List of Assyrian kings

The list of Assyrian kings is compiled from the Assyrian King List, an ancient Semitic Akkadian kingdom and empire in northern Mesopotamia (modern northern Iraq) with information added from recent archaeological findings. The Assyrian King List includes regnal lengths that appear to have been based on now lost limmu lists (which list the names of eponymous officials for each year). These regnal lengths accord well with Hittite, Babylonian and ancient Egyptian king lists and with the archaeological record, and are considered reliable for the age.^[1]

Prior to the discovery of cuneiform tablets listing ancient Assyrian kings, scholars before the 19th century only had access to two complete Assyrian King Lists, one found in Eusebius of Caesarea's Chronicle (c. 325 AD), of which two editions exist^[2] and secondly a list found in the Excerpta Latina Barbari.

An incomplete list of 16 Assyrian kings was also discovered in the literature of Sextus Julius Africanus. Other very fragmentary Assyrian king lists have come down to us written by the Greeks and Romans such as Ctesias of Cnidus (c. 400 BC) and the Roman authors Castor of Rhodes (1st century BC) and Cephalion (1st century AD).

Since the discovery and decipherment of cuneiform records, these "post-cuneiform" Assyrian King Lists are not considered very reliable or factual, but may contain minor historical truths that became heavily corrupted over the centuries. Some scholars argue further that they are either entire fabrications or fiction.

Cuneiform sources

There are three extant cuneiform tablet versions of the King List, and two fragments.^[3] They date to the early first millennium BC—the oldest, List A (8th century BC) stopping at Tiglath-Pileser II (c. 967–935 BC) and the youngest, List C, at Shalmaneser V (727–722 BC). Assyriologists believe the list was originally compiled to link Shamshi-Adad I (fl. c. 1700 BC (short)), an Amorite who had conquered Assur, to the native rulers of the land of Assur. Scribes then copied the List and added to it over time.^[4]

List of Assyrian Kings

The following kings are listed from the cuneiform tablets of the Assyrians themselves.

Early period

No regnal lengths are given for kings before Erishum I.

"Kings who lived in tents"

This section shows marked similarities to the ancestors of the first Babylonian dynasty.^[4]

"Kings whose fathers are known"

These list the ancestors of Shamshi-Adad I.^[4]

"Kings whose eponyms are not known"

These are early rulers of Assyria.^[4]

Old Assyrian period

Damage to the tablets in all three extant King Lists before Enlil-nasir II (c. 1420–1415 BC (short)) prevents the calculation of approximate regnal dates from Erishum I to this point. Additionally, three kings attested elsewhere from this period are not included in the standard King List. The remainder of the King List then has an unbroken chain of regnal lengths from Enlil-nasir II on. Disparities between the different versions of the King List for the reigns of Ashur-nadin-apli (c. 1196–1194 BC (short)) and Ninurta-apal-Ekur (c. 1182–1180 BC (short)) contribute to the debate over the chronology of the ancient Near East.^[4][10] Georges Roux and A. Leo Oppenheim provide dates in their King Lists, but these are open to debate^[11]

Middle Assyrian period

The dates up to Ninurta-apal-Ekur (c. 1182–1180 BC) are subject to debate, as some of the regnal lengths vary over the different versions of the King List. The dates given below are based on Assyrian King Lists B and C, which give only three years to Ashur-nadin-apli, and the same to Ninurta-apal-Ekur. (Assyrian King List A gives four years to Ashur-nadin-apli and 13 years to Ninurta-apal-Ekur.^[15]) This timeframe is also subject to the overall debate about the chronology of the ancient Near East; the short (or low) chronology is used here.

Dates from 1179 to 912 BC, although less secure than dates from 911 BC onwards, are not subject to the chronology debate.^[5]

Neo-Assyrian period

Neo-Assyrian Empire (824 & 671 BC)

Synchronisms between the limmu lists and absolute dates known from Babylonian chronology provide good absolute dates for the years between 911 BC and 649 BC.

The dates for the very end of the Assyrian period are uncertain due to the lack of limmu lists after 649 BC. Some sources list Ashurbanipal's death in 631 BC, rather than 627 BC; Ashur-etil-ilani then reigns from 631 to 627, and Sin-shar-ishkun reigns until 612 BC, when he is known to have died in the sack of Nineveh.^[5]

Neo-Assyrian Period
King name	Image	Reigned[19][20][21]	Notes[12][13]
Adad-nirari II		912–891 BC	"son of Ashur-Dan (II)"
Tukulti-Ninurta II		891–884 BC	"son of Adad-nirari (II)"
Ashur-nasir-pal II		884–859 BC	"son of Tukulti-Ninurta (II)"
Shalmaneser III		859–824 BC	"son of Ashur-nasir-pal (II)"
Shamshi-Adad V		824–811 BC	"son of Shalmaneser (III)"
Semiramis (Shammu-ramat), regent, 811–808 BC
Adad-nirari III		811–783 BC	"son of Shamshi-Adad (V)"
Shalmaneser IV		783–773 BC	"son of Adad-nirari (III)"
Ashur-Dan III		773–755 BC	"son of Shalmaneser (IV)"; solar eclipse 763 BC[5]
Ashur-nirari V		755–745 BC	"son of Adad-nirari (III)"
Tiglath-Pileser III		745–727 BC	"son of Ashur-nirari (V)"
Shalmaneser V		727–722 BC	"son of Tiglath-Pileser (III)"
End of the document known as Assyrian King List; the following kings reigned after the list had been composed.
Sargon II		722–705 BC
Sennacherib		705–681 BC
Esarhaddon		681–669 BC
The dates of the last kings are not certain.
Ashurbanipal		669–627 BC
Ashur-etil-ilani		c. 631–627 BC	Involved in constant Civil War, weakening empire
Sin-shumu-lishir		626 BC	Usurper who also claimed Babylonia
Sin-shar-ishkun		c. 627–612 BC	Assyrian Empire collapses during his reign. fall of Nineveh
In 612 BC, Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, fell to the Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians; supported by the Egyptians, an Assyrian general continued to rule for a few years from Harran.
Ashur-uballit II		612 BC–c. 608/605 BC	Harran defeated by an alliance of Cyaxares of Media and Nabopolassar of Babylonia together with Scythia and Cimmeria, Assyrian-Egyptian force defeated at Carchemish in 605 BC

Fragmentary Greek and Roman lists

Ctesias

Ctesias as court physician to Artaxerxes II, claimed to have access to the royal historical records. Ctesias' list of Assyrian kings was included in his Persica, a work covering the history of Persia, but the first 3 books were dedicated to pre-Persian Assyria entitled "The History of the Assyrians". How much of Ctesias' king list is factual history is still debated, while most scholars agree large parts are fiction, it is generally agreed that there is historical truth based on the probability his list was rooted in transmitted oral tradition.^[22][23] Classical scholar Robert Drews however has argued that Ctesias' list contains information from Babylonian tablets.^[24] Although Ctesias's entire work is lost, fragments of it are found preserved in Diodorus Siculus, Nicolaus of Damascus and Photius. From these fragments it is known Ctesias dated the founding of the Assyria to c. 2166 BC, by king Ninus, husband of Queen Semiramis, and 30 further Assyrian kings followed for 1300 years in succession to Sardanapalus (c. 866 BC). ^[25] Ctesias' list of 30 successors from Ninus (and Semiramis) to Sandanapalus is lost.

Castor of Rhodes and Cephalion

In the 1st century BC, Castor of Rhodes compiled an Assyrian King List, similar to that of Ctesias'. However fragments only remain in mutilated form, but it is known from these fragments that Castor's Assyrian king list started with Belus, but like Ctesias' included Ninus, also said to be the husband of Semiramis. However Ninus equates in Castor's list to the second king, not the first and is said to have ruled for 52 years. Castor further dated Belus to 2123 BC.^[26] A fragment from Cephalion, names Ninus' successor to be Ninyas, his son.

Africanus' list

An incomplete list of 16 Assyrian kings is found in Sextus Julius Africanus' Chronographiai (early 3rd century AD):^[27]

Eusebius' list

Eusebius of Caesarea's Chronicle (c. 325 AD), contains a complete list of 36 Assyrian kings. Eusebius' King List

Excerpta Latina Barbari

A final list is found in the Excerpta Latina Barbari. The list can be found in Scaliger's Thesaurus temporum (1606). The list dates Belus, the first Assyrian king to c. 2206 BC.^[28]

List in Arabic

The Arab historian al-Ya'qūbī included in his Kitāb al-ta'rīkh written in 873 CE a list of kings of "Mosul and Nineveh" comprising four identifiable Assyrian kings: Palūs/Tiglath-pileser II (965-936), Ninūs/Tukulti-Ninurta II (890-884), Lāwasnasir/Assurnasirpal II (883-859) and Shamīram/Semiramis (810-806).^[29]

See also

• Chronology of the ancient Near East
• List of ancient king lists
• List of Hittite kings
• List of kings of Babylon
• List of Mesopotamian dynasties
• Short chronology timeline
• Sumerian King List

Notes

References

• Ascalone, Enrico (2007). Mesopotamia: Assyrians, Sumerians, Babylonians (Dictionaries of Civilizations; 1). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-25266-7. 
• Grayson, Albert Kirk (1975). Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Locust Valley, N.Y. 
• Healy, Mark (1992). The Ancient Assyrians. ISBN 978-1-85532-163-2. 
• Leick, Gwendolyn (2003). Mesopotamia. ISBN 0-14-026574-0. 
• Lloyd, Seton (1984). The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: From the Old Stone Age to the Persian Conquest. ISBN 0-500-79009-4. 
• Nardon, Don (1998). Assyrian Empire. ISBN 1-56006-313-0. 

External links

• Livius: Assyrian King List
• ASSYRIA (AŠŠUR) AND BABYLONIA (BĀB-ILI, KARDUNIAŠ, AKKAD)