# Arik-den-ili
**Arik-den-ili** (also written Ārik-dēn-ili; inscribed mGÍD-DI-DINGIR, "long-lasting is the judgment of god") was a king of Assyria in the early Middle Assyrian period, the son of [Enlil-nirari](https://www.edgepedia.org/enlil-nirari) and the father of [Adad-nirari I](https://www.edgepedia.org/adad-nirari-i). The [Assyrian King List](https://www.edgepedia.org/assyrian-king-list) gives him a twelve-year reign between his father's ten years and his son's thirty-two.[1](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) • [2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) His reign was part of a period of Assyrian expansion following Ashur-uballit I, who is considered the founder of the Assyrian empire.[3](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arik-den-ili)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Position in the king list | Entry [75], between Enlil-nirari [74] and Adad-nirari I [76][1](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) |
| Reign length | 12 years[1](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) |
| Absolute dates | 1307–1296 BC (king-list edition), 1317–1306 or 1307–1296 BC (eponym reconstruction), c. 1308–1297 BCE (Britannica)[1](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) • [4](https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/tcma/Eponyms/index.html) • [3](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arik-den-ili) |
| Name | mGÍD-DI-DINGIR, "long-lasting is the judgment of god"[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) |
| Surviving record | Fewer than ten royal inscriptions, one fragmentary chronicle, references in his son's accounts[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) |
| Main campaigns | Nigimhi and Halahhu in the east; Suteans, Ahlamu, and Yauru around Katmuhu on the middle Euphrates; an inconclusive war with Nazi-Maruttash of Babylonia[5](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/cm-12-chronicle-of-arik-den-ili/) • [2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) |
| Building work | Rebuilt the mud-brick temple of Shamash at Assur; credited with the great Ziggurat of Assur[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) |
## Chronology and regnal dates
The Assyrian King List transmits a reign of twelve years. The Livius edition of the list (after ANET) dates it 1307–1296 BC, placing Enlil-nirari at 1317–1308 and Adad-nirari I at 1295–1264.[1](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) The ORACC/TCMA eponym project gives 1317–1306 or 1307–1296 BC, and Britannica gives c. 1308–1297 BCE.[4](https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/tcma/Eponyms/index.html) • [3](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arik-den-ili) These dates differ by up to a decade, and no single scheme is established.
The spread of dates has a structural cause. For the Middle Assyrian period only the eponym list KAV 21+ survives, and it begins only with the last decade of Tiglath-pileser I. Chronology for earlier reigns therefore has to be reconstructed, a process that ORACC describes as far from complete.[4](https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/tcma/Eponyms/index.html) What is firm is the sequence: modern scholars tend to accept the king list's regnal-year numbers as correct, though the surviving copies show minor differences.[1](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) One dated point inside the reign survives: the eponym (limmu) year of Berutu.[4](https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/tcma/Eponyms/index.html)
## Primary evidence
Four kinds of evidence carry his reign. First, the Assyrian King List, known from incomplete copies found in each of Assyria's three capitals, Assur, Dur-Sarukkin, and Nineveh, which go back to one original based on yearly eponym lists; its entry [75] names Arik-den-ili as son of Enlil-nirari with twelve years.[1](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) Second, the Chronicle of Arik-den-ili (CM 12), a fragmentary chronicle on a tablet found at Assur, published in Jean-Jacques Glassner's Mesopotamian Chronicles (2004), which describes his wars.[5](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/cm-12-chronicle-of-arik-den-ili/) Third, fewer than ten royal inscriptions, edited in A. Kirk Grayson's RIMA 1 volume (Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC to 1115 BC), whose modern dates follow the chronological scheme of J. A. Brinkman.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) • [6](https://www.cuttersguide.com/pdf/Ancient-Civilization/assyrian-rulers-of-the-third-and-second-millennia-bc-to-1115-bc-a-kirk-grayson.pdf) Fourth, references in the inscriptions of his son Adad-nirari I, including an Assyrian epic that quotes Adad-nirari on his father.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili)
## Reign and campaigns
**Annual campaigns.** Arik-den-ili appears to have been the first Assyrian king to institutionalize the conduct of annual military campaigns, a practice his successors made central to the empire.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) The chronicle's fragmentary text lists attacks on places including Habaruha, Kutila, Tarbisu, Kudina, Remaku, and Nagabbilhi, and describes an operation against Arnuna of Nigimhi: he surrounded Esini in Arnuna, destroyed its gateway, and all took an oath before him.[5](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/cm-12-chronicle-of-arik-den-ili/) Another passage claims he killed 254,000 men of [Halahhu](https://www.edgepedia.org/halahhu), plundered it, and led shackled prisoners to Assur; the chronicle also records seizure of livestock, a hundred head of sheep and goats and a hundred heads of cattle brought to Assur, and grain prices fixed at one mina and later two minas during famine.[5](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/cm-12-chronicle-of-arik-den-ili/)
The western front against nomads is recorded in the inscriptions themselves. He campaigned against the [Suteans](https://www.edgepedia.org/suteans), the Ahlamu, and the Yauru in the region of Katmuhu on the middle [Euphrates](https://www.edgepedia.org/euphrates); Britannica summarizes this as campaigning westward against Semitic tribes of the Akhlamu group.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) • [3](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arik-den-ili)
**Babylon.** The chronicle's enemy "cannot be identified," so which campaign, if any, the text's battles describe is uncertain.[5](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/cm-12-chronicle-of-arik-den-ili/) Against Kassite Babylonia his record was clearly not victorious: he fought the Kassite king [Nazi-Maruttash](https://www.edgepedia.org/nazi-maruttash) inconclusively, and his son recalled in an Assyrian epic that "my father could not rectify the calamities inflicted by the army of the king of the Kassite land."[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili)
## Building works at Assur
His best-documented inscription records the rebuilding of the mud-brick temple of Shamash at Assur, which had decayed, "in order that the harvest of my land might prosper." He laid the temple's foundation during the eponym year of Berutu, a son of the earlier king [Eriba-Adad I](https://www.edgepedia.org/eriba-adad-i).[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) His son credited him with building the great Ziggurat of Assur.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili)
## By the numbers
The reign's numbers are few. Twelve years against his father's ten and his son's thirty-two.[1](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/) Fewer than ten surviving royal inscriptions plus one fragmentary chronicle.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) The chronicle's largest figure is its claim of 254,000 men of Halahhu killed; its smaller figures, one mina rising to two during famine, are the kind closer to administrative reality.[5](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/cm-12-chronicle-of-arik-den-ili/)
## How it compares with Enlil-nirari and Adad-nirari I
Arik-den-ili is one step in an expansion that began under [Ashur-uballit I](https://www.edgepedia.org/ashur-uballit-i), considered the founder of the Assyrian empire, and continued under Adad-nirari I and [Shalmaneser I](https://www.edgepedia.org/shalmaneser-i).[3](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arik-den-ili) The Cambridge Ancient History frames the era as repeated wars with Kassite Babylonia and with a surviving Khanigalbat (Mitanni) under the house of Shattuara and his son [Wasashatta](https://www.edgepedia.org/wasashatta), wars that continued into Shalmaneser I's reign and ended with Khanigalbat's annexation to the Assyrian Empire.[7](https://epdf.mx/the-cambridge-ancient-history-volume-2-part-2-the-middle-east-and-the-aegean-reg7439ec2d304c7614ff420f59cdfc6b5d52339.html) Within that arc, Arik-den-ili held the line: he institutionalized annual campaigning and fought nomads and eastern hill states, but against Babylon his son's own words concede failure.[2](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili) Adad-nirari I transformed the position, defeating the Kassite king of Babylon after his triumph over Mitanni and demanding tribute from regions formerly under Kassite control.[8](https://www.worldhistory.org/Adad_Nirari_I/)
## References
1. [The Assyrian King List (ANET 564–566), Livius](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/anet/564-566-the-assyrian-king-list/)
2. [Arik-den-ili, ancientmesopotamia.org](https://ancientmesopotamia.org/people/arik-den-ili)
3. [Arik-den-ili, Encyclopaedia Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arik-den-ili)
4. [Archival Texts of the Middle Assyrian Period: Eponyms, ORACC/TCMA, University of Pennsylvania Museum](https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/tcma/Eponyms/index.html)
5. [CM 12, Chronicle of Arik-den-ili, Livius](https://www.livius.org/sources/content/mesopotamian-chronicles-content/cm-12-chronicle-of-arik-den-ili/)
6. [A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC (to 1115 BC), RIMA 1](https://www.cuttersguide.com/pdf/Ancient-Civilization/assyrian-rulers-of-the-third-and-second-millennia-bc-to-1115-bc-a-kirk-grayson.pdf)
7. [The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 2, Part 2 (c. 1380–1000 BC)](https://epdf.mx/the-cambridge-ancient-history-volume-2-part-2-the-middle-east-and-the-aegean-reg7439ec2d304c7614ff420f59cdfc6b5d52339.html)
8. [Adad Nirari I, World History Encyclopedia](https://www.worldhistory.org/Adad_Nirari_I/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Periods and civilizations › Ancient Near East, Egypt, Nubia, and the Punic world › Ancient Mesopotamia › Kassite Babylonia and Middle Assyria › Kassite Babylonia and Middle Assyria: rulers and royal family › Middle Assyrian kings*
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