Ithobaal II (also Itto-Baal, Ethobaal or Ethbaal, from ''Tuba'il'') was an eighth-century BC

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

n king of Tyre. Nothing is known of his reign except that he paid

tribute A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...

to the

Assyria Assyria ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the ...

n king

Tiglath-pileser III Tiglath-Pileser III ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "my trust belongs to the son of Ešarra"), was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 745 BC to his death in 727. One of the most prominent and historically significant Assyrian kings, T ...

in 738. He was succeeded that year or the next by

Hiram II Hiram II (''Hi-ru-mu'') was the Phoenician king of Tyre from 737 to 729 BC. In 738 he was listed as a tributary of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III. His predecessor, Ithobaal II, was also stated to have paid tribute in that year. It is possibl ...

, who continued the tribute to the Assyrians.Edward Lipiński, ''On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age: Historical and Topographical Researches'', Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 153 (Leuven/Louvain: Peeters, 2006), 185–88. The first-century historian

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

provides the best surviving Tyrian king list. There is a gap in the sequence between about 773 BC and the reign of Ithobaal. It is possible therefore that Ithobaal's reign extended back several decades before he is recorded in an Assyrian tribute list for 738. Edward Lipiński suggests his reign began as early as ''c''.760.

Hayim Tadmor Hayim Tadmor (born Frumstein) (November 18, 1923, Harbin, China–December 11, 2005, Jerusalem) was a leading Israeli Assyriologist. As a student of Benno Landsberger and Sidney Smith, his knowledge was grounded in immediate knowledge and experie ...

suggests that the Assyrian inscription recording Ithobaal's tribute should have the date amended to 740.Edward Lipiński, ''Itineraria Phoenicia'', Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 153, Studia Phoenicia 18 (Leuven/Louvain: Peeters, 2004), 47.

Notes

{{reflist, 2 730s BC deaths 8th-century BC Phoenician people 8th-century BC rulers Kings of Tyre People from Tyre, Lebanon