of Babylon and Nineveh, much as the inhabitants of a remote province
nowadays adapt their dress, their architecture, their implements of
husbandry and handicraft, their military equipment and organisation, to
the fashions of the capital.*
* One can judge of their social condition from the
enumeration of the objects which formed their tribute, or
the spoil which the Assyrian kings carried off from their
country.
[Illustration: 054.jpg THE WAR-CHARIOT OF THE KHÂTI OP THE NINTH
CENTURY]
Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief.
Their armies were modelled on similar lines, and consisted of archers,
plkemen, slingers, and those troops of horsemen which accompanied the
chariotry on flying raids; the chariots, moreover, closely followed the
Assyrian type, even down to the padded bar with embroidered hangings
which connected the body of the chariot with the end of the pole.
[Illustration: 055.jpg THE ASSYRIAN WAR-CHARIOT OF THE NINTH CENTURY
B.C.]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bronze bas-relief on the
gates of Balawât.
The Syrian princes did not adopt the tiara, but they wore the long
fringed robe, confined by a girdle at the waist, and their mode of life,
with its ceremonies, duties, and recreations, differed little from that
prevailing in the palaces of Calah or Babylon. They hunted big game,
including the lion, according to the laws of the chase recognised at
Nineveh, priding themselves as much on their exploits in hunting, as on
their triumphs in war.
[Illustration: 056.jpg A KING OF THE KHÂTI HUNTING A LION IN HIS
CHARIOT]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Hogarth, published in
the _Recueil de Travaux_.
Their religion was derived from the common source which underlay all
Semitic religions, but a considerable number of Babylonian deities were
also worshipped; these had been introduced in some cases without any
modification, whilst in others they had been assimilated to more ancient
gods bearing similar characteristics: at Nerab, among the Patina, Nusku
and his female companion Nikal, both of Chaldæan origin, claimed the
homage of the faithful, to the disparagement of Shahr the moon and
Shamash the sun. Local cults often centred round obscure deities held
in little account by the dominant races; thus Samalla reverenced Uru the
light, Bekubêl the wind, the chariot of El, not to mention El himself,
Besheph, Hadad, and the Cabin, the servants of Besheph.
[Illustration: 057.jpg THE GOD HADAD]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the photograph in Luschan.
These deities were mostly of the Assyrian type, and if one may draw
any conclusion from the few representations of them already discovered,
their rites must have been celebrated in a manner similar to that
followed in the cities on the Lower Euphrates. Scarcely any signs of
Egyptian influence survived, though here and there a trace of it might
be seen in the figures of calf or bull, the vulture of Mut or the
sparrow-hawk of Horus. Assur-nazir-pal, marching from the banks of the
Khabur to Bît-Adini, and from Bît-Adini passing on to Northern Syria,
might almost have imagined himself still in his own dominions, so
gradual and imperceptible were the changes in language and civilisation
in the country traversed between Nineveh and Assur, Tul-Barsip and
Samalla.
His expedition was unattended by danger or bloodshed. Lubarna, the
reigning prince of the Patina, was possibly at that juncture meditating
the formation of a Syrian empire under his rule. Unki, in which lay his
capital of Kunulua, was one of the richest countries of Asia,* being
well watered by the Afrin, Orontes, and Saluara;** no fields produced
such rich harvests as his, no meadows pastured such cattle or were
better suited to the breeding of war-horses.
* The Unki of the Assyrians, the Uniuqa of the Egyptians, is
the valley of Antioch, the Amk of the present day. Kunulua
or Kinalia, the capital of the Patina, has been identified
with the Gindaros of Greek times; I prefer to identify it
with the existing Tell-Kunâna, written for Tell-Kunâla by
the common substitution of _n_ for _l_ at the end of proper
names.
** The Saluara of the Assyrian texts is the present Kara-su,
which flows into the Ak-Denîz, the lake of Antioch.
[Illustration: 058.jpg RELIGIOUS SCENE DISPLAYING EGYPTIAN FEATURES]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the impression taken from a
Hittite cylinder.
His mountain provinces yielded him wood and minerals, and provided a
reserve of semi-savage woodcutters and herdsmen from which to recruit
his numerous battalions. The neighbouring princes, filled with
uneasiness or jealousy by his good fortune, saw in the Assyrian monarch
a friend and a liberator rather than an enemy. Carchemish opened its
gates and laid at his feet the best of its treasures--twenty talents of
silver, ingots, rings, and daggers of gold, a hundred talents of copper,
two hundred talents of iron, bronze bulls, cups decorated with scenes
in relief or outline, ivory in the tusk or curiously wrought, purple
and embroidered stuffs, and the state carriage of its King Shangara.
The Hittite troops, assembled in haste, joined forces with the Aramæan
auxiliaries, and the united host advanced on Coele-Syria. The scribe
commissioned to record the history of this expedition has taken a
delight in inserting the most minute details. Leaving Carchemish, the
army followed the great caravan route, and winding its way between the
hills of Munzigâni and Khamurga, skirting Bît-Agusi, at length arrived
under the walls of Khazazu among the Patina.*
* Khazazu being the present Azaz, the Assyrian army must
have followed the route which still leads from Jerabis to
this town. Mount Munzigâni and Khamurga, mentioned between
Carchemish and Akhânu or Iakhânu, must lie between the Sajur
and the Koweik, near Shehab, at the only point on the route
where the road passes between two ranges of lofty hills.
The town having purchased immunity by a present of gold and of finely
woven stuffs, the army proceeded to cross the Apriê, on the bank of
which an entrenched camp was formed for the storage of the spoil.
Lubarna offered no resistance, but nevertheless refused to acknowledge
his inferiority; after some delay, ifc was decided to make a direct
attack on his capital, Kunulua, whither he had retired. The appearance
of the Assyrian vanguard put a speedy end to his ideas of resistance:
prostrating himself before his powerful adversary, he offered hostages,
and emptied his palaces and stables to provide a ransom. This comprised
twenty talents of silver, one talent of gold, a hundred talents of
lead, a hundred talents of iron, a thousand bulls, ten thousand sheep,
daughters of his nobles with befitting changes of garments, and all the
paraphernalia of vessels, jewels, and costly stuffs which formed
the necessary furniture of a princely household. The effect of his
submission on his own vassals and the neighbouring tribes was shown in
different ways. Bît-Agusi at once sent messengers to congratulate the
conqueror, but the mountain provinces awaited the invaders nearer
approach before following its example. Assur-nazir-pal, seeing that they
did not take the initiative, crossed the Orontes, probably at the spot
where the iron bridge now stands, and making his way through the country
between laraku and Iaturi,* reached the banks of the Sangura* without
encountering any difficulty.
* The spot where Assur-nazir-pal must have crossed the
Orontes is determined by the respective positions of Kunulua
and Tell-Kunâna. At the iron bridge, the modern traveller
has the choice of two roads: one, passing Antioch and Beît-
el-Mâ, leads to Urdeh on the Nahr-el-Kebîr; the other
reaches the same point by a direct route over the Gebel
Kosseir. If, as I believe, Assur-nazir-pal took the latter
route, the country and Mount laraku must be the northern
part of Gebel Kosseir in the neighbourhood of Antioch, and
Iaturi, the southern part of the same mountain near Derkush.
laraku is mentioned in the same position by Shalmaneser
III., who reached it after crossing the Orontes, on
descending from the Amanos _en route_ for the country of
Hamath.
** The Sangura or Sagura has been identified by Delattre
with the Nahr-el-Kebîr, not that river which the Greeks
called the Eleutheros, but that which flows into the sea
near Latakia. Before naming the Sangura, the _Annals_
mention a country, whose name, half effaced, ended in _-ku_:
I think we may safely restore this name as [Ashtama]kou,
mentioned by Shalmaneser III. in this region, after the name
of laraku. The country of Ashtamaku would thus be the
present canton of Urdeh, which is traversed before reaching
the banks of the Nahr-el-Kebîr.
After a brief halt there in camp, he turned his back on the sea, and
passing between Saratini and Duppâni,* took by assault the fortress of
Aribua.** This stronghold commanded all the surrounding country, and was
the seat of a palace which Lubarna at times used as a similar residence.
Here Assur-nazir-pal took up his quarters, and deposited within its
walls the corn and spoils of Lukhuti;*** he established here an Assyrian
colony, and, besides being the scene of royal festivities, it became
henceforth the centre of operations against the mountain tribes.
* The mountain cantons of Saratini and Duppâni (Kalpâni
lAdpâni?), situated immediately to the south of the Nahr-el-
Kebîr, correspond to the southern part of Gebel-el-Akrad,
but I cannot discover any names on the modern map at all
resembling them.
** Beyond Duppâni, Assur-nazir-pal encamped on the banks of
a river whose name is unfortunately effaced, and then
reached Aribua; this itinerary leads us to the eastern slope
of the Gebel Ansarieh in the latitude of Hamath. The only
site I can find in this direction fulfilling the
requirements of the text is that of Masiad, where there
still exists a fort of the Assassins. The name Aribua is
perhaps preserved in that of Rabaô, er-Rabahu, which is
applied to a wady and village in the neighbourhood of
Masiad.
*** Lukhuti must not be sought in the plains of the Orontes,
where Assur-nazir-pal would have run the risk of an
encounter with the King of Hamath or his vassals; it must
represent the part of the mountain of Ansarieh lying between
Kadmus, Masiad, and Tortosa.
The forts of the latter were destroyed, their houses burned, and
prisoners were impaled outside the gates of their cities. Having
achieved this noble exploit, the king crossed the intervening spurs of
Lebanon and marched down to the shores of the Mediterranean. Here he
bathed his weapons in the waters, and offered the customary sacrifices
to the gods of the sea, while the Phoenicians, with their wonted
prudence, hastened to anticipate his demands--Tyre, Sidon, Byblos,
Mahallat, Maîza, Kaîza, the Amorites and Arvad,* all sending tribute.
* The point where Assur-nazir-pal touched the sea-coast
cannot be exactly determined: admitting that he set out from
Masiad or its neighbourhood, he must have crossed the
Lebanon by the gorge of the Eleutheros, and reached the sea-
board somewhere near the mouth of this river.
One point strikes us forcibly as we trace on the map the march of this
victorious hero, namely, the care with which he confined himself to
the left bank of the Orontes, and the restraint he exercised in
leaving untouched the fertile fields of its valley, whose wealth was
so calculated to excite his cupidity. This discretion would be
inexplicable, did we not know that there existed in that region a
formidable power which he may have thought it imprudent to provoke. It
was Damascus which held sway over those territories whose frontiers he
respected, and its kings, also suzerains of Hamath and masters of half
Israel, were powerful enough to resist, if not conquer, any enemy who
might present himself. The fear inspired by Damascus naturally explains
the attitude adopted by the Hittite states towards the invader, and
the precautions taken by the latter to restrict his operations within
somewhat narrow limits. Having accepted the complimentary presents of
the Phoenicians, the king again took his way northwards--making a slight
detour in order to ascend the Amanos for the purpose of erecting there
a stele commemorating his exploits, and of cutting pines, cedars,
and larches for his buildings--and then returned to Nineveh amid the
acclamations of his people.
In reading the history of this campaign, its plan and the principal
events which took place in it appear at times to be the echo of what had
happened some centuries before. The recapitulation of the halting-places
near the sources of the Tigris and on the banks of the Upper Euphrates,
the marches through the valleys of the Zagros or on the slopes of
Kashiari, the crushing one by one of the Mesopotamian races, ending in a
triumphal progress through Northern Syria, is almost a repetition, both
as to the names and order of the places mentioned, of the expedition
made by Tiglath-pileser in the first five years of his reign. The
question may well arise in passing whether Assur-nazir-pal consciously
modelled his campaign on that of his ancestor, as, in Egypt, Ramses
III. imitated Ramses II., or whether, in similar circumstances, he
instinctively and naturally followed the same line of march. In
either case, he certainly showed on all sides greater wisdom than his
predecessor, and having attained the object of his ambition, avoided
compromising his success by injudiciously attacking Damascus or Babylon,
the two powers who alone could have offered effective resistance. The
victory he had gained, in 879, over the brother of Nabu-baliddin had
immensely flattered his vanity. His panegyrists vied with each other in
depicting Karduniash bewildered by the terror of his majesty, and the
Chaldæans overwhelmed by the fear of his arms; but he did not allow
himself to be carried away by their extravagant flatteries, and
continued to the end of his reign to observe the treaties concluded
between the two courts in the time of his grandfather Rammân-nirâri.*
* His frontier on the Chaldæan side, between the Tigris and
the mountains, was the boundary fixed by Rammân-nirâri.
He had, however, sufficiently enlarged his dominions, in less than ten
years, to justify some display of pride. He himself described his empire
as extending, on the west of Assyria proper, from the banks of the
Tigris near Nineveh to Lebanon and the Mediterranean;* besides which,
Sukhi was subject to him, and this included the province of Rapiku on
the frontiers of Babylonia.**
* The expression employed in this description and in similar
passages, _ishtu ibirtan nâru_, translated _from the ford
over the river_, or better, _from the other side of the
river_, must be understood as referring to Assyria proper:
the territory subject to the king is measured in the
direction indicated, starting from the rivers which formed
the boundaries of his hereditary dominions. _From the other
bank of the Tigris_ means from the bank of the Tigris
opposite Nineveh or Oalah, whence the king and his army set
out on their campaigns.
** Rapiku is mentioned in several texts as marking the
frontier between the Sukhi and Chaldæa.
He had added to his older provinces of Amidi, Masios and Singar, the
whole strip of Armenian territory at the foot of the Taurus range, from
the sources of the Supnat to those of the Bitlis-tchaî, and he held the
passes leading to the banks of the Arzania, in Kirruri and Gilzân, while
the extensive country of Naîri had sworn him allegiance. Towards the
south-east the wavering tribes, which alternately gave their adherence
to Assur or Babylon according to circumstances, had ranged themselves on
his side, and formed a large frontier province beyond the borders of his
hereditary kingdom, between the Lesser Zab and the Turnat. But, despite
repeated blows inflicted on them, he had not succeeded in welding
these various factors into a compact and homogeneous whole; some small
proportion of them were assimilated to Assyria, and were governed
directly by royal officials,* but the greater number were merely
dependencies, more or less insecurely held by the obligations of
vassalage or servitude. In some provinces the native chiefs were under
the surveillance of Assyrian residents;** these districts paid an annual
tribute proportionate to the resources and products of their country:
thus Kirruri and the neighbouring states contributed horses, mules,
bulls, sheep, wine, and copper vessels; the Aramaeans gold, silver,
lead, copper, both wrought and in the ore, purple, and coloured or
embroidered stuffs; while Izalla, Nirbu, Nirdun, and Bît-Zamâni had to
furnish horses, chariots, metals, and cattle.
* There were royal governors in Suru in Bit-Khalupi, in
Matiâte, in Madara, and in Naîri.
** There were Assyrian residents in Kirruri and the
neighbouring countries, in Kirkhi, and in Naîri.
The less civilised and more distant tribes were not, like these,
subject to regular tribute, but each time the sovereign traversed their
territory or approached within reasonable distance, their chiefs sent
or brought to him valuable presents as fresh pledges of their loyalty.
Royal outposts, built at regular intervals and carefully fortified,
secured the fulfilment of these obligations, and served as depots for
storing the commodities collected by the royal officials; such outposts
were, Damdamusa on the north-west of the Kashiari range, Tushkhân on the
Tigris, Tilluli between the Supnat and the Euphrates, Aribua among the
Patina, and others scattered irregularly between the Greater and Lesser
Zab, on the Khabur, and also in Naîri. These strongholds served as
places of refuge for the residents and their guards in case of a revolt,
and as food-depots for the armies in the event of war bringing them
into their neighbourhood. In addition to these, Assur-nazir-pal also
strengthened the defences of Assyria proper by building fortresses at
the points most open to attack; he repaired or completed the defences of
Kaksi, to command the plain between the Greater and Lesser Zab and the
Tigris; he rebuilt the castles or towers which guarded the river-fords
and the entrances to the valleys of the Gebel Makhlub, and erected at
Calah the fortified palace which his successors continued to inhabit for
the ensuing five hundred years.
Assur-nazir-pal had resided at Nineveh from the time of his accession to
the throne; from thence he had set out on four successive campaigns, and
thither he had returned at the head of his triumphant troops, there he
had received the kings who came to pay him homage, and the governors
who implored his help against foreign attacks; thither he had sent
rebel chiefs, and there, after they had marched in ignominy through the
streets, he had put them to torture and to death before the eyes of
the crowd, and their skins were perchance still hanging nailed to the
battlements when he decided to change the seat of his capital. The
ancient capital no longer suited his present state as a conqueror; the
accommodation was too restricted, the decoration too poor, and probably
the number of apartments was insufficient to house the troops of women
and slaves brought back from his wars by its royal master. Built on
the very bank of the Tebilti, one of the tributaries of the Khusur,
and hemmed in by three temples, there was no possibility of its
enlargement--a difficulty which often occurs in ancient cities. The
necessary space for new buildings could only have been obtained by
altering the course of the stream, and sacrificing a large part of the
adjoining quarters of the city: Assur-nazir-pal therefore preferred to
abandon the place and to select a new site where he would have ample
space at his disposal.
[Illustration: 067.jpg THE MOUNDS OF CALAH]
Drawn by Boudier, from Layard. The pointed mound on the left
near the centre of the picture represents the ziggurât of
the great temple.
He found what he required close at hand in the half-ruined city of
Calah, where many of his most illustrious predecessors had in times past
sought refuge from the heat of Assur. It was now merely an obscure and
sleepy town about twelve miles south of Nineveh, on the right bank of
the Tigris, and almost at the angle made by the junction of this river
with the Greater Zab. The place contained a palace built by Shalmaneser
I., which, owing to many years neglect, had become uninhabitable.
Assur-nazir-pal not only razed to the ground the palaces and temples,
but also levelled the mound on which they had been built; he then
cleared away the soil down to the water level, and threw up an immense
and almost rectangular terrace on which to lay out his new buildings.
[Illustration: 068.jpg STELE OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL AT CALAH]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell.
The king chose Ninip, the god of war, as the patron of the city, and
dedicated to him, at the north-west corner of the terrace, a ziggurât
with its usual temple precincts. Here the god was represented as a bull
with a mans head and bust in gilded alabaster, and two yearly feasts
were instituted in his honour, one in the month Sebat, the other in the
month Ulul. The ziggurât was a little over two hundred feet high,
and was probably built in seven stages, of which only one now remains
intact: around it are found several independent series of chambers and
passages, which may have been parts of other temples, but it is now
impossible to say which belonged to the local Belît, which to Sin, to
Gula, to Rammân, or to the ancient deity Râ. At the entrance to the
largest chamber, on a rectangular pedestal, stood a stele with rounded
top, after the Egyptian fashion. On it is depicted a figure of the king,
standing erect and facing to the left of the spectator; he holds his
mace at his side, his right hand is raised in the attitude of adoration,
and above him, on the left upper edge of the stele, are grouped the five
signs of the planets; at the base of the stele stands an altar with
a triangular pedestal and circular slab ready for the offerings to be
presented to the royal founder by priests or people. The palace extended
along the south side of the terrace facing the town, and with the river
in its rear; it covered a space one hundred and thirty-one yards in
length and a hundred and nine in breadth. In the centre was a large
court, surrounded by seven or eight spacious halls, appropriated
to state functions; between these and the court were many rooms of
different sizes, forming the offices and private apartments of the
royal house. The whole palace was built of brick faced with stone. Three
gateways, flanked by winged, human-headed bulls, afforded access to the
largest apartment, the hall of audience, where the king received his
subjects or the envoys of foreign powers.* The doorways and walls of
some of the rooms were decorated with glazed tiles, but the majority of
them were covered with bands of coloured** bas-reliefs which portrayed
various episodes in the life of the king--his state-councils, his lion
hunts, the reception of tribute, marches over mountains and rivers,
chariot-skirmishes, sieges, and the torture and carrying away of
captives.
* At the east end of the hall Layard found a block of
alabaster covered with inscriptions, forming a sort of
platform on which the kings throne may have stood.
** Layard points out the traces of colouring still visible
when the excavations were made.
[Illustration: 070.jpg THE WINGED BULLS OP ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Layard.
Incised in bands across these pictures are inscriptions extolling the
omnipotence of Assur, while at intervals genii with eagles beaks, or
deities in human form, imperious and fierce, appear with hands full
of offerings, or in the act of brandishing thunderbolts against evil
spirits. The architect who designed this imposing decoration, and the
sculptors who executed it, closely followed the traditions of ancient
Chaldæa in the drawing and composition of their designs, and in the use
of colour or chisel; but the qualities and defects peculiar to their own
race give a certain character of originality to this borrowed art. They
exaggerated the stern and athletic aspect of their models, making the
figure thick-set, the muscles extraordinarily enlarged, and the features
ludicrously accentuated.
[Illustration: 071.jpg GLAZED TILE FROM PALACE OF CALAH]
Drawn by Boudier, after Layard.
Their pictures produce an impression of awkwardness, confusion and
heaviness, but the detail is so minute and the animation so great that
the attention of the spectator is forcibly arrested; these uncouth
beings impress us with the sense of their self-reliance and their
confidence in their master, as we watch them brandishing their
weapons or hurrying to the attack, and see the shock of battle and the
death-blows given and received. The human-headed bulls, standing on
guard at the gates, exhibit the calm and pensive dignity befitting
creatures conscious of their strength, while the lions passant who
sometimes replace them, snarl and show their teeth with an almost
alarming ferocity.
[Illustration: 072.jpg LION FROM ASSUR-NAZIR-PALS PALACE]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the sculpture in the
British Museum.
The statues of men and gods, as a rule, are lacking in originality. The
heavy robes which drape them from head to foot give them the appearance
of cylinders tied in at the centre and slightly flattened towards the
top. The head surmounting this shapeless bundle is the only life-like
part, and even the lower half of this is rendered heavy by the hair
and beard, whose tightly curled tresses lie in stiff rows one above the
other. The upper part of the face which alone is visible is
correctly drawn; the expression is of rather a commonplace type of
nobility--respectable but self-sufficient. The features--eyes, forehead,
nose, mouth--are all those of Assur-nazir-pal; the hair is arranged in
the fashion he affected, and the robe is embroidered with his jewels;
but amid all this we miss the keen intelligence always present in
Egyptian sculpture, whether under the royal head-dress of Cheops or in
the expectant eyes of the sitting scribe: the Assyrian sculptor could
copy the general outline of his model fairly well, but could not infuse
soul into the face of the conqueror, whose countenance beamed above the
destruction around him.
The water of the Tigris being muddy, and unpleasant to the taste, and
the wells at Calah so charged with lime and bitumen as to render them
unwholesome, Assur-nazir-pal supplied the city with water from the
neighbouring Zab.* An abundant stream was diverted from this river at
the spot now called Negub, and conveyed at first by a tunnel excavated
in the rock, and thence by an open canal to the foot of the great
terrace: at this point the flow of the water was regulated by dams, and
the surplus was utilised for irrigation** purposes by means of openings
cut in the banks.
* The presence of bitumen in the waters of Calah is due to
the hot springs which rise in the bed of the brook Shor-
derreh.
** The canal of Negub--_Negub_ signifies _hole_ in Arabic--
was discovered by Layard. The Zab having changed its course
to the south, and scooped out a deeper bed for itself, the
double arch, which serves as an entrance to the canal, is
actually above the ordinary level of the river, and the
water flows through it only in flood-time.
The aqueduct was named Bâbilat-khigal--the bringer of plenty--and, to
justify the epithet, date-palms, vines, and many kinds of fruit trees
were planted along its course, so that both banks soon assumed the
appearance of a shady orchard interspersed with small towns and villas.
The population rapidly increased, partly through the spontaneous
influx of Assyrians themselves, but still more through the repeated
introduction of bands of foreign prisoners: forts, established at the
fords of the Zab, or commanding the roads which cross the Gebel Makhlub,
kept the country in subjection and formed an inner line of defence at a
short distance from the capital.
[Illustration: 074.jpg A CORNER OF THE RUINED PALACE OF ASSUR-NAZIR-PAL]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Rassam.
Assur-nazir-pal kept up a palace, garden, and small temple, near the
fort of Imgur-Bel, the modern Balawât: thither he repaired for intervals
of repose from state affairs, to enjoy the pleasures of the chase
and cool air in the hot season. He did not entirely abandon his other
capitals, Nineveh and Assur, visiting them occasionally, but Calah was
his favourite seat, and on its adornment he spent the greater part of
his wealth and most of his leisure hours. Only once again did he abandon
his peaceful pursuits and take the field, about the year 897 B.C.,
during the eponymy of Shamashnurî. The tribes on the northern boundary
of the empire had apparently forgotten the lessons they had learnt at
the cost of so much bloodshed at the beginning of his reign: many had
omitted to pay the tribute due, one chief had seized the royal cities of
Amidi and Damdamusa, and the rebellion threatened to spread to Assyria
itself. Assur-nazir-pal girded on his armour and led his troops to
battle as vigorously as in the days of his youth. He hastily collected,
as he passed through their lands, the tribute due from Kipâni, Izalla,
and Kummukh, gained the banks of the Euphrates, traversed Grubbu burning
everything on his way, made a detour through Dirria and Kirkhi, and
finally halted before the walls of Damdamusa. Six hundred soldiers
of the garrison perished in the assault and four hundred were taken
prisoners: these he carried to Amidi and impaled as an object-lesson
round its walls; but, the defenders of the town remaining undaunted,
he raised the siege and plunged into the gorges of the Kashiari. Having
there reduced to submission Udâ, the capital of Lapturi, son of Tubisi,
he returned to Calah, taking with him six thousand prisoners whom he
settled as colonists around his favourite residence. This was his last
exploit: he never subsequently quitted his hereditary domain, but
there passed the remaining seven years of his life in peace, if not in
idleness. He died in 860 B.C., after a reign of twenty-five years. His
portraits represent him as a vigorous man, with a brawny neck and broad
shoulders, capable of bearing the weight of his armour for many hours at
a time. He is short in the head, with a somewhat flattened skull and low
forehead; his eyes are large and deep-set beneath bushy eyebrows, his
cheek-bones high, and his nose aquiline, with a fleshy tip and wide
nostrils, while his mouth and chin are hidden by moustache and beard.
The whole figure is instinct with real dignity, yet such dignity as
is due rather to rank and the habitual exercise of power, than to the
innate qualities of the man.*
* Perrot and Chipiez do not admit that the Assyrian
sculptors intended to represent the features of their kings;
for this they rely chiefly on the remarkable likeness
between all the figures in the same series of bas-reliefs.
My own belief is that in Assyria, as in Egypt, the sculptors
took the portrait of the reigning sovereign as the model for
all their figures.
The character of Assur-nazir-pal, as gathered from the dry details
of his Annals, seems to have been very complex. He was as ambitious,
resolute, and active as any prince in the world; yet he refrained from
offensive warfare as soon as his victories had brought under his rule
the majority of the countries formerly subject to Tiglath-pileser I. He
knew the crucial moment for ending a campaign, arresting his progress
where one more success might have brought him into collision with some
formidable neighbour; and this wise prudence in his undertakings
enabled him to retain the principal acquisitions won by his arms. As a
worshipper of the gods he showed devotion and gratitude; he was just to
his subjects, but his conduct towards his enemies was so savage as to
appear to us cruel even for that terribly pitiless age: no king ever
employed such horrible punishments, or at least none has described with
such satisfaction the tortures inflicted on his vanquished foes.
Perhaps such measures were necessary, and the harshness with which he
repressed insurrection prevented more frequent outbreaks and so averted
greater sacrifice of life. But the horror of these scenes so appals the
modern reader, that at first he can only regard Assur-nazir-pal as a
royal butcher of the worst type.
[Illustration: 077.jpg SHALMANESER III.]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell, taken from
the original stele in the British Museum.
Assur-nazir-pal left to his successor an overflowing treasury, a valiant
army, a people proud of their progress and fully confident in their own
resources, and a kingdom which had recovered, during several years of
peace, from the strain of its previous conquests. Shalmaneser III.* drew
largely on the reserves of men and money which his fathers foresight
had prepared, and his busy reign of thirty-five years saw thirty-two
campaigns, conducted almost without a break, on every side of the empire
in succession. A double task awaited him, which he conscientiously and
successfully fulfilled.
* [The Shalmaneser III. of the text is the Shalmaneser II.
of the notes.--TR.]
Assur-nazir-pal had thoroughly reorganised the empire and raised it to
the rank of a great power: he had confirmed his provinces and vassal
states in their allegiance, and had subsequently reduced to subjection,
or, at any rate, penetrated at various points, the little buffer
principalities between Assyria and the powerful kingdoms of Babylon,
Damascus, and Urartu; but he had avoided engaging any one of these
three great states in a struggle of which the issue seemed doubtful.
Shalmaneser could not maintain this policy of forbearance without loss
of prestige in the eyes of the world: conduct which might seem prudent
and cautious in a victorious monarch like Assur-nazir-pal would in
him have argued timidity or weakness, and his rivals would soon have
provoked a quarrel if they thought him lacking in the courage or the
means to attack them. Immediately after his accession, therefore, he
assumed the offensive, and decided to measure his strength first
against Urartu, which for some years past had been showing signs of
restlessness. Few countries are more rugged or better adapted for
defence than that in which his armies were about to take the field. The
volcanoes to which it owed its configuration in geological times, had
become extinct long before the appearance of man, but the surface of the
ground still bears evidence of their former activity; layers of basaltic
rock, beds of scorias and cinders, streams of half-disintegrated mud
and lava, and more or less perfect cones, meet the eye at every turn.
Subterranean disturbances have not entirely ceased even now, for certain
craters--that of Tandurek, for example--sometimes exhale acid fumes;
while hot springs exist in the neighbourhood, from which steaming
waters escape in cascades to the valley, and earthquakes and strange
subterranean noises are not unknown. The backbone of these Armenian
mountains joins towards the south the line of the Grordyasan range; it
runs in a succession of zigzags from south-east to northwest, meeting at
length the mountains of Pontus and the last spurs of the Caucasus.
[Illustration: 079.jpg THE TWO PEAKS OF MOUNT ARARAT]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by A. Tissandier.
Lofty snow-clad peaks, chiefly of volcanic origin, rise here and there
among them, the most important being Akhta-dagh, Tandurek, Ararat,
Bingoel, and Palandoeken. The two unequal pyramids which form the summit
of Ararat are covered with perpetual snow, the higher of them being
16,916 feet above the sea-level. The spurs which issue from the
principal chain cross each other in all directions, and make a network
of rocky basins where in former times water collected and formed lakes,
nearly all of which are now dry in consequence of the breaking down of
one or other of their enclosing sides. Two only of these mountain lakes
still remain, entirely devoid of outlet, Lake Van in the south, and Lake
Urumiah further to the south-east. The Assyrians called the former the
Upper Sea of Naîri, and the latter the Lower Sea, and both constituted
a defence for Urartu against their attacks. To reach the centre of the
kingdom of Urartu, the Assyrians had either to cross the mountainous
strip of land between the two lakes, or by making a detour to the
north-west, and descending the difficult slopes of the valley of the
Arzania, to approach the mountains of Armenia lying to the north of Lake
Van. The march was necessarily a slow and painful one for both horses
and men, along narrow winding valleys down which rushed rapid streams,
over raging torrents, through tangled forests where the path had to be
cut as they advanced, and over barren wind-swept plateaux where rain and
mist chilled and demoralized soldiers accustomed to the warm and sunny
plains of the Euphrates. The majority of the armies which invaded this
region never reached the goal of the expedition: they retired after
a few engagements, and withdrew as quickly as possible to more genial
climes. The main part of the Urartu remained almost always unsubdued
behind its barrier of woods, rocks, and lakes, which protected it from
the attacks levelled against it, and no one can say how far the kingdom
extended in the direction of the Caucasus. It certainly included the
valley of the Araxes and possibly part of the valley of the Kur, and
the steppes sloping towards the Caspian Sea. It was a region full of
contrasts, at once favoured and ill-treated by nature in its elevation
and aspect: rugged peaks, deep gorges, dense thickets, districts sterile
from the heat of subterranean fires, and sandy wastes barren for lack of
moisture, were interspersed with shady valleys, sunny vine-clad slopes,
and wide stretches of fertile land covered with rich layers of deep
alluvial soil, where thick-standing corn and meadow-lands, alternating
with orchards, repaid the cultivator for the slightest attempt at
irrigation.
[Illustration: 080.jpg End of the Harvest--Cutting Straw]
History does not record who were the former possessors of this land;
but towards the middle of the ninth century it was divided into several
principalities, whose position and boundaries cannot be precisely
determined. It is thought that Urartu lay on either side of Mount Ararat
and on both banks of the Araxes, that Biainas lay around Lake Van,*
and that the Mannai occupied the country to the north and east of
Lake Urumiah;** the positions of the other tribes on the different
tributaries of the Euphrates or the slopes of the Armenian mountains are
as yet uncertain.
* Urartu is the only name by which the Assyrians knew the
kingdom of Van; it has been recognised from the very
beginning of Assyriological studies, as well as its identity
with the Ararat of the Bible and the Alarodians of
Herodotus. It was also generally recognised that the name
Biainas in the Vannic inscriptions, which Hincks read Bieda,
corresponded to the Urartu of the Assyrians, but in
consequence of this mistaken reading, efforts have been made
to connect it with Adiabene. Sayce was the first to show
that Biainas was the name of the country of Van, and of the
kingdom of which Van was the capital; the word Bitâni which
Sayce connects with it is not a secondary form of the name
of Van, but a present day term, and should be erased from
the list of geographical names.
** The Mannai are the Minni of Jeremiah (li. 27), and it is
in their country of Minyas that one tradition made the ark
rest after the Deluge.
The country was probably peopled by a very mixed race, for its mountains
have always afforded a safe asylum for refugees, and at each migration,
which altered the face of Western Asia, some fugitives from neighbouring
nations drifted to the shelter of its fastnesses.
[Illustration: 082.jpg THE KINGDOM OF URATU]
The principal element, the Khaldi, were akin to that great family of
tribes which extended across the range of the Taurus, from the shores of
the Mediterranean to the Euxine, and included the Khalybes, the Mushku,
the Tabal, and the Khâti. The little preserved of their language
resembles what we know of the idioms in use among the people of Arzapi
and Mitânni, and their religion seems to have been somewhat analogous
to the ancient worship of the Hittites. The character of the ancient
Armenians, as revealed to us by the monuments, resembles in its main
features that of the Armenians of the present time. They appear as tall,
strong, muscular, and determined, full of zest for work and fighting,
and proud of their independence.
[Illustration: 083.jpg FRAGMENT OF A VOTIVE SHIELD OF URARTIAN WORK]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hormuzd Rassam.
Some of them led a pastoral life, wandering about with their flocks
during the greater part of the year, obliged to seek pasturage in
valley, forest, or mountain height according to the season, while in
winter they remained frost-bound in semi-subterranean dwellings similar
to those in which descendants immure themselves at the present day.
Where the soil lent itself to agriculture, they proved excellent
husbandmen, and obtained abundant crops. Their ingenuity in irrigation
was remarkable, and enabled them to bring water by a system of trenches
from distant springs to supply their fields and gardens; besides which,
they knew how to terrace the steep hillsides so as to prevent the rapid
draining away of moisture. Industries were but little developed among
them, except perhaps the working of metals; for were they not akin to
those Chalybes of the Pontus, whose mines and forges already furnished
iron to the Grecian world? Fragments have been discovered in the
ruined cities of Urartu of statuettes, cups, and votive shields, either
embossed or engraved, and decorated with concentric bands of animals
or men, treated in the Assyrian manner, but displaying great beauty of
style and remarkable finish of execution.
[Illustration: 084.jpg SITE OF AN URARTIAN TOWN AT TOPRAH-KALEH]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. Binder.
Their towns were generally fortified or perched on heights, rendering
them easy of defence, as, for example, Van and Toprah-Kaleh. Even such
towns as were royal residences were small, and not to be compared with
the cities of Assyria or Aram; their ground-plan generally assumed the
form of a rectangular oblong, not always traced with equal exactitude.
[Illustration: 085.jpg THE RUINS OF A PALACE OF URARTU AT TOPRAH-KALEH]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Hormuzd Rassam.
The walls were built of blocks of roughly hewn stone, laid in regular
courses, but without any kind of mortar or cement; they were surmounted
by battlements, and flanked at intervals by square towers, at the foot
of which were outworks to protect the points most open to attack.
The entrance was approached by narrow and dangerous pathways, which
sometimes ran on ledges across the precipitous face of the rock. The
dwelling-houses were of very simple construction, being merely square
cabins of stone or brick, devoid of any external ornament, and pierced
by one low doorway, but sometimes surmounted by an open colonnade
supported by a row of small pillars; a flat roof with a parapet crowned
the whole, though this was often replaced by a gabled top, which was
better adapted to withstand the rains and snows of winter. The palaces
of the chiefs differed from the private houses in the size of their
apartments and the greater care bestowed upon their decoration. Their
façades were sometimes adorned with columns, and ornamented with
bucklers or carved discs of metal; slabs of stone covered with
inscriptions lined the inner halls, but we do not know whether the
kings added to their dedications to the gods and the recital of their
victories, pictures of the battles they had fought and of the fortresses
they had destroyed. The furniture resembled that in the houses of
Nineveh, but was of simpler workmanship, and perhaps the most valuable
articles were imported from Assyria or were of Aramaean manufacture.
The temples seemed to have differed little from the palaces, at least
in external appearance. The masonry was more regular and more skilfully
laid; the outer court was filled with brazen lavers and statues; the
interior was furnished with altars, sacrificial stones, idols in human
or animal shape, and bowls identical with those in the sanctuaries on
the Euphrates, but the nature and details of the rites in which they
were employed are unknown. One supreme deity, Khaldis, god of the sky,
was, as far as we can conjecture, the protector of the whole nation,
and their name was derived from his, as that of the Assyrians was from
Assur, the Cossæans from Kashshu, and the Khati from Khâtu.
[Illustration: 086.jpg TEMPLE OF KHALDIS AT MUZAZIR]
This deity was assisted in the government of the universe by Teisbas,
god of the air, and Ardinîs the sun-god. Groups of secondary deities
were ranged around this sovereign triad--Auis, the water; Ayas, the
earth; Selardis, the moon; Kharubainis, Irmusinis, Adarutas, and
Arzi-melas: one single inscription enumerates forty-six, but some of
these were worshipped in special localities only.
[Illustration: 089.jpg ASSYRIAN SOLDIERS CARRYING OFF OR DESTROYING THE
FURNITURE OF AN URARTIAN TEMPLE]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Botta. Scribes are weighing
gold, and soldiers destroying the statue of a god with their
axes.
It would appear as if no goddesses were included in the native Pantheon.
Saris, the only goddess known to us at present, is probably merely a
variant of the Ishtar of Nineveh or Arbela, borrowed from the Assyrians
at a later date.
The first Assyrian conquerors looked upon these northern regions as an
integral part of Naîri, and included them under that name. They knew of
no single state in the district whose power might successfully withstand
their own, but were merely acquainted with a group of hostile provinces
whose internecine conflicts left them ever at the mercy of a foreign
foe.* Two kingdoms had, however, risen to some importance about the
beginning of the ninth century--that of the Mannai in the east, and that
of Urartu in the centre of the country. Urartu comprised the district
of Ararat proper, the province of Biaina, and the entire basin of the
Arzania.
* The single inscription of Tiglath-pileser I. contains a
list of twenty-three kings of Nairi, and mentions sixty
chiefs of the same country.
[Illustration: 090.jpg SHALMANESEE III. CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
bronze gates of Balawât.
Arzashkun, one of its capitals, situated probably near the sources of
this river, was hidden, and protected against attack, by an extent of
dense forest almost impassable to a regular army. The power of this
kingdom, though as yet unorganised, had already begun to inspire the
neighbouring states with uneasiness. Assur-nazir-pal speaks of it
incidentally as lying on the northern frontier of his empire,* but the
care he took to avoid arousing its hostility shows the respect in which
he held it.
* Arzashku, Arzashkun, seems to be the Assyrian form of an
Urartian name ending in _-ka_, formed from a proper name
Arzash, which recalls the name Arsène, Arsissa, applied by
the ancients to part of Lake Van. Arzashkun might represent
the Ardzik of the Armenian historians, west of Malasgert.
He was, indeed, as much afraid of Urartu as of Damascus, and though
he approached quite close to its boundary in his second campaign, he
preferred to check his triumphant advance rather than risk attacking
it. It appears to have been at that time under the undisputed rule of a
certain Sharduris, son of Lutipri, and subsequently, about the middle
of Assur-nazir-pals reign, to have passed into the hands of Aramê, who
styled himself King of Naîri, and whose ambition may have caused those
revolts which forced Assur-nazir-pal to take up arms in the eighteenth
year of his reign. On this occasion the Assyrians again confined
themselves to the chastisement of their own vassals, and checked
their advance as soon as they approached Urartu. Their success was but
temporary; hardly had they withdrawn from the neighbourhood, when the
disturbances were renewed with even greater violence, very probably
at the instigation of Aramê. Shalmaneser III. found matters in a very
unsatisfactory state both on the west and south of Lake Van: some of the
peoples who had been subject to his father--the Khubushkia, the pastoral
tribes of the Gordæan mountains, and the Aramæans of the Euphrates--had
transferred their allegiance elsewhere. He immediately took measures to
recall them to a sense of their duty, and set out from Calah only a few
days after succeeding to the crown. He marched at first in an easterly
direction, and, crossing the pass of Simisi, burnt the city of Aridi,
thus proving that he was fully prepared to treat rebels after the
same fashion as his father. The lesson had immediate effect. All
the neighbouring tribes, Khargæans, Simisæans, the people of Simira,
Sirisha, and Ulmania, hastened to pay him homage even before he had
struck his camp near Aridi. Hurrying across country by the shortest
route, which entailed the making of roads to enable his chariots and
cavalry to follow him, he fell upon Khubushkia, and reduced a hundred
towns to ashes, pursuing the king Kakia into the depths of the forest,
and forcing him to an unconditional surrender. Ascending thence to
Shugunia, a dependency of Aramês, he laid the principality waste, in
spite of the desperate resistance made on their mountain slopes by the
inhabitants; then proceeding to Lake Van, he performed the ceremonial
rites incumbent on an Assyrian king whenever he stood for the first time
on the shores of a new sea. He washed his weapons in the waters, offered
a sacrifice to the gods, casting some portions of the victim into
the lake, and before leaving carved his own image on the surface of a
commanding rock. On his homeward march he received tribute from Gilzân.
This expedition was but the prelude of further successes. After a few
weeks repose at Nineveh, he again set out to make his authority felt in
the western portions of his dominions.
[Illustration: 093.jpg THE PEOPLE OF SHUGUNIA FIGHTING AGAINST THE
ASSYRIANS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
bronze gates of Balawât.
Akhuni, chief of Bît-Adini, whose position was the first to be menaced,
had formed a league with the chiefs of all the cities which had formerly
bowed before Assur-nazir-pals victorious arms, Gurgum, Samalla, Kuî,
the Patina, Car-chemish, and the Khâti. Shalmaneser seized Lalati* and
Burmarana, two of Akhunis towns, drove him across the Euphrates, and
following close on his heels, collected as he passed the tribute of
Gurgum, and fell upon Samalla.
* Lalati is probably the Lulati of the Egyptians. The modern
site is not known, nor is that of Burmarana.
Under the walls of Lutibu he overthrew the combined forces of Adini,
Samalla, and the Patina, and raised a trophy to commemorate his victory
at the sources of the Saluara; then turning sharply to the south, he
crossed the Orontes in pursuit of Shapalulme, King of the Patina.
[Illustration: 094.jpg PRISONERS FROM SHUGUNIA, WITH THEIR ARMS TIED AND
YOKES ON THEIR NECKS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
bronze gates of Balawât.
Not far from Alizir he encountered a fresh army raised by Akhuni and
the King of Samalla, with contingents from Carchemish, Kuî, Cilicia, and
Iasbuki:* having routed it, he burnt the fortresses of Shapalulme, and
after occupying himself by cutting down cedars and cypress trees on the
Amanos in the province of Atalur, he left a triumphal stele engraved on
the mountain-side.
* The country of Iasbuki is represented by Ishbak, a son of
Abraham and Keturah, mentioned in Genesis (xxv. 2) in
connection with Shuah.
[Illustration: 094b.jpg SACRIFICE OFFERED BY SHALMANESER III.]
[Illustration: 095.jpg COSTUMES FOUND IN THE FIFTH TOMB]
Next turning eastwards, he received the homage offered with alacrity by
the towns of Taia, Khazazu, Nulia, and Butamu, and, with a final tribute
from Agusi, he returned in triumph to Nineveh. The motley train which
accompanied, him showed by its variety the immense extent of country
he had traversed during this first campaign. Among the prisoners were
representatives of widely different races;--Khâti with long robes and
cumbrous head-dresses, following naked mountaineers from Shugunia, who
marched with yokes on their necks, and wore those close-fitting helmets
with short crests which have such a strangely modern look on the
Assyrian bas-reliefs. The actual results of the campaign were, perhaps,
hardly commensurate with the energy expended. This expedition from
east to west had certainly inflicted considerable losses on the rebels
against whom it had been directed; it had cost them dearly in men
and cattle, and booty of all kinds, and had extorted from them a
considerable amount of tribute, but they remained, notwithstanding,
still unsubdued. As soon as the Assyrian troops had quitted their
neighbourhood, they flattered themselves they were safe from further
attack. No doubt they thought that a show of submission would satisfy
the new invader, as it had satisfied his father; but Shalmaneser was not
disposed to rest content with this nominal dependence. He intended to
exercise effective control over all the states won by his sword, and the
proof of their subjection was to be the regular payment of tribute
and fulfilment of other obligations to their suzerain. Year by year he
unfailingly enforced his rights, till the subject states were obliged to
acknowledge their master and resign themselves to servitude.
The narrative of his reiterated efforts is a monotonous one. The king
advanced against Adini in the spring of 859 B.C., defeated Akhuni near
Tul-barsip, transported his victorious regiments across the Euphrates
on rafts of skins, seized Surunu, Paripa, and Dabigu* besides six
fortresses and two hundred villages, and then advanced into the
territory of Carchemish, which he proceeded to treat with such severity
that the other Hittite chiefs hastened to avert a similar fate by
tendering their submission.
* Shalmaneser crossed the Euphrates near Tul-barsip, which
would lead him into the country between Birejîk, Rum-kaleh,
and Aintab, and it is in that district that we must look for
the towns subject to Akhuni. Dabigu, I consider, corresponds
to Dehbek on Reys map, a little to the north-east of
Aintab; the sites of Paripa and Surunu are unknown.
The very enumeration of their offerings proves not only their wealth,
but the terror inspired by the advancing Assyrian host: Shapalulmê of
the Patina, for instance, yielded up three talents of gold, a hundred
talents of silver, three hundred talents of copper, and three hundred
of iron, and paid in addition to this an annual tribute of one talent
of silver, two talents of purple, and two hundred great beams of
cedar-wood. Samalla, Agusi, and Kummukh were each laid under tribute in
proportion to their resources, but their surrender did not necessarily
lead to that of Adini. Akhuni realised that, situated as he was on the
very borders of Assyrian territory, there was no longer a chance of
his preserving his semi-independence, as was the case with his kinsfolk
beyond the Euphrates; proximity to the capital would involve a stricter
servitude, which would soon reduce him from the condition of a vassal to
that of a subject, and make him merely a governor where he had hitherto
reigned as king. Abandoned by the Khâti, he sought allies further north,
and entered into a league with the tribes of Naîri and Urartu. When, in
858 B.C., Shalmaneser III. forced an entrance into Tul-barsip, and drove
back what was left of the garrison on the right bank of the Euphrates,
a sudden movement of Aramê obliged him to let the prey escape from
his grasp. Rapidly fortifying Tul-barsip, Nappigi, Aligu, Pitru, and
Mutkînu, and garrisoning them with loyal troops to command the fords
of the river, as his ancestor Shalmaneser I. had done six centuries
before,* he then re-entered Naîri by way of Bît-Zamani, devastated
Inziti with fire and sword, forced a road through to the banks of the
Arzania, pillaged Sukhmi and Dayaîni, and appeared under the walls of
Arzashkun.
* Pitru, the Pethor of the Bible (Numb. xxii. 5), is
situated near the confluence of the Sajur and the Euphrates,
somewhere near the encampment called Oshériyéh by Sachau.
Mutkînu was on the other bank, perhaps at Kharbet-Beddaî,
nearly opposite Pitru. Nappigi was on the left bank of the
Euphrates, which excludes its identification with Mabog-
Hierapolis, as proposed by Hommel; Nabigath, mentioned by
Tomkins, is too far east. Nappigi and Aligu must both be
sought in the district between the Euphrates and the town of
Saruj.
Aramê withdrew to Mount Adduri and awaited his attack in an almost
impregnable position; he was nevertheless defeated: 3400 of his soldiers
fell on the field of battle; his camp, his treasures, his chariots, and
all his baggage passed into the hands of the conqueror, and he himself
barely escaped with his life. Shalmaneser ravaged the country as a
savage bull ravages and tramples under his feet the fertile fields; he
burnt the villages and the crops, destroyed Arzashkun, and raised before
its gates a pyramid of human heads, surrounded by a circle of prisoners
impaled on stakes. He climbed the mountain chain of Iritia, and laid
waste Aramali and Zanziuna at his leisure, and descending for the second
time to the shores of Lake Van, renewed the rites he had performed there
in the first year of his reign, and engraved on a neighbouring rock an
inscription recording his deeds of prowess.
[Illustration: 100.jpg SHUA, KING OF GILZAN, BRINGING A WAR-HORSE FULLY
CAPARISONED TO SHALMANESER]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
Black Obelisk.
He made his way back to Gilzân, where its king, Shua, brought him
a war-horse fully caparisoned, as a token of homage. Shalmaneser
graciously deigned to receive it, and further exacted from the king the
accustomed contributions of chariot-horses, sheep, and wine, together
with seven dromedaries, whose strange forms amused the gaping crowds of
Nineveh. After quitting Gilzân, Shalmaneser encountered the people of
Khubushkia, who ventured to bar his way; but its king, Kakia, lost his
city of Shilaia, and three thousand soldiers, besides bulls, horses, and
sheep innumerable. Having enforced submission in Khubushkia, Shalmaneser
at length returned to Assur through the defiles of Kirruri, and came to
Calah to enjoy a well-earned rest after the fatigues of his campaign.
[Illustration: 101.jpg DROMEDARIES FROM GILZAN]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
bronze gates of Balawât.
But Akhuni had not yet lost heart. Though driven back to the right bank
of the Euphrates, he had taken advantage of the diversion created by
Aramê in his favour, to assume a strong position among the hills of
Shitamrat with the river in his rear.*
* The position of Shitamrat may answer to the ruins of the
fortress of Rum-kaleh, which protected a ford of the
Euphrates in Byzantine times.
Shalmaneser attacked his lines in front, and broke through them after
three days preliminary skirmishing; then finding the enemy drawn up in
battle array before their last stronghold, the king charged without
a moments hesitation, drove them back and forced them to surrender.
Akhunis life was spared, but he was sent with the remainder of his army
to colonise a village in the neighbourhood of Assur, and Adini became
henceforth an integral part of Assyria.
[Illustration: 102.jpg TRIBUTE FROM GILZAN]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
Black Obelisk.
The war on the western frontier was hardly brought to a close when
another broke out in the opposite direction. The king rapidly crossed
the pass of Bunagishlu and fell upon Mazamua: the natives, disconcerted
by his impetuous onslaught, nevertheless hoped to escape by putting
out in their boats on the broad expanse of Lake Urumiah. Shalmaneser,
however, constructed rafts of inflated skins, on which his men ventured
in pursuit right out into the open. The natives were overpowered; the
king dyed the sea with their blood as if it had been wool, and did not
withdraw until he had forced them to appeal for mercy.
In five years Shalmaneser had destroyed Adini, laid low Urartu, and
confirmed the tributary states of Syria in their allegiance; but
Damascus and Babylon were as yet untouched, and the moment was at hand
when he would have to choose between an arduous conflict with them, or
such a repression of the warlike zeal of his opening years, that, like
his father Assur-nazir-pal, he would have to repose on his laurels.
Shalmaneser was too deeply imbued with the desire for conquest to choose
a peaceful policy: he decided at once to assume the offensive against
Damascus, being probably influenced by the news of Ahabs successes, and
deeming that if the King of Israel had gained the ascendency unaided,
Assur, fully confident of its own superiority, need have no fear as
to the result of a conflict. The forces, however, at the disposal of
Benhadad II. (Adadidri) were sufficient to cause the Assyrians some
uneasiness. The King of Damascus was not only lord of Coele-Syria and
the Haurân, but he exercised a suzerainty more or less defined over
Hamath, Israel, Ammon, the Arabian and Idumean tribes, Arvad and the
principalities of Northern Phoenicia, Usanata, Shianu, and Irkanata;* in
all, twelve peoples or twelve kings owned his sway, and their forces,
if united to his, would provide at need an army of nearly 100,000 men:
a few years might see these various elements merged in a united empire,
capable of withstanding the onset of any foreign foe.**
* Irkanata, the Egyptian Arqanatu, perhaps the Irqata of the
Tel-el-A marna tablets, is the Arka of Phoenicia. The other
countries enumerated are likewise situated in the same
locality. Shianu (for a long time read as Shizanu), the Sin
of the Bible (Gen. x. 17), is mentioned by Tiglath-pileser
III. under the name Sianu. Ushanat is called Uznu by
Tiglath-pileser, and Delitzsch thought it represented the
modern Kalaat-el-Hosu. With Arvad it forms the ancient Zahi
of the Egyptians, which was then subject to Damascus.
** The suzerainty of Ben-hadad over these twelve peoples is
proved by the way in which they are enumerated in the
Assyrian documents: his name always stands at the head of
the list. The manner in which the Assyrian scribes introduce
the names of these kings, mentioning sometimes one,
sometimes two among them, without subtracting them from the
total number 12, has been severely criticised, and Schrader
excused it by saying that 12 is here used as a round number
somewhat vaguely.
Shalmaneser set out from Nineveh on the 14th day of the month Iyyâr, 854
B.C., and chastised on his way the Aramaeans of the Balikh, whose sheikh
Giammu had shown some inclination to assert his independence. He crossed
the Euphrates at Tul-harsip, and held a species of durbar at Pitru for
his Syrian subjects: Sangar of Carchemish, Kundashpi of Kummukh, Aramê
of Agusi, Lalli of Melitene, Khaiani of Samalla, Garparuda who had
succeeded Shapalulmê among the Patina, and a second Garparuda of Gurgum,
rallied around him with their presents of welcome, and probably also
with their troops. This ceremony concluded, he hastened to Khalmaa and
reduced it to submission, then plunged into the hill-country between
Khalmân and the Orontes, and swept over the whole territory of Hamath.
A few easy victories at the outset enabled him to exact ransom from, or
burn to the ground, the cities of Adinnu, Mashgâ, Arganâ, and Qarqar,
but just beyond Qarqar he encountered the advance-guard of the Syrian
army.*
* The position of these towns is uncertain: the general plan
of the campaign only proves that they must lie on the main
route from Aleppo to Kalaat-Sejar, by Barâ or by Maarêt-en-
Nômân and Kalaat-el-Mudiq. It is agreed that Qarqar must be
sought not far from Hamath, whatever the exact site may be.
An examination of the map shows us that Qarqar corresponds
to the present Kalaat-el-Mudiq, the ancient Apamasa of
Lebanon; the confederate army would command the ford which
led to the plain of Hamath by Kalaat-Sejar.
[Illustration: 105.jpg TRIBUTE FROM GARPARUDA, KING OF THE PATINA]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
Black Obelisk.
Ben-hadad had called together, to give him a fitting reception, the
whole of the forces at his disposal: 1200 chariots, 1200 horse, 20,000
foot-soldiers from Damascus alone; 700 chariots, 700 horse and 10,000
foot from Hamath; 2000 chariots and 10,000 foot belonging to Ahab, 500
soldiers from Kuî, 1000 mountaineers from the Taurus,* 10 chariots and
10,000 foot from Irk and 200 from Arvad, 200 from Usanata, 30 chariots
and 10,000 foot from Shianu, 1000 camels from Gindibu the Arab, and 1000
Ammonites.
* The people of the Muzri next enumerated have long been
considered as Egyptians; the juxtaposition of their name
with that of Kuî shows that it refers here to the Muzri of
the Taurus.
The battle was long and bloody, and the issue uncertain; Shalmaneser
drove back one wing of the confederate army to the Orontes, and forcing
the other wing and the centre to retire from Qarqar to Kirzau, claimed
the victory, though the losses on both sides were equally great. It
would seem as if the battle were indecisive--the Assyrians, at any
rate, gained nothing by it; they beat a retreat immediately after their
pretended victory, and returned to their own land without prisoners and
almost without booty. On the whole, this first conflict had not been
unfavourable to Damascus: it had demonstrated the power of that state in
the eyes of the most incredulous, and proved how easy resistance
would be, if only the various princes of Syria would lay aside their
differences and all unite under the command of a single chief. The
effect of the battle in Northern Syria and among the recently annexed
Aïamoan tribes was very great; they began to doubt the omnipotence of
Assyria, and their loyalty was shaken. Sangar of Carchemish and the
Khâti refused to pay their tribute, and the Emirs of Tul-Abnî and Mount
Kashiari broke out into open revolt. Shalmaneser spent a whole year in
suppressing the insurrection; complications, moreover, arose at Babylon
which obliged him to concentrate his attention and energy on Chaldæan
affairs. Nabu-baliddin had always maintained peaceful and friendly
relations with Assyria, but he had been overthrown, or perhaps
assassinated, and his son Marduk-nadin-shumu had succeeded him on the
throne, to the dissatisfaction of a section of his subjects. Another son
of Nabu-baliddin, Marduk-belusâtê, claimed the sovereign power, and soon
won over so much of the country that Marduk-nâdin-shumu had fears
for the safety of Babylon itself. He then probably remembered the
pretensions to Kharduniash, which his Assyrian neighbours had for a long
time maintained, and applied to Shalmaneser to support his tottering
fortunes. The Assyrian monarch must have been disposed to lend a
favourable ear to a request which allowed him to intervene as suzerain
in the quarrels of the rival kingdom: he mobilised his forces, offered
sacrifices in honour of Bammân at Zabân, and crossed the frontier in 853
B.C.*
The war dragged on during the next two years. The scene of hostilities
was at the outset on the left bank of the Tigris, which for ten
centuries had served as the battle-field for the warriors of both
countries. Shalmaneser, who had invested Me-Turnat at the fords of the
Lower Dîyalah, at length captured that fortress, and after having
thus isolated the rebels of Babylonia proper, turned his steps towards
G-ananatê.**
* The town of Zabân is situated on the Lesser Zab, but it is
impossible to fix the exact site.
** Mè-Turnat, Mê-Turni, the water of the Turnat, stood
upon the Dîyalah, probably near the site of Bakuba, where
the most frequented route crosses the river; perhaps we may
identify it with the Artemita of classical authors. Gananatê
must be sought higher up near the mountains, as the context
points out; I am inclined to place it near the site of
Khanekin, whose gardens are still celebrated, and the
strategic importance of which is considerable.
Marduk-belusâtê, a vacillating king, incapable of directing his own
affairs, came out to meet him, but although repulsed and driven within
the town, he defended his position with such spirit that Shalmaneser was
at length obliged to draw off his troops after having cut down all
the young compelled the fruit trees, disorganised the whole system of
irrigation,--in short, after having effected all the damage he could. He
returned in the following spring by the most direct route; Lakhiru fell
into his hands,* but Marduk-belusâtê, having no heart to contend with
him for the possession of a district ravaged by the struggle of the
preceding summer, fell back on the mountains of Yasubi and concentrated
his forces round Armân.**
* Lakhiru comes before Gananate on the direct road from
Assyria, to the south of the Lower Zab, as we learn from the
account of the campaign itself: wo shall not do wrong in
placing this town either at Kifri, or in its neighbourhood
on the present caravan route.
** Mount Yasubi is the mountainous district which separates
Khanekin from Holwân.
Shalmaneser, having first wreaked his vengeance upon Gananatê, attacked
his adversary in his self-chosen position; Annan fell after a desperate
defence, and Marduk-belusâtê either perished or disappeared in a last
attempt at retaliation. Marduk-nadîn-shumu, although rid of his rival,
was not yet master of the entire kingdom. The Aramæans of the Marshes,
or, as they called themselves, the Kaldâ, had refused him their
allegiance, and were ravaging the regions of the Lower Euphrates by
their repeated incursions. They constituted not so much a compact state,
as a confederation of little states, alternately involved in petty
internecine quarrels, or temporarily reconciled under the precarious
authority of a sole monarch. Each separate state bore the name of the
head of the family--real or mythical--from whom all its members prided
themselves on being descended,--Bît-Dakkuri, Bît-Adini, Bît-Amukkâni,
Bît-Shalani, Bît-Shalli, and finally Bît-Yakîn, which in the end
asserted its predominance over all the rest.*
* As far as we can judge, Bît-Dakkuri and Bît-Adini were the
most northerly, the latter lying on both sides of the
Euphrates, the former on the west of the Euphrates, to the
south of the Bahr-i-Nejîf; Bît-Yakîn was at the southern
extremity near the mouths of the Euphrates, and on the
western shore of the Persian Gulf.
In demanding Shalmanesers help, Marduk-nadîn-shumu had virtually thrown
on him the responsibility of bringing these turbulent subjects to order,
and the Assyrian monarch accepted the duties of his new position without
demur. He marched to Babylon, entered the city and went direct to the
temple of E-shaggîl: the people beheld him approach with reverence their
deities Bel and Belît, and visit all the sanctuaries of the local gods,
to whom he made endless propitiatory libations and pure offerings.
He had worshipped Ninip in Kuta; he was careful not to forget Nabo of
Borsippa, while on the other hand he officiated in the temple of Ezida,
and consulted its ancient oracle, offering upon its altars the flesh
of splendid oxen and fat lambs. The inhabitants had their part in the
festival as well as the gods; Shalmaneser summoned them to a public
banquet, at which he distributed to them embroidered garments, and plied
them with meats and wine; then, after renewing his homage to the gods
of Babylon, he recommenced his campaign, and set out in the direction
of the sea. Baqâni, the first of the Chaldæan cities which lay on his
route, belonged to Bît-Adini,* one of the tribes of Bît-Dakkuri; it
appeared disposed to resist him, and was therefore promptly dismantled
and burnt--an example which did not fail to cool the warlike
inclinations which had begun to manifest themselves in other parts of
Bît-Dakkuri.
* The site of Baqâni is unknown; it should be sought for
between Lamlum and Warka, and Bît-Adini in Bît-Dakkuri
should be placed between the Shatt-et-Kaher and the Arabian
desert, if the name of Enzudî, the other royal town,
situated to the west of the Euphrates, is found, as is
possible, under a popular etymology, in that of Kalaat ain-
Saîd or Kalaat ain-es-Saîd in the modern maps.
He next crossed the Euphrates, and pillaged Enzudî, the fate of which
caused the remainder of Bît-Adini to lay down arms, and the submission
of the latter brought about that of Bît-Yakîn and Bît-Amukkani. These
were all rich provinces, and they bought off the conqueror liberally:
gold, silver, tin, copper, iron, acacia-wood, ivory, elephants skins,
were all showered upon the invader to secure his mercy. It must have
been an intense satisfaction to the pride of the Assyrians to be able
to boast that their king had deigned to offer sacrifices in the sacred
cities of Accad, and that he had been borne by his war-horses to
the shores of the Salt Sea; these facts, of little moment to us now,
appeared to the people of those days of decisive importance. No king who
was not actually master of the country would have been tolerated within
the temple of the eponymous god, for the purpose of celebrating
the rites which the sovereign alone was empowered to perform.
Marduk-nadîn-shumu, in recognising Shalmanesers right to act thus,
thereby acknowledged that he himself was not only the kings ally, but
his liegeman. This bond of supremacy doubtless did not weigh heavily
upon him; as soon as his suzerain had evacuated the country, the two
kingdoms remained much on the same footing as had been established by
the treaties of the three previous generations. Alliances were made
between private families belonging to both, peace existed between the
two sovereigns, interchange of commerce and amenities took place between
the two peoples, but with one point of difference which had not existed
formerly: Assur protected Babel, and, by taking precedence of Marduk, he
became the real head of the peoples of the Euphrates valley. Assured of
the subordination, or at least of the friendly neutrality of Babylon,
Shalma-neser had now a free hand to undertake a campaign in the remoter
regions of Syria, without being constantly haunted by the fear that his
rival might suddenly swoop down upon him in the rear by the valleys of
the Badanu or the Zabs. He now ran no risks in withdrawing his troops
from the south-eastern frontier, and in marshalling his forces on the
slopes of the Armenian Alps or on the banks of the Orontes, leaving
merely a slender contingent in the heart of Assyria proper to act as the
necessary guardians of order in the capital.
Since the indecisive battle of Qarqar, the western frontier of the
empire had receded as far as the Euphrates, and Shalmaneser had been
obliged to forego the collection of the annual Syrian tribute. It would
have been an excellent opportunity for the Khâti, while they enjoyed
this accidental respite, to come to an understanding with Damascus, for
the purpose of acting conjointly against a common enemy; but they let
the right moment slip, and their isolation made submission inevitable.
The effort to subdue them cost Shalmaneser dear, both in time and men;
in the spring of each year he appeared at the fords of Tul-barsip and
ravaged the environs of Carchemish, then marched upon the Orontes to
accomplish the systematic devastation of some fresh district, or to
inflict a defeat on such of his adversaries as dared to encounter him
in the open field. In 850 B.C. the first blow was struck at the Khâti;
Agusi* was the next to suffer, and its king, Aramê, lost Arniê, his
royal city, with some hundred more townships and strongholds.**
* Historians have up to the present admitted that this
campaign of the year 850 took place in Armenia. The context
of the account itself shows us that, in his tenth year,
Shalmaneser advanced against the towns of Aramê, immediately
after having pillaged the country of the Khâti, which
inclines me to think that these towns were situated in
Northern Syria. I have no doubt that the Aramê in question
is not the Armenian king of that name, but Aramê the
sovereign of Bit-Agusi, who is named several times in the
Annals of Shalmaneser.
** The text of Bull No. 1 adds to the account of the war
against Aramê, that of a war against the Damascene league,
which merely repeats the account of Shalmanesers eleventh
year. It is generally admitted that the war against Aramê
falls under his tenth year, and the war against Ben-hadad
during his eleventh year. The scribes must have had at their
disposal two different versions of one document, in which
these two wars were described without distinction of year.
The compiler of the inscription of the Bulls would have
considered them as forming two distinct accounts, which he
has placed one after the other.
In 849 B.C. it was the turn of Damascus. The league of which Ben-hadad
had proclaimed himself the suzerain was still in existence, but it had
recently narrowly escaped dissolution, and a revolt had almost deprived
it of the adherence of Israel and the house of Omri--after Hamath,
the most active of all its members. The losses suffered at Qarqar had
doubtless been severe enough to shake Ahabs faith in the strength of
his master and ally. Besides this, it would appear that the latter had
not honourably fulfilled all the conditions of the treaty of peace he
had signed three years previously; he still held the important fortress
of Bamoth-gilead, and he delayed handing it over to Ahab in spite of his
oath to restore it. Finding that he could not regain possession of it by
fair means, Ahab resolved to take it by force. A great change in feeling
and politics had taken place at Jerusalem. Jehoshaphat, who occupied the
throne, was, like his father Asa, a devout worshipper of Jahveh, but
his piety did not blind him to the secular needs of the moment. The
experience of his predecessors had shown that the union of the twelve
tribes under the rule of a scion of Judah was a thing of the past for
ever; all attempts to restore it had ended in failure and bloodshed,
and the house of David had again only lately been saved from ruin by the
dearly bought intervention of Ben-hadad I. and his Syrians. Jehoshaphat
from the outset clearly saw the necessity of avoiding these errors of
the past; he accepted the situation and sought the friendship of Israel.
An alliance between two princes so unequal in power could only result in
a disguised suzerainty for one of them and a state of vassalage for
the other; what Ben-hadads alliance was to Ahab, that of Ahab was to
Jehoshaphat, and it served his purpose in spite of the opposition of
the prophets.1 The strained relations between the two countries were
relaxed, and the severed tribes on both sides of the frontier set about
repairing their losses; while Hiel the Bethelite at length set about
rebuilding Jericho on behalf of Samaria,* Jehoshaphat was collecting
around him a large army, and strengthening himself on the west against
the Philistines and on the south against the Bedawîn of the desert.**
The marriage of his eldest son Jehoram*** with Athaliah subsequently
bound the two courts together by still closer ties;**** mutual-visits
were exchanged, and it was on the occasion of a stay made by Jehoshaphat
at Jezreel that the expedition against Eamoth was finally resolved on.
* The subordinate position of Jehoshaphat is clearly
indicated by the reply which he makes to Ahab when the
latter asks him to accompany him on this expedition: I am
as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy
horses (1 Kings xxii. 4).
** 1 Kings xvi. 34, where the writer has preserved the
remembrance of a double human sacrifice, destined, according
to the common custom in the whole of the East, to create
guardian spirits for the new building: he laid the
foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram his firstborn,
and set up the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest
son Segub; according to the word of the Lord. [For the
curse pronounced on whoever should rebuild Jericho, see
Josh. vi. 26.--Tr.]
*** [Following the distinction in spelling given in 2 Kings
viii. 25, I have everywhere written Joram (of Israel) and
Jehoram (of Judah), to avoid confusion.--Tr.]
**** Athaliah is sometimes called the daughter of Ahab (2
Kings viii. 18), and sometimes the daughter of Omri (2 Kings
viii. 26; cf. 2 Ohron. xxii. 2), and several authors prefer
the latter filiation, while the majority see in it a mistake
of the Hebrew scribe. It is possible that both attributions
may be correct, for we see by the Assyrian inscriptions that
a sovereign is called the son of the founder of his line
even when he was several generations removed from him: thus,
Merodach-baladan, the adversary of Sargon of Assyria, calls
himself son of Iakin, although the founder of the Bît-Iakîn
had been dead many centuries before his accession. The
document used in 2 Kings viii. 26 may have employed the term
daughter of Omri in the same manner merely to indicate that
the Queen of Jerusalem belonged to the house of Omri.
It might well have appeared a more than foolhardy enterprise, and it was
told in Israel that Micaiah, a prophet, the son of Imlah, had predicted
its disastrous ending. I saw, exclaimed the prophet, the Lord sitting
on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and
on His left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up
and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another
said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before
the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him,
Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in
the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, Thou shalt entice him, and
shalt prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord
hafch put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets; and the
Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. *
* 1 Kings xxii. 5-23, reproduced in 2 Chron. xviii. 4-22.
The two kings thereupon invested Ramoth, and Ben-hadad hastened to
the defence of his fortress. Selecting thirty-two of his bravest
charioteers, he commanded them to single out Ahab only for attack, and
not fight with others until they had slain him. This injunction happened
in some way to come to the kings ears, and he therefore disguised
himself as a common soldier, while Jehoshaphat retained his ordinary
dress. Attracted by the richness of the latters armour, the Syrians
fell upon him, but on his raising his war-cry they perceived their
mistake, and turning from the King of Judah they renewed their quest of
the Israelitish leader. While they were vainly seeking him, an archer
drew a bow at a venture, and pierced him in the joints of his cuirass.
Wherefore he said to his charioteer, Turn thine hand, and carry me
out of the host; for I am sore wounded. Perceiving, however, that the
battle was going against him, he revoked the order, and remained on
the field the whole day, supported by his armour-bearers. He expired at
sunset, and the news of his death having spread panic through the ranks,
a cry arose, Every man to his city, and every man to his country! The
kings followers bore his body to Samaria,* and Israel again relapsed
into the position of a vassal, probably under the same conditions as
before the revolt.