People > Tiglath-Pileser I
Tiglath-Pileser I
Background
Tiglath-Pileser I was one of the most famous and successful of all the kings of Assyria. He reigned between 1115 BC and 1077 BC and began his rule during a time of great political and social strife. At this time a group of people known as the Mushki or the Mushku, also known as the Meschech of the Old Testament and possibly the Phrygians were invading Anatolia and was bringing great threat to the cultures of Mesopotamia.
The real threat of the invasion was the threatening of the major iron supply of Mesopotamia which was just beginning to be used widespread at the dawn of the Iron Age. The area of northern Mesopotamia was the only real rich source of iron in the region and thus was of major strategic value for any potential political entity that wanted to equip an army with the latest weaponry and defensive implements.
In addition to defending the civilization against the hordes he also authorized massive building projects all throughout the cities of Ashur, Nineveh, and many others. He built a great library that would later be developed into the Library of Ashurbanipal under the Neo-Assyrian Empire. It is also believed that Tiglath developed a great garden complex that would possibly inspire the later Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Despite his widespread success his achievements in territory and conquest did not last past the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I and his successors were unable to continue. Following his death the civilization of Assyria entered a period of decline.
Tiglath-pileser defeated 20,000 Mushki in the Assyrian province of Kummukh (Commagene). He also defeated the Nairi, who lived west of Lake Van, extending Assyrian control farther into Asia Minor than any of his predecessors had done. He subdued various seminomadic Aramaean tribes living along the routes to the Mediterranean and reached the Syrian coast, where the Phoenician trading cities paid him tribute. Egypt, closely linked by trade with the Syrian coast, made overtures of friendship. After 1100 Tiglath-pileser conquered northern Babylonia.Tiglath-Pileser IKing of AssyriaTiglathPileserI.pngRock relief of Tiglath-PileserReign1114–1076 BCPredecessorAshur-resh-ishi ISuccessorAsharid-apal-EkurDied1076 BCAkkadianTukultī-apil-EšarraTiglath-Pileser I (/ˈtɪɡləθ paɪˈliːzər/;[1] from the Hebraic form[2] of Akkadian: Tukultī-apil-Ešarra, "my trust is in the son of Esharra") was a king of Assyria during the Middle Assyrian period (1114–1076 BC). According to Georges Roux, Tiglath-Pileser was "one of the two or three great Assyrian monarchs since the days of Shamshi-Adad I".[3] Under him, Assyria became the leading power of the Middle East, a position the kingdom largely maintained for the next five hundred years. He expanded Assyrian control into Anatolia and Syria, and to the shores of the Mediterranean.[4] From his surviving inscriptions, he seems to have carefully cultivated a fear of himself in his subjects and in his enemies alike.Contents [hide]1Campaigns2See also3References4External linksCampaigns[edit]The son of Ashur-resh-ishi I, he ascended to the throne in 1115 BC, and became one of the greatest of Assyrian conquerors.[5]His first campaign was against the Mushku in 1112 B.C. who had occupied certain Assyrian districts in the Upper Euphrates; then he overran Commagene and eastern Cappadocia, and drove the Hittites from the Assyrian province of Subartu, northeast of Malatia.In a subsequent campaign, the Assyrian forces penetrated into the mountains south of Lake Van and then turned westward to receive the submission of Malatia. In his fifth year, Tiglath-Pileser attacked Comana in Cappadocia, and placed a record of his victories engraved on copper plates in a fortress he built to secure his Cilician conquests.The Aramaeans of northern Syria were the next targets of the Assyrian king, who made his way as far as the sources of the Tigris.[6] It is said from an Assyrian relief that he campaigned against the Arameans 28 times during his reign from 1115 to 1077 BC. The control of the high road to the Mediterranean was secured by the possession of the Hittite town of Pitru[7] at the junction between the Euphrates and Sajur; thence he proceeded to Gubal (Byblos), Sidon, and finally to Arvad where he embarked onto a ship to sail the Mediterranean, on which he killed a nahiru or "sea-horse" (which A. Leo Oppenheim translates as a narwhal) in the sea.[8] He was passionately fond of the chase and was also a great builder. The general view is that the restoration of the temple of the gods Ashur and Hadad at Assyrian capital of Assur was one of his initiatives.[9]The latter part of his reign seems to have been a period of retrenchment, as Aramaean tribesmen put pressure on his realm. He died in 1076 BC and was succeeded by his son Asharid-apal-Ekur. The later kings Ashur-bel-kala and Shamshi-Adad IV were also his sons.See also[edit]Ancient Near East portalTiglath-Pileser IITiglath-Pileser IIIReferences[edit]Jump up ^ In English, any of the following four pronunciations are used: /ˈtɪɡləθ paɪˈliːzər/ tig-ləth py-lee-zər, /ˈtɪɡləθ pᵻˈliːzər/ tig-ləth pə-lee-zər, /ˈtɪɡˌlæθ paɪˈliːzər/ tig-lath py-lee-zər, or /ˈtɪɡˌlæθ pᵻˈliːzər/ tig-lath pə-lee-zər.Jump up ^ Spelled as "תִּגְלַת פִּלְאֶסֶר" "Tiglath-Pileser" in the Book of Kings (2Kings 15:29) or as "תִּלְּגַת פִּלְנְאֶסֶר" "Tilgath-Pilneser" in the Book of Chronicles (2Chronicles 28:20).Jump up ^ Roux, Georges. Ancient Iraq. Third edition. Penguin Books, 1992 (paperback, ISBN 0-14-012523-X).Jump up ^ 'The Collins Encyclopedia of Military History', Dupuy & Dupuy, 1993, p. 9Jump up ^ The encyclopædia britannica:a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information, Volume 26, Edited by Hugh Chrisholm, 1911, p. 968Jump up ^ The encyclopædia britannica:a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information, Volume 26, Edited by Hugh Chrisholm, 1911, p. 968Jump up ^ Bryce, Trevor. The Routledge Handbook of The People and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the fall of the Persians Empire, p.563Jump up ^ The encyclopædia britannica:a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information, Volume 26, Edited by Hugh Chrisholm, 1911, p. 968Jump up ^ The encyclopædia britannica: a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information, volume 26, edited by Hugh Chrisholm, 1911, p. 968.External links[edit]Inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I. Babylonian and Assyrian Literature. Project Gutemberg.Assyrian origins: discoveries at Ashur on the Tigris: antiquities in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Tiglath-Pileser IPublic Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "article name needed". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.Preceded byAshur-resh-ishi IKing of Assyria1115–1077 BCSucceeded byAsharid-apal-Ekur
