold, copper, clothing, and everything of the Northland, every product of Syria, and all sweet woods of God's Land. His majesty sailed up-stream, with glad heart
Piye Stela

Earrings from the graves of Assyrian Queens

In 727, while Piye was subjugating the northern regions of Egypt, Tiglath-Pileser III died. His son, Shalmaneser V took control of the Assyrian empire and the records of Assyria grow silent. His first name was Ululayu, but he changed his name to Sulmanu-asarid, which is rendered in Hebrew as Shalmaneser. His reign is not well documented, but it is possible that he married one of his father’s wives to secure legitimacy to the throne. The evidence for this is conjectural, but there was an intriguing discovery of a grave site in Nimrud. It had almost miraculously survived looting and contained the bodies of several queens and substantial treasure (preserved with a curse on those who would disturb the tomb). There are many fascinating things about the discovery, including the fact that one of the queens had been “cooked” possibly as a means of preserving the body until burial. But some have suggested that Yaba, the queen of Tiglath-Pileser, and Banitu, the queen of Shalmaneser V are in fact the same person. This is all very conjectural, but it is wonderful to have discovered the tombs of some of the people from this time.

…the great gods of the netherworld, the destiny of a mortal life, took Yaba, the queen, into death and she went the way of her ancestors
Inscription from the tomb of Yaba, Tigath-Pileser’s queen

Item with name of Osorkon IV

When Tiglath-Pileser III died, Hoshea of Israel seems to have tried to rebel against Assyrian power. The book of Kings records that he negotiated with an Egyptian king called So. Some people have suggested that So is the Hebrew way of saying “Sais” and is a reference to Tefnakht, king of Sais but I think it is more likely that So is a shortened corruption for Osorkon IV, king of Tanis, who had recently submitted to Piye. It is possible that So refers to a general of Piye or another unknown king of the Delta region. Hoshea stopped paying tribute while sending envoys to the mysterious king So. His negotiations with Egypt were fruitless and Shalmaneser’s armies attacked, captured Hoshea (whose fate is unknown but unlikely to have been pleasant) and began a three year siege of Samaria, the capital of what remained of the state of Israel. The siege began in the year 725 where we shall leave the account of this time period. The next twenty-five years will be dealt with in a subsequent blog post.

Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So, king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison. The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years.
2 Kings 17:3-5

At the beginning of the twenty-five year period Urartu was in the ascendant, Assyria was in decline, Babylon was unstable, Egypt was only loosely controlled by the Kushites and the kingdoms of Syria and the Levant were thriving. At the end of the period, Urartu was in retreat, Assyria was triumphant, Babylon was conquered, Egypt was firmly controlled by the Kushites and the kingdoms of Syria and the Levant were tributary, under siege or destroyed.

Crown from the graves of Assyrian queens

The vast changes of these decades were due mainly to the ruthless character of Tiglath-Pileser III. He had reorganised the Assyrian army and administration and the empire is generally referred to as the Neo-Assyrian Empire after his time. Unlike the more ephemeral Mesopotamian dynasties, the Assyrians, who had already been strong for centuries, would remain the dominant force in the Middle East for over the next century. It is hard not to have some admiration for Tiglath-Pileser. While we don’t know much about the details of his battles, the respect and terror that he inspired in his foes is unmistakable. He was probably the finest general of his era and despite facing foe after foe, year after year, it is not recorded that he was ever defeated. His strategic insight into the weaknesses of his enemies was unparalleled and he could be treated as one of the great generals of all time. His successors would be more powerful still, but all of them suffered defeats. But to his enemies this pitiless monarch was the epitome of evil and the Assyrian name would become a byword of hatred, so he should not be eulogised. Some have speculated that he was no worse than other conquerors of his day, but the captives impaled by his armies to terrify cities under siege would not have appreciated the point. Having summarised the quarter century and given my synopsis of Tiglath-Pileser III I shall leave the post here.

I marched from the Great Sea of the Rising Sun to the cities Resi-suri and Byblos on the shore of the Great Sea of the Setting Sun and this I exercised authority over the four quarters of the world.
Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III

Related Blog Posts:
The 8th Century BC in the Near East: I
Greece from 750-700BC
725-701BC in the Near East

The 8th Century BC in the Near East: Part I

This post will deal with history in the Near Eastern region from the years 800-750 BC (or BCE if you prefer). Although there are many other things happening in the world during this time period, I will focus mainly on the region from Greece to Iran (west to east, and from Armenia to Sudan, north to south).

Our sources for the period are better than previous centuries, but meagre compared to later centuries. This post will mainly use Assyrian chronicles and inscriptions, some later Greek myths and writings that speak of this time, some Egyptian and Urartian inscriptions and the Biblical narratives of 2 Kings/2 Chronicles. All of these sources are problematic. The Greek sources are quite late, some of them are written over a thousand years after the events described, and should be treated with caution. The Assyrian/Babylonian accounts for this period suffered a lot of destruction from the kings who came after them and they were written as propaganda. The Egyptian sources suffered from the dynasties that came after them and, again, were propaganda. The Hebrew sources were not contemporary (they are from a few hundred years after the events described) and they are also focusing on the story of the God of Israel and his people. Anything outside that narrative gets excluded, regardless of how historically important it may have been. So, as always with history, we have to be careful with our sources but thankful that we have any sources at all and especially grateful when archaeology sheds additional light on the written record.

Oracle at Dodona

In Greece we begin to see the sparks of light that would eventually give rise to the Classical Greek civilisation that is so famous in antiquity and beyond. Around this time we believe that the Greeks began to write again. They used a borrowed Phoenician alphabet, changing the characters to suit their own needs. The original writing was done in majuscule (capital letters), as it was mainly inscribed on stone or written on pottery. The lower case variants only really developed a few hundred years later, when writing on scrolls came into more common use.

The Greeks had a number of different dialects (Ionian, Doric, Aeolian etc.) and there were originally a number of different Greek alphabets that differed from each other very slightly (some used the Chi symbol differently than the usage that is known today for example). It is important to note that we have no real Greek writing from the fifty years that we are mentioning. However, as we see Greek writing in the next fifty years coming into more regular usage it is reasonable to surmise that it must have been invented in or around this time. For the first time since the Mycenaean Linear B script was being written, the Greeks could preserve their thoughts and deeds other than in memory.

This period sees the beginning of a number of traditions that would be influential in the classical world. One of the main ones is the establishment of oracles, particularly the oracle of Delphi. There is evidence that the oracle of Delphi was established around this time. There are legendary accounts of its founding from the previous centuries and more rationalist accounts written later (involving vapours rising from the earth, such as the one preserved in Diodorus Siculus, who wrote around 30BC and is quoted below). There was also an important oracle at Dodona in northern Greece. These oracles, particularly the Delphic Oracle, would become very famous and would be consulted by many Greek city states before any great decision would be made.

Modern drawing of the Oracle of Delphi

It is said that in ancient times goats discovered the oracular shrine, on which account even to this day the Delphians use goats preferably when they consult the oracle. They say that the manner of its discovery was the following.
There is a chasm at this place where now is situated what is known as the "forbidden" sanctuary, and as goats had been wont to feed about this because Delphi had not as yet been settled, invariably any goat that approached the chasm and peered into it would leap about in an extraordinary fashion and utter a sound quite different from what it was formerly wont to emit. The herdsman in charge of the goats marvelled at the strange phenomenon and having approached had the same experience as the goats, for the goats began to act like beings possessed and the goatherd began to foretell future events.
After this as the report was bruited among the people of the vicinity concerning the experience of those who approached the chasm, an increasing number of persons visited the place and, as they all tested it because of its miraculous character, whosoever approached to spot became inspired. For these reasons the oracle came to be regarded as a marvel and to be considered the prophecy-giving shrine of Earth.
For some time all who wished to obtain a prophecy approached the chasm and made their prophetic replies to one another; but later, since many were leaping down into the chasm under the influence of their frenzy and all disappeared, it seemed best to the dwellers in that region, in order to eliminate the risk, to station one woman there as a single prophetess for all and to have the oracles told through her.
Diodorus Siculus 16.26.1–4 (written around 30BC)

Another tradition that would be central to Greek culture, and that is still practiced in a modified form today, is the Olympic Games. These were a series of contests held at Olympia near the city of Elis (the Eleans supervised the games) as part of a religious festival honouring Zeus, held every four years. Legend states that this was instituted in the 800’s but that it was only in 776BC that they began to record the names of the victors. The victor in the race was Coroebus of Elis and is the first recorded Olympic victor (the victors received laurel wreaths rather than anything valuable). It is probable however that the games only began around this period rather than stretching into remote antiquity. It is also interesting that the first winner was from the local area, suggesting that the games were not seeing many competitors from outside the region. The next recorded winners from succeeding years tended to be from Messene, a city in the Peloponnese whose sad fate in the following decades would shape Greek history for the next centuries.

Location of the stadion race in Olympia

As a result of this, Iphitus proclaimed the truce [which had been fixed by Heracles at the summer solstice; they no longer fought against each other,] and he organised the games together with Lycurgus, who happened to be his relative because they were both descended from Heracles. On this occasion, the only contest was the stadion race; later the other contests were added in their turn.
Aristodemus of Elis relates that the victors in the athletic contests began to be registered in the 27th Olympiad after Iphitus. Before then, no-one had thought to record the athletes' names. In the 28th Olympiad Coroebus of Elis won the stadion race, and he was the first victor to be registered. This was then established as the first Olympiad, from which the Greeks calculate their dates.
Eusebius, Chronicon

As had been the case for the preceding centuries, the expanding population of Greece and the small-scale conflicts between and within the settlements led to Greeks leaving their cities to found new ones. This process, known as sending colonies (rather different from later colonisation in history), saw Greek cities being spread across both sides of the Aegean and was only to expand in later times. As we conclude looking at Greece in the year 800-750BC we see that Greece is still silent, but that the seeds of the classical world are being sown. It is important to remember though, that were it not for later sources, there would be almost nothing that could be said of Greece at this time.

Further to the east, in Phrygia, in Asia Minor there is not really much that can be said, save that the Phrygian kingdom, centred on the city of Gordium, existed. We have neither legendary material nor written records of the period to shed light on this kingdom. It is worth noting that if there were no later legends and writings in Greece, we would be able to say nothing about Greece for this period either. Basically, we must be cautious about interpreting lack of evidence. Ancient Phrygia during this time period was certainly wealthier and more connected with the Near East than Greece was, and a chance find of inscriptions might open up unexplored vistas to the historian. We know that the Phrygians had their own alphabet, similarly sourced from Phoenician, and that their language was similar to Greek in certain ways. We have some later inscriptions from this century but very little from the time period that we are dealing with here. Perhaps this will change.

To the south of Egypt, in the land of Nubia, there was a period of consolidation and strengthening among the kings in Napata. The first king that we are aware of is Alara. He unified Kush, lived for a long, but currently unknown length of time and was buried in one of the pyramids at the royal cemetery of El-Kurru, near Napata.

Kushite Tomb Painting

The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Nima’re, Son of Re, Lord of the Two-Lands, Kashta, beloved of Khnum, Satis and Anukis, living forever.
The Elephantine Stela of Kashta

His son, Kashta, further strengthened the Nubian kingdom and began to encroach on Egypt to the north, establishing control over the city of Elephantine. A stela placed in this city shows that the Nubian kings at this point considered themselves fully Egyptian and had ambitions to conquer all of the land of Egypt. While Kashta may have begun the conquest it was not fulfilled during his lifetime.

Egypt at this time was a land divided among the descendants of the Libyan invaders (like Shoshenq I of the earlier dynasty). The 22nd Dynasty controlled much of Lower Egypt, near the mouth of the Nile. The 23rd Dynasty controlled the area of Upper Egypt with their power centre being near Thebes and closely linked to the High Priest of Amun, whose main sanctuary was at Thebes.

Shoshenq IV of the 22nd Dynasty was succeeded by Pami, in whose reign there were supposedly Apis bulls (bulls that exhibited a particular set of unusual physical characteristics and were worshipped as gods.)  Apis bulls were also recorded in the reign of his successor, Shoshenq V, although the record may be confused and the memories of the Apis bulls recorded may have been confused between the Pharaohs. As the Apis bulls were seen as a sign of divine favour, and as these kings seem to have been weak, there may have been pressure put on the priesthood to declare these omens to bolster the claims of the kings.

Egyptian Inscription

This god (Apis) joined with his father Ptah in regnal year 12, fourth month of winter, day 4 of King Aakheperre, Son of Re, Sheshonq V, given life, being born in regnal year 11 of his Majesty and resting upon his seat in the necropolis in regnal year 37, third month of inundation, day 27 of his Majesty
Stele of Pasenhor

In Upper Egypt, Shoshenq VI was overthrown by Osorkon III who was succeeded by Takelot III. Takelot III was succeeded by his brother Rudamun. The sources are quite poor for these kings and the historical record relies heavily on some inscriptions found that record the Nile levels during the reigns of these kings. In certain cases their burial places are known (albeit looted) and this gives some information. Like their counterparts in Lower Egypt, the kings of the 23rd Dynasty were descendants of the Meshwesh Libyans, who retained a number of their own customs. This left those who followed Egyptian customs feeling that the Libyans were outsiders, and the fragmented nature of their kingship was to expose the dynasty to conquest and rebellion. Ultimately, these dynasties were to be swept away by the Kushite kings of Napata to the south, who were to destroy many of the records of this time, in the name of cleansing Egypt from a foreign scourge. But the Kushite conquest of Egypt falls outside the timeframe we are looking at.

In Elam, there were presumably kings during this period but we know almost nothing about Elam at this time apart from a few fragmentary king names. However, in this era the Iranian tribes were moving into Iran, with the Medes and Persians in or around the western regions of the Urartian kingdoms (in north-western Iran). They were mentioned in some Assyrian inscriptions as powerful tribal confederations, but there was as yet no hint of the full greatness that awaited them.

Fortress in Erebuni

Moving on from the land Namri, I received tribute from twenty-seven kings of the land Parsua. Moving on from the land Parsua I went down to the lands Mēsu, Media (Amadāiia)...
Inscription of Shalmaneser III’s 24th regnal year detailing campaigns against the Persians and Medes

"Thanks to the greatness of the god Haldi, Argišti says: I conquered Eriahi's country, I conquered the city of Irdaniu, (reaching) as far as the country of Išqigulu"
Urartian Rock Inscription

Urartian quiver showing chariots

In Urartu, in the mountainous regions to the north of Mesopotamia, the Urartian rulers were reaching the peak of their power. This time period, where Assyria and Egypt were weak, allowed many smaller states to thrive on the peripheries. Urartu was in many ways the greatest of these states and was able to rival Assyria itself for a very brief period. King Menua, who reigned from around 810-786BC, built up extensive fortifications and canals and engaged in attacks on Urartu’s neighbours. The Assyrian Empire appears to have been weakened and a number of small buffer states between the kingdoms were now primarily controlled by Urartu.

Through the greatness of the God Ḫaldi, Argishti, son of Menua, built this canal. The land was uninhabited, no one was to be found here. By the grace of Ḫaldi Argishti made this canal. Argishti son of Menua, mighty King, great King, King of Bianiili, ruler of Tushpa
Urartian Inscription

Menua was succeeded by Argishti I, who reigned from around 786-764BC and is famous for building the city of Erebuni, better known today as Yerevan, which is the current capital of Armenia. He fought the Assyrians and appears to have raided within about thirty miles of the Assyrian capital Nineveh. More gallingly for the Assyrians, the Neo-Hittite city of Carchemish and other cities in present-day northern Syria seem to have been under Urartian rule, nullifying the Assyrian gains in that region that had been so bloodily fought for in the previous century.

Urartian Inscription

The same year, for the third time, I went to Eriahini, fired the cities, pillaged the countryside and exiled the population to Biaina. I built forts at Eriahini and annexed the country. The god Khaldi I glorified.
Inscription of Sarduri from Van

Argishti’s son, Sarduri II, who reigned from 764-735BC, continued the onward rush of Urartian power and this era may well be viewed as the golden age of the Urartian kingdom. In many ways, the inscriptions of Sarduri and Argishti can be read similarly to Assyrian inscriptions. They speak of themselves as universal rulers, detail the constant campaigns and building works and seem to actually control a large empire; one that seems to have reached from the Black Sea to the edge of Assyria. Only the fact that the Urartians dedicate their conquests to Khaldi rather than Ashur speaks to the difference. But Assyria had been humbled, not destroyed, and would soon revive to wreak a terrible vengeance for their humiliation.

The boundary which Adad-nārārī, king of Assyria,and Šamši-ilu, the field marshal, established...
Assyrian Inscription of a boundary stone showing the importance of Samsi-ilu.

Assyria, even at the end of its strength, was still very strong. Adad-Nirari III ruled from 811-783BC. He was under the influence of two very powerful characters: His mother, Shammuramat and one of his generals, Shamshi-ilu (or Samsi-ilu depending on the spelling; I have omitted the diacritics). Shamshi-ilu would go on to be the power behind the throne for subsequent kings and even erected monuments to himself. Hazael’s powerful kingdom of Damascus must have been seen as a threat and in 796, the year Hazael died, Adad-Nirari III attacked Damascus and received tribute from the kingdoms of the region, including Israel. While not mentioned in the Biblical texts Adad-Nirari’s intervention would have been seen as a deliverance from the rule of the Arameans of Damascus and the kingdom of Israel revives once Damascus was attacked. Babylon was also attacked by Assyria during Adad-Nirari III’s reign and we know very little of Babylon for his time.

Assyrian statue

Adad-nirārî, strong king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of Šamšī-Adad(V), king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of Shalmaneser(III), king of the four quarters: I mustered my chariotry, troops, and armed forces and ordered the march to the land of Hatti. In one year I subdued the entire lands of Amurru and Hatti. I imposed upon them tax and tribute forever. I received 2,000 talents of silver, 1,000 talents of copper, 2,000 talents of iron, 3,000 linen garments with multi-coloured trim - the tribute of Mari, the Damascene. I received the tribute of Joash, the Samaritan, and of the people of Tyre and Sidon.
Assyrian Inscription of Adad-Nirari III

After Adad-Nirari III died, three minor kings followed. Shalmaneser IV reigned from 783-773BC. Ashur-Dan III reigned from 772-755BC and Ashur-Nirari V who reigned from 755-745BC. It is unclear why there are so few records for their reigns. Possibly Assyria had been weakened so much that they were unable to create inscriptions. Possibly their records were destroyed by a later usurper. I suspect that the truth is a combination of the two theories. Shamshi-ilu, the powerful general, continued as a power behind the throne during at least part of this time and fought campaigns against Argishti of Urartu. It is possible that the kings were weak and incompetent and that, as the Assyrian state needed strong kings to survive, that the Turtanu (highest general) would step in to stabilise the state. On one of the only remaining fragments from the reign of Ashur-Nirari V, we hear of another general, Marduk-sharra-usur, who may have been a replacement Turtanu.

However, this situation could not last. Assyria needed a king and in the year 745, a general called Pulu staged a rebellion and quickly took over the Assyrian Empire. He would become known as Tiglath-Pileser III, one of the bloodiest and yet one of the most successful monarchs in history. The period from 800-750 sees a general decline and weakness in the Assyrian Empire. Under Tiglath-Pileser and his successors this would radically change in the next fifty years, and all the other states in the region would suffer from this terrifying renaissance.

Kudurru text from Babylonia

The king of Karduniaš (Babylon), bowed down … He brought back the abducted people and granted them an income, privileges, and barley rations. The peoples of Assyria and Karduniaš were joined together. They fixed the boundary-line by mutual consent.
Synchronistic Chronicle

While Assyria grew weaker, Babylon was unable to capitalise on this weakness. The records of this era are also very poor. The Synchronistic (or Synchronic) Chronicle, written by the Assyrians, but dealing with Assyrian/Babylonian relations, ends around 790. Even the names of the kings are obscure. One king is known merely as Ninurta-apla-X, as his name cannot be reconstructed from the damaged clay of the chronicle. Ninurta-apla-X was succeeded by the almost equally unknown Marduk-bel-zeri, whose deeds and regnal dates are unknown but whose name at least survives.

After these kings, a Chaldean, one of the desert tribes from the south of Babylonia, called Marduk-apla-usur came to the kingship. We know very little about him either, save that his dynasty rose and fell with him. He is significant however, as this shows the Chaldean tribes were aspiring to the rule of the city of Babylon. The Chaldeans, particularly those of the House of Yakin (Bit-Yakin tribe), would subsequently rule Babylon.

The next king of Babylon was Eriba-Marduk, one of the first rulers from the Bit-Yakin clan or tribe. He restored Babylonian temples and was seen as bringing back order. As Assyria was weak to the north, Eriba-Marduk was probably one of the most powerful kings of his day, but almost no inscriptions remain from his time.

Eriba-Marduk was succeeded by Nabu-shuma-iskun, who is known in literature, primarily because a rather harsh condemnation of his rule was compiled under his successors: The Crimes and Sacrileges of Nabu-shuma-iskun, which is exactly what it sounds like. He was not from the Bit-Yakin tribe, but was a Chaldean ruler. He reigned around 761-748BC. The polemic condemning him attributes crimes such as the bringing of leek vegetables into the temple of Nabu, which sounds pretty trivial to modern ears (although it would have been ritual pollution and very serious in the eyes of the priests). But he is also described as a harsh and unsuccessful ruler who imposed heavy tribute and burned people alive. In short, Assyria was weakened but the Babylonians were divided by infighting, religious strife and tribal conflicts. There is not much more that can be said of Babylon at this point.

Year after year, he made unbearable their burden of slaughter, robbery, murder, corvée, and forced labor. In only one day, he burned alive sixteen Cutheans at Zababa's gate in the heart of Babylon.
The Crimes and Sacrileges of Nabu-shuma-iskun

Aramean ivory carving possibly depicting Hazael

Under Hazael, the kingdom of Damascus had been very powerful in the Levant, with the Arameans sacking Philistine cities on the coast and subduing the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. However, once Hazael was dead, around 796, the kingdom of Damascus weakened dramatically. It is a little difficult even to know who the kings were. The Assyrians attacked Damascus in 796 and spoke of a person called Mari hiding in the city of Damascus (which the Assyrians were unable to take) but this may have been a different name for the king. The Hebrew Book of Kings refers to the son of Hazael as Ben-Hadad and the Stele of Zakkur refers to a king of the period as Bar-Hadad but exactly what happened when Hazael died is rather unclear.

And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took again out of the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities, which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war. Three times did Joash beat him, and recovered the cities of Israel.
2 Kings 13:25 KJV

It does seem clear that the power of Damascus declines, with Assyria attacking and the smaller kingdoms such as Israel and Judah breaking free from the Aramean yoke. Hamath, a small but significant city-state with close ties to Israel also broke free. One of the kings of Hamath, named Zakkur, was besieged by the Arameans of Damascus but was able to survive the siege and dedicated a stele of thanks to his god, Baalshamin. 

Stele of Zakkur

And Bar-hadad son of Hazael, king of Aram, united against me seventeen kings ... And I lifted up my hands to the Lord of Heaven, and the Lord of Heaven answered me and spoke, the Lord of Heaven to me, through seers and astrologers, and said to me the Lord of Heaven: Fear not, for I have made thee king and will stand by thee, and I will deliver thee from all these kings that have set siege against thee...
Stele of Zakkur

After the reign of Bar-Hadad (who may have directly followed Hazael, or Mari, or have been identical to Mari etc.) there is an interim period where no dates can be drawn with certainty. Towards the end of the period however, a king by the name of Rezin (in Hebrew) or Rahianu (in Assyrian) reigned in Damascus. There is not much more that can be said about Damascus at this time.

The Phoenicians are also not well documented for this period. It is not that the period is a dark age per se. Any of the sources that do exist seem to show the cultures behaving much as expected. But a surprising number of regions that are normally well-documented are silent. There are few sources from the Ammonite, Moabite and Edomite kingdoms for this period as well, with the exception of the Edomite inscription of Deir Alla, which mentions Balaam of Beor. The text is heavily damaged and all translations of it are rather problematic but it seems to speak of Balaam having a dream of impending destruction by the gods.

Deir Alla Inscription: Image from Livius.org

The misfortunes of the Book of Balaam, son of Beor. A divine seer was he.
The gods came to him at night. And he beheld a vision in accordance with El's utterance. They said to Balaam, son of Beor: "So will it be done, with naught surviving. No one has seen [the likes of] what you have heard!" Balaam arose on the morrow; He summoned the heads of the assembly to him, and for two days he fasted, and wept bitterly…
Deir Alla Inscription

In Israel and Judah, the first few years of the period saw the domination of the region by the Aramean king Hazael. However, their deliverance was near at hand. After the Assyrians had attacked Damascus and Hazael had died, the northern kingdom of Israel counterattacked under king Jehoash (sometimes referred to as Joash). They were able to retake the lands they had lost and the power balance seems to have shifted to see the kingdom of Israel become the most powerful state in the Levant region. Jehoash reigned around 798-782BC, but these dates are conjectural. It is rather unlikely that the kingdom of Israel could have recovered from the domination of the Arameans without external factors. The attacks on Damascus by the Assyrians must have been seen as a deliverance, even if it involved paying tribute to the Assyrian rulers. The later Assyrian weakness, combined with the memory of this assistance leads to one of the few moments in the Tanakh where the Assyrians are spoken of well. The prophet Jonah is supposed to have been active around twenty years after this incident and the story of his preaching to the Assyrians and their repentance points to a moment of brief amicability between the two cultures, united against their common enemy in Damascus.

Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof”. And Elisha said unto him, “Take bow and arrows.” And he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, “Put thine hand upon the bow.” And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. And he said, “Open the window eastward.” And he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot.” And he shot. And he said, “The arrow of the LORD'S deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them”.
2 Kings 13:14-17

The Judahite contemporary of Jehoash was their king Jehoash/Joash, who was murdered around 796. His son, Amaziah, took over the throne and was a competent ruler. He fought the smaller kingdoms around Judah and triumphed over Edom, before taking advantage of his strength to attack Israel and being soundly defeated by Jehoash of Israel. After his defeat he was murdered around the year 767.
Jehoash and Amaziah were succeeded by Jeroboam II and Uzziah respectively. These kings seem to have worked in alliance with each other. Egypt was extremely weak. Damascus had been curtailed and Assyria was weak. The reigns of Jeroboam II and Uzziah thus saw one of the last great flowerings of Israelite culture.

Jeroboam II seems to have conquered Hamath and Damascus, although it is more probable that he forced them into a tributary relationship rather than actually conquering the cities. If this was the case, Jeroboam would have led a loose coalition of states that stretched from near the Euphrates River all the way to the borders of Egypt. A great burst of literary creation took place in this milieu of restored power and the prophets Hosea, Jonah, Amos and possibly Joel all active during this time period, although they tended not to be fond of the splendour of the court.

In the southern kingdom of Judah, the king Uzziah took advantage of the new found peace with Israel to attack other states and subdued the Philistines and others to enforce tribute (he probably was paying tribute to Jeroboam II at the same time). The reigns of Jeroboam and Uzziah appear to be the high points for both Israel and Judah.

The power of Jeroboam II was of no help in preserving his dynasty, as his son Zechariah was murdered around six months into his reign by Shallum. Shallum reigned for about a month before Menahem defeated Shallum in a civil war and took over the kingdom. The Northern Kingdom of Israel periodically had bloody dynastic takeovers, but the dates of this period are rather confused and not easy to verify archaeologically.

The one major event that is verifiable archaeologically from this time is a great earthquake. The Bible records a major earthquake during this time. Archaeology shows a massive earthquake that caused significant destruction across the Levant and that carbon dating and stratigraphy gives a rough date of around 760. There are destruction layers across nearly every city in the region and geologists class the earthquake as around 7.8-8.2 on the Richter Scale, making it significantly more destructive than any earthquake that has been recorded in the region over the last century. It was destructive enough that it was still referenced in literature over two hundred years after its occurrence and left a lasting cultural memory.

Yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah
Zechariah 14:5

Artist's rendering of the ancient Marib Dam

There are two other items that occurred, or were reputed to have occurred during this period that I thought were worth mentioning. The first was one of the greatest engineering wonders of the ancient world. In the south of Arabia, in present-day Yemen, the Sabean kingdom built the Great Marib Dam. This would provide water for extensive irrigation works and was probably the largest dam anywhere in the world at this point. The irrigation it allowed gave the region such prosperity that the later Romans referred to the region as Arabia Felix, meaning Happy/Fortunate Arabia. The dam would be repaired and extended over the years but it stood in one form or another until the generation before Muhammad, finally breaking around 575 AD. Sadly, the remains of the dam have been damaged by the ongoing civil war in Yemen, but damaged or not, its memory stands as a testament to human ingenuity and skill.

...and Ahtaban in Yasran, irrigated by the sluice-ways and his palm grove of Masaman in the district of Nasqum and his house Harur in the town Gaharan and his houses and his river-side fields and his lands and his stream beds in the district of the two tribes Muhanifum and Yabran, when Ilumqah granted to him what He had promised him and when He appointed him as administrator of Marib,...
Later Inscription from the city of Marib showing the concerns of the kings of the Sabaeans with water and irrigation

The other item of note from this time is a legendary one. On the 21st of April, 753BC, legend says that in an obscure set of hills in central Italy, a man named Romulus founded a city and named it after himself. The legend and the dates may be false or obscure, but I thought that the city of Rome was worth mentioning. It is the merest fragmentary detail in this period (if there were no later sources, Rome’s founding would have passed unnoticed). But it would become one of the most crucial places on earth in later periods.

Later Roman sculpture of Romulus and Remus

Remus is said to have been the first to receive an omen: six vultures appeared to him. The augury had just been announced to Romulus when double the number appeared to him. Each was saluted as king by his own party. The one side based their claim on the priority of the appearance, the other on the number of the birds. Then followed an angry altercation; heated passions led to bloodshed; in the tumult Remus was killed. The more common report is that Remus contemptuously jumped over the newly raised walls and was forthwith killed by the enraged Romulus, who exclaimed, ‘So shall it be henceforth with everyone who leaps over my walls.’ Romulus thus became sole ruler, and the city was called after him, its founder.
Livy, Ab Urbe Condita, 1:7

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