A Tartan (Hebrew: תַּרְתָּן, Modern {{{2}}} Tiberian {{{3}}}; Greek: Θαρθαν; Latin: Tharthan), Aramaic: ܬܵܪܬܵܢ Tartan; was the commander-in-chief of the Assyrian army. In the Bible, the Assyrian king sends a Tartan with two other officials to deliver a threatening message to Jerusalem,[1] and Sargon, the king of Assyria, sends a Tartan who takes Ashod.[2]
In Assyria, the Tartan ranked next to the king. The office seems to have been duplicated, and there was a tartanu imni or 'tartan of the right', as well as a tartanu shumeli or 'tartan of the left'. In later times the title became territorial; we read of a tartan of 'Kummuh' (Commagene). The title is also applied to the commanders of foreign armies ; thus Sargon speaks of the Tartan Musurai, or 'Egyptian Tartan'. The Tartan of 720 BC was probably called Ashur-iska-danin; in 694 BC, Abda , and in 686 BC Bel-emurani, held the title. It does not seem to have been in use among the Babylonians.
This article incorporates text from the 1903 Encyclopaedia Biblica article "TARTAN", a publication now in the public domain.