Sennacherib and the Countries of South-Eastern Asia Minor
Krasova A. A.
The author presents a reconsideration of sources and scholarly opinons on course of events in South-Eastern Asia Minor under Sennacherib and gives his reconstruction as following: after an anty-Assyrian revolt in Tabal (and, possibly, neighbouring areas including Til-Garimmu whose ruler Gurdi can be hypothetically identified as the «Kulummean» involved in Sargon II’ death) and an ill-fated Sargon’s attempt to suppress it (705 BC) the main part of Assyrian possessions in Anatolia (Tabal, Kasku, north-western part of Melid-Kammanu with Til-Garimmu which became a centre of a new political unit, Hilakku and Que) gained independence from it. Assyria still kept Melid itself, Kummuh, Gurgum and Sam’al and between 705 and 702 BC restored its control over Hilakku and Que; nevertheless Hilakku was lost again as a result of a large rebellion in Cilicia in 696 BC (the «communication with Que» cut temporarily by rebels according to Sennacherib’s text is to be identified with sea communication between Syria and the ports of Que). Til-Garimmu was conquered by Assyrians in 695 BC but soon lost together with Melid itself after Sennacherib’s death. On the whole Sennacherib’s strategy was to keep Assyrian control over the Cilician Plain and Melitene and to give all the further territories to the North (at Taurus Mountains and beyond) to their own fate.