ASSIRI. – People settled along the middle Euphrates, so called from Aššur (v). It was commonly held that they were originally Subareans who, first colonized by the Sumerians and then by the Akkadians, fused with the latter, adopting Semitic language, art, and culture. From this fusion emerged the Assyrian people, warlike and cruel, the terror of the ancient Orient (cf. Is. 5, 26-29).
Recent authors (Goetze, Gelb, Poebel), however, consider them originally to have been nomadic Semites, as is stated in the list of the Assyrian kings, after the first 17 names. They settled in northern Mesopotamia, where they first underwent an invasion by the Akkadians, at the time of the first Semitic empire (v. BABILONESI), and then, beginning around 1800, an invasion by the Hurrians. The infusion of Hurrian, that is, Indo-European, blood from these new peoples descending from the mountains gave rise to a new culture, fundamentally Semitic, but owing to these foreigners the features that distinguish it: the harshness of its laws, its warlike spirit, and its art.
It is difficult, however, to follow the course of this development among the A. From about 1800 to 1400 B.C. they were subject to the kingdom of Mitanni, the most important of those founded by the Hurrians, which lay precisely between the Hittites and the A.
In the 14th century the kingdom of Mitanni became a vassal of the Hittites; Assyria took advantage of this and became independent. Its kings extended their conquests over the former Hurrian territory, first under Aššur-Uballi I (c. 1350), and especially under the kings Adad-nirāri I (1330-1290), Šulmānu-ašared I (Shalmaneser, c. 1290-1260), and Tukulti-Ninurta I, who around 1247 conquered Babylon, though only for a short time.
Around 1200 new Indo-European waves burst into Asia Minor and brought down the Hittite empire, whose remnants formed the small principalities of northern Syria. The “peoples
of the sea” descended upon Egypt. Assyria derived every advantage from these disturbances, and once the Hittite empire no longer existed, it began its victorious expansion toward the West.
The founder of Assyrian power was Teglatphalasar (Tiglath-pileser) I (1115-1093), who extended his empire from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean. The history of this militaristic empire, which would always have to defend itself on every side against the various defeated kingdoms, often superior in civilization, is a continuous succession of campaigns against Babel, Urartu, Elam, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Assyria owed it to the valor of its generals and the warlike character of its soldiers that it was able to impose itself and flourish for approximately five centuries (until 612).
Teglatphalasar began the westward drive toward the sea, which his successors, though intermittently, continued almost until the end of the kingdom. They therefore came into conflict with Israel and Judah. Assurnasipal II (885-859) reached as far as Arwad (Arado), in Phoenicia, causing alarm. ACAB (v.) allied himself with Benhadad II, king of Damascus (I Reg. 20, 31-34). Shalmaneser III (859-824), continuing his father’s policy, undertook campaigns against Damascus and its allies (in the years 854, 848, 841, 838). In the first of these, among the defeated confederates, he records 2,000 chariots and 10,000 soldiers of “Achab of the land of Israel.” In 841 he reduced Hazel, the usurper of Damascus, to dire straits, and on the Phoenician coast received the homage of the Syrian kings, among them Ja-u-a mar Hu-um-ri-i, “Jehu successor of Omri” (v. AMORI).
The energetic Teglatphalasar III (745-727) spent his life on the battlefields; he defeated the Urartians, destroying Arpad, their capital (743-740); cf. II Reg. 18, 34. In 738 he received the tribute of the kings of Syria, among them: Ra-lu-um mar Dimadqi and Me-ni-hi-im-me ali Sa-me-ri-na-a-a, “Rasin of Damascus and Menahem of Samaria” (ibid. 15, 37; 16, 5-9; II Par. 28, 5 ff.; Is. 7, 1 ff.). In 734 he marched against the Syrian-Palestinian kings, who had rebelled again; he captured Gezer, Ashkelon, and Gaza.
There he received the rich embassy of Achaz, king of Judah, who invoked help against Rasin and the king of Israel, Phacee (Pekah; II Reg. 16, 7 ff.). Teglatphalasar devastated Israel, deporting to Assyria the inhabitants of many localities; meanwhile Phacee was killed by supporters of the Assyrian party, and he appointed A-n-si (Hosea) as his successor, who paid him a tribute of 10 talents of gold (II Reg. 15, 29 f.). He then captured and devastated Damascus (cf. ibid. 16, 9; Is. 17, 1 ff.), killed the king, and deported the population to Kir.
Having subdued the West, he succeeded in entering ancient Babel in triumph, making himself its king under the name of Pu-lu (Pál in II Reg. 15, 19 f.).
Sargon II (722-705) captured Samaria (722-721), which had already been besieged for three years by Shalmaneser V; he deported 27,290 of its inhabitants, transported there people from other conquered countries (v. SAMARITANI), and made the kingdom of Israel an Assyrian province (II Reg. 17, 3-6, 24; 18, 9 ff.).
Upon Sargon’s death, Merodach-baladan II seized the kingdom of Babel once again, seeking allies in the West (cf. Is. 39). Sennacherib (v.), or Sin-ahhē-eriba (705-681), subdued Elam and Babel (702), and in 701 turned against Palestine. He captured Sidon, subdued the other states, and punished Ekron. After defeating the Egyptians at Alta-qu-u (Hebr. 'Eltēgh, Ios. 19, 44; 21, 23), he devastated the territory of Judah, shutting King Hezekiah (Ha-za-qi-a-u) up in Jerusalem “like a bird in a cage.” Sennacherib relates that Hezekiah submitted, sending him 30 talents of gold and 800 of silver, in addition to many precious objects and slaves; and he returned to Nineveh. The details reported in II Reg. 18, 13-19, 37 (cf. Is. 36-37) are attributed by many to a later campaign, between 690 and 681; but most consider them to belong here.
In 689 Sennacherib destroyed Babel, which Esarhaddon would rebuild. After Sennacherib was killed by his two elder sons, who fled from northern Mesopotamia, Esarhaddon obtained the kingdom (680-669). Among his tributaries he mentions “Manasseh king of Judah,” who adopted the cults and practices of the rulers (II Reg. 21, 3).
After Esarhaddon conquered Egypt (671), his son and successor, Ashurbanipal (668-625), returned there victoriously in 667 and in 663, the year in which he brutally sacked Thebes (Nō' Āmēn); cf. Nah. 3, 8 ff.
The fall of Nineveh (612), at the hands of the Medes and the Chaldeans, marks the end of the Assyrian state (v. BABILONESI).
Studies: P. Dhorme, Les pays bibliques et l'Assyrie, Paris 1911; B. Meissner, Babylonien und Assyrien, 2 vols., Heidelberg 1920-25; S. Smith, Early History of Assyria to 1000 B. C., London 1928; J. Plessis, Babylone et la Bible, in DBs. I, cols. 783-95; G. Furlani, La civiltà babilonese e assira, Rome 1929; id., Riti babilonesi ed assiri (L'Oriente, 2). Udine 1940; A. Pohl, Historia orientis antiqui, Rome 1932; id., Historia populi Israel, a divisione regni usque ad exilium, ibid. 1933; J. Lewy, Les textes paléo-assyriens et l'A. T., in Revue d'hist. des Religions, 110 (1934), pp. 29-65; A. Goetze, Hethiter, Hurriter und Assyrier, Oslo 1936; G. Contensu, La civilisation d'Assur et de Babylone, Paris 1937; I. J. Gelb, Hurrians and Subareans, Chicago 1942; A. Poebel, The Assyrian King List from Khoroabad, ibid. 1942-43. Francesco Spadafora