Tiglath-Pileser I
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Tiglath-Pileser I (the Hebraic form of Tukulti-apil-Esharra, "my trust is in the son of Esharra") was King of Assyria (1115 BC - 1076 BC). Georges Roux, writing in his book Ancient Iraq (London: Penguin, 1992), considers Tiglath-Pileser "one of the two or three great Assyrian monarchs since the days of Shamshi-Adad". From his surviving inscriptions, he seems to have carefully cultivated a fear of himself in his subjects and in his enemies.
The son of Ashur-resh-ishi I, he ascended the throne in 1115 BC, and was one of the greatest of Assyrian conquerors. His first campaign was against the Mushki who had occupied certain Assyrian districts on the Upper Euphrates; then he overran Kommagene and eastern Cappadocia, and drove the Hittites from the Assyrian province of Subarti 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 north Syria were the next to be attacked, and he thrice made his way as far as the sources of the Tigris. The command of the high road to the Mediterranean was secured by the possession of the Hittite town of Pethor at the junction of 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. He was passionately fond of the chase and was also a great builder. The general view is that the restoration of the temple of Assur and Hadad at Assur is one of his works.
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.
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| Preceded by Ashur-resh-ishi I |
King of Assyria 1115–1077 BCE |
Succeeded by Asharid-apal-Ekur |
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
