The Hebrew commonwealth had come into being, and given place to a monarchy, which, passing through many vicissitudes, reached its highest pitch of glory in the time of David and Solomon, to suffer, after the death of the latter, diminution by the falling away of the ten tribes. Thus weakened, the two parts of what had been erstwhile a powerful whole became tempting morsels to any power whose ruler was ambitious of conquest. It was probably more from unwillingness to attack with but little chance of success than inability from inherent weakness which caused the Assyrians to refrain whilst the nation was united. Generally, the kings of Assyria preferred making conquests nearer home, and Tukulti-Ninip I., who reigned in the 13th century b.c., annexed Babylonia and ruled there for seven years, Assyrian predominance in that land coming to an end on his death, which was due to a revolt, in which his son, Aššur-naṣir-âpli, took part. Though this was a check to Assyrian ambition in that quarter, its kings returned from time to time to the attack, but with very varying success, which probably caused them to turn their attention to other districts as the field of their warlike zeal. Tukulti-Ninip II. (891-885 b.c.) and his son, Aššur-naṣir-âpli II., therefore aimed at the conquest of the north and [pg 328] west, and though the latter came into conflict with Babylonia, no permanent accession of territory resulted therefrom.
It seems not to have been until somewhat late in his reign that he reached, in his numerous expeditions, the Mediterranean Sea, “the great western sea,” or “the great sea of the land of Amurrū,”86 as he calls it. Here, after performing ceremonies to the gods of Assyria, he received the tribute of the kings of the sea-coast—“of the land of the Tyrians, the land of the Sidonians, the land of the Gebalites, the land of the Maḫallatites, the land of the Maizites, the land of the Kaizites, the land of the Amorites, (and) the city of Arvad, which is amid the sea.” This is followed by a list of the objects received, and the statement that they (the rulers) paid him homage. Having thus spied out the nakedness of the land, and ascertained the willingness of the rulers to give tribute, the Assyrian king proceeded to the mountains of Ḫamanu (Amanus), and cut beams of cedar, cypress, and other wood for the temple Ê-šarra, for his house or temple (apparently that in which he worshipped), “a house of rejoicing, (and) for the temple of the moon and the sun, the glorious gods.”
Shalmaneser II., son of Aššur-naṣir-âpli, during the first six years of his reign, warred, like his father, on the north and west, his object being to complete what his father had begun, namely, the subjugation of the territory of Aḫuni, son of Adini, king of Til-barsip. This having been successfully accomplished, he was free to turn his attention to the more southern regions of the old land of the Amorites. In the year 854 b.c., therefore, he marched against Giammu, a ruler whose land lay on the river Belichus. To all appearance this chief wished to resist, but his people feared the power of the Assyrian king, and put Giammu to death. Taking possession of the [pg 329] district, he then proceeded to further successes, and after crossing the Euphrates again in boats of skins, he received the tribute of the kings on the farther side—Sangara of Carchemish, Kundašpu of Commagene, Aramu the son of Gusu, Lallu the Milidian, Ḫaianu the son of Gabaru, Kalparuda of the Patinians, and Kalparuda of the Gurgumians, “(at) the city Aššur-uttir-aṣbat, of the farther side of the Euphrates, which is upon the river Sajur, which the men of the Hittites call the city Pitru” (Pethor). Having reached Aleppo, he received also tribute there, and offered sacrifices before Hadad of Aleppo.
Next came the turn of Irḫulêni of Hamath (Amatâa), whose cities Adennu, Pargâ, and Arganâ were captured and spoiled, and his palaces set in flames.
“From Arganâ I departed, to Qarqara I drew near: Qarqara, his royal city, I ravaged, destroyed, (and) burnt with fire. One thousand two hundred chariots, 1200 yoke of horses, 20,000 trained soldiers of Adad-'idri (= Bin-Adad-idri = Ben-Hadad) of Ša-imērišu (= the province of Damascus); 700 chariots, 700 yoke of horses, (and) 10,000 soldiers of Irḫulêni of the land of the Hamathites; 2000 chariots (and) 10,000 men of Aḫabbu (regarded as Ahab) of the land of the Sir'ilites (regarded as the Israelites); 500 men of the Guites; 1000 men of the Musrites; 10 chariots (and) 10,000 men of the Irqanatites; 200 men of Matinu-ba'ali of the city of the Arvadites; 200 men of the land of the Usanatites; 30 chariots (and) 10,000 men of Adunu-ba'ali of the land of the Šianians;87 1000 camels of Gindibu'u of the Arbâa (regarded as the Arabians); ... 00 men of Ba'asa son of Ruḫubu of the land of the Amanians (Ammonites)—these 1288 kings he took to aid him, (and) to make war and battle they advanced against me. With the supreme powers which Aššur, the lord, has given; with the mighty weapons which ura-gala [pg 330] (Nergal89) going before me, has presented (me), I fought with them. From the city Qarqara as far as the city Gilzau90 I made an end of them. Fourteen thousand of their warriors I caused to be slain with the sword. Like Hadad I caused a torrent to rain down upon them....”
Such is the account of the first recorded contact of the Assyrians with the Jews—that is, if Sir'ilâa be rightly rendered “Israelites”; as to Ahab, there may have been more than one of the name, just as there were two Kalparudas, he of the Patinians, and he of the Gurgumians. Nevertheless, the probability that it really is Ahab of Israel is great, and this theory is held by most Assyriologists.
In truth, however, the Hebrew and the Assyrian histories of this period are not altogether easy to reconcile. Ben-Hadad II., the son and successor of Ben-Hadad I., was in almost continual conflict with the Israelites. The story is told in 1 Kings xx., according to which Ben-Hadad entered into an alliance with thirty-two other kings, who, with their armies, horses, and chariots, besieged Samaria. Too full of confidence, he sent to Ahab of Israel, who was in the besieged city, demanding his surrender, the second time with terms more than usually humiliating. In consequence of the words of a prophet who is unnamed, the rejection of these terms was followed by a sortie of the inhabitants, who seem to have taken the besiegers unawares, whilst they were feasting and drinking in their over-confidence. The result was the raising of the siege, and the complete defeat of the allied forces.
The next attack of Ben-Hadad upon Ahab was at Aphek, he hoping to obtain a victory over the Israelites because he considered their God to be a god [pg 331] of the mountains, and that they would not be under his protection in the plains. Here, too, the Israelites were victorious, and Ben-Hadad submitted, and agreed to restore cities taken by his father (xx. 34), and to allow the Israelites to build streets at Damascus (probably as a quarter for Jewish merchants).
Admitting the correctness of the general opinions of Assyriologists concerning Aḫabbu mât Sir'ilâa, it must have been between this period and his death that he joined the Syrian league against Shalmaneser II. of Assyria, with a force only half that of Ben-Hadad, though his chariots were nearly twice as many. Notwithstanding this, however, the Israelitish troops were sufficiently numerous, and the defeat of such a large army as that of the allies of the Syrian league, and the slaughter of a total of 14,000 men among them (another account says 20,500), many of them in all probability Israelites, finds no place, strange to say, in the sacred record, notwithstanding that the Hebrew writers do not, as a rule, in the least object to mentioning national defeat, and in this case it would have been a most important thing to refer to, the danger which threatened them and their allies being such as promised to overthrow their national existence altogether. Perhaps the compiler of the sacred record, however, did not realize to the full what the Assyrian invasion meant; or he may not have desired to justify Ahab's policy (which, in view of the danger which threatened, was a sound one), and so discredit with the people the fanatical behaviour and tragic warning of the prophet who reproached the king so mercilessly because he had made friends with Ben-Hadad instead of pressing on against him in hostility, even to the death.
The Rev. Joseph Horner (Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 1898, p. 244), besides bringing in the chronological difficulty, which is very real, in spite of Prof. Oppert's Noli me tangere (P.S.B.A., [pg 332] 1898, pp. 24-47), notes (pp. 237, 238) the difficulty of the name. This is the only place where Israel is called in the Assyrian inscriptions Sir´ilâa—in all other passages it is bît Ḫumrî, “the house of Omri,” or mât bît Ḫumrî, “the land of the house of Omri,” and he regards it as incredible that a name never used before, and never afterwards found, should be employed. Elsewhere, when speaking of Jehu, Shalmaneser calls him “son” or “descendant of Omri,” apparently intending thereby to indicate his nationality, for, as is well known, the relationship expressed is not correct.
Nevertheless, allowance must be made for the uncertainty attending the introduction into the literature of a country of a name with which the people, including the scribes, are unfamiliar. Ḫumrî or Omri may have been, to the scribe who composed the account given by the Black Obelisk, very much easier to remember than the comparatively unfamiliar Sir´ilâa, and it may have been felt that the form used was not by any means certain—Isra´ilâa would, in fact, have been much better. The scribe of the monolith, however, may have inserted what he felt to be the Assyro-Babylonian form of the name, for something very similar to Sir´ilâa (or Ser´ilâa) exists in the Sar-îli of a contract tablet of the reign of Ammi-zaduga, translated in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1897, pp. 594-595 (cf. p. 157).
But, as before remarked, the chronological difficulty still remains, the date, from Hebrew sources, being, according to Prof. Oppert, before 900 b.c. (the last year of Ahab), whilst, according to Assyrian chronology, it should be 853 b.c. (cf. Sayce in Hastings's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. i. p. 272).
The importance of the city of Hamath is well indicated not only by the above extract, but also by the numerous other passages where Irḫulēni (or Urḫilēni) of Hamath is referred to. The Guites [pg 333] were regarded by the late Geo. Smith as the Biblical Goim—a rather doubtful identification. As for the Musrites, the same scholar thought them to be the Egyptians, Muṣrâa, “Muṣrites,” coming apparently from Muṣur, the name of Egypt in the Assyrian inscriptions. Others regard them as being a people of the north, and this is more probable, though it would perhaps be better to regard the name as unidentified. The mention of “camels” in connection with Gindibu'u of the Arbâa is regarded as stamping the nationality referred to as being Arabic, and this is very probable. In Ba'asa son of Ruḫubu of the Ammonites we have the comparatively familiar Biblical names Baasha and Rehob in their Assyrian forms. It will therefore be seen that the extract translated above is of considerable interest quite independently of its historical bearings, which are of great importance, whatever may be the ultimate opinion concerning them.
During the next three years Shalmaneser was occupied on the west and north-west and in Babylonia, so that it was not until 850 b.c. that he was again able to turn his attention to the neighbourhood of Palestine.
The clemency of Ahab towards Ben-Hadad had apparently ended, as has been seen, in an alliance between the two nationalities, but that alliance did not, to all appearance, last very long. There is every probability that it was an unwilling one on the part of Ben-Hadad, and in all probability he took advantage of the death of Ahab to repudiate it. In any case, Ben-Hadad is represented in 2 Kings vi. 24 ff., as again besieging Samaria, but with disastrous results. What interval there was between his raising the siege of Samaria and his death, the sacred narrative does not say, but according to Assyrian chronology, there should be from four to six years at least (850-846 b.c.).
[pg 334]In the tenth year of his reign Shalmaneser II. of Assyria crossed the Euphrates for the eighth time, and advanced against Sangara of Carchemish, whose cities he destroyed, made waste, and burned in the flames. After this came the turn of Arame, whose capital city, with one hundred other places around it, was laid in ruins. Adad-idri of Damascus (Imēri-šu), however, set himself, with Irḫulēni of Hamath, and twelve of the kings of Syria, to resist the Assyrian king. Shalmaneser claims to have defeated them, put them to flight, and captured their chariots, horses, and war-material.
There is hardly any doubt, however, that his success was not by any means what he desired and expected, for he found himself obliged to march again to the same region in his eleventh year, when he crossed the Euphrates for the ninth time. On this occasion he says that he destroyed ninety-seven cities of Sangara of Carchemish and one hundred cities of Arame. Having reached the edge of the Ḫamanu (Amanus) range of mountains, he traversed the portion named Yaraqu, and descended to the land of the Hamathites, where he captured the city Aštamaku and ninety-nine other places, defeating their armies with great slaughter. Again he met Adad-idri, with Irḫulēni of Hamath and the twelve “kings of the sea-coast.” In the battle which follows he claims to have defeated them and killed 10,000 of their fighting-men with the sword. He also states that he took their chariots, horses, and war-material. On his way back he again turned his attention to Arame, capturing his capital Apparazu. At that time he likewise received the tribute of Kalparundu of the Patinians, consisting of silver, lead, gold, horses, oxen, sheep, and textile fabrics. Ascending again into the Amanus mountains, he brought away a further supply of cedar-wood for his palaces.
In the two following years (648 and 647 b.c., [pg 335] according to Assyrian reckoning), Shalmaneser was not to all appearance engaged in any expeditions of importance, or at least their importance is unknown. In his fourteenth year, 846 b.c., however, he crossed the Euphrates again, and met Ben-Hadad for the last time. As before, the latter was in alliance with Irḫulēni of Hamath and the “twelve kings of the sea-coast above and below.” Again the Assyrian king fought with them and defeated them, destroying their chariots and teams, and capturing, as before, their war-material, and “to save their lives, they fled.”
Naturally all these historical details are of great interest and value. The question naturally arises whether, being so much alike in wording and results, they may not all refer to the same expedition, which the Assyrian king repeated to fill up his annals? As a rule, however, the annals of the Assyrian rulers are exceedingly correct, and there is consequently but little reason to doubt the accuracy of Shalmaneser's statements. It is noteworthy that, in all these descriptions of expeditions to the west, twelve kings are mentioned, whilst in the first instance eleven only are enumerated, and in the other two the twelve are spoken of as if in addition to Adad-idri and Irḫulēni of Hamath. Ought we, therefore, to translate “the twelve kings,” meaning the eleven which are referred to along with and including Aḫabbu of the Sir'ilâa, or are the twelve kings referred to in the account of the second and third encounters with Ben-Hadad merely an indefinite number, meaning “a dozen,” i.e.“twelve more or less”? As it is impossible that Ahab of Israel should have been one of the Syrian league all this time, the latter must be held to be the more probable explanation—“In those days Adad-idri of the land of Imēri-šu (and) Irḫulēni of the land of Hamath with a dozen kings of the sea-coast trusted each other's might, and came against me to make war and battle.”
[pg 336]Notwithstanding all his efforts, however, as detailed in his annals, Shalmaneser II. was still very far from the subjugation of the “sea-coast,” as he calls Palestine and Syria, and realizing that he had a hard task before him, he returned to his own country and occupied himself in the two following years in Mesopotamia, Ararat, and Namri, south-east of Assyria. The following year, 843 b.c., for the first time during his reign, he was at peace, superintending the felling of trees in the Amanus mountains for use in the palaces of Assyria. This period of rest was in all probability necessary to enable the army to be reorganized for further campaigns in that part of the world which he seems to have set his heart upon subjugating.
This being the case, he set out, in his eighteenth year (842 b.c.), and crossed the Euphrates for the sixteenth time. This expedition, however, was not against his old foe, Ben-Hadad or Adad-idri, but against Ḫaza'-îlu, the Hazael of 2 Kings viii. 8, etc., who had treacherously murdered his master, as related in this passage, and seized the throne. Hearing of the advance of the Assyrian army, he prepared for resistance, as is related in the following narrative.
“In my 18th year I crossed the Euphrates for the 16th time. Ḫaza-'îlu of the land of Imēri-šu trusted to the might of his troops, and called his troops together in great number. Saniru, the peak of a mountain which is before Lebanon, he made his stronghold. I fought with him, I accomplished his defeat: 16,000 of his fighting-men I slew with the sword: 1121 of his chariots, 470 of his horses, with his camp, I captured. He fled to save his life—I set out after him. I besieged him in Dimašqu (Damascus), his royal city. I cut down his orchards; I went to the mountains of the land of Ḫauranu (the Hauran), cities without number I destroyed, wasted, and burned in the flames. Untold spoil I carried away. I went [pg 337] to the mountains of Ba'ali-ra'asi” (Aramaic: “lord of the promontory”), “which is a headland” (lit., “head of the sea”)—“I set up an image of my majesty therein. In those days I received the tribute of the Tyrians, Sidonians, (and) of Yaua, son of Ḫumrî.”
The description of this campaign given by the Black Obelisk is as follows—
“In my 18th year I crossed the Euphrates for the 16th time. Ḫaza'-îlu of the land of Imēri-šu came forth to battle: 1121 of his chariots, 470 of his horses, with his camp, I took away from him.”
These two documents, as will easily be seen, are in perfect accord, and the story they have to tell agrees in its turn with that of the preceding years of Shalmaneser's reign. Indeed, this text may be regarded as confirming the opinions hitherto held concerning the identity of Aḫabbu mât Sir'ilâa with Ahab of Israel, and Adad-idri with Ben-Hadad of Damascus. This, be it noted, is due to the fact that, like Ben-Hadad, Adad-idri was succeeded by Hazael, who, in both the Bible narrative and the annals of Shalmaneser, is a contemporary of Jehu (Yaua, son of Ḫumrî or Omri). The Black Obelisk, probably for the sake of economizing space, does not refer to the receipt of tribute from Jehu when speaking of the battle with Hazael, on account of the bas-relief thereon referring to that event. The following is the translation of the epigraph in question which I gave in 188691—
“The tribute of Yaua, son of Ḫumrî: silver, gold, a golden cup, golden vases, golden vessels, golden buckets, lead, a staff for the hand of the king (and) sceptres, I received.”
The account of the conflict with Hazael indicates that certain changes had taken place in the Mediterranean [pg 338] coast-lands since Shalmaneser's former campaigns thither. It was no longer against the kings of Damascus and Hamath with “a dozen kings” in alliance with them, but against Hazael alone. Had they broken with Ben-Hadad? or did they hold aloof because they had no sympathy with his murderer? In any case, it would seem to be certain that they no longer feared the Assyrian king, who, they must have felt, had his hands full. In Israel, too, there had been changes, Ahab having been succeeded by Ahaziah, who, after a reign of one year, was succeeded by Jehoram. The latter tried to reduce Mesha king of Moab again to subjection, but without success. Ben-Hadad's attempt to capture Samaria was made during his reign, and the non-success of the Syrian king was probably the cause of Jehoram's attempt to recover Ramoth-gilead, where Ahab had found his fate some years before. The king of Israel did not fall on the field of battle, but received there a wound which obliged him to return to Jezreel. His death at the hands of Jehu in Naboth's vineyard is one of the most dramatic incidents of Israelitish history.
Jehu's payment of tribute to the Assyrian king in 842 b.c. was probably due to a question of policy, and in the main it may be considered as a cheap way of avoiding misfortune, for he might easily have been worsted in an encounter with Shalmaneser. What Tyre and Sidon thought fit to do, could hardly but be recognized as policy for Israel as well. It was important for Jehu that he should consolidate his power, hence this submission, though, to say the truth, he could not have been certain that he would be attacked. Was it that he felt strong enough to resist the Assyrian king which made him withhold the payment of tribute when, in 839 b.c., Shalmaneser again marched against Hazael? It would seem so. On this occasion four towns of the king of Damascus [pg 339] were captured, and tribute again received from Tyre and Sidon, Gebal likewise buying peace in the same way.
That Jehu, who destroyed the house of Omri, should be called “son of Omri” in the inscriptions of Shalmaneser II. of Assyria, is strange, and needs explanation. Perhaps the successor of a king could loosely be spoken of as his son, as occupying the place of such a relative; and, as is well known, Belshazzar, in the book of Daniel, is called son of Nebuchadnezzar, which, according to the Babylonian inscriptions, he certainly was not. That Jehu may have been in some way related with Jehoram, and therefore a descendant of Omri, is possible and even probable. That he was not descended from him in a direct line is certain.
It is noteworthy that the Assyrian form of the name, Yaua, shows that the unpronounced aleph at the end was at that time sounded, so that the Hebrews must have called him Yahua (Jehua). Omri was likewise pronounced in accordance with the older system, before the ghain became ayin. Ḫumrî shows that they said at that time Ghomrî.
After the rebellion which embittered the closing years of Shalmaneser's life, the great Assyrian king died, and his crown went to his younger son Šamši-Adad III. (825-812 b.c.). The first work of the new ruler was the pacification of his country, and this having been successfully done, he tried to restore Assyrian influence beyond the borders of his kingdom. During his reign of about thirteen years, he warred on the N., N.E., N.W. and S. (Babylonia), but never came nearer to Syria than Kar-Shalmaneser on the Euphrates, near Carchemish.
His son, Adad-nirari, who reigned from 812 to 783 b.c., followed in his footsteps, and began by making conquests on the east. The north and north-west, however, also felt the force of his arms. The [pg 340] only campaign of which details are given is one against Syria, the date of which, however, is not known. G. Smith thought that this could not have taken place earlier than 797 b.c., during the time of Amaziah king of Judah and Joash king of Israel—a conjecture which is based, to all appearance, upon the comparison of Mansuate with Manasseh. As the Assyrian form of this name is Minsē or Minasē, such an identification is impossible, and this being the case, it is more probable that the expeditions to the Holy Land and Syria took place either in 806, when he went to Arpad, 805, when he was at Ḫaza, or 804, when he marched against Ba'ali, the name, apparently, of a Phœnician city. The next year he went to the sea-coast, but whether this was the Mediterranean or not is not indicated, though it may be regarded as very probable, and if so, 803 b.c. must be added to the dates already named, or the operations to which he refers in his slab-inscription may have extended over one or more of the years here referred to.
So, when he was young and enthusiastic, King Adad-nirari III. of Assyria had the inscription carved of which the following is a translation, as far as it is at present known—
“Palace of Adad-nirari, the great king, the powerful king, king of the world, king of the land of Aššur; the king who, in his youth, Aššur, king of the Igigi, called, and delivered into his hand a kingdom without equal; his shepherding he (Aššur) made good as pasture for the people of the land of Aššur, and caused his throne to be firm; the glorious priest, patron of Ê-šarra, he who ceaseth not to uphold the command of Ê-kura, who continually walketh in the service of Aššur, his lord, and hath caused the princes of the four regions to submit to his feet. He who hath conquered from the land of Siluna of the rising of the sun, the mountains (?) of the land [pg 341] of Ellipu, the land of Ḫarḫar, the land of Araziaš, the land of Mesu, the land of the Medes, the land of Gizil-bunda, to its whole extent, the land of Munna, the land of Parsua (Persia), the land of Allapria, the land of Abdadana, the land of Na'iru (Mesopotamia), to the border of the whole of it, the land of Andiu, whose situation is remote, the range (?) of the mountains, to its whole border, as far as the great sea of the rising of the sun (the Persian Gulf); from the river Euphrates, the land of Ḫatti (Heth, the Hittites), the land of Amurri (Amoria, the Amorites), to its whole extent, the land of Tyre, the land of Sidon, the land of Ḫumrî (Omri, Israel), the land of Edom, the land of Palastu (Philistia) as far as the great sea of the setting of the sun (the Mediterranean), I caused to submit to my feet. I fixed tax and tribute upon them. I went to the land of Ša-imēri-šu (Syria of Damascus); Mari'u, king of Ša-imēri-šu, I shut up in Dimašqu (Damascus), his royal city. The fear and terror of Aššur, his lord, struck him, and he took my feet, performed homage. Two thousand three hundred talents of silver, 20 talents of gold, 3000 talents of bronze, 5000 talents of iron, cloth, variegated stuffs, linen, a couch of ivory, an inlaid litter of ivory, (with) cushions (?), his goods, his property, to a countless amount I received in Damascus, his royal city, in the midst of his palace. All the kings of the land of Kaldu (the Chaldean tribes in Babylonia) performed homage, tax and tribute for future days I fixed upon them. Babylon, Borsippa, Cuthah, brought the overplus (of the treasures) of Bêl, Nebo, (and) Nergal, (made) pure offerings....”
(The remainder of the inscription is said to be still at Calah, not yet uncovered.)
Schrader, in his Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, makes the campaign against Syria to have taken place in 803 b.c., and sees in Adad-nirari the [pg 342] deliverer sent by Yahwah in answer to the prayers of Jehoahaz. According to 2 Kings xiii. 3, the Israelites were subject to Hazael and Ben-Hadad, his son, all their days. There is every probability that the successor of the latter was the Mari'u mentioned in the translation given above, and the same inscription would seem to indicate that the Israelites submitted to the Assyrian king, and paid him tribute in order to secure his intervention, which, judging from the enormous amount of spoil which he secured, he did not regret. The saviour having come, and the tribute paid, “Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime” (2 Kings xiii. 5). Verses 22-25 are to all appearance a recapitulation, probably extracted from another source. They show that Joash, son of Jehoahaz, rebelled, and took from Ben-Hadad the cities which the last-named had captured from Israel, and defeated him three times (see ver. 19). Apparently “all their days” in ver. 3 is not to be taken literally, as the war of the Israelites against Syria took place before the death of Ben-Hadad III. It may also be conjectured that the reason of there being no more than three defeats of the Syrians was due to the death of Ben-Hadad, and his sceptre passing into younger and more vigorous hands, so that “a saviour” was still needed, and found in the person of the Assyrian king, as suggested by Schrader. The Syrian forces not being in a condition, after their defeats by the Israelites, to offer battle to Adad-nirari, apparently submitted without fighting, and after such a visit the country had too much need for peace to allow of reprisals being made against the Israelites.
The fame of Adad-nirari was great, and his queen seems to have shared in it. She was named Sammu-ramat, “(the goddess) Sammu loveth (her),” a name which is generally regarded as the original of the somewhat mythical Semiramis of Herodotus. That she [pg 343] was looked up to by the subjects of her royal spouse, however, is proved by the two statues in the British Museum (there were in all four of them, erected at Calah). According to the inscription on them, they were made and dedicated for one of the chief officers of the kingdom, Bêl-tarṣi-îli-ma (“a lord before God”), who furnished them with the following dedication—
“To Nebo, mighty, exalted, son of Ê-saggil,92 the wise one, high-towering, the mighty prince, son of Nudimmud, whose word is supreme; prince of intelligence, director of the universe of heaven and earth, he who knoweth everything, the wide of ear, he who holdeth the tablet-reed (and) hath the stilus; the merciful one, he who decideth, with whom is (the power of) raising and abasing; the beloved of Ea, lord of lords, whose power hath no equal, without whom there would be no counsel in heaven; the gracious one, pitiful, whose sympathy is good; he who dwelleth in E-zida, which is within Calah—the great lord, his lord—for the life of Adad-nirari, king of the land of Aššur, his lord, and the life of Sammu-ramat, she of the palace, his lady, Bêl-tarṣi-îli-ma, ruler of the city of Calah, the land of Ḫamedu, the land of Sudgana, the land of Temeni, the land of Yaluna, for the saving of his life, the lengthening of his days, the adding of days to his years, the peace of his house and his people (not the one evil to him), he has caused (this statue) to be made as a gift. Whoever (cometh) after: Trust to Nebo—trust not another god.”
It is rare that an Assyrian queen is mentioned in the inscriptions, especially on almost equal terms with the king, and additional interest is added by the fact, that she bears a name commonly regarded as the [pg 344] same as that of Semiramis. In Assyrian and Babylonian history, it is always the king who is the ruler, whatever influence his spouse may have had in determining his policy as such being always unmentioned, and therefore unknown to the world at large. The present inscription, however, seems to testify that Sammu-ramat was known outside the walls of the palace, and that one of the greatest in the kingdom thought fit to do her honour by associating her with the king in the dedication to Nebo which he made for the preservation of the lives of the king, the queen, and himself. Whether the history of Sammu-ramat, queen of Assyria, was laid under contribution to furnish details for the legend of Semiramis, will probably never be known; but it is nevertheless unfortunate that the slab recounting the warlike exploits of Adad-nirari, king of Assyria, her husband, should break off in the middle of his account of his successes in Babylonia.
Adad-nirari reigned 29 years, and was succeeded by Shalmaneser III. in 783 b.c. The expeditions of this king were principally against Armenia and Itu'u, a region on the Euphrates. In the year 775 b.c. he went to the cedar-country, but whether the mountain region of the Amanus, Lebanon, or of a district called Ḫašur be intended, is unknown. The necessity of expeditions against Syria, however, still continued, for in 773 b.c. we find Shalmaneser at Damascus, probably to bring the king then ruling there again into subjection.
Although doubt is now expressed as to whether Ḫatarika, whither Shalmaneser III. marched in 772 b.c., the last year of his reign, be really Hadrach (Zech. ix. 1) or not (the consonants do not agree so well as they ought to do), in all probability it was a district not far from Damascus to which he went.
Aššur-dan, his successor, ascended the throne in the following year, and at once began warring in [pg 345] Babylonia and on the east. In 765 b.c. he marched to Ḫatarika. Signs of revolt seem at this time to have broken out in Assyria, probably on account of the pestilence with which the land was afflicted, and it must have been for this reason that no expedition was undertaken in the year 764 b.c. Next year the rising, which was evidently expected, took place in the city of Aššur, and there was an eclipse of the sun in the month Sivan, an important astronomical occurrence which has been identified with an eclipse which passed over Assyria on the 15th of June, 763 b.c., and was supposed by Mr. Bosanquet to be referred to in Amos viii. 9, “I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and will darken the earth in the clear day.”
To all appearance this eclipse, taken in conjunction with the presence of pestilence and rebellion, was regarded as an evil omen. This revolt lasted into the next year, and spread, in 761 b.c., into Arrapḫa, where it continued three years. In 759 the revolt reached Gozan, and there was a recrudescence of the plague. There is no reference to the stamping out of the revolt in Assyria, but it seems very probable that the king and his supporters were active to that end, as he was able to march in the year 758 b.c., to Gozan, after which there is the entry, “Peace in the land.” Two years were to all appearance occupied in reorganizing the country and providing against a repetition of such risings, unless it be that Aššur-dan was too ill to take the field, for according to the received chronology, he died in 755 b.c. when Aššur-nirari II. ascended the throne.
This new ruler is represented to have made two expeditions, one in the year of his accession, to Ḫatarika, and the other, in 754 b.c., to Arpad. What the additional statement, “Return from the city of Aššur,” really refers to, is exceedingly doubtful—perhaps troops had been stationed there during the [pg 346] whole period since the breaking out of the revolt there in 763 b.c.
For four years no expeditions were made, pointing to a continued ferment of discontent in Assyria. In 749 and 748 b.c., however, Aššur-nirari made expeditions to Namri, south-west of Media. It is significant, however, that the Canon has, for the next year (747 b.c.), the usual words (“In the land”) when no expedition took place, the reason probably being the unsettled state of the country. The entry for the next year is “Revolt in Calah,” which, as has already been seen, was one of the principal cities of the kingdom. After this is the usual division-line, indicating the end of a reign, followed by the words “(Eponymy of Nabû-bêl-uṣur, governor of) Arrapḫa. In the month Aaru (Iyyar), day 13, Tiglath-pileser sat upon the throne. In the month Tisritu (Tisri) he made an expedition to (the district) between the rivers.” This corresponds with 745 b.c.
Thus is ushered in, in the Eponym Canon, one of the most important reigns in Assyrian history. By what right Tiglath-pileser III. took the throne is not known. To all appearance, he was not in any way related to his predecessor, Aššur-nirari, and it is therefore supposed that he was one of the generals of that king, who, taking advantage of the rising in Aššur (of which he may, indeed, have been the instigator), made away with his sovereign, and set himself in his place. Further light, however, is needed upon this period, before anything can be said as to the circumstances attending Tiglath-pileser's accession to the throne.