The Divided Monarchy – 03 / The Imperial Assyria

Shalmaneser III and the Rise of Imperial Assyria

After a long period of weakness at the beginning of the first millennium, the Upper Mesopotamian kingdom of Assyria, with its capitals on the east bank of the Tigris at Calah and Nineveh, arose to become a leading factor in the history of the Near East during the ninth to seventh century BCE The Assyrian kings were motivated first by a desire to control the trade routes through northern Syria into the mineral-rich mountain country of Anatolia, but eventually their ambition spread south into the middle Orontes region, southern Syria and even Palestine. By the time Ahab ascended the throne in 872 BCE it was already clear that the growing power of Assyria was a threat that would have to be reckoned with. Ahab must have quickly realized that he could not avoid becoming embroiled in the affairs of imperial Assyria.

A major factor in the resurgence of Assyria was the enormous wealth accumulated by the campaigning of Assurnasirpal II (884–859 BCE), a contemporary of Omri and the early Ahab. A ruthless warrior and master tactician, he conquered Upper Mesopotamia, including numerous Aramean states; campaigned in the West through Syria and the mountains of Lebanon; and washed his weapons in the sea, receiving tribute from Byblos, Sidon, Tyre and several other coastal cities. Despite his success in amassing plunder, however, Assurnasirpal was less talented than his successors at military strategy and diplomacy; he campaigned without a master plan and had little impact on the states of the southern Levant.

By contrast, Assurnasirpal’s son and successor, Shalmaneser III (859–824 BCE), was an accomplished strategist who campaigned with tenacity and purpose, if not always with success. He established a pattern, continued by his successors, of annual campaigns by the king or his representative. His repeated forays into Syria seem to have been driven by a master plan to subdue the West, either by outright annexation or, in the case of territories more distant from the Assyrian homeland, by the imposition of regular payments of tribute. That he was never entirely successful in achieving this goal was probably, at least in part, the ironic result of his father’s successes. Rankled and impoverished by the strictures that Assurnasirpal’s raids had put on the trade routes west of the Euphrates, a number of states in north Syria and the eastern Taurus (Bit Adini, Carchemish, Hattina, Sam’al) formed a coalition that opposed Shalmaneser almost immediately after his accession. In his first year he marched west to reassert Assyrian control of the major routes across northern Syria into the Amanus, the Cilician highlands and the approaches to the mining areas of the Taurus. His advance was finally checked by the combined forces of the coalition in a battle at Lutibu, near Zinjirli in southeastern Turkey (ancient Sam’al). Shalmaneser’s response was to focus his attention on Bit Adini, which, lying between the Balikh River and the Euphrates, was the coalition state that lay nearest the Assyrian homeland. He marched west every year for three years (857–855 BCE) until he had conquered Bit Adini and annexed it as an Assyrian province, refounding its riparian capital city, Til Barsib (modern Tell Ahmar), as Kar-Shulman-asharidu, “Shalmaneser’s Landing.”

After the subjugation of Bit Adini, most of the states of north Syria regularly paid tribute to Assyria. Quickly, however, a new anti-Assyrian coalition was formed by states farther to the south, who now felt threatened by Shalmaneser’s relentless campaigns. The new alliance extended from Arvad, Byblos and other Mediterranean coastal cities as far south as Ammon in Transjordan and even Arabia. The ringleader of the coalition—and the target of Shalmaneser’s retaliation—was Irhulena of Hamath, a state situated in the rich agricultural lands of the middle Orontes region. Among the 12 kings allied with Irhulena, the most important, in terms of the size of the forces they committed to the cause, were Hadadezer of Damascus and Ahab of Israel. So began Samaria’s conflict with the empire that would eventually destroy it.

The showdown began during Shalmaneser’s sixth-year campaign (853 B.C.E.), when the Assyrian army marched into central Syria for the first time, subduing three of Irhulena’s towns and capturing the fortress of Qarqar (probably Tell Qarqur in the northern Gab or Orontes Valley, northwest of the capital city of Hamath, modern Hama). After the fall of Qarqar, the Assyrian army was confronted by the full forces of the coalition. According to Shalmaneser’s own records, the main contributors to the opposition force were Irhulena of Hamath (700 chariots, 700 horsemen and 10,000 footsoldiers), Hadadezer of Damascus (1,200 chariots, 1,200 horsemen and 20,000 footsoldiers) and Ahab of Israel (2,000 chariots and 10,000 footsoldiers).

After a brief respite when the Assyrian army was campaigning close to home from 852 to 850 BCE, Shalmaneser resumed his assault on the coalition in his tenth year (849 BCE), marching west repeatedly in 848, 845 and 841 BCE The persistence of Shalmaneser’s attacks suggests that the alliance was effective, at least during the lifetime of Hadadezer of Damascus, who seems to have assumed the role of coalition leader after the 853 BCE devastation of the domain of Irhulena of Hamath. Hadadezer died during the 845 BCE campaign or shortly afterwards, and the throne of Damascus was seized by Hazael, a usurper. The usurpation is described in detail in 2 Kings 8:7–15, a prophetic narrative in which Elisha foretells the later depredations of Israel by Hazael, who is depicted as personally assassinating his predecessor.
The Assyrian records designate Hazael as the sole target of Shalmaneser’s 841 BCE campaign, suggesting that the supporting coalition had dissolved with Hadadezer’s death. According to the Assyrian account, Hazael amassed his forces in “Mount Senir” (Mt. Seir or Hermon, the highpoint of the Anti-Lebanon range) but was defeated and forced to retreat eastward into Damascus.

Shalmaneser besieged the city briefly, destroying its orchards and devastating the Hauran, the agriculturally rich plateau south of Damascus. He then marched west to a point on the Mediterranean coast where he received tribute from Tyre, Sidon and Israel. Israel’s role in these events will be discussed below, but the point to be emphasized here is, once again, the isolation of Damascus—all of its former coalition members having chosen to capitulate rather than stand with Hazael against Assyria. Despite this isolation, however, and the devastation of his territory in 841 BCE, Hazael was not defeated. Shalmaneser marched against Damascus once more, in 838 BCE, and then spent the rest of his reign campaigning in northern Syria to secure Assyrian control of that region. Hazael survived to become an increasingly powerful force in southern Syria and northern Palestine and to expand his territory at the expense of his neighbors, especially Israel.