Assyrian king Adad-Nirari III

Assyrian king Adad-Nirari III ascended the throne in the aftermath of a power struggle and the implosion of Assyrian power which his father Shamshi-Adad V mostly succeeded in concluding. However, he was just a child when he became king. It seemed he drag down Assyria into a descension, but with the right support — especially his mother, the former queen — his reign succeeded in terms of stability and maintaining state power.

Legacy

Assyrian king Adad-Nirari III started his reign as a child, supported by his mother and royal eunuchs. Over time, however, his reign turned out to be remarkably stable and three of his sons — Shalmaneser IV, Ashur-Dan III, and lastly Ashur-Nirari V — would succeed him. During their reigns, however, there was trouble brewing with the rising Urartian threat. This culminated with the Urartians managing to stage a defeat against the Assyrians, the same year Ashur-Nirari V took the throne. The defeat caused disputes over the direction that Assyria should take. The power struggle that ensued ended when Tiglath-Pileser III — one of Ashur-Nirari V's sons, and a grandson of Adad-Niari III — staged a coup and ushered in the start of the extremely militaristic expansion phase of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.