Situation and Organisation: The Empire Building of Tiglath-pileser III (745-728 BC)

Abstract

The reign of Tiglath-pileser III (745-728 BC) is synonymous with a period of rapid upheaval and change. In the second half of the 9th and the first half of the 8th century the Assyrian empire was plagued with internal problems and revolt under a number of successive weak rulers. With the accession of Tiglath-pileser III (745-728 BC) to the throne, however, Assyria experienced a rapid recovery and entered into a ‘golden age’ characterised predominantly by a vast and stable empire. While the achievement of Tiglath-pileser III has been widely recognised, the problem of how Tiglath-pileser III was able to achieve this feat so quickly and at a time when Assyria was still recovering from a period of weakness has continued to perplex scholars. The issue of what role provinces played in the empire-building of Tiglath-pileser III is of fundamental importance to this question. While the royal annals are clearly biased in their presentation of Assyrian history, some attempt has been made to overcome the limitations inherent in these sources here through the use of Assyrian letters and the adoption of a critical approach to the official Assyrian accounts. A number of texts utilised here, in particular some of the Nimrud letters presented in the Appendix, are also accompanied by new transliterations and translations. This research concludes that the success of Tiglath-pileser III can be credited to introduced military reforms, as well as to the prevailing international situation, notably the weakness of other rival powers, which enabled Assyria to successfully pursue an aggressive imperial policy during this period.