The Assyrian kingdom first began to be powerful about 1350. Shalmaneser
I. had become so powerful that he invaded and captured Babylon about
1250 B. C. His descendant in the direct line of kings was
Tiglath-Pileser I., about 1100 B. C., the real founder of the first
Assyrian empire, whose reign forms the zenith of the early empire. He
spread the dominion of Assyria over all western Asia, from the frontiers
of Elam to the shores of the Mediterranean, and from the slopes of the
mountains of Armenia to the shores of the Persian Gulf. He captured
Babylon, Sippara, and reduced Babylonia to the position of a tributary
state. On the west he advanced as far as Khilikhi (Cilicia), defeated
the Hittites, captured their stronghold Carchemish, and received the
homage of the people of Arvad and the cities of northern Phœnicia.