Shalmaneser III

Shalmaneser III ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 859 BC to 824 BC, presiding over a reign defined by relentless military campaigns. His forces struck eastward against tribal peoples and Babylonians, then turned west across Mesopotamia and Syria, pushing as far as Lake Van and the Taurus Mountains. The Neo-Hittites at Carchemish were forced into tribute, and the kingdoms of Hamath and Aram Damascus fell under his control. In the annals he commissioned during the 850s BC, the Arabs and Chaldeans entered the written record for the first time. His long rule was a catalog of conquest, expanding A…