English_Assyrian babylonian and persian empires.pdf

ASSYRIAN, BABYLONIAN, AND PERSIAN EMPIRES

Assyrian, Babylonian, and

Persian Empires

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ASSYRIAN, BABYLONIAN, AND PERSIAN EMPIRES

Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires

Assyrian Empire

Babylonian Empire

Zarathushtra

Persian Empire to 500 BC

Persian-Greek Wars

The twelfth to the ninth centuries BC in Mesopotamia are considered a dark age, because very

little is known about that time period. From the thirteenth century BC to the middle of the sixth

century is called the iron age with increasing use of that new technology. A powerful Elamite

kingdom led by Shutruk-nahhunte and his son Kutir-nahhunte conquered several hundred

settlements and captured Babylon, ending the Kassite dynasty and taking away the statue of

Marduk in 1157 BC. Kutir-nahhunte died about 1140 BC and was succeeded as king of Elam by

his brother Shilkhak-Inshushinak, who used Babylonian tribute to build up their capital of Susa.

Shilkhak launched military campaigns against Aramaean settlements to the west and north along

the Tigris River. The 46-year reign of Ashur-dan was ending with a struggle for power in

Assyria. Ashur-resh-ishi (r. 1133-1116 BC) claiming to be the "avenger of Assyria" strengthened

their defenses, rebuilt the palace, and repaired the Ishtar temple.

A new Babylonian dynasty emerged in Isin; Nebuchadrezzar I (r. 1124-1103 BC) attacked Elam

and, after an early defeat and plague, triumphed and regained the statue of Marduk. However, his

attacks against Assyria were successfully resisted. Both the Babylonians and the Assyrians

fought against the Lullubi tribes in the eastern hills and the nomadic tribes in the western deserts.

Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I (r. 1115-1077 BC) defeated the Mushki, who were invading the

Tigris valley from the north. Tiglath-pileser also led his troops to the west as far as Lebanon.

However, these victories were not followed up with effective imperialistic administration, as the

Aramaeans were able to fight back later. Tiglath-pileser entertained himself hunting big game

and claimed he killed 920 lions. He organized water projects and collected literature in the

world's oldest extant library. Tiglath-pileser did attack Babylon and plunder it, but withdrew.

For the next two centuries Assyria and Babylon co-existed. In the eleventh century BC

Nebuchadrezzar I was celebrated in an epic poem; Sinleqeunnimi of Uruk produced a humanized

version of the Epic of Gilgamesh ; and another poet expressed the workings of divine justice, an

important concept in Babylonian religion. Tiglath-pileser's son Ashur-bel-kala (r. 1074-1057

BC) fought with Babylon against the Aramaeans, but Ashurnasirpal I (r. 1050-1032 BC) could

not preserve the conquests of his famous grandfather; his prayers lamented his adversity and

asked for forgiveness for not teaching his subjects to reverence God sufficiently. Assyrian laws

were stricter and their treatment of women worse than among the Babylonians, Hittites , and

Israelites. In Assyria women could be divorced for no reason without being given any money,

could be killed or maimed for adultery, and had to wear a veil outside the house, except for

prostitutes who were forbidden to wear a veil.

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ASSYRIAN, BABYLONIAN, AND PERSIAN EMPIRES

Assyrian Empire

In spite of the efforts of Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser II (r. 967-935 BC) and Ashur-dan II (r.

934-912 BC), the Aramaeans had spread around the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. In his reign

(911-891 BC) Adad-nirari II fought numerous military campaigns of expansion and made a

treaty with Babylon that lasted eighty years. His son Tukulti-Ninurta II began reporting hostile

attacks as justification for his campaigns and rebuilt the walls of Ashur. Continued expansion by

his son Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883-859 BC) used extensive cavalry, battering rams, cruel treatment

of defeated enemies, deportation, plunder of precious metals, horses, cattle, and sheep, followed

by bureaucrats and annual tribute to create an empire. Ashurnasirpal rebuilt Kalakh and made it

his capital; 69,574 guests attended the opening ceremonies at his new palace.

Ashurnasirpal's son Shalmaneser III (r. 858-824 BC) conquered northern Syria but was unable to

take Damascus, though Israel's King Jehu paid him tribute. In Babylon Marduk-zakir-shumi

called upon Shalmaneser and the Assyrians to help him establish his kingship against a challenge

by his younger brother, who was defeated by Shalmaneser's army in 850 BC. Shalmaneser went

on to defeat and take tribute from the Chaldeans and plunder the land of Namri. The next year

Shalmaneser led an army of 120,000 against Arzashkun, the capital city of Urartu's King Aram

(r. 858-844 BC) and killed 3400 troops.

Aram was overthrown by Sarduri I, whose dynasty in Urartu lasted a quarter of a millennium.

Urartu kings Menua (r. 810-785 BC) and Argishti (785-753 BC) expanded the Urartu kingdom,

the latter bragging about the number of men killed and animals stolen. Urartu king Sarduri II

(753-735 BC) claimed he captured 21,989 people from north of Mt. Ararat, but he was defeated

by Tiglath-pileser III in 736 BC.

At the end of his reign the crown prince rebelled against Shalmaneser; the dying king turned to

his younger son who became Shamsi-Adad V, won the civil war with Babylon's help, and

reigned for a dozen years, ungratefully attacking Babylon and the Chaldeans. Shamsi-Adad's

queen Sammuramat, the legendary Semiramis of Greek historians, ruled as regent (or at least was

influential) for her son Adad-nirari III who in 806 BC invaded Syria and collected tribute from

the Neo-Hittites, Phoenicians, Philistines, Israelites, and Edomites. After Adad-nirari III died in

783 BC, his four sons ruled in succession; but none of them were noteworthy until the fourth,

Tiglath-pileser III, became king of Assyria in 745 BC, though some believe that he was not a

royal son but a general who took power by force.

Tiglath-pileser III conquered the Syrian allies of Urartu at Arpad and the Medes on the Iranian

plateau, declaring that he "smashed them like pots." Then he turned their lands into Assyrian

provinces, reorganized the army by replacing conscription with permanent contingents from

around the empire, and broke the power of the lords by reforming the administration into smaller

districts directly accountable to the king. Massive deportations were used to break up regional

loyalties. In 744 BC 65,000 Iranians were displaced, and later 154,000 were moved. 30,000

Syrians were sent to the Zagros mountains, while 18,000 Aramaeans from the Tigris area went to

northern Syria. Such policies increased the hatred of Assyria, and thus rebellions would continue

in the years ahead anyway.

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ASSYRIAN, BABYLONIAN, AND PERSIAN EMPIRES

A siege against Urartu failed, but Tiglath-pileser III returned to the Mediterranean to defeat a

Philistine revolt led by Askalon and Gaza and to collect tribute from Amon, Edom, Moab, and

Judah. When Judah's King Ahaz asked for Assyrian aid against Damascus and Israel, Tiglath-

pileser captured Damascus and half of Israel while establishing Hoshea as king in Samaria.

When a Chaldean gained the throne of Babylon, Tiglath-pileser removed him and in 728 BC

made himself king of Babylon; but he died the next year.

Tiglath-pileser's son Shalmaneser V was king of Assyria barely long enough to besiege Samaria

for three years. The deportation of 27,290 Israelites was supervised by his successor Sargon II (r.

721-705 BC). Sargon may have had to struggle to get the throne, because he thanked the citizens

of Ashur for helping him by exempting Ashur and Harran from the taxes imposed by Tiglath-

pileser, and he punished "6,300 criminals" of Ashur by sending them to Harran. Assyria's

growing empire had interfered with the trade routes and made enemies of Urartu in the north and

Egypt, who supported numerous rebellions in the years ahead.

Before Sargon could consolidate his power, the Chaldean Marduk-apal-iddina II (Merodach-

baladan in the Bible ) had taken the throne in Babylon. Assyria's first attack on Babylon was

defeated by Elam. A decade later Sargon attacked the cities of Kish, Nippur, and Dur-Atkhara,

while the Babylonian-Elamite coalition fought a guerrilla defense from swamps, flooded areas,

the hills, and the tribal peripheries. Abandoned by Elam, Marduk-apal-iddina eventually

surrendered at his tribal capital of Dur-Yakin, which was destroyed. Sargon deported more than a

hundred thousand Aramaeans and Chaldeans to western Asia, cooperated with the priests, stayed

three years governing the area, and imported foreign captives.

Sargon II put down Egyptian-supported revolts in Syria and Palestine, and he conquered the

independent city of Carchemish, making it an Assyrian province. In 714 BC after a long march

through the mountains of Kurdistan, Sargon led a surprise attack on Urartu, causing their king to

flee. He persuaded his army that an eclipse of the moon was not a bad omen for them but for

their enemy at Musasir, Urartu's sacred city, which they then easily plundered. Sargon had tens

of thousands of workers build his own capital just north of Nineveh, but before it was finished he

was killed fighting in Iran. His son Sennacherib believed Sargon's death was a punishment from

the gods and left his corpse unburied.

Sennacherib left Sargon's new city unfinished and built a huge palace at Nineveh. Marduk-apal-

iddina once again assumed the throne of Babylon but was forced to withdraw when Sennacherib

and the Assyrians defeated a coalition army of Babylonians, Aramaeans, and Elamites, deporting

208,000 Babylonians. Bel-ibni was appointed king of Babylon in 702 BC; but two years later

when he seceded from the Assyrian empire, Sennacherib replaced him with his son Ashur-nadin-

shum. In 701 BC Sennacherib defeated a coalition of Phoenicians, Palestinians, and Egyptians in

Syria. Judah's king Hezekiah bought off Sennacherib with 300 talents of silver and 30 of gold.

When Sennacherib came back, probably late in his reign, Hezekiah, advised by Isaiah, did not

surrender, and the Assyrians withdrew the siege probably because of a plague, though the

number of 185,000 Assyrian dead in the Biblical account is probably an exaggeration.

Sennacherib ordered the building of a fleet of ships in Nineveh, and in 694 BC they attacked

Elam on the Persian Gulf. However, the Elamites counter-attacked, took the throne of Babylon,

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ASSYRIAN, BABYLONIAN, AND PERSIAN EMPIRES

and the war went on for seven years. After a great battle which the Assyrians claimed was a

victory although it probably was not, Sennacherib ordered the destruction of Babylon and even

plundered its temples, a serious offense to Assyrians, who shared many religious beliefs with the

Babylonians. Then a myth was developed that the god Marduk himself was brought before a

tribunal for his transgressions, and in the Babylonian creation story Enuma Elish Marduk was

replaced by Ashur. In 681 BC Sennacherib was assassinated in a temple of Ninurta at Nineveh,

probably by his eldest sons. Many believed that Sennacherib had mistreated the god Ninurta as

well as Marduk and that his death was a divine punishment, a belief ironically he had held about

his own father's death.

Appointed by the imperial council and supported by the army, a younger son of Sennacherib

named Esarhaddon became king, while his older brothers fled to Urartu. Esarhaddon ordered the

rebuilding of Babylon, the restoration of its gods, and made a peace treaty with Elam, although

later his messengers attempting to collect taxes from the impoverished Babylonians were pelted

with clods. In the north Esarhaddon fought off the Cimmerians and then made peace with them

by giving his daughter in marriage to the Scythian chief Bartuta. When Sidon revolted in 677

BC, he tore down the Phoenician city, beheaded its king, deported the inhabitants, and gave

Sidon's territory to its rival city of Tyre.

These measures enabled Esarhaddon to pursue his major ambition of conquering Egypt. His first

attempt failed, but in 671 BC the Assyrian army besieged revolting Tyre on the way to capturing

Memphis. The Ethiopians were deported; the collection of tribute from Egypt's 22 provinces was

organized; and the worship of Ashur was instituted. However, two years later the Ethiopian king

of Egypt, Taharqa, who had fled to the south, organized a rebellion. Esarhaddon was on his way

back to Egypt when he died in 669 BC. Three times the superstitious Esarhaddon had substituted

temporary "kings" so that he could pretend to be a peasant and escape bad omens such as a lunar

eclipse, which astronomers could predict. Putting to death the substitutes at the end of their term

and attempting to fool the gods insulted his religion. Esarhaddon did make it clear in his treaties

with vassals that when he died the crown prince designate Ashurbanipal was to be obeyed.

The best educated and most literate of Assyria's kings, Ashurbanipal ruled for 42 years during

the height and greatest decline of the empire. He began by sending an army to Egypt to recapture

Memphis. Once again Taharqa fled to Thebes, and twenty-two native kings and governors

appointed by Esarhaddon who had fled the rebellion were reinstalled. However, when their

conspiracy with Taharqa was discovered, they were exiled to Assyria and executed there, except

for Necho, who was set up in Sais to rule Egypt. When Taharqa died, his nephew Tanutamen

marched from Thebes to Memphis where in 664 BC he killed Necho and defeated the Egyptian

princes of the Delta. When the Assyrian army returned, Tanutamen retreated from Memphis to

Thebes from which he fled when it was destroyed by Ashurbanipal's army. Necho's son Psamtik

was appointed ruler in Sais. According to Herodotus a decade later Psamtik aided by Ionian

mercenaries expelled the Assyrians from Egypt while Assyria was battling Elam.

Tyre was besieged until its ruler Baal submitted and offered his daughter and nieces and much

treasure to the Assyrians. Elam had attacked Babylon in 664 BC; but eleven years later when

Ashurbanipal would not surrender the Elamite king's rivals, another attack by the Elamites was

defeated by the Assyrian army. The king of Elam was killed in battle, and Ashurbanipal replaced

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