Ancient History - Part 21: A Prophecy Fulfilled

[Depiction of one king's surrender to another]

Upon the Assyrians' attack on Mari, a city with long-lasting ties to Babylonia since the days of Hammurabi, war was officially declared between the two superpowers of the Near East. Unfortunately, due to their abandonment of the Hittites, the Kassites had to contend with king Tukulti-Ninurta's might without the aid of king Hattushil (The wise Hittite leader could no longer help them if he wished, his remaining units since weakened and withdrawn to defensive holdfasts).

The Hittites were soundly defeated, their desire for Syria severed at the root, and it was a time to settle old feuds. This was a pending war without allies and one expected to last a few short years.

Babylonia's king during this period was Kashtiliash III (1249-1242) and he headed the Kassites' column as the two armies clashed. This was Assyria's full-scale invasion targeting Babylon, where the city's defensive structures and walls were destroyed, much of its citizenry killed, and king Kashtiliash was put in chains1, and hauled off before the surviving Kassite people, as a prisoner.

Whilst the fallen king and his family would become living trophies of sorts for Tukulti-Ninurta, the true symbol of victory was a precious statue of Marduk, the pride of Babylon and signet of the Kassite people, that was carried off to be added to their conqueror's personal treasury.

Once Babylon had crumbled, Assyria gained direct control over the entire country's operations, to the level of which the Assyrian king selected actual Assyrian-blooded governors to rule in his stead. Tukulti-Ninurta took all the spoils of war from Kassite possession and returned to his country where he was satisfied to retire from a life of war, hopeful to spend his remaining days building a new capital city: Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta. 

Tukulti-Ninurta was the first Assyrian king to don the ceremonial title of "King of Sumer and Akkad." (Effectively, the king of Assyria and Babylonia, and all their ancient lands between them)

The upcoming seven years that followed would dash Tukulti-Ninurta's dreams of a quiet retirement, as his newly acquired governance over Babylonia would cause his reign to face an unprecedented set of challenges.

[STATUE OF MARDUK]

1. Depicted above.

Ancient History - Part 20: A Legacy of War

Soon after the Great Assyrian Temple of Ashur (E-Kharsag-kurkura) was fully restored, the kingship of Assyria passed down to Shalmaneser I's son, Tukulti-Ninurta (1256-1233). As his father before him, his reign proved to be quite a success, and once seated upon the throne, renewed his predecessor's wars with the northwest:

1. First, king Tukulti-Ninurta invaded Na'iri, a land mass divided and ruled by its many kings, swollen with Hittite population. It was here that a series of engagements took place on the battlefield, where his armies fought to victory over all forty-three regional kings.
2. Hittite and Semitic town, village, and city alike surrendered or fell to Assyria, in a march that conquered the budding Commagene tribes land on the borderlands stretching to the Syrian city of Mari, the latter of which held long ties to Babylonia.
3. Any territory that was lost within Hanigalbat following the days after his father's return to Ashur, was subsequently recaptured and the "land of the Shubari" (speculated geographically to be a mixture of former Mitanni, Hittite, and nomadic tribes land) were absorbed into the growing Middle Kingdom of Assyria.

The direct result of these victories displaced nearly 30,000 Hittites from the east of Euphrates back into their northwestern homelands of Hatti. 

A recovered text gives an account of a man who fled with his family from Hanigalbat (during this Assyrian invasion), decided against relocating to the Hittite lands, and instead migrated into Babylonia, where he resumed his leather-working trade. Interestingly enough, through the sands of time, this piece of tablet was recovered in Iran of all places. Nonetheless, it remains highly suggestive that Babylonia was now viewed by the smallfolk of the Near East as a more suitable safe haven than the once powerful Hatti.

While certain details of this war and the effects it had on these cultural populations are omitted due to lack of evidence, what historians today do have in their possession undoubtedly proves that king Tukulti-Ninurta's war was heavily pressed upon Hanigalbat and changed the lives of its people for the generations that followed:

Hanigalbat then officially became an Assyrian province.

[MARI TODAY]

Ancient History - Part 19: Ashur Reconstructed

Every alliance built upon the shrewd diplomacy of Hattushil, due largely in part to the Hittite king's silver tongue, began to fall beneath the weight of Assyrian attack. But what of Babylonia?

King Hattushil had left the Kassite nobility disenchanted with the strong dictates he'd impressed upon their decision-making, during the selection process of their new king, and the consequences of this grave offense quickly manifested. For when Assyria attacked the west, the north, and the Hittite-lands of the east, Babylonia did not come to the aid of her allies. Once it became apparent that king Shalmaneser would not invade Babylonia, opting to instead leave the powerful nation of the south untouched, the ruling Kassites thusly remained quiet, sentencing the Hittites to their fate.

As the Assyrian king and his armies neared to attack Carchemish, the power center of the Near East, along with the surrounding Syrian cities, and their ruling puppet princes, bound together by Hittite influence, a pivotal event occurred: 

The Great Assyrian Temple of Ashur burned to the ground.

King Shalmaneser, who hungered for blood and conquest, did so only in the name of his god (Ashur, the spiritual embodiment of the Assyrian capital city of the same name). If war was his sole interest, surely religion would topple that sentiment as its only exception.

When news of the Great Temple of Ashur's destruction reached him, king Shalmaneser ceased all further attacks, fortifying the monumental lengths his kingdom had expanded, and traveled back to his capital at once. Shalmaneser spent the remainder of his reign at home, rebuilding the Great Temple of Ashur in a manner of dignity befitting only to that of a god worthy of his people's worship might deserve.

Ancient History - Part 18: Within the Mounts of Madness

Assyria had crossed over. It was a time for war.

Shattuara, king of the Hurrians, joined by the Hittites and the Akhlamu, wisely aimed to end the battle before it could begin. He brought the fight to the Assyrians, and in knowing the land, aimed to cut off their water-supply in coordinated attacks. These attacks focused upon key-areas that the invading army relied upon to sustain its troops. This ploy was almost a complete success, until the Shalmaneser, the Assyrian king, understood his enemy's objective, and shifted to defend the water sources.

King Shalmaneser's military mind proved supreme, and in feigning vulnerability, eventually lured all of Shuttuara's main force into a false sense of security, and mounted a much-readied counter-attack, using all of his army's might, at a large riverbed. The Assyrian numbers proved too great, and in the end, nearly fifteen hundred soldiers were taken prisoner, the Hurrians and their allies overwhelmed. Hanigalbat had fallen.

With the buffer zone of the former Mitanni lands now soundly defeated, Hittite fears became reality as Shalmaneser moved his forces into the northern mountains, conquering city upon city, until completely controlling the region known as Tur Abdin (southeast Turkey). Assyria pushed and with the capture of Harran, vast new territory once belonging to the Hittites and their allies, now became annexed into the Middle Kingdom of Assyria.

The Assyrian soldiery originated from a homeland comprised of steep hilltops and mountains, making them experienced to navigate any violent engagements of such dangerous terrain. The local populace who attempted to defend their homelands were accustomed to traveling from their homes to fight afar, on level-ground and open plains, thus putting them at an utter disadvantage in defensive warfare. As the high cities fell, and the villages between them falling ever quicker, it was a contagious spread as the highlands were, too, absorbed unto Assyrian rule.

With such a successful military campaign up until this point in history, king Shalmaneser now bordered and threatened what was considered the crown jewel of every Hittite king's eye: 

Carchemish (Karkemish).

[CARCHEMISH TODAY]

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.