Ancient History - Part 32: Assyrian Conquest Continues

Assyria continued her brutal demonstration into rebellious territory, tribes and countries refusing to submit to new taxes and authority soon bent the knee, finding themselves subdued. It wasn't long until Assyria found herself deeply meadowed within the former lands of the Hittite Empire. The once mighty empire now consisted of Hittite blooded natives intermixed with the different migrations of the previous two generations that had since moved into its ruins.

Of these new residents of Hatta, referred to in text as "soldiers of the lands of Hatta", four thousand stood tall against the pending onslaught that mighty Assyria had brought with her.

Upon the sight of the eastern superpower's forces, four thousand surrendered, without so much as a drop of bloodshed spent. King Tiglath-pileser wisely kept his aims upon the outskirts of the former Hittite lands, poaching from smaller parcels where his numbers were greatest and security most intact.

Satisfied with a campaign that overwhelmingly resulted in Assyria's favor, Tiglath-pileser collected over a hundred chariots, wagons, and other wheel-vehicles of miscellaneous type, returning home to tribute Ashur, his godly deity of the capital city's namesake.

It is here that we must raise the question of whether or not facing Assyrian incursion with resistance during this period was nothing but a fool's bargain. The Assyrian kingdom was rapidly expanding into a formidable empire and to stand in the way of its imperialism of the Near East guaranteed a prize of. . . nothing. As the four thousand strong (Kashkai) who stared down the armed forces of their conquerors would attest, their interception of the enemy only promised their doom.

The worst experience for a soldier on the battlefield is not necessarily the fear of death itself, but the realization that one's sacrifice bears his country nothing to gain.

[LANDS OF THE HITTITES AT ITS FORMER EMPIRE'S PEAK]

Ancient History - Part 31: Keep Your Friends Close

By the late 1100s B.C., people eventually began to understand that Assyria was the true last remaining superpower of the Near East. Despite any losses on the battlefield and the occasional rulership of a petty king, Assyrian population was on a boom, the military only increasing in strength, and the culture possessed a resilient spirit that made them a menacing enemy for any in her path.

And so Assyria's military units struck Commagene, whose defenders were no match for the greater forces of king Tiglath-pileser. Homes were set ablaze, citizenry executed, and the lands pillaged. This assault was a moment of great importance securing Tiglath-pileser's reputation as a ruthless king and Assyria's reputation as no-nonsense political entity.

Commagene, ruled by king Kili-Tesrub, sealed the fate of his kingdom upon the refusal to pay new taxes levied by Tiglath-pileser and the surviving populace fled across the Tigris River. This diaspora of Commagene people intermingled with the Kurti tribesmen and formed an alliance, well away from their abandoned homeland.

Only one stronghold remained manned within Commagene, a mountain fortress that refused to surrender, and was held by Kili-Tesrub's brethen, Shadi-Tesrub.

King Kili-Tesrub of the exiled Commagene gathered his new allies and recrossed the Tigris in an attempt to regain the lands Assyria had taken. A massive battle took place in a fight for the Commagene kingdom, but in the end, Kili-Tesrub was captured, along with his treasury, and when news spread Shadi-Tesrub surrendered the Commagene people's last redoubt, his fortress, to the Assyrian army.

While many leaders during this era preferred to secure the unity of their people and tout this as some great success, now there was an external threat which stole their attention. The display of power that Assyria enacted upon its own ally, the Commagene, after defeating their enemies for them (the Moschi), created a heavy contemplation for Assyria's future moves. Assyria held all of the cards. And now the world was watching.

[RECORD OF TIGLATH-PILESER I'S MILITARY ACHIEVEMENTS]

Ancient History - Part 30: Always Pay Your Debts

Nebuchadrezzar died shortly after his defeat at the hands of Assyria signaling the beginning of a period of decadence in the Near East. Egypt was approaching its collapse. The Hittites along with their neighbors had been engulfed by the barbarian hordes of the west. And the once mighty Babylonia, now weakened, reverted back to a period of petty kingships.

Without opposition, Assyria's opportunity to once again expand her borders rose to fruition with the ascendency of Tiglath-pileser (1115-1102) to the throne. The Moschi people had sometime earlier (est. 1170-1160) captured historic Assyrian lands on the kingdom's north-east region. Their fifty year rule of the Alzi and Purukuzzi provinces would culminate in a violent confrontation.

In Tiglath-pileser's first year as monarch (1115), the five kings of the Moschi mustered an army of twenty thousand strong and set forth to further invade Assyria and her surrounding allies, particularly the small kingdom of Commagene, a vessel state subservient to Assyria. In this battle, the young king of Assyria slew many enemies himself, and upon the defeat of the Moschi, the corpses were decapitated, collected and piled into bundles, and transported back to Ashur along with six thousand newly acquired slave-prisoners.

Upon his return, Tiglath-pileser declared that with the aid of Ashur he'd gathered his war-chariots and crossed into the Commagene to defeat same the false-kings who defied them for half a century.

Despite their rescue at the warrior-king's hands, Commagene was not particularly appreciative. Perhaps there was a disagreement between the two nation-states upon who bore the fiscal responsibility for the war effort, as the smaller kingdom refused to pay Assyria its newfound levied taxes. King Tiglath-pileser was faced with a difficult decision. If he'd allowed such liberties to be taken at his throne's expense, then other disloyalties would certainly follow.

In the end, king Tiglath-pileser came to a decision. For her refusal to pay recompense, Commagene must be put to the torch and her people to the sword.

[TIGLATH-PILESER I]

Ancient History - Part 29: Mind Over Matter

Upon the victory of Elam's expulsion, king Nebuchadrezzar was not finished. His eyes turned northward to Babylonia's other oppressor:  Assyria. It was during this period Assyria's king was Ashur-resh-ishi I (1127-1116), a man full of vitality with an energetic presence. A monarch of such nature seated upon a throne possesses the potential capability to inspire his entire nation to its ultimate success or failure with just a mere word.

It should also be noted that king Ashur-resh-ishi I had already amassed a number of modest, but no less notable achievements, which included stemming the migrant crisis of the Akhlamu, containing the foreign-based nomads to Assyria's south-east boundary. He'd led Assyria to victory over the hostile people of the Lullume, who encroached upon the east, dispersing the survivors elsewhere. If push came to shove, this king would be a formidable opponent for Nebuchadrezzar on both the intellectual and the literal battlefield.

Despite this knowledge available to him, Nebuchadrezzar formally declared war upon Assyria, mounting an aggressive march to attack. And yet, Ashur-resh-ish I tempered his response, and strategically blocked all the inroads to the central portions of Assyria. With news from its scouts, the Babylonian army frequently avoided large encampments upon smooth roads in favor of traversing rougher terrain in order to storm what the king of Babylonia thought would spell out certain defeat for the Assyrians.

Unfortunately, this tactic only slowed the marching Babylonian forces. Eyes were easily maintained upon troop movements, and when the time had come for Assyria and Babylonia to clash, it was on the terms of the defenders and their placement of the board. Naturally, Nebuchadrezzar's forces were not only halted but routed. The Babylonian king and the elite portion of his army managed to retreat back to the safety of their lands, but not without incurring heavy losses, forty chariots and the heroic figure to his men that was their chariot-leader, Ritti-Marduk.

In the aftermath of these campaigns, the good news for Babylonia was that Nebuchadrezzar managed to move his kingdom away from Elam and back to his people, theoretically passing control onto the landowners, and by default, the working populace. The bad news was that his overreach into Assyria no longer guaranteed the safety of this very freedom they'd won. With the defeat of his army, the spirits of his people no longer bore the same enthusiasm as when Elam was beaten.

An adherence to the doctrine of knowing when to fight and when not to fight was something sorely missed by Nebuchadrezzar, something the fiery king appeared never to consider.

[ALTAR OF TUKULTI-NINURTA - *Prayer site of Ashur-resh-ish and his soldiers before battle]

Ancient History - Part 28: The Madness of Marduk

After his prayer, Nebuchadrezzar stepped out of Great Temple of Marduk to be greeted by the overwhelming growth of fugitives, who had also retreated to Babylon, for sanctuary within the city's battlements. He made a grand speech, elevated in a declaration of calling upon the power of his god, that this was their final moment and battle for survival. The hero king rallied the populace, intent on facing the Elam's army once again.

Historical record tells us that this last march occured during the most sweltering of days, the temperature having reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This translated cuneiform tablet that described what transpired next gave this opening: 

"The axehead burnt like fire ... and the roads scorched like flame..." 

Yet still, Pashe's New Babylonia marched for over two hundred miles to meet the enemy, who as it was discovered, did not pursue chase following the previous engagement.

King Nebuchadrezzar and his chariot master, Ritti-Marduk, replenished their units' horses at the last waterhole, the river of Eulaeus, and then both the Pashe Babylonia and Elam met each other on the battlefield, thirsty and fatigued but no less eager. In that very moment, as if divine intervention had taken place, a dust-storm enveloped the area, blinding the two opposing sides. Those from Elam broke for retreat, perhaps the tormenting climate's final trick too much for the threshold of the cool mountain land natives.

While some might say that in perfect conditions, the battle's result might have remained the same, most tend to believe that king Nebuchadrezzar's forces were on their last legs, and the belief at that time was that Marduk himself truly had interfered on Babylonia's behalf, so the lands that rightfully belonged to his people could be reclaimed. And with Elam fully expelled from their lands, Babylonia reinforced the once occupied expanse of her country.

For his role, Ritti-Marduk was rewarded with kingly favors, and in a final counter-attack, claimed just a meagre portion of Elamite land at the border, a warning, chasing off any remaining enemies back into their mountains. The commander then turned back and noting off the newly extended boundaries, later recorded by kudurru (land marker), that no Elamite may pass without knowingly encroaching again.

Nebuchadrezzar and Ritti-Marduk provided the Near East with a valuable lesson: 

Strategy may win battles but morale wins war.

[LAND BOUNDARY MARKER (KUDURRU) DURING NEBUCHADREZZAR I'S REIGN]