Rusa I.

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Urartu (yellow) during the rule of Rusa I.

Rusa I (reign 735 BC to approx. 714 BC) was a king of the Urartian Empire . He followed his father Sarduri II.

Domination

Before Rusa I came to power, his father had expanded the empire and incorporated various Assyrian and Anatolian territories. When Rusa I became king, the Assyrians under King Tiglat-Pileser III. collected again and regained strength. At the beginning of his reign, Rusa I was busy repelling the Assyrian attacks. The attacks had a devastating effect on Urarṭu and its economy. Urarṭu lost most of the land that Sarduri II had conquered back to Assyria.

Rusa moved in the north against Adaḫuni , Uelikuḫi , Lueruḫi and Arquqini . He boasts of victory over 23 countries and 19 kings "from across the lake, in the terrible mountains". According to an inscription from Nor Bayazet , he defeated the king of Uelikuḫi and appointed a governor.

Ruins of d Teišebaï URU KUR in Zovinar on Lake Sevan

According to Tiglat-Pilesers III. Shalmaneser V came to power after death . With him the attacks against Urarṭu decreased. Sargon II led in 715 BC A campaign against Urartu (8th campaign). After the subjugation of the Urartian vassal Mettati , Sargon attacked Urartu himself. Although Sargon II was unable to conquer the Urartian capital Tušpa , he defeated the army of Rusa and plundered large parts of the Urartian region. Rusa fled (on a mare) and "hid" in the mountains. On the way back to Aššur , Sargon plundered Muṣasir , the coronation place of the Urartian kings and main temple of the Urartian imperial god Ḫaldi . Sargon's letter of God depicts the king's reaction to this news very vividly: When Rusa - who threw himself on a bed in a mountain hiding place "like a woman" and inflicted an incurable wound - learns of the plundering of Muṣasir, he tears his clothes , hits his chest, tears off his royal headband, tears his hair and rolls on the floor. His liver burns and his heart stands still (Letter from God 411-413). We know that the Assyrian secret service had good scouts, but this description should be a literary fiction. Kathryn Kravitz assumes that the episode was inserted into Sargon's letter of God at the last minute.

Later sources report Rusa's suicide. In a divine letter from Sargon II it can be read that Rusa I " overwhelmed by the shining splendor of the god Assyria , my lord, pierced his heart with his iron sword like a pig, and thus ended his life." In the annals, which were probably written later than the Epistle of God, according to Tadmor 707, the Nimrud stele and the Cyprus stele, it is also claimed that Rusa committed suicide.

However, this did not have any lasting consequences, the next year he will be listed again in the annals among Sargon's enemies. Lanfranchi and Parpola even assume that he retook Muṣasir. Assyrian letters tell of uprisings and incursions into Urarṭu.

When Rusa I really died is therefore unclear, only in 708 does Argišti II, Rusa's successor, appear in the Assyrian annals.

buildings

Inscriptions

Inscription of Rusa I in Zovinar , Lake Sevan
  • Mahmudabad
  • Mergeh Karvan

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Г.А. Меликишвили, Урартские клинообразные надписи. Москва: Издательство АН СССР, 1960, No. 256
  2. ↑ Miroj Salvini, Remarks on the Succession to the Throne in Urartu. In: Horst Klengel (Ed.), Society and Culture in the Ancient Near East (Berlin, 1982)
  3. ↑ Cf. Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum: The Assyrians - History, Society, Culture . CH Beck, Munich 2008, p. 71.
  4. ↑ Hayim Tadmor, The Campaigns of Sargon II of Assur: A chronological-historical Study, "Journal of Cuneiform Studies 12, 1958, 97
  5. ↑ CJ Gadd, Inscribed Prisms of Sargon II from Nimrud. Iraq 16, 1954, 176
  6. ^ S. Parpola (ed.), Correspondence of Sargon II. Helsinki 1987, xix-xx
  7. ↑ GB Lanfranchi / S. Parpola, The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part 2: Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces (Helsinki 1990) No. 91, 92; GB Lanfranchi, Some new texts about a revolt against the Urartian King Rusa I. Oriens Antiquus 22, 1983, 123-135
  8. ↑ Г. А. Меликишвили, Урартские клинообразные надписи. Москва: Издательство АН СССР, 1960, No. 256
  9. ↑ Г. А. Меликишвили, Урартские клинообразные надписи. Москва: Издательство АН СССР, 1960, No. 266
predecessor Office successor
Sarduri II King of Urartu
approx. 735–714 BC Chr. 		Argišti II.
personal data
SURNAME Rusa I.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Urartu
DATE OF BIRTH 8th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH around 714 BC Chr.