Asshur-rish-ishi’s son, Tiglathpileser I (Tu-kulti-apal-esharra, meaning “My help is the son of Esharra,” i.e. the god Ninib), is the first of the great Assyrian conquerors. Directly after his accession to the throne he marched against the Mushke (Mushkaya) to conquer the districts previously taken by them. The Mushke (the Meshech of the Old Testament, and the Moschi of the Greeks) were defeated, as well as the people of Kummukh and the mountainous races of the Kharia and Qurkhi country stretching from the north of the Tigris to the Upper Zab. In the next campaign the same district was traversed, but the king then crossed the Lower Zab, and thence proceeded northward into the mountains. The whole mountainous district was then incorporated with the Assyrian kingdom, and Tiglathpileser was then able to proceed to the subjugation of the lands of western Armenia and Pontis, never before entered by the Assyrian rulers.
An Assyrian King
He crossed sixteen mountains, reached (what he calls the land of the Nairi) the upper Euphrates, which he crossed, and defeated in a great battle twenty-five kings [twenty-three according to others], who encountered him with their troops and war chariots. The enemies were pursued as far as the banks of the Black Sea, when all the princes swore fealty and bound themselves to pay tribute. On the return march the town Milidia, i.e. Melitene on the Euphrates, was taken and forced to pay tribute.
The next, the fourth campaign of the king was directed against the Aramæans, of the North Mesopotamian steppe; he penetrated as far as the Euphrates, and conquered several places in the vicinity of Carchemish. Then followed an expedition to the east against [the Musri and] the then unknown race of the Qumani. In later years Tiglathpileser undertook campaigns in the west. An inscription at the source of the Supnat, the first easterly tributary of the Tigris, tells us that he traversed the country of Nairi (Armenia) three times, and that he subjugated all the country “from the great sea of the west country to the sea of Nairi.” In particular we learn that he made a voyage in ships from Arvad (Aradus) on the Mediterranean Sea, that he hunted in Lebanon (he was a passionate hunter), and that the kings of Egypt sent him some rare sea fishes as a present. It is very probable that one of the mutilated inscriptions which the Assyrian kings had put up on the Dog River (the Nahr-el-Kelb, north of Beirut), quite close to the victory monuments of Ramses II, related to Tiglathpileser. He also made war against Marduk-nadin-akhe of Babylon, but with no success; at least we learn that the Babylonian king, in the year 1110 B.C., carried off images of gods from an Assyrian city. [According to Professor Rogers, Tiglathpileser marched to Babylon and was there acknowledged King of the Four Quarters of the World.]
However, Tiglathpileser in a second campaign was completely victorious in a battle of the Lower Zab, and took all the capitals of the northern half of Accad: Dur-Kurigalzu, the double town Sippar, Babylon, and Upi. The steppe district on the western bank of the Euphrates (the land of the Shuhi or Sukhi) was also subjugated by him. Thus did Tiglathpileser create a great kingdom, which included the whole district of the Euphrates and Tigris, as far as Babylon, as well as the mountainous country of western Armenia and eastern Asia Minor, as far as Pontis; and his supremacy was also recognised by northern Syria.
Of the organisation of the kingdom, we only know that the contiguous districts, such as the valley of the Khabur, eastern Kummukh, and Qurkhe were incorporated with the state, and governed by Assyrian ministers, whilst the more distant countries retained their native rulers, and were only bound to the payment of tribute. The kingdom has no enduring position. We hear that Asshur-bel-kala (about 1090 B.C.), the son of Tiglathpileser, lived in the greatest peace with Marduk-shapik-zer-mati, the Babylonian king. When, after the latter’s fall, Adad-apal-iddin, the son of Esagila-shaduni, was raised to the throne, Asshur-bel-kala married his daughter and brought her home to Assyria, with many presents. [In this reign, according to Rogers, the seat of empire was probably established at Nineveh.]
[ca. 1050-884 B.C.]
Babylonia had evidently regained her complete independence, though the Assyrian chronicles fail to relate the means whereby it was achieved. Asshur-bel-kala was succeeded by his brother Shamshi-Adad (about 1080 B.C.), of whom we know nothing further; and then follows a great gap in the line of kings. [Here may be inserted the names of Asshurnazirpal II about 1050 B.C., Erba-Adad, and Asshur-nadin-akhe.]
Of King Asshur-erbi it is only mentioned that under him the districts conquered by Tiglathpileser, namely, the country Pitru on the Sagur near Carchemish, and the city of Mutkinu, east of the Euphrates, were taken by the Aramæan king. This was evidently the king of the country of Bit-Adini, whose chief dominion lay east of the Euphrates, the capital being Tel-Barsip, which is probably Birejik, opposite the Zeugma of the Greeks. At the beginning of the ninth century we again have more accurate information about Assyria, and so find that, beyond a part of the mountainous district east and southeast of Nineveh, the kings now have only the country on the upper Tigris (around Amida), Kummukh, and a great part of the cultivated land of Mesopotamia.