Urartu-Assyria War

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Urartu-Assyria War


caption=
place= Kummukhu
territory=Armenian highlands
result=Assyrian, later Babylonian control
combatant1=Urartu
combatant2=Neo-Assyrian Empire, later Babylonian Empire
commander1=Rusa I Arghisti II Rusa II Rusa III Rusa IV
commander2=Tiglath-Pileser III Sargon II Sennacherib Esarhaddon Ashurbanibal Nebuchadnezzar
strength1=No Reliable Estimates
strength2=No Reliable Estimates

The Urartu-Assyria War began around 714 B.C., with the invasion of Urartu by Assyrian King Sargon II. Sargon II]

Background of the War

The Iron Age Kingdom of Urartu began its rise to power in the mid-ninth century B.C. Within a century, the relatively new state had conquered the majority of the Armenian highlands. Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser III saw the rising Kingdom of Urartu as a growing threat. As an agressive, warmongering state, the Assyrian leadership deemed that they must end this threat through direct confrontation with the young kingdom.The Cambridge Ancient History. - Page 74 by I E S Edwards]

Early Stages of the War

In 714 B.C. King Sargon II led an offensive into Urartuan territory. His early victories, especially at the Battle of Lake Urmia and his ransack of the head Uratuan temple at Mushashir, almost caused total defeat for his Uratuan counterpart, King Rusa I. Urartu]

The Uratuan Counterattack

After Sargon's death in 705 B.C., King Rusa's successor, Arghisti II, launched a major counterattack, wit his forces driving back the Assyrians back across the pre-war border and deep into the Assyrian heartlands, reconquering the major towns and cities around Lake Urmia, including Mushashir, Ushnu, and Tepe, and conquering the territory as far south as the city of Nimud on the Tigris River. Urartu]

Assyrian Victory

After the Uratuan victories during the early part of King Arghisti II's reign, Urartu experienced "Golden Age" chracterized by a lengthy peace and economic prosperity throughout the remainder of Arghisti's reign and the entire rule of his successor, Rusa II. Unfortunately for the Uratuans, the next two kings after Rusa II were both weak-willed and unskilled. The military defeats of Kings Rusa III and Rusa IV turned Urartu into an Assyrian, and later Babylonian, client state, used as a buffer on the northern borders of these powerful empires. Eventually, the Babylonians deemed that it was necessary to completely destroy their puppet state, as it was only proving to be a just as an unnecessary waste of support funds. Beginning in 690 B.C., completely and violently obliterated Urartu by burning every settlement to the ground. By 685 B.C., the Kingdom of Urartu was nothing, but a thing of the past. Urartu]

References

See also

*Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
*Urartu
*Assyria
*Sargon II