Assyria : $b Its princes, priests and peopleSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
Assyria : $b Its princes, priests and people
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Assyria -- History
Babylonia was the first to feel the results of the change of dynasty at
Nineveh. The northern part of it was annexed to Assyria, and secured by
a chain of fortresses. Tiglath-Pileser now attacked the Kurdish tribes,
who were constantly harassing the eastern frontier of the kingdom, and
chastised them severely, the Assyrian army forcing its way through the
fastnesses of the Kurdish mountains into the very heart of Media. But
Ararat, or Armenia, was still a dangerous neighbour, and accordingly
Tiglath-Pileser's next campaign was against a confederacy of the nations
of the north headed by Sarduris of Van. The confederacy was utterly
defeated in Kommagênê, 72,950 prisoners falling into the hands of the
Assyrians, and the way was opened into Syria. In B.C. 742 the siege of
Arpad (now Tel Erfâd) began, and lasted two years. Its fall brought with
it the submission of Northern Syria, and it was next the turn of Hamath
to be attacked. Hamath was in alliance with Uzziah of Judah, and its
king Eniel may have been of Jewish extraction. But the alliance availed
nothing. Hamath was taken by storm, part of its population transported
to Armenia, and their places taken by colonists from distant provinces
of the empire, while nineteen of the districts belonging to it were
annexed to Assyria. The kings of Syria now flocked to render homage and
offer tribute to the Assyrian conqueror. Among them we read the names of
Menahem of Samaria, Rezon of Syria, Hiram of Tyre, and Pisiris of
Carchemish. This was the occasion when, as we learn from 2 Kings xv. 19,
Menahem gave a thousand talents of silver to the Assyrian king Pul, the
name under which Tiglath-Pileser continued to be known in Babylonia,
and, as the Old Testament informs us, in Palestine also.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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