Part 28 (1/2)
These recurring conflicts were intimately a.s.sociated with the Mesopotamian question. a.s.syria was gradually expanding westward and shattering the dreams of the Babylonian statesmen and traders who hoped to recover control of the caravan routes and restore the prestige of their nation in the west.
Like his father, Adad-nirari I of a.s.syria had attacked the Aramaean ”Suti” who were settling about Haran. He also acquired a further portion of the ancient kingdom of Mitanni, with the result that he exercised sway over part of northern Mesopotamia. After defeating Na'zi-mar-ut'tash, he fixed the boundaries of the a.s.syrian and Babylonian spheres of influence much to the advantage of his own country.
At home Adad-nirari conducted a vigorous policy. He developed the resources of the city state of a.s.shur by constructing a great dam and quay wall, while he contributed to the prosperity of the priesthood and the growth of a.s.syrian culture by extending the temple of the G.o.d Ashur. Ere he died, he a.s.sumed the proud t.i.tle of ”Shar Kishshate”, ”king of the world”, which was also used by his son Shalmaneser I. His reign extended over a period of thirty years and terminated about 1300 B.C.
Soon after Shalmaneser came to the throne his country suffered greatly from an earthquake, which threw down Ishtar's temple at Nineveh and Ashur's temple at a.s.shur. Fire broke out in the latter building and destroyed it completely.
These disasters did not dismay the young monarch. Indeed, they appear to have stimulated him to set out on a career of conquest, to secure treasure and slaves, so as to carry out the work of reconstructing the temples without delay. He became as great a builder, and as tireless a campaigner as Thothmes III of Egypt, and under his guidance a.s.syria became the most powerful nation in Western Asia. Ere he died his armies were so greatly dreaded that the Egyptians and a.s.syrians drew their long struggle for supremacy in Syria to a close, and formed an alliance for mutual protection against their common enemy.
It is necessary at this point to review briefly the history of Palestine and north Syria after the period of Hitt.i.te expansion under King Subbi-luliuma and the decline of Egyptian power under Akhenaton.
The western part of Mitanni and the most of northern Syria had been colonized by the Hitt.i.tes.[410] Farther south, their allies, the Amorites, formed a buffer State on the borders of Egypt's limited sphere of influence in southern Palestine, and of Babylonia's sphere in southern Mesopotamia. Mitanni was governed by a subject king who was expected to prevent the acquisition by a.s.syria of territory in the north-west.
Subbi-luliuma was succeeded on the Hitt.i.te throne by his son, King Mursil, who was known to the Egyptians as ”Meraser”, or ”Maurasar”.
The greater part of this monarch's reign appears to have been peaceful and prosperous. His allies protected his frontiers, and he was able to devote himself to the work of consolidating his empire in Asia Minor and North Syria. He erected a great palace at Boghaz Koi, and appears to have had dreams of imitating the splendours of the royal Courts of Egypt, a.s.syria, and Babylon.
At this period the Hitt.i.te Empire was approaching the zenith of its power. It controlled the caravan roads of Babylonia and Egypt, and its rulers appear not only to have had intimate diplomatic relations with both these countries, but even to have concerned themselves regarding their internal affairs. When Rameses I came to the Egyptian throne, at the beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty, he sealed an agreement with the Hitt.i.tes, and at a later date the Hitt.i.te amba.s.sador at Babylon, who represented Hattusil II, the second son of King Mursil, actually intervened in a dispute regarding the selection of a successor to the throne.
The closing years of King Mursil's reign were disturbed by the military conquests of Egypt, which had renewed its strength under Rameses I. Seti I, the son of Rameses I, and the third Pharaoh of the powerful Nineteenth Dynasty, took advantage of the inactivity of the Hitt.i.te ruler by invading southern Syria. He had first to grapple with the Amorites, whom he successfully defeated. Then he pressed northward as far as Tunip, and won a decisive victory over a Hitt.i.te army, which secured to Egypt for a period the control of Palestine as far north as Phoenicia.
When Mursil died he was succeeded on the Hitt.i.te throne by his son Mutallu, whom the Egyptians referred to as ”Metella” or ”Mautinel”. He was a vigorous and aggressive monarch, and appears to have lost no time in compelling the Amorites to throw off their allegiance to Egypt and recognize him as their overlord. As a result, when Rameses II ascended the Egyptian throne he had to undertake the task of winning back the Asiatic possessions of his father.
The preliminary operations conducted by Rameses on the Palestinian coast were attended with much success. Then, in his fifth year, he marched northward with a great army, with purpose, it would appear, to emulate the achievements of Thothmes III and win fame as a mighty conqueror. But he underestimated the strength of his rival and narrowly escaped disaster. Advancing impetuously, with but two of his four divisions, he suddenly found himself surrounded by the army of the wily Hitt.i.te, King Mutallu, in the vicinity of the city of Kadesh, on the Orontes. His first division remained intact, but his second was put to flight by an intervening force of the enemy. From this perilous position Rameses extricated himself by leading a daring charge against the Hitt.i.te lines on the river bank, which proved successful. Thrown into confusion, his enemies sought refuge in the city, but the Pharaoh refrained from attacking them there.
Although Rameses boasted on his return home of having achieved a great victory, there is nothing more certain than that this campaign proved a dismal failure. He was unable to win back for Egypt the northern territories which had acknowledged the suzerainty of Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty. Subsequently he was kept fully engaged in maintaining his prestige in northern Palestine and the vicinity of Phoenicia. Then his Asiatic military operations, which extended altogether over a period of about twenty years, were brought to a close in a dramatic and unexpected manner. The Hitt.i.te king Mutallu had died in battle, or by the hand of an a.s.sa.s.sin, and was succeeded by his brother Hattusil II (Khetasar), who sealed a treaty of peace with the great Rameses.
An Egyptian copy of this interesting doc.u.ment can still be read on the walls of a Theban temple, but it is lacking in certain details which interest present-day historians. No reference, for instance, is made to the boundaries of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, so that it is impossible to estimate the degree of success which attended the campaigns of Rameses. An interesting light, however, is thrown on the purport of the treaty by a tablet letter which has been discovered by Professor Hugo Winckler at Boghaz Koi. It is a copy of a communication addressed by Hattusil II to the King of Babylonia, who had made an enquiry regarding it. ”I will inform my brother,” wrote the Hitt.i.te monarch; ”the King of Egypt and I have made an alliance, and made ourselves brothers. Brothers we are and will [unite against] a common foe, and with friends in common.”[411] The common foe could have been no other than a.s.syria, and the Hitt.i.te king's letter appears to convey a hint to Kadashman-turgu of Babylon that he should make common cause with Rameses II and Hattusil.
Shalmaneser I of a.s.syria was pursuing a determined policy of western and northern expansion. He struck boldly at the eastern Hitt.i.te States and conquered Malatia, where he secured great treasure for the G.o.d Ashur. He even founded colonies within the Hitt.i.te sphere of influence on the borders of Armenia. Shalmaneser's second campaign was conducted against the portion of ancient Mitanni which was under Hitt.i.te control. The va.s.sal king, Sattuari, apparently a descendant of Tushratta's, endeavoured to resist the a.s.syrians with the aid of Hitt.i.tes and Aramaeans, but his army of allies was put to flight. The victorious Shalmaneser was afterwards able to penetrate as far westward as Carchemish on the Euphrates.
Having thus secured the whole of Mitanni, the a.s.syrian conqueror attacked the Aramaean hordes which were keeping the territory round Haran in a continuous state of unrest, and forced them to recognize him as their overlord.
Shalmaneser thus, it would appear, gained control of northern Mesopotamia and consequently of the Babylonian caravan route to Haran.
As a result Hitt.i.te prestige must have suffered decline in Babylon.
For a generation the Hitt.i.tes had had the Babylonian merchants at their mercy, and apparently compelled them to pay heavy duties.
Winckler has found among the Boghaz Koi tablets several letters from the king of Babylon, who made complaints regarding robberies committed by Amoritic bandits, and requested that they should be punished and kept in control. Such a communication is a clear indication that he was ent.i.tled, in lieu of payment, to have an existing agreement fulfilled.
Shalmaneser found that a.s.shur, the ancient capital, was unsuitable for the administration of his extended empire, so he built a great city at Kalkhi (Nimrud), the Biblical Calah, which was strategically situated amidst fertile meadows on the angle of land formed by the Tigris and the Upper Zab. Thither to a new palace he transferred his brilliant Court.
He was succeeded by his son, Tukulti-Ninip I, who was the most powerful of the a.s.syrian monarchs of the Old Empire. He made great conquests in the north and east, extended and strengthened a.s.syrian influence in Mesopotamia, and penetrated into Hitt.i.te territory, bringing into subjection no fewer than forty kings, whom he compelled to pay annual tribute. It was inevitable that he should be drawn into conflict with the Babylonian king, who was plotting with the Hitt.i.tes against him. One of the tablet letters found by Winckler at Boghaz Koi is of special interest in this connection. Hattusil advises the young monarch of Babylonia to ”go and plunder the land of the foe”.
Apparently he sought to be freed from the hara.s.sing attention of the a.s.syrian conqueror by prevailing on his Babylonian royal friend to act as a ”cat's paw”.
It is uncertain whether or not Kashtiliash II of Babylonia invaded a.s.syria with purpose to cripple his rival. At any rate war broke out between the two countries, and Tukulti-Ninip proved irresistible in battle. He marched into Babylonia, and not only defeated Kashtiliash, but captured him and carried him off to a.s.shur, where he was presented in chains to the G.o.d Ashur.
The city of Babylon was captured, its wall was demolished, and many of its inhabitants were put to the sword. Tukulti-Ninip was evidently waging a war of conquest, for he pillaged E-sagila, ”the temple of the high head”, and removed the golden statue of the G.o.d Merodach to a.s.syria, where it remained for about sixteen years. He subdued the whole of Babylonia as far south as the Persian Gulf, and ruled it through viceroys.
Tukulti-Ninip, however, was not a popular emperor even in his own country. He offended national susceptibilities by showing preference for Babylonia, and founding a new city which has not been located.
There he built a great palace and a temple for Ashur and his pantheon.