| Arik-den-ili | |
|---|---|
| King of Assyria | |
| King of theMiddle Assyrian Empire | |
| Reign | 12 regnal years 1317–1306 BC[1] |
| Predecessor | Enlil-nirari |
| Successor | Adad-nirari I |
| Issue | Adad-nirari I |
| Father | Enlil-nirari |
Arik-den-ili, inscribedmGÍD-DI-DINGIR, “long-lasting is the judgment of god,”[2] wasKing of Assyriac. 1317–1306 BC, ruling theMiddle Assyrian Empire. He succeededEnlil-nirari, his father, and was to rule for twelve years and inaugurate the tradition of annual military campaigns against Assyria's neighbors.
The sources are slim for his reign, less than ten inscriptions, a fragmentary chronicle and references to his affairs in those of his sonAdad-nirari I’s accounts. He seems to have been the first of the Assyrian kings to have institutionalized the conduct of annual military campaigns,[3] some of which appear to be little more than livestock-rustling expeditions, as the chronicle mentions “a hundred head of sheep and goats and a hundred head of their cattle [...] he brought to Aššur.”[4]
Arik-den-ili's first victories were against his eastern neighbours (the Pre-Iranic inhabitants of what was to becomePersia),Turukku andNigimhi, and all the chiefs of the (Zagros) mountains and highlands in the broad tracts of theGutians to subdue the nomadic tribes on Assyria's northern and eastern frontiers. The Gutians had been vassals of theKassites who ruled inBabylon and may have acted as their agents.[5] Nigimhi's ruler wasEsini. The Assyrians had invaded and carried off their harvest and in retaliation Esini led a force into Assyria which resulted in a massacre of his forces. Arik-den-ili besieged the town ofArnuna, in which Esini was holed up. Destruction of the gate and walls forced Esini's capitulation and so he swore allegiance to his Assyrian overlord.[6]
The chronicle then listsHabaruha, Kutila,Tarbiṣu, Kudina,Remaku andNagabbilhi. Of these only Tarbiṣu is known, a town a short distance from Nineveh. The residents of Halahhu seem to have borne the brunt of his wrath as he claimed to have killed 254,000 of them,[4] a fairly preposterous boast even for the period. He then turned westward intoThe Levant (modernSyria andLebanon), where he subjugated theSuteans, theAḫlamû and theYauru, the nomadicWest Semitic tribesmen who would become theArameans, in the region of Katmuḫi in the middle Euphrates.[6]
But his activities were not limited to warfare. The temple ofŠamaš atAššur, as a mud-brick construction, had decayed into a mound of dirt surrounded by ad hoc shrines. “In order that the harvest of my land might prosper,” he had them cleared and rebuilt the temple, laying its foundation during the eponym year of Berutu, a son of the earlier kingEriba-Adad I. His own son credited him with the construction of the greatZiggurat ofAššur in one of his own building dedications.[6]
Like his father,Enlil-nirari, before him he had to battle inconclusively againstBabylonia, in this case against kingNazi-Maruttaš. His son was to recall “my father could not rectify the calamities inflicted by the army of the king of the Kassite land” in a contemporary Assyrian epic.[5] That dispute was finally resolved with his son, Adad-nirari I's victory over the Babylonians at theBattle of Kār Ištar.
| Preceded by | King of Assyria 1317–1306 BC | Succeeded by |