Ancient History - Part 11: Assyrian Expansion Begins

Assyria's throne passed to Enlil-nirari's son, Arik-den-ilu (1345-1306) and the new king found himself with a powerful army at his disposal. Rather than square off against the Hittites and Mitanni of the west, he instead had eyes on the east, towards the land of the Persians, but first battled with their smaller neighbors between them. His first military engagement was against the Yasubigalla, who despite rallying an impressive number of seven thousand soldiers, were supremely slaughtered to the last man, their noncombatant-kinsmen likely sharing in the same fate.

King Arik-den-ilu's second engagement was with a superior enemy: The Nigimti.

The Nigimti were a people who bore a larger population than most of the other westward tribes, and grew to the point of establishing a small city, Arnuni. It was from this city that Esini, their leader and commander, would emerge to score raids upon the supply lines of the Assyrian army. As Assyria chased Esini back to Arnuni's gate, they were met by defenders on chariots. The defenders of the city were soundly defeated and while Esini did manage to survive and barricade himself within the walls, eventually he and the Nigimti submitted to the Assyrian king.

One-by-one the neighboring tribes were conquered after Arnuni had fallen. These included the Kuti and the Turuki, more names forgotten by history, reduced as another notch or two on the Assyrian king's belt. Assyria's soldiers had traveled so far eastward, that right as they neared encroachment upon the Persian mountains of Little Zab, they withdrew backwards and campaigned into their own western boundary lands.

In the western deserts, the Assyrians conquered their troublesome neighbors in the Akhlamu, Kutmukh, and Sutu. Despite bad blood between their kingdom and the Hittites, Babylon, and to a lesser extent, Elam, Assyria was most capable during these years in focusing only on smaller enemies, inferior to their own forces. Of all these peoples, the Akhlami were the only ones to survive, migrating into the Semitic lands now known to us as Palestine.