Shamshi-Adad V () was the
King of Assyria
The king of Assyria (Akkadian language, Akkadian: , later ) was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Assyria, which was founded in the late 21st century BC and fell in the late 7th century BC. For much of its early history, Assyria was ...
from 824 to 811 BC. He was named after the god
Adad, who is also known as Hadad.
Family
Shamshi-Adad was a son and successor of King
Shalmaneser III
Shalmaneser III (''Šulmānu-ašarēdu'', "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent") was king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 859 BC to 824 BC.
His long reign was a constant series of campaigns against the eastern tribes, the Babylonians, the nations o ...
, the husband of Queen
Shammuramat (by some identified with the mythical
Semiramis), and the father of
Adad-nirari III, who succeeded him as king.
He was also a grandfather of
Shalmaneser IV.
Reign
The first years of Shamshi-Adad's reign saw a serious struggle for the succession of the aged Shalmaneser.
The revolt was led by Shamshi-Adad's brother
Assur-danin-pal, and had broken out already by 826 BC. The rebellious brother, according to Shamshi-Adad's own inscriptions, succeeded in bringing to his side 27 important cities, including
Nineveh. The rebellion lasted until 820 BC, weakening the Assyrian empire and its ruler; this weakness continued to reverberate in the kingdom until the reforms of
Tiglath-Pileser III.
Later in his reign, Shamshi-Adad campaigned against Southern
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...
, and stipulated a treaty with the Babylonian king
Marduk-zakir-shumi I.
In 814 BC, he won the
Battle of Dur-Papsukkal against the Babylonian king
Marduk-balassu-iqbi, and a few
Aramean tribes settled in
Babylonia
Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...
. The extent of Shamshi-Adad's victory was such that he obtained the submission of the Babylonian king and, after obtaining booty from several Babylonian cities, he returned to Assyria with palace treasures and gods (i.e. the sacred representation of the gods).
[Jean-Jacques Glassner, ''Mesopotamian Chronicles'', Atlanta, 2004, p. 183]
See also
*
Stela of Shamshi-Adad V
Notes
Further reading
*
{{Authority control
810s BC deaths
9th-century BC Assyrian kings
Year of birth unknown