ABSTRACT
In the rst half of the Late Bronze Age, Assyria became a vassal state of Mitanni. But the disintegration of the Mitannian kingdom (caused by the Hittites) between c. 1340 and 1327 paved the way for an Assyrian resurgence during the reign of Ashur-uballit (c. 1365-1330). In eect the founder of what we call the Middle Assyrian kingdom, Ashur-uballit, rapidly lled the power vacuum east of the Euphrates le by Mitanni’s colllapse, and then looked to expanding his territories west of the Euphrates and south into Babylonia. An Assyrian invasion across the river threatened Hittite vassal states in northern Syria and ultimately Egyptian subject territories in southern Syria and Palestine. e threat never materialized. But Babylonia suered invasion by Assyria on at least two occasions, rstly under the command of Ashur-uballit and subsequently by a later Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I (c. 1244-1208). Babylon was twice conquered, and on the second occasion incorporated by Tukulti-Ninurta into his subject territories. is king also resoundingly defeated a Hittite army led by Tudhaliya IV, in the so-called battle of Nihriya in northern Mesopotamia. But in the end Tukulti-Ninurta’s ambitious military enterprises overstretched his kingdom’s resources, and he was assassinated by disaected subjects aer suering a series of military defeats. Babylon subsequently regained its independence, and once more, the kingdom of Assyria was in decline.
