35 Facts About Tiglath-Pileser III

Tiglath-Pileser III, was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 745 BC to his death in 727.

One of the most prominent and historically significant Assyrian kings, Tiglath-Pileser ended a period of Assyrian stagnation, introduced numerous political and military reforms and more than doubled the lands under Assyrian control.

The reforms and methods of control introduced under Tiglath-Pileser III laid the groundwork for policies enacted not only by later Assyrian kings but by later empires for millennia after his death.

The circumstances of Tiglath-Pileser III's rise to the throne are not clear.

Tiglath-Pileser III faced no known resistance or rebellions against his rule after taking the throne.

The Assyriologist Paul Garelli considers this unlikely given that 38 years separate the reign of Adad-nirari from that of Tiglath-Pileser III, writing that the possibility of him being Ashur-nirari's son cannot be fully ruled out.

That Tiglath-Pileser III took the throne the year after the uprising was interpreted by Zawadzki, and others, as firmly indicating that he took the throne as the result of a coup d'etat.

Zawadzki believes the Eponym Chronicle further suggests that the rebellion, while not necessarily led by Tiglath-Pileser III himself, was started with his knowledge and consent.

The chief piece of evidence Zawadzki presents for this is that the revolt of 746 began in Nimrud and the first official appointed as eponym holder by Tiglath-Pileser III was Bel-dan, the governor of Nimrud.

The modern name Tiglath-Pileser III thus derives from the Hebrew Tiglat Pil'eser, a corrupted form of the original Akkadian name Tukulti-apil-Esarra.

In some non-contemporary sources, such as the Ptolemaic Canon, the Babylonian King List, the Bible and the works of later Babylonian and Greco-Roman historians, Tiglath-Pileser III is recorded under the name Pulu, the etymology of which is uncertain.

Tiglath-Pileser III campaigned only three times, staying in Assyria throughout the majority of his reign, and he is not known to have conducted any building projects.

Tiglath-Pileser III revitalized the Assyrian army, transforming it from a seasonally active army consisting only of conscripts into a professional army.

Tiglath-Pileser III introduced new and superior weapons, technologies and logistics.

The central standing army introduced under Tiglath-Pileser III was dubbed the kisir sarri.

Tiglath-Pileser III's conquests were marked by resettlements of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people.

Tiglath-Pileser III's success inspired Iranzu, king of the Mannaeans to personally meet with Tiglath-Pileser III in 744 and forge an alliance.

Iranzu's predecessors had usually maintained their kingdom's independence through changing allegiance between Urartu and Assyria, but Iranzu made a firm choice to side with Assyria and Tiglath-Pileser III eagerly accepted the alliance since Iranzu's realm was ideally placed to protect Assyria from Urartian raids.

Unlike the Assyrian defeat by Arpad eleven years earlier, Tiglath-Pileser III won the battle, one of the greatest triumphs of his reign.

In 738, Tiglath-Pileser III continued his efforts in Syria, conquering some lands to the south of Arpad and establishing the three new provinces of Kullania, Hatarikka, and Simirra.

In 730, Tiglath-Pileser III attacked and removed king Wasusarma of Tabal from power after he stopped paying tribute, writing in his annals that Wasusarma "acted as if he were the equal of Assyria".

In 732, Damascus fell and Tiglath-Pileser III annexed the lands of Aram-Damascus.

In 733, Tiglath-Pileser III campaigned against the Qedarites to the south of Damascus, hoping to consolidate his control of southern Syria.

Tiglath-Pileser III saw the accession of Nabu-mukin-zeri, who aspired to heal the divides in Babylonia, as a provocation and threat to Assyrian interests and hegemony.

Tiglath-Pileser III thus dedicated the next several years to defeating Nabu-mukin-zeri and his supporters.

In 729, Tiglath-Pileser III captured Babylon and proclaimed himself as both king of Assyria and king of Babylon, the first Assyrian king to be recognized as such by the Babylonians.

Tiglath-Pileser III twice participated in the religiously important New Years' Akitu festival, which required the presence of the king, and led campaigns against remaining Chaldean strongholds in the far south who resisted his rule.

Tiglath-Pileser III's queen was named Iaba, a name clearly not of Akkadian origin.

Tiglath-Pileser III based this argument on the name Atalia, a later queen speculated to have been related to Iaba, being similar to the name Athaliah and that the ending of the name Atalia could represent a theophoric element deriving from Yahweh.

Tiglath-Pileser III is believed to have died peacefully of old age.

Tiglath-Pileser III was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser V In Tiglath-Pileser's reign, Shalmaneser was known by his birth name Ululayu, "Shalmaneser" being a regnal name he assumed upon his accession to the throne in 727.

Tiglath-Pileser III's reign is generally seen as marking the beginning of an entirely new age of Assyrian imperialism.

All Mesopotamian history prior to Tiglath-Pileser III is ignored in the Hebrew Bible.

Several Assyriologists consider Assyria to only truly have transitioned into an "empire" in a strict sense during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III, owing to its unprecedented size, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual character and the new mechanisms of economic and political control.

The Assyrian resettlement policy which intensified under Tiglath-Pileser III and continued under his successors had large-scale consequences.