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====== Assurnasirpal II ====== | ====== Assurnasirpal II ====== | ||
- | Made Kalah his capital. | + | Among the Neo-Assyrian kings, Assurnasirpal II has a reputation for being one, if not the, most sadistic and cruel. This impression undoubtably comes from the king's vivid campaign annals, which with its relentless refrains of massacres, impaling, flaying, and burning among rebellious cities, reinforces in clay what the army did in the field: the invincible insistence of the Assyrian war machine. |
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+ | At the political and military level, Assurnasirpal II continued the momentum generated by his predecessors with extensive campaigns east, north, and west of the Assyrian heartland. As soon as his accession year (apparently following directly on the heels of Tukulti-Ninurta II's last campaign - see Olmstead pg. ???) the king brought out his soldiers and chariots for a march through the area of Zamua, which stretched east from Nineveh as far as the Zagros foothills, and north up to Lake Urmia. He first conquered the cities of Libe, Surra, Abuqu, Arura, and Arabe, (Ass. annals l. 46). People fleeing from these towns congregated at the peak of a tall mountain, which the annals describe with the oft-quoted phrase: "like the point of an iron dagger, which no bird reaches" | ||
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+ | The next area of this first, brief campaign were the lands of Kirurri and Kirhu, which lay in the upper Tigris Valley north of Nineveh (Olmstead pg??). Several local rulers presented him with tribute, however when he reached the cities lying along the Arzn river, a north-south running tributary of the Tigris west of Lake Van, he proceeded to pillage until reaching the town of Nishtun. There he put the people to flight to a high mountain that "hung over the town like a cloud from heaven" | ||
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+ | The next year's campaign was longer and farther-ranging. Returning to where the previous year's campaign left off, at the base of Mt. Nippur and Mt. Pasate (Olmstead pg.?), he started off by conquering the towns of Atkun, Ushhu, Pilazi, and numerous other small towns to the north of modern Diyarbakır. Then crossing the Tigris over to the land of Qummuhi, he received tribute from the troublesome Mashki (Phrygians), | ||
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+ | I approached the city Suru, which belongs to Bit-Halupe. Awe of the radiance of Assur, my lord, overwhelmed them. The nobles (and) elders of the city came out to me to save their lives. They submitted to me and said: 'As is pleases you, kill! As it pleases you, spare. As it pleases you, do what you will!' I captured Ahi-iababa, son of a nobody, whom they brought from the land Bit-Adini. With my staunch heart and fierce weapons I besieged the city. All the guilty soldiers were seized and handed over to me. I sent my nobles into his palace (and) temples. I carried off his silver, gold, possessions, | ||
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+ | I appointed Azi-ili as my own governor over them. I erected a pile in front of his gate; I flayed as many nobles as had rebelled against me (and) draped their skins over the pile; some I spread out within the pile, some I erected on stakes upon the pile, (and) some I placed on stakes around the pile. I flayed many right through my land (and) draped their skins over the walls. I slashed the flesh of the eunuchs (and) of the royal eunuchs who were guilty. I brought Ahi-iababa to Nineveh, flayed him, (and) draped his skin over the wall of Nineveh. (Grayson pg. 199). | ||
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