Document 2-3: Assyrian Kings Proclaim Their Greatness (ca. 1220–1070 B.C.E.)

The Qualities of a King

Assyrian Kings Proclaim Their Greatness (ca. 1220–1070 B.C.E.)

From the point of view of the Hebrews, Assyrian expansion was an unqualified evil. Some claimed that conquest by the Assyrians was a punishment inflicted on the Hebrews for allowing moral and spiritual decay to infect their society, but that did not make the Assyrians themselves any less wicked. Needless to say, the Assyrians saw things differently. The two documents included below are Assyrian royal inscriptions, written accounts of the accomplishments of the rulers who ordered their creation. In the first, Tukulti-Ninurta I (r. 1243–1207 B.C.E.) describes his construction of a new capital, Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta. In the second, Tiglath-pilesar I (r. 1115–1077 B.C.E.) gives an account of his conquests. As you read these documents, note the similarities. What qualities did both kings claim for themselves? What do the documents tell you about what, from the Assyrian perspective, made a king “great”?

[Tukulti-Ninurta Builds a Capital]

Then the god Ashur1 my lord requested of me a cult center across [the river] from my city, which was chosen by the gods, and he commanded me to build his temple. At the command of the god Ashur, the god who loves me, on the other side [of the river] from Assur, my city, I indeed built a city for the god Ashur on the opposite bank of the Tigris, in the barren steppes and meadows where no house or dwelling had previously existed. No ruin mound or debris was piled up there, no bricks were laid. I named it Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta. I sliced straight through the hills, I hewed out high mountain passes with chisels. I channeled a stream that brings abundance, making secure the life of the land. I transformed the environs of my city into irrigated land. From the abundant yield of the waters of that canal I prepared perpetual offerings for the god Ashur and the great gods, my lords.

Then I built in my city — Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, the cult center that I constructed — a pure temple, an awe-inspiring sanctuary for the dwelling of the god Ashur, my lord. I named it Ekurmesharra. Within it I completed a great ziggurat2 as the cult platform for the god Ashur, my lord, and I deposited my inscriptions.

May a later ruler restore this ziggurat and temple of the god Ashur, my lord, when they become dilapidated. May he anoint my inscriptions with oil, may he offer sacrifices, and may he return [them] to their proper places. The gods Ashur, Enlil, and Shamash will listen to his prayers.

He who does not restore the ziggurat and the temple of Ashur my lord; who removes my inscriptions and inscribed name; who destroys it by inattention, neglect, or disrepair; who plans any evil matter or makes trouble for this ziggurat and for this temple of the god Ashur my lord; may the gods Ashur, Enlil, and Shamash — the gods who are my help — lead him into distress and sorrow. Wherever battle and conflict are found, may they break his weapons. May they bring about the defeat of his army. May they hand him over to a king who is his adversary and make him live in bondage in the land of his enemies. May they overthrow his reign, and may they destroy his name and his progeny from the land.

[Tiglath-pilesar Conquers His Enemies]

At that time, by the exalted might of Ashur, my lord, with the authoritative consent of Shamash, the warrior, with the support of the great gods by which I have just authority in the four quarters and have neither competitor in battle nor rival in combat, Ashur, my lord, commissioned me to march to the Nairi lands, whose distant kings on the Upper Sea coast in the west, have not known submission. I passed through treacherous roads and narrow passes — whose interior no king had previously known — blocked roads and closed remote mountain regions: the mountains of Elama, Amadanu, Elhish, Sherabeli, Tarhuna, Terkahuli, Kisra, Tarhanabe, Elula, Hashtarae, Shahishara, Ubera, Miadruni, Shulianzi, Nubanashe, and Sheshe. Sixteen rugged mountains became smooth terrain in my chariot because I hacked that difficult terrain with bronze mattocks. I felled the Urumu trees of the mountains. I constructed bridges for the passage of my chariots and troops.

I crossed the Euphrates. The king of Tummu, the king of Tunubu, the king of Tualu, the king of Dardaru, the king of Uzula, the king of Unzamunu, the king of Andiabu, the king of Piladarnu, the king of Adurginu, the king of Kulibarzinu, the king of Shinibirnu, the king of Himua, the king of Paiteru, the king of Uiram, the king of Shururia, the king of Abaenu, the king of Adaenu, the king of Kirinu, the king of Albaya, the king of Ugina, the king of Nazabia, the king of Abarsiunu, the king of Dayenu — a total of 23 kings of the Nairi lands — mustered their chariotry and their troops within their lands. They advanced in order to wage warfare, battle, and combat.

I attacked them with the fury of my fierce weaponry. I brought about the slaughter of their vast armies like a deluge of Adad.3 I laid out like sheaves the corpses of their warriors in the plains, on the heights of the mountains, and in the vicinity of their cities. I seized 120 of their wooden chariots in the midst of battle. I pursued the 60 kings of the Nairi lands, including those who had come to their aid, at the tip of my arrow as far as the Upper Sea.

I conquered their great towns. I removed their booty, their property, and their possessions. Their cities I burned with fire, leveled, and demolished. I turned them into a mound and ruin heap. I brought back multitudinous herds of horses, mules, and donkeys and innumerable livestock from their pastures.

I personally captured alive all of the kings of the Nairi lands. I showed mercy on those kings and spared their lives. I released them from their captivity and bondage in the presence of Shamash, my lord. I made them swear by my great gods an oath of permanent vassalage. I seized their royal male progeny as hostages. I imposed upon them a tribute of 1,200 horses and 2,000 cattle. I released them to their lands.

Sheni, the king of Dayenu, had not been submissive to Ashur, my lord, so I brought him into captivity and bondage to my city. I showed him mercy and released him alive from my city, Ashur, in order to proclaim the glory of the great gods. I ruled the vast Nairi lands in their entirety and subjugated all their kings at my two feet.

From Mark W. Chavalas, ed., The Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2006), pp. 155–158.

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