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ASHURNASIRPAL*
1. Ashurnasirpal I (1049?–1031 BC), Assyrian king listed in the synchronistic Assyrian chronicle as the legitimate successor ofShamshi-adad IV (1053?–1050 BC). Ashurnasirpal I ruled during a period of Assyrian weakness following the vigorous reign of Tiglath-pileser I (1115?–1077 BC).
2. Ashurnasirpal II (885–860 BC), Assyrian king, son of Tukulti-ninurta II (890–885 BC). His grandfather, Adad-nirari II (911–891 BC), laid the foundations of the Neo-Assyrian period (900–612 BC). Ashurnasirpal II, its first great monarch, consolidated his position by crushing rebellious middle Euphrates tribes and then conducted campaigns against Syria (877 BC) and Philistia. In his annals he recorded the tribute received from the maritime towns of Philistia: “Gold, silver, tin, copper . . . large and small monkeys, ebony, boxwood, ivory . . . I received.” Ashurnasirpal’s westward expedition was the first of several Assyrian assaults on Syria, ultimately threatening Israelite forces as well. The expedition also established his reputation as a cruel and merciless opponent, a theme repeated constantly in his annals. A statue of Ashurnasirpal II recovered from Calah depicted him as a stern, egotistical despot. He fashioned the Assyrian army into a military machine that struck terror into the hearts of its opponents.
Ashurnasirpal II was an outstanding example of the way aggressive rulers in the ancient world treated their enemies. In his annals he boasted: “The heads of their warriors I cut off, and I formed them into a pillar over against their city. . . . I flayed all the chief men . . . and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up within the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes.” Other atrocities included burning captives alive; mutilating prisoners by hacking off hands, noses, or ears; gouging out eyes; disemboweling pregnant women; and leaving prisoners in the desert to die of thirst.
Ashurnasirpal II made Calah (Nimrud) his capital city, employing more than 50,000 prisoners in the work of reconstruction. A. H. Layard, excavating Nimrud in 1845, uncovered the royal palace with its colossal statuary. Ashurnasirpal II was succeeded in 859 BC by his son Shalmaneser III, who reigned for 35 years. See Assyria, Assyrians.