Ancient History - Part 17: The God Is Not Willing

A new tactic began to be employed by the Assyrians. For every conquered enemy, king Shalmaneser would stand before his fallen foes, proclaiming that their gods had abandoned them, and that Ashur (the deified god of their capital city) must be assumed as their new god. On a whole, worship of the Assyrian god, Ashur, widely spread on its own beyond Assyria's borders. 

However, a lone city, Arina, strongly-fortified upon a steep mountain, resisted implicitly. Its governor, sickened by this new god's influence upon his smallfolk, made great efforts to gather crowds far and wide to view of vile demonstrations that demanded the desecration and denouncement of the Assyrian religion, as well as the head of its pantheon's deity.

When news of these anti-religious, anti-Assyrian demonstrations was brought to Shalmaneser's ear, the king advanced and laid the mountain fortress to siege, storming its walls and burning the entire city to the ground. Once destroyed, his military force witnessed its king walking amongst their thousands on horseback, sprinkling ashes of the dead city, a final show, or demonstration of his own, that Ashur remained supreme.

The reinvigorated armies of Assyria were now evermore blood-thirsty with a unending hunger for war. Next, they invaded the Musri (northern Iraq), a small and peaceful kingdom, that had remained untouched on Assyria's borders, now untouched no longer.

And it is here that a pivotal event in history takes its place, for in his next maneuver, king Shalmaneser invaded Hanigalbat, neutral lands friendly with the Hittites. Bearing the symbols of Ashur's winged discs with horns upon their dress, the Assyrian soldiers were relentless in their march, but here was an enemy that did not intend to bend the knee, and would mount a resistance unlike any Shalmaneser had yet faced.

Hanigalbat, once the lands of the Mitanni, now a multiethnic state of people, collectively known as the Hurrians, had its own king, Shattuara, who rallied the Hittites and Akhlamu under one banner, and to their aid. This was the moment Babylonia and Hatti had feared. Peace treaties and alliances were built upon the prophecy and foresight of this day.

The day that Assyria crossed over.

[Ashur - God of the Assyrians]

Ancient History - Part 16: The Sleeping Giant Wakes

The last of the wars between the Hittites and the Egyptians ended and culminated in the Great Treaty of both nations in 1266 BC. Kings Hattushil and Ramses II, respectively, agreed upon and oversaw a permanent end to a multigenerational hostility betwixt their kingdoms. It was during this period that saw Shalmaneser I (1276-1257) take the Assyrian throne and carry out his reign.

The juxtaposition of power when comparing Hatti with Assyria is an unmistakable pattern witnessed by history upon a multitude of occurrences: When one empire is on the decline, another rapidly advances into power.

This period is without exception.

As king Hattushil of the Hittites sheathed his sword in favor of using his voice to obtain victory for his people, and many victories were inarguably achieved by his diplomatic gift (alliances with the Mitanni, Babylonia, Syria, and now Egypt), this new Assyrian king was even more fierce on the battlefield than any commander her armies had ever seen. King Shalmaneser rapidly mustered his forces and invaded the mountainous northern region of Assyria's borders.

Within three days of bloody battle, the lands (modern day Armenia) belonging to the Khalila, Uadkin, Uruadri, Zingun, Khimme, Bargun, Salua, Lukha, and Nilipakrhi were all supremely subdued and conquered, their homelands annexed into Assyria's grasp*. Upon defeat, every lord and chieftain bent the knee and paid their new masters tribute without quarrel. And with the opposition defeated, Assyria was free to expand where the Hittites, Kassites, and Persians failed to curb her hunger, despite doing so in all other direction.

The power of the Hittites was waning and despite every measure, calculated maneuver, and opportunity taken by Hattushil up till an inevitable culmination of war with Assyria, the Hittite king was about to discover a harsh critical lesson. . .

Every leader has a plan until they must face the blade.

*FURTHER MENTION OF THESE TRIBES ON RECOVERED INSCRIPTIONS CHISELED UPON CUNEIFORM DURING THE 1100s BC SUGGEST THAT DESPITE THEIR SUBMISSION TO ASSYRIA, THESE PEOPLES WERE ALLOWED TO CONTINUE TO LIVE AND THRIVE, FOR MANY CENTURIES UNDER ASSYRIAN RULE. ANY POTENTIAL SUBJUGATION OF THEIR CULTURE AS WELL AS THE DETAILS OF TREATMENT AS SUBJECTS IS INCONCLUSIVE AT THIS TIME AND OPENS QUESTION FOR DEBATE.

Ancient History - Part 15: Call Him King

Whilst the Hittites desired the lands of Palestine and further territory of Syrian soil, none of their past three leaders up until this point dared to venture southward, for fear that it might open exposure to an Assyrian attack. Over time, in the same manner which led to an alliance with Babylonia, king Hattushil began politely treating with the minor kingdoms, creating many new friends in Syrian princes, each proudly ruling his own city since the expulsion of Egyptian dominance. Some of the more prominent places of his tour included Carchemish, Barga, Kadesh, Aleppo, and Arved, among others.

King Hattushil, a pragmatic strategist, knew that if he could not possess those lands, better to make them allies to the benefit of his people than to his chief rival, Assyria.

One such city-state was far more prestigious than the others mentioned, a rich city, Amurru, that Hattushil arranged to intermarry, in order to spread Hittite influence and encourage loyalty amongst the princes. These Syrian princes soon wisely understood their value in numbers and began negotiations with the Hittites and the other powers, together as one, in solidarity, a tradition that would be carried on in Syria's history henceforth.

Meanwhile in Babylonia, during the year 1277 B.C., a pivotal event took place with the death of king Kadashman-Turgu. This brought the Hittite-Kassite defensive alliance against Assyrian expansion into question. Given Babylon's history of having both Assyrian and Kassite ancestry on the throne, pro-Assyrian uprisings were beginning to take hold before a new king could be crowned. King Hattushil immediately rose to action.

Letters were dispatched and the Hittite king's most reliable riders and fiercest warriors sped across the trade-roads once proudly molded by Egyptian labor. These letters found their way into the possession of Babylon's nobility. All of the court gathered to listen to king Hattushil's words to be read aloud, to which he decreed that the firstborn son of the deceased king Kadashman-Turgu, Kadashman-Enlil, be honored, as the one true king of Babylon. Failure to do so would result in open hostility with the Hittite kingdom.

As it turned out, despite the public outcry, Babylon's nobles already planned on naming Kadashman-Enlil as their king and had done so by the time they received the Hittites' cuneiform letter. The tone of the Hittite king's message deeply offended them and accusations were made that the Hittites now considered the Kassites of Babylon nothing more than vassals.

Hattushil's message also emphasized the importance that their defensive alliance against a dangerous neighbor (Assyria) be maintained, and that the Hittite people remained ever loyal to that cause. While this latter part was not disputed, communications between the two nations were commonly delayed by a hostile tribe, the Akhlamu, that plagued the route between them, and relations between Babylon and Hatti began to cool.