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Tiglath Pileser III › Who Was
Definition and Origins
Tiglath Pileser III (745-727 BCE) was among the most powerful kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and, according to many scholars, the founder of the empire (as opposed to the claims for Adad Nirari II (912-891 BCE) or Ashurnasirpal II (884-859 BCE) as founder). His birth name was Pulu (or Pul, as he is called in the biblical books of I Kings and I Chronicles). His assumed name, Tiglath Pileser III, is the Hebrew version of the Akkadian Tukulti-Apil-Esara and was chosen to link himself directly to great kings of the past, such as Tiglath Pileser I. He took the throne in a palace coup and was not of the royal line, although it seems he was of royal blood. Prior to his rise to power, the Assyrian Empire had been languishing under kings like Ashur Dan III and Ashur Nirari V, and the regional rulers had acquired enough power to act autonomously. Following his coup, Tiglath Pileser re-organized the government, curtailed the power of the provincial rulers, re-structured the military, and revitalized the empire. Under his reign, the Assyrian Empire expanded and populations were forcibly re-located throughout the region to maximize the efficiency of the communities and discourage revolt. He was an adept administrator and is regularly regarded as one of the greatest military leaders in history.
ONCE LOYALTY WAS ASSURED, CONQUERED REGIONS WERE ALLOWED TO RETAIN SOME AUTONOMY AND CONTINUE ON WITH THEIR LIVES AS BEFORE.
RISE TO POWER & EARLY REIGN
Pulu was a provincial governor of the city of Kahlu (also known as Nimrud ), which had been the capital of the Assyrian Empire since the reign of Ashurnasirpal II. Dissatisfaction with the laconic rule of Ashur Nirari V had reached a crisis point by the year 746 BCE and civil war broke out. Pulu's faction defeated the forces of Ashur Nirari V, seized the palace at Kahlu, and slaughtered the royal family. It is unclear whether Pulu initiated the revolt, but he either won the support of court officials to mount the uprising or took command once it was underway; in either case, he claimed the throne after the death of the king and assumed the name Tiglath Pileser III.
The autonomy of provincial governors had grown enormously under the rule of the past two kings of the empire. The historian Van De Mieroop writes:
In the first half of the eighth century, Assyria had lost its ability to campaign outside its borders and internally local officials had usurped some of the royal powers. Provincial governors were able to act with a great deal of independence, although they still had to acknowledge their subservience to the king. Scholars disagree about the extent of internal weakness: some see the local officials as virtually autonomous, others consider them as fully integrated within the Assyrian state structure and their activities as coordinated with those of the king (248).
Since Tiglath Pileser III had been one of these government officials and had managed to topple the king, his first priority was to make sure the same thing did not happen to him. He restructured the government to place more power in his own hands and drastically reduce the authority of local governors. He reduced the size of the provinces, increasing their number from twelve to 25, and divided the responsibility for governing between two men who had to agree on policy before it was brought to the king (as opposed to the old form in which one powerful governor was free to do as he pleased). He also initiated a policy in which he appointed eunuchs to these positions so there would be no provincial dynasties and the position could not be passed from father to son, thus decreasing the likelihood of a governor trying to usurp too much power, since he would be unable to establish a family line to carry on his name (Van De Mieroop, 248). He also instituted an intelligence system which was carefully overseen by the palace and those the king could trust. Tiglath Pileser III's administrative talents and understanding of human motivation were crucial elements in the success of this re-organization of the empire.
Having secured his position and stabilized the government, he next turned his attention to the military, which also underwent drastic reformation. Previously, the army had been made up of conscripts who were forced to fight, often against their will, and primarily in the summer (the traditional time for campaigns as the crops would have already been planted and the harvest was still ahead). The new king changed this policy so that now there was a levy of a certain number of men each province had to provide who would be thoroughly trained to be a member of the Assyrian army and could campaign year-round. In doing so, Tiglath Pileser III created the first professional army in history.
Neo-Assyrian Empire
MILITARY CAMPAIGNS
According to the historian Gwendolyn Leick, Tiglath Pileser III “was a tireless campaigner, leading his powerful army for every year but one of his 17-year reign. He began by subduing Aramaean tribes in Babylonia, where he garnered support on a grand tour of the major sanctuaries” (172). Once the king of Babylon had sued for peace, Tiglath Pileser III left the city alone and paid homage to the gods of the land at the temples (as Leick alludes to regarding the `grand tour'). He then marched north to defeat the kingdom of Urartu, which had long been a powerful enemy of the Assyrians, in 743 BCE. With Urartu under Assyrian control, he then marched west into Syria and punished the kingdom of Arpad, which had been Urartu's ally, in 741 BCE. He lay siege to the city for three years and, when it fell, he had it destroyed and the inhabitants slaughtered. He then divided Arpad's kingdom into provinces under the rule of Assyrian governors (who were eunuchs, as per his policy) and deported huge segments of the population to other regions. Although Tiglath Pileser III is commonly cited as the Assyrian king who first instituted the policy of deportation, it had actually been instated by Adad Nirari I (1307-1275 BCE) centuries before and had been common practice, for those kings powerful enough to employ it, ever since. Tiglath Pileser III's methods of deportation are in keeping with those of his predecessors who made sure that the deportees were well cared for and equipped for their journey. The historian Karen Radner comments on this, writing :
The deportees, their labour and their abilities were extremely valuable to the Assyrian state, and their relocation was carefully planned and organised. We must not imagine treks of destitute fugitives who were easy prey for famine and disease: the deportees were meant to travel as comfortably and safely as possible in order to reach their destination in good physical shape. Whenever deportations are depicted in Assyrian imperial art, men, women and children are shown travelling in groups, often riding on vehicles or animals and never in bonds.There is no reason to doubt these depictions as Assyrian narrative art does not otherwise shy away from the graphic display of extreme violence, and contemporary text sources support the notion that the deportees were treated well, as attested for example in a letter from an Assyrian official to his king Tiglath-pileser III:"As for the Aramaeans about whom the king my lord has written to me: 'Prepare them for their journey!' I shall give them their food supplies, clothes, a waterskin, a pair of shoes and oil. I do not have my donkeys yet, but once they are available, I will dispatch my convoy." (NL 25 = SAA 19 17).That the state continued to support the deportees once they had reached their destination is clear from another letter of the same author:"As for the Aramaeans about whom the king my lord has said: 'They are to have wives!' We found numerous suitable women but their fathers refuse to give them in marriage, claiming: 'We will not consent unless they can pay the bride price.' Let them be paid so that the Aramaeans can get married." (NL 26 = SAA 19 18)As we have seen, the Assyrian resettlement policy divided existing communities into those who had to stay and those who had to leave, according to the needs of the state. Populations were relocated within the boundaries of the empire, replacing and being replaced by people who were themselves moved. Our last source, especially, highlights that the state authorities actively encouraged a mixing of the new neighbours: the ultimate goal of the Assyrian resettlement policy was to create a homogeneous population with a shared culture and a common identity - that of "Assyrians".
The conquest of Arpad was so complete that it is noted in the message which the later Assyrian king Sennacherib sends to the Judean king Hezekiah in the biblical books of Isaiah 37:13 and II Kings 18-19 (which also mentions the kingdom of Hamath, also taken by Tiglath Pileser III). Once Arpad was conquered, Tiglath Pileser III went on to subdue the rest of Syria (at that time known as Eber Nari). His forces met with stiff resistance under the command of the tribal leader Rakhianu of Damascus but, after two years of conflict, the forces of Damascus were defeated and the region conquered by the armies of Assyria.
Campaigns such as the long siege of Arpad or the battles with Damascus could only have been carried out by a professional army such as the one Tiglath Pileser III had created and, as the historian Dubovsky notes, this expansion of the Assyrian Empire could not have taken place without “the new organization of the army, improved logistics and weaponry” and, in particular, the use of iron weapons instead of bronze. Iron weapons could be mass produced to equip a much larger fighting force than was previously able to be put into the field and, of course, were stronger than bronze weapons. Still, as Dubovsky explains, “Even though we can distinguish an improvement in Tiglath Pileser III's weaponry, in particular in siege engines, the weapons alone are never able to win a war unless used in a carefully planned campaign” (153). Tiglath Pileser III's brilliant successes in battle lay in his military strategies and his willingness to do whatever it required to succeed in his objectives.
Alabaster Panel from the Central Palace of Tiglath-pileser III
He also had at his disposal the largest, most well trained, and best equipped fighting force in the history of the world up to that time. The historian Kriwaczek describes how the army would have appeared to an opponent c. 740 BCE in the following passage:
He would have seen, in the centre of the formation, the main body of infantry, compact phalanxes of spearmen, their weapon points glittering in the sun, each arranged in ten files of twenty ranks. He would have marvelled – and perhaps trembled – at the discipline and precision of their maneuvering, a contrast to the relatively freewheeling manner of previous armies, for the reforms had introduced a highly developed and effective command structure. Infantrymen fought in squads of ten, each headed by an NCO, and grouped into companies of five to twenty squads under the command of a Captain. They were well protected and even better equipped, for Assyria was fielding the very first iron armies: iron swords, iron spear blades, iron helmets and even iron scales sewn as armour on to their tunics. Bronze weaponry offered no real contest: this new material, which was cheaper, harder, less brittle, could be ground sharper and kept a keener edge for far longer. Iron ore is not found in the north Mesopotamian heartland, so every effort had been made to put all nearby sources of the metal under Assyrian control. Assyrian spearmen were more mobile than their predecessors too. Rather than sandals, they now wore the Assyrian military invention that was arguably one of the most influential and long-lasting of all: the army boot. In this case the boots were knee-high leather footwear, thick-soled, hobnailed and with iron plates inserted to protect the shins, which made it possible for the first time to fight on any terrain however rough or wet, mountain or marsh, and in any season, winter or summer. This was the first all-weather, all-year army (236).
In addition there were archers and slingers, the archers equipped with the new composite bow which could fire long-range over the advancing infantry, and, at the forefront, the siege engines of the shock troops and “formations of chariots, mobile missile platforms, the ancient equivalent of tanks. These were no longer drawn at a slow pace by asses, but by much faster, larger, and more rugged animals: horses. Each chariot was powered by up to four of the beasts” (Kriwaczek, 237). This was the army that men like King Menachem of Israel saw threatening their cities. In Menachem's case, he chose to submit without resistance, paying Tiglath Pileser III 1,000 talents of silver. This transaction is mentioned in the Bible in II Kings 15:19 and I Chronicles 5:26, as well as in Assyrian inscriptions and, by it, Menachem saved himself and his city. He only had to swear loyalty and pay tribute to the Assyrian government to avoid having his city sacked and the people slaughtered. As Kriwaczek writes, “the decision, and the huge cost, paid off. Thanks to Assyrian support, Menachem was the only Israelite ruler during this anarchic period who managed to retain his position and die naturally in his bed” (239). Once loyalty was assured, regions such as Israel under Menachem were allowed to retain some autonomy and continue on with their lives as before.
In 736 BCE Tiglath Pileser III marched on the north and conquered the Medes and Persians, expanding his empire far into the region now known as Iran. At this point his empire encompassed the whole of Mesopotamia and the Levant, an area stretching from the Persian Gulf up to modern-day Iran, across to the Mediterranean Sea, and down through Israel. In 729 BCE a revolt broke out in the city of Babylon after the death of the king Nabonassar, who had been a loyal vassal, and Tiglath Pileser III marched on the city, put down the revolt, and executed the pretender to the throne. He then had himself crowned King Pulu of Babylon and officiated at the sacred festival celebrating the New Year. He was now king of both Assyria and Babylon and was at the height of his reign.
DEATH & SUCCESSION
After his success at Babylon, Tiglath Pileser III returned to his capital at Kahlu and his palace but did not remain there long. A revolt in Samaria broke out and he marched on the region to restore order. He died of natural causes before the engagement and was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser V (727-722 BCE) who continued his father's policies and maintained the empire but did not have his father's abilities in leadership, military skill, or politics. It was Tiglath Pileser III's younger son, Sargon II(722-705 BCE) who truly inherited his administrative genius and military talent. After five years of watching his older brother struggle to try to rule the empire as their father had, Sargon II deposed Shalmaneser V and took the throne. Although he did not expand the empire significantly beyond what his father had achieved, he did enrich the region through increased trade, significant relocation of populations to maximize productivity, and through his campaigns, which brought immense wealth into the empire in the form of looted gold, silver, and precious gems. Tiglath Pileser III's achievements laid the foundation for the future of the Assyrian Empire, which has come to be recognized as the greatest political and military entity of its time and the model on which future empires would be based.
Apis › Antique Origins
Definition and Origins
Apis was the most important and highly regarded bull deity of ancient Egypt. His original name in Egyptian was Api, Hapi, or Hep; Apis is the Greek name. He is not, however, associated with the god Hapi/Hep who was linked to the inundation and is depicted as the god of the river.
Worship of the Apis bull is recorded as early as the First Dynasty (c. 3150 - c. 2890 BCE) in ceremonies known as The Running of Apis but veneration of the bull in Egypt precedes this time, and so it is thought that Apis may be the first god of Egypt or, at least, among the first animals associated with divinity and eternity. He was originally a god of fertility, then the herald of the god Ptah but, in time, was considered Ptah incarnate. He was also, in some eras, depicted as the son of Hathorand was closely associated with her goodness and bounty.
There were many bovine deities in ancient Egypt, Hathor simply being the best known, but Apis was the most significant because he represented the core cultural values and understanding of all Egyptians. Each individual deity had their own sphere of influence and power, but Apis represented eternity itself and the harmonious balance of the universe. Other bovine deities such as Bat, Buchis, Hesat, Mnevis, and the Bull of the West, no matter how powerful, would never have the same resonance as the incarnated deity of the Apis bull.
Apis is depicted throughout Egypt's history as a striding bull, usually with a solar disc and uraeus (the sacred serpent which symbolized the king's power) between its horns. In the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (525-332 BCE) he is sometimes depicted as a man with a bull's head, and, in Roman Egypt, this becomes the most popular representation of the god. During the Ptolemaic Period (323-30 BCE), which comes between these two, he was represented in anthropomorphic form as a bearded man in robes, much in the fashion of Greek gods like Zeus, under the name Serapis. The Apis bull was always associated with the king of Egypt and, among its many meanings, represented the strength and vitality of the reigning monarch.
ORIGIN & SELECTION
There are no myths related to the origin of Apis, but he is attested to through engravings from the Predynastic Period (c. 6000-3150 BCE). Apis was a god of fertility and primordial power who then came to be associated with the creator god Ptah. At what point he first became linked with Hathor is unclear, but this association is established firmly by the time of the Early Dynastic Period in Egypt (c. 3150 - c. 2613 BCE), during which time the bull was also linked to the power of the king (as evidenced on the Narmer Palette ). The Apis bull was worshiped ceremonially from this era through the Ptolemaic Period and on into the Roman Period consistently no matter which other deities were in vogue at a given time. During different eras of Egypt's history various gods assumed supremacy in different regions, or even nationally, such as Osiris, Isis, Amun, Atum, Ra, but the worship of Apis never dramatically changed.
Painted Coffin Footboard with Apis Bull
In the Early Dynastic Period, the ritual known as The Running of Apis was performed to fertilize the earth. The bull is shown in engravings wearing the menat, the necklace/collar sacred to Hathor. Where the bull ran during this ceremony is unclear, but most likely, it was in the temple precinct at Memphis, the capital of Egypt at the time, which would symbolically fertilize all the land.
The bull was selected, after a careful search, based upon its appearance: it had to be black with a white triangular marking on its forehead, another white marking on its back in the shape of a hawk's or vulture's wings, a white crescent on its side, a separation of the hairs at the end of its tail, (known as the "double hairs") and a lump under its tongue in the shape of a scarab.If a bull were found with all of these characteristics, it was instantly recognized as Apis, of course, but even a few or one would suffice. A white marking in the shape of a triangle on the forehead and the scarab-shaped lump under the tongue were often enough for the bull to be chosen.
WORSHIP
Once selected, the bull was brought to Memphis and housed in the temple precinct along with his mother. People would travel to the city from all over the land to worship the animals. Egyptologist Richard H. Wilkinson describes the bull's life in the city:
In Memphis the Apis bull was kept in special quarters just south of the Temple of Ptah where it was adored by worshippers and entertained by its own harem of cows. In addition to its participation in special processions and other religious rituals, the animal was utilized in the delivery of oracles and was regarded as one of the most important oracular sources in Egypt. (172)
On feast days, festivals, and other special events like a king's coronation, the bull was turned loose in a special chamber with different gates leading from it. Symbols and foodstuffs were placed on the other side of the chamber's gates, and people would ask questions regarding the future while the bull was led into the room. Whichever gate the bull chose to go through would provide an answer to the people's questions.
Once the oracle had been given and interpreted by the priests, the bull was allowed to roam at will within the enclosure while the people knelt before it in worship. To the ancient Egyptians, every kind of life was an extension of the divine and all of life was sacred. Although the Egyptian diet did include meat, it was largely vegetarian, and when animals were eaten, thanks were offered for the sacrifice.
Apis
Although the people would have known that this particular bull they were seeing would die, they also knew that the spirit which inhabited that bull was eternal; a particular bull's body might die but not the bull itself, not the soul which animated the animal.It was this eternal aspect of the Apis bull which made it so significant at religious festivals and other public gatherings.
One of the most important events the bull participated in was the Heb-Sed Festival, held every thirty years of a king's reign in order to rejuvenate him. The Heb-Sed Festival included a number of physical acts the king had to perform to show he was still fit to serve the gods and the people. The bull, from earliest times, had been associated with the king and monarchial power, and so the Apis bull would walk beside the king as a show of divine approval. At the conclusion of the festival, when the people were invited to a communal feast in honor of the king, the Apis bull would remain in the king's presence as a continual reminder of power and virility.
DEATH & REPLACEMENT
After a period of 25 years, if the bull suffered no disease or accident, it was ceremonially killed. Certain parts of the animal were eaten by the priests, and then the carcass was taken to a special part of the temple precinct at Memphis to be embalmed. A state of mourning was decreed during which the bull's body was mummified with the same care given a king or noble, and at this same time, priests were sent out to find a replacement. Once the embalming was completed, the mummified bull was conveyed along the sacred way from Memphis to the necropolis at Saqqara where it was buried in the Serapeum, a subterranean series of chambers dug for this purpose under by the fourth son of Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE), Khaemweset. It was also Khaemweset, who was devoted to preserving history, who ensured the careful recording of the deaths of Apis bulls and date of burial. As High Priest of Ptah at Memphis, Khaemweset would have presided over the funeral ceremonies for the bulls.
Bulls were buried in granite sarcophagi, some of which were ornamented, while the bull's mother - who had also been ritually killed and embalmed - was buried in a similar style in the Iseum catacombs dedicated to Isis. Any calves the bull had produced were likewise killed and embalmed, although their burial place is unknown.
THE BULL'S DEATH WAS NOT THE END OF ITS LIFE BUT A MOMENT OF TRANSITION FROM ONE STATE TO ANOTHER & THE CEREMONY WHICH INVOLVED ITS KILLING WAS NOT CONSIDERED SLAUGHTER BUT TRANSFORMATION.
The reason for the bull's death was to join it with Osiris and ritually re-enact the cycle of life, death, and resurrection. The bull had represented the living creator Ptah while it lived and became Osiris when it died and was then referred to as the god Osirapis. Osiris was the first king of Egypt, and the first to die and return to life among all sentient beings, and therefore the ritual act of killing the animal which was so closely associated with kingship and the divine merged the monarchy with resurrection. The death of the Apis bull symbolized the eternal nature of life. Instead of waiting for the bull to die of old age or disease, it was sent to Osiris while still fit, and after it was entombed, a bull looking very much like the last took its place. This new bull would, in fact, house the same eternal spirit as the last since it was believed that the soul of the old bull was reborn in the one that would be chosen to replace it.
It was for this reason that, at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period, Ptolemy I chose to merge Apis with the Greek god Zeus and others to create his new god Serapis for the multicultural society he was trying to form in Egypt. Ptolemy I built his great Serapeum in Alexandria, nearby the famous library, to elevate his new god as a deity who embraced and welcomed everyone. Apis was not just another god in the Egyptian pantheon but the embodiment of Egyptian values, and once Ptolemy I merged him with Greek divinities, he became the pre-eminent god of the nation who died only to live eternally. The bull's death was not the end of its life but a moment of transition from one state to another, and the ceremony which involved its killing was not considered slaughter but transformation.
Serapis
This ritual might seem to contradict the value ancient Egyptians placed on individuality and a long, full life but, actually, it illustrated that very concept. The bull would never grow old and die - it was an eternal being - and it would remain eternally fit and healthy passing from one body to another in an endless progression. The reason the worship of the Apis bull never significantly altered in over 3,000 years is because it embodied the deepest Egyptian values concerning life, time, and eternity.One's time on earth was only a brief sojourn in an eternal journey which would take one out of time but not out of place. The Egyptian afterlife was a continuation of life on earth, only on a different plane; one would still enjoy one's home, pets, land, and loved ones in paradise. The Apis bull assured people of this by its constancy; no matter the era in which one lived, there had been this divine manifestation before, there was one at the present, and there would be one in the future, and all would be the same entity eternally.
CAMBYSES II & CHRISTIANITY
In 525 BCE the Persians under Cambyses II invaded Egypt, and Herodotus reports that Cambyses II himself killed the Apis bull before its allotted time (a story also told by Diodorus Siculus) and had the carcass flung into the street where it was eaten by dogs. These accounts have been challenged because Cambyses II knew and respected Egyptian culture and so it seems out of character to some scholars that he would knowingly commit such a sacrilege.
Actually, however, the story is not so hard to believe. Cambyses II had only recently conquered Egypt at the Battle of Pelusium by using the Egyptian's own beliefs against them. Knowing their veneration for animals generally, and the cat in particular, he had his soldiers round up as many stray animals as possible and paint the image of the Egyptian cat goddess Bastet on their shields. He then marched on Pelusium, driving the animals before his forces and demanded the city's immediate surrender. The Egyptians complied rather than risk hurting the animals and enraging Bastet. There seems little difference between Cambyses II's actions here and his later killing of the Apis bull. In both instances he was making use of Egyptian belief for his own ends: by slaying the Apis bull before its time he was announcing himself as the new king of Egypt and dismissing the old Egyptian monarchy, and rituals concerning it, to highlight his triumph and the dawn of a new regime.
Herodotus goes on to explain how Cambyses II paid for his crime with his life; as he was mounting his horse, he accidentally stabbed himself in the thigh - in the same place where he had first pierced the bull - and died from an infection. It is also reported that dogs were viewed as unclean animals from this point on because they had eaten the divine bull. Dogs were always regarded highly in Egypt, the story goes, but were now looked down upon as vile. There does not seem to be any evidence to support this claim, however, since dogs continue to be kept for hunting, as guardians, and companions throughout the rest of Egypt's history without any noticeable decline in status.
The Apis cult continued until the rise of Christianity in the 4th century CE. The eternal bull who symbolized Egyptian values was incompatible with the new Christian vision, and the rituals surrounding the bull declined. The Serapeum of Ptolemy I was destroyed by zealous Christians c. 385 CE in their efforts to eradicate pre-Christian beliefs in Alexandria. This same zeal may have also resulted in the destruction of the great library, located near the Serapeum, at the same time or a little later. In the 5th century CE, the Apis cult was banned along with other pagan sects and rituals as the Christian understanding of the universe and divinity became dominant.
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