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Updated: May 16, 2025
At other times it depends upon the gods to whom certain kings may be especially attached, or with whom they may have special dealings in their inscriptions. Thus Tiglathpileser I., when speaking of the temple of Anu and Ramman, contents himself with invoking these two gods alone at the close of his great inscription.
The temple in the city of Ashur, which Tiglathpileser I. enriches with presents consisting of the images of the deities vanquished by the king, may in reality have been sacred to the Belit of Babylonia, but Tiglathpileser, for whom Bel becomes merely a designation of Marduk, does not feel called upon to pay his devotions to the Babylonian Sarpanitum, and so converts the old Belit into 'the lofty wife, beloved of Ashur. Sargon, on the other hand, who calls one of the gates of his palace Belit ilâni 'mistress of the gods, seems to mean by this, the consort of Ea.
It marked a renewal of the pledge between the king and his god. The Assyrian kings, however, contented themselves with a single visit. Of Tiglathpileser II. and Sargon, we know that they came to Babylonia for the purpose of performing the old ceremony; and others did the same. The eighth and eleventh days of the festival month were invested with special sanctity.
Winckler, Die Keilschrifttexte Sargon's Prunkinschrift, ll. 134, 135. Hilprecht, Old Babylonian Inscriptions, i. 1, pl. 33, col. ii. ll. 54-56. VR. 65, col. ii. l. 13. See, e.g., Tiglathpileser I., IR. 16, col. viii. ll. 56, 57; Sennacherib, IR. 47, col. vi. l. 67-71. VR. 64, col. ii. ll. 43-45. Gen. xxviii. 18. Religion of the Semites, p. 364. See Robertson Smith, ib. p. 215.
Hence the value that the Assyrian rulers attached to the possession of Babylonia. They do not like to be reminded that they rule the south by force of arms. They prefer, as Tiglathpileser I. declares, to consider themselves 'nominated by the gods to rule over the land of Bel. They want to be regarded as the favorites of Bel, and they ascribe to him the greatness of their rule.
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.
And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
It is, therefore, as the advocate of the righteous cause that Tiglathpileser claims to have received the glorious sceptre at the hands of Shamash; and so also for the successors of Tiglathpileser, down to the days of Sargon, Shamash is above all and first of all the judge, both of men and of the gods.
These two, he declares, who, like Ashur and Ishtar, "love his priesthood," are the ones that convey into his hands the hunting spoils. Tiglathpileser I. was especially fond of lion and elephant hunting.
The importance that Tiglathpileser I., and therefore also his successors, attached to their control over the old southern district, is shown by his according to Bel the second place in the pantheon, invoking him at the beginning of his inscriptions immediately after Ashur. The control over Babylonia was an achievement that stirred the pride of the Assyrian rulers to the highest degree.
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