[552] Vol. i. p. 314.
[553] Vol. i. p. 314.
[554] Ezekiel xxvii.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE RISE OF ASSYRIA.
The campaigns which Tiglath Pilesar, king of Asshur, undertook towards the West about the end of the twelfth century, and which carried him to the Upper Euphrates and into Northern Syria, remained without lasting result. The position which Tiglath Pilesar then had won on the Euphrates was not maintained by his successors in any one instance. More than 200 years after Tiglath Pilesar we find Tiglath Adar II. (889-883 B.C.) again in conflict with the same opponents who had given his forefather such trouble—with the mountaineers of the land of Nairi, the district between the highland valley of Albak on the Greater Zab and the Zibene-Su, the eastern source of the Tigris. The son and successor of this Tiglath Adar, Assurnasirpal, was the first whom we see again undertaking more distant campaigns; the successful results of which are the basis of a considerable extension of the Assyrian power.
Assurnasirpal also chiefly directed his arms against the mountain-land in the north. On his first campaign he fought on the borders of Urarti, i. e. of the land of Ararat, the region of the Upper Araxes. In the second year of his reign (881 B.C.) he marched out of the city of Nineveh, crossed the Tigris, and imposed tribute on the land of Kummukh (Gumathene, p. 41), and the Moschi, in asses, oxen, sheep, and goats. In the third year he caused his image to be hewn in the place where Tiglath Pilesar and Tiglath Adar his fathers had chosen to set up their images; he tells us that his own was engraved beside the others.[555] Only the image of Tiglath Pilesar I. is preserved at Karkar. Assurnasirpal received tribute from the princes of the land of Nairi—bars of gold and silver, iron, oxen and sheep; and placed a viceroy over the land of Nairi. But the subjugation was not yet complete; Assurnasirpal related that on a later campaign he destroyed 250 places in the land of Nairi.[556] He tells us further, that on his tenth campaign he reduced the land of Kirchi, took the city of Amida (now Diarbekr), and plundered it.[557] Below this city, on the bank of the Tigris at Kurkh (Karch), there is a stone tablet which represents him after the pattern of Tiglath Pilesar at Karkar (p. 40.)
Between these conflicts in the north lie campaigns to the south and west. In the year 879 B.C. he marched out, as he tells us, from Chalah. On the other bank of the Tigris he collected a heavy tribute, then he marched to the Euphrates, took the city of Suri in the land of Sukhi, and caused his image to be set up in this city. Fifty horsemen and the warriors of Nebu-Baladan, king of Babylon (Kardunias), had fallen into his hand, and the land of the Chaldæans had been seized with fear of his weapons.[558] We must conclude therefore that the king of Babylon had sent auxiliary troops to the prince of the land of Sukhi (whom the inscriptions call Sadudu). In the following year he occupied the region at the confluence of the Chaboras with the Euphrates, crossed the Euphrates on rafts, and conquered the inhabitants of the lands of Sukhi, Laki, and Khindani, which had marched out with 6000 men to meet him. On the banks of the Euphrates he then founded two cities; that on the further bank bore the name of "Dur-Assurnasirpal," and that on the nearer bank the name of "Nibarti-Assur." During this time he pretends to have slain 50 Amsi (p. 43) on the Euphrates, and captured 20; to have slain 20 eagles and captured 20.[559] Then he turned against Karchemish, in the land of the Chatti (p. 43). In the year 876 B.C. he collected tribute in the regions of Bit Bakhian and Bit Adin in the neighbourhood of Karchemish, and afterwards laid upon Sangar, king of Karchemish, a tribute of 20 talents of silver, and 100 talents of iron. From Karchemish Assurnasirpal marched against the land of Labnana, i. e. the land of Lebanon. King Lubarna in the land of the Chatti submitted, and had to pay even heavier tribute than the king of Karchemish. Assurnasirpal reached the Orontes (Arantu), took the marches of Lebanon, marched to the great sea of the western land, offered sacrifice to the gods, and received the tribute of the princes of the sea-coasts, the prince of Tyre (Ssurru), of Sidon (Ssidunu), of Byblus (Gubli), and the city of Arvada (Aradus), "which is in the sea" (p. 277)—bars of silver, gold, and lead;—"they embraced his feet." Then the king marched against the mountains of Chamani (Amanus); here he causes cedars and pines to be felled for the temples of his gods, and the narrative of his exploits to be written on the rocks, and worshipped at Nineveh before the goddess Istar.[560]
According to the evidence of these inscriptions, Assurnasirpal established the supremacy of Assyria in the region of the sources of the Tigris. But even he does not appear to have gone much further than Tiglath Pilesar before him, for he also fought once on the borders of Armenia, i. e. of the land of Ararat, and on the other hand forced his way as far as the upper course of the Eastern Euphrates. Against Babylon he undertook, so far as we can see, no offensive war; he was content to drive out of the field the auxiliaries which Nebu-Baladan of Babylon sent to a prince on the middle Euphrates without pursuing the advantage further. The most important results which he obtained were in the west. He gained the land of the Chaboras, and fixed himself firmly on the Euphrates above the mouth of that river. To secure the crossing he built a fortress on either side, and then forced his way from here to the mountain land of the Amanus, to the Orontes and Lebanon. For the first time the cities of the Phenicians paid tribute to the king on the banks of the Tigris; Arvad (Aradus), Gebal (Byblus), Sidon, and Tyre, where at this time, as we saw (p. 267), Mutton, the son of Ethbaal, was king.