In the eponymy of Marduk-bêl-uṣur, of the city of Amedi, In the land.
In the eponymy of Maḫdê, of the city of Nineveh, To....
In the eponymy of Aššur-ḫalṣani (?), of the city of Kalzi, To....
In the eponymy of Šalmanu-ašarid, king of Assyria, To....”
(Eponym Canon with historical notices.)
These two extracts give practically all that is known of the important reign of Shalmaneser IV. from native sources. The first is from the Babylonian Chronicle, and its brevity in all likelihood indicates the amount of sympathy that the Babylonians had for this king. Short as it is, however, it is probably of as much value historically as the Assyrian Eponym Canon in its present state, even including the restorations from that without historical notices. The completion of this important document from additional fragments and duplicates is greatly to be wished.
It is therefore from the Old Testament and Josephus that we get the fullest history of the reign of this king. How it is that no records have been found is not known. They may have been destroyed, or nothing very extensive may have been written. That at least something of the kind existed is indicated by the fact that the late George Smith refers to at least one document, the whereabouts of which at present is not known.
What may have been the relationship of Shalmaneser IV. of Assyria to Tiglath-pileser does not appear. There is every probability that, like his great predecessor, he was an adventurer who, taking advantage of his popularity with the army, and the failing powers of his royal master, seized the throne. As will be seen from the Eponym Canon, an expedition was in progress when he assumed the reins of power, so that he may have taken advantage of the absence of Tiglath-pileser to carry out his design. Tebet being the tenth month of the Assyro-Babylonian year, the time of his accession corresponds with the winter of 727 b.c., a period at which warlike operations were impossible. In the year 726 b.c. also he remained at home, as was to be expected, consolidating his power.
His first campaign must therefore have taken place in 725 b.c., when, as recorded in 2 Kings xvii. 3, he went against Hoshea, who paid him homage and became tributary. Hearing that the king of Israel had sent privately to So,[95] king of Egypt, asking for his help against the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser threw Hoshea into prison, and advancing against Samaria, called upon the city to surrender. Submission being refused, he laid siege against it, and although Josephus relates that he ultimately took it, this must be due simply to an inference, as there is no statement to [pg 360] that effect in the Book of Kings, the words recording the event being simply “the king of Assyria took Samaria,” and, as we know from the inscriptions, it is Sargon, successor of Shalmaneser, who claims the honour of capturing the city (see below, p. [363]).[96]
During the siege, however, the Assyrian king busied himself with the subjugation of all the surrounding district. It was probably in the same year (725 b.c.) that he sent his army against Elulaeus, king of Tyre, whose king had just been very successful in subjugating the Cittaeans (people of Cyprus). According to Josephus (or, rather, Menander, whom he quotes), Phœnicia submitted (Menander tells the story from the native point of view, and states that “he soon made peace with them all”), but Sidon, Accho, and Old Tyre (Palaetyrus) revolted (this probably means “joined the Assyrians”), and several other cities yielded to the king of Assyria. Finding that the Tyrians[97] would not submit, the Assyrian king returned against them (this must have been in the year 724 b.c.), and attacked them again, being aided on this occasion by the Phœnicians, who furnished him with threescore ships, and 800 men to row them. The attack of the Assyrian allies, however, must have been a very half-hearted one, for the Tyrians advanced against them with only twelve ships, and dispersed those of the enemy, taking 500 men prisoners.