(4) The Early Assyrian Period.—Assyria’s empire grew out of the domination of the city of Ashur, as that of Rome grew out of the domination of the city of Rome. Ashur and Nineveh had been founded by colonists from Lagash about 3000 or 2800 B. C. This is shown by archæological remains found at Ashur, and by the name of Nineveh. We can first trace the names of Assyria’s rulers shortly before the year 2000 B. C. They do not call themselves kings, and were, perhaps, then subject to Babylon.
About 1430 B. C. we learn that Assyria had become an independent kingdom. Her king at that time, Ashur-rim-nishishu, was a contemporary of Karaindash, King of Babylon. Ashur-uballit about 1370-1343 was a contemporary of Burnaburiash, King of Babylon, and shared in the correspondence with Egyptian kings contained in the El-Amarna letters. Shalmaneser I about 1300 B. C. conquered the region to the west of Assyria extending across the Euphrates in the direction of the Mediterranean. Ashur-nasirpal, a later king (884-860 B. C.), says that Shalmaneser “made” the city of Calah[14] as a new capital for his country. His son, Tukulti-Ninib I, turned his arms to the southward and conquered Babylon, which he held for seven years. After him Assyria’s power declined for a time, but was revived by Tiglath-pileser I, who carried Assyria’s conquests again across the Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea and northward to the region of Lake Van. After the reign of Tiglath-pileser I, Assyria’s power rapidly declined again, and the first period of Assyria’s history was closed. Our sources almost fail us for a hundred years or more.
(5) The Second Assyrian Period.—Assyria slowly emerged from the obscurity into which she had fallen after the death of Tiglathpileser I. The progress went forward through the reigns of eleven different kings. Finally, in the reign of Ashur-nasirpal II, 884-860 B. C., a period of foreign conquest was once more inaugurated. This monarch again carried the conquests of his country northward and also to the Mediterranean. (See Part II, [p. 360].) Under him Assyria became the best fighting machine in the ancient world—a machine that was run with ruthless cruelty over all conquered peoples. This king set his successors the example of flaying and impaling numbers of conquered peoples, and of boasting of such deeds in his chronicles. Probably such deeds were not now committed for the first time, but so far as we know they had not been so gloated over.
Ashur-nasirpal’s successor, Shalmaneser III, 868-824 B. C., made, besides campaigns into Armenia and elsewhere, six campaigns against the lands of Syria and Palestine. On his first campaign in 854 he was met at Qarqar by a confederation of kings, among whom were Ahab of Israel and Ben-Hadad of Damascus. (See Part II, [p. 360], ff.) On his fourth campaign in 842 B. C. Jehu, who had in that year usurped the throne of Israel, hastened to make his peace with Shalmaneser by giving him a heavy tribute. Thus Assyria gained a right to claim Israel as a vassal state. (See Part II, [p. 362], f.)
The next two kings, Shamshi-Adad IV and Adad-nirari IV, controlled Assyria until 783 B. C., and maintained her power. The last-mentioned king made three expeditions into the West, and claims to have received tribute not only from Israel but from Philistia and Edom, but no details of his campaigns have survived.
After 783 the power of Assyria declined again, and the decline lasted until 745, when the reigning dynasty was overthrown, and an able general, whose name was apparently Pul, gained the throne (cf. 2 Kings 15:19), and took the great name of Tiglath-pileser. He reigned as the fourth king of that name. Tiglath-pileser IV was great both as a warrior and as a statesman. He broke for the time being the power of the kingdom of Urartu in Armenia, conquered parts of Media on the east, and also annexed Babylon to Assyria. Babylon during this later Assyrian period had usually been permitted to retain a king of her own, though the kingdom was of little political importance as compared with Assyria. Tiglath-pileser made his power dominant in Babylonia at the beginning of his reign, and during the last two years of his life actually reigned there as king. The Babylonian scribes did not recognize his high-sounding name of Tiglath-pileser, but still called him Pul.
In the first year of his reign Tiglath-pileser IV inaugurated a new policy with reference to conquered peoples. This was the policy of transporting to a distant part of his empire the wealthy and influential members of a conquered nation, and of putting similar exiles from other lands in their place. Individuals so transported would be unable longer to foment rebellion against him. It was a brutal policy, but it was a measure designed to build up a permanent empire.
Tiglath-pileser made four expeditions to the west, though the first two touched northern Phœnicia only. In 739, when he made his appearance in Palestine, Menahem, King of Israel, hastened to pay him tribute (2 Kings 15:19). Four years later, however, after Pekah had usurped the throne of Israel, that king formed an alliance with Rezin of Damascus for the purpose of throwing off the Assyrian yoke, and tried to force Ahaz of Judah to join in the enterprise. (See Isa. 7:1, f.) This, Ahaz, supported by the prophet Isaiah, refused to do. In 733-732 Tiglath-pileser came again into the West, overran the territory of the kingdom of Israel, deported the chief inhabitants of Galilee to distant parts of his dominions (2 Kings 15:29, 30), and replaced Pekah, who had been killed, by King Hoshea, who ruled over a greatly diminished territory and upon whom a heavy Assyrian tribute was imposed. Tiglath-pileser then turned eastward and conquered Damascus, which his predecessors since the days of Shalmaneser III had been vainly trying to capture. While the Assyrian monarch was at Damascus, King Ahaz of Judah went thither and became his vassal. (See 2 Kings 16:10, f.) Thus Judah also passed under the Assyrian yoke. (See Part II, [p. 366].)
Tiglath-pileser IV was succeeded by Shalmaneser V, 727-722 B. C., and soon after the death of Tiglath-pileser, Hoshea of Israel was persuaded to join several petty rulers of Philistia and Egypt in rebelling against Assyria. In 725 an Assyrian army overran Hoshea’s territory, and laid siege to Samaria. The military position of Samaria and its strong walls made it almost impregnable, and the siege dragged on for three years (2 Kings 17:5). Before the city fell, another king had ascended the throne of Assyria. He was a usurper, a general, who took the great name of Sargon, and who ruled from 722 to 705 B. C. Samaria succumbed in Sargon’s first year and 27,290 of its inhabitants were deported. The discontent of the west was not at once quieted. Other states remained in rebellion and an Assyrian army finally defeated them at Raphia, southwest of Gaza, in 719 B. C. Sargon then turned his arms in other directions, fighting at various times with the kingdom of Urartu in Armenia, overcoming Carchemish, a Hittite kingdom on the Euphrates in 717 (see Isa. 10:9), and making an expedition into Arabia in 715. In 711 Ashdod revolted and Sargon’s Tartan or chief officer came to put the rebellion down (Isa. 20:1).
At the beginning of Sargon’s reign his arms had been defeated in Babylonia, and Merodachbaladan, a Chaldæan (see 2 Kings 20:12), seized the throne of Babylon and held it from 721 to 709. Then he was defeated and Sargon took over the control of Babylonia. Merodachbaladan, however, escaped to the marsh lands at the head of the Persian Gulf, and survived to make trouble later. In 705 Sargon died and was succeeded by his son, Sennacherib, who ruled from 705 to 681 B. C. At the beginning of his reign troubles broke out in Babylonia, which cannot here be followed in detail. They lasted for years, and none of Sennacherib’s measures gave the country permanent peace. At last Sennacherib became so incensed that he destroyed Babylon. Her buildings were burned and battered down, her walls overthrown, and the Euphrates turned through canals into the land on which she had stood, to make it a marsh. One incident in the series of events which led up to this sad climax was the reappearance in 702 of Merodachbaladan, who seized the throne of Babylon and tried to stir up a rebellion against Assyria. He even sent letters to Hezekiah, King of Judah. (See 2 Kings 20:12.) At the beginning of Sennacherib’s reign a number of the petty kings of Philistia had withheld their tribute. Into this revolt Hezekiah, King of Judah, had been drawn. Busied with other wars, Sennacherib was unable to quell this rebellion until the year 701. In that year his army met the forces of the confederated kingdoms at Elteke in the valley of Aijalon and overcame them. Sennacherib then proceeded to Lachish, where he received the submission of the neighboring kinglets. From Lachish he sent a messenger who summoned Hezekiah of Judah to submit (cf. Isa. 36, 37). Hezekiah obeyed the summons and paid a heavy tribute. Space does not permit us to speak of the wars of Sennacherib against Elam and other countries.