Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC)

Tiglath-pileser portrait

An image of Tiglath-pileser from cut from a large stone slab that once adorned his palace at Kalḫu. British Museum, BM ME 118900. Photo by Karen Radner.

In 745 BC, during a revolt in the city Kalḫu that brought the reign of Aššur-nārārī V to an end, Tiglath-pileser III (Akk. Tukultī-apil-Ešarra, "My trust is in the heir of Ešarra") ascended the throne of Assyria, restored order to the troubled kingdom, and set the Assyrian army in motion once again. Although he was a member of the royal family, Tiglath-pileser was not in line to become king. Sources about who his father was are contradictory; one text records that he was a son of Adad-nārārī III, while another states that he was a son of the previous king, Aššur-nārārī V. Nevertheless, he proved to be a very capable ruler. Under his authority, Assyria became a formidable military and political power, just as it had been in the days of Ashurnasirpal II and Shalmaneser III.

During his eighteen years on the throne, Tiglath-pileser reshaped the political map of southwestern Asia by mounting an aggressive military campaign every year that he was king. His armies marched in all directions, beginning with the south, where he defeated the Arameans living in northern Babylonia, on the eastern bank of Tigris River. Tiglath-pileser then set his sights on rivals in the northwest and the west. He fought the rival kingdom of Urarṭu and its north Syrian allies; the Urarṭian army was routed and the troublesome Syrian city Arpad was conquered and annexed. With Urarṭu out of the way, Assyria was able to rapidly annex numerous Syro-Palestinian states, including Unqi (Pattinu), Aram-Damascus, and parts of the kingdom of Israel. Conquered territories were efficiently reorganized as Assyrian provinces and placed under the direct control of a trusted official (ša rēši) of the king. Tiglath-pileser also instituted unprecedented large-scale two-way deportations, a policy that transformed the demographic structure and cultural character of Assyria. Moreover, numerous Anatolian and Levantine rulers became vassals. At the time the west was being reorganized, the Assyrian army advanced northward, into the heart of Urarṭu and eastward into Median territory. In the east, rulers, weak and powerful alike, were brought into submission and their lands were transformed into Assyrian provinces.

Towards the end of his reign, Tiglath-pileser turned his attention to Babylonia and conquered it. He not only took the traditional title "king of the lands of Sumer and Akkad," but also declared himself "king of Babylon," something none of his predecessors had done. Tiglath-pileser ascended the throne as Babylon's legitimate king and participated in the akītu-festival by taking the hand of the god Bēl (Marduk), a role suitable only for the true and divinely sanctioned king of Babylon. Thus, both Assyria and Babylonia were under the authority of a single king, a situation that would create new geo-political complications, some of which would come to a head in the reigns of his successors.

For further information on the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III, visit the RINAP 1 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/index.html] portal page

Browse online Tiglath-pileser III Corpus [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/corpus]

Further reading

P. Dubovský, "Neo-Assyrian warfare: logistics and weaponry during the campaigns of Tiglath-pileser III," Anodos: Studies of the Ancient World 4-5 (2004-05) pp. 61-67.

F.M. Fales, "Tiglat-pileser III tra annalistica reale ed epistolografia quotidiana," pp. 163-191 in F. Pecchioli Daddi and M. C. Guidotti (eds.), Narrare gli eventi: Atti del convegno degli egittologi e degli orientalisti italiani in margine alla mostra "La battaglia di Qadesh" (Studia Asiana 3). Rome, 2005.

A. Kirk Grayson, "Assyria: Tiglath-pileser III to Sargon II (744-705 B.C.)," pp. 71-85 in J. Boardman et al. (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History, second edition, vol. 3/2. Cambridge, 1991.

K. Radner, "Kalhu, Tiglatpileser's royal residence city," [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/cities/kalhu/] Assyrian Empire Builders. London, 2010.

K. Radner, "Tiglatpileser III, king of Assyria (744-727 BC)," [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sargon/essentials/kings/tiglatpileseriii/] Assyrian Empire Builders. London, 2010.

H. Tadmor, The Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III, King of Assyria. Jerusalem, 1994.

H. Tadmor and S. Yamada, The Royal Inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC) and Shalmaneser V (726-722 BC), Kings of Assyria (The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period 1). Winona Lake, 2011. [http://www.eisenbrauns.com/item/TADROYALI] BUY THE BOOK. [http://www.eisenbrauns.com/item/TADROYALI]

Jamie Novotny

Jamie Novotny, 'Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC)', The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, The RINAP Project, 2019 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/neoassyrianhistoryoverview/tiglathpileseriii744727bc/]

 
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