page_title: Ashurnasirpal II
section_title: Campaigns
hierarchical_section_title: Ashurnasirpal II / Campaigns
caption_attribution_description: Assyrian expansion during the reign of Ashurnasirpal II
context_page_description: Ashur-nasir-pal II was king of Assyria from 883 to 859 BC.
  Ashurnasirpal II succeeded his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II, in 883 BC. During his reign he embarked on a vast program of expansion, first conquering the peoples to the north in Asia Minor as far as Nairi and exacting tribute from Phrygia, then invading Aram conquering the Aramaeans and Neo-Hittites between the Khabur and the Euphrates Rivers. His harshness prompted a revolt that he crushed decisively in a pitched, two-day battle. According to his monument inscription, while recalling this massacre he says:
  Their men young and old I took prisoners. Of some I cut off their feet and hands; of others I cut off the ears noses and lips; of the young men's ears I made a heap; of the old men's heads I made a minaret. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of their city. The male children and the female children I burned in flames; the city I destroyed, and consumed with fire.
  Following this victory, he advanced without opposition as far as the Mediterranean and exacted tribute from Phoenicia. On his return home, he moved his capital to the city of Kalhu.
context_section_description: Like previous Assyrian monarchs Ashurnasirpal campaigned along the Euphrates against Aramaeans and in the Diyala against Babylon.  Ashurnasirpal II's brutal treatment of rebels ensured that even when his army was not present, there would not be further revolts.  Further revolts would see the local monarch replaced with a governor loyal only to the Assyrian monarchy. Leading his army, which was typically composed of infantry (including auxiliaries and foreigners), heavy & light cavalry and chariots, Ashurnasirpal conquered the Hittites and Aramaean states of northern Syria.
  Ashurnasirpal II did not destroy the Phoenician/Canaanite cities he conquered.  He was unsuccessful in his siege of Tyre, which under Ittobaal settled Kition in Cyprus and opened up trade routes throughout the Aegean, at Rhodes and Miletus.  Through tribute they became sources for the raw materials of his armies and his building programs. Iron was needed for weapons, Lebanese cedar for construction and gold and silver for the payment of troops.
  When considering the occupied citizens of his conquered territories, he wrote;
  I resettled them in their abandoned towns and houses. I imposed more tribute and tax on them then ever before: horses, mules, oxen, sheep, wine and labor.
caption: Campaigns and contemporaries of Ashurnasirpal II
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