Tiglath-Pileser I and His Wars

Bibliographic Data

ID3959487
AuthorsA T Olmstead (corresponding author)
Year1917
Volume37
Pages169
Publication date1917-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the American Oriental Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0279 • E-ISSN: 2169-2289
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/592919
OpenAlexW2331680556
LanguageEN
Citations received7

Early Assyrian history is by no means attractive to the student who most enjoys historical problems. The annalistic form of inscription has not yet developed and the narrative tends to thin out into bare lists of rulers or records of building operations, broken here and there by a few high-sounding titles which speak of not far distant conquests or of equal struggles with the former suzerain Babylon. Careful study may give a certain amount of life to the picture, but, when all has been said, true history begins only with the first Tiglath-Pileser. For the first time we have true annals, and from these annals we can construct a picture with the details necessary to make the account live.' At his accession, Tiglath-Pileser found a small enough country. The days of Tukulti-Ninib were past and Assyria had since seen serious losses on all sides. Least dangerous were those on the south for Babylon too had suffered decay, though still strong enough for an occasional raid. The boundary was back again at the Lower Zab and all the debatable ground was in Babylonian hands. On the west, Assyrian control ended with the steppe across which Arabs from south of the Euphrates roamed at will. To the north, the frontier was dangerously near, the first line of the foothills, and to the east it is not clear that all the Assyrian triangle had yet come into his hands. Raids there might be into the mountains to north and to east, but of conquests there was as yet none to boast. The half century of decline had given opportunity for various Asianic peoples to work their way into the -regions which had once owed at least nominal allegiance to the Assyrian monarchs

Ancient history · Ancient Near East History · History · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy

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