745 – 727 BC reign
He seized the throne in the midst of civil war on 13 Ayaru, 745 BCE.
[i.1] The third year of Nabû-nasir, [745/744] king of Babylon:
[i.2] Tiglath-Pileser [III] ascended the throne in Assyria.
[i.3] In that same year the king of Assyria went down to Akkad
[i.4] plundered Rabbilu and Hamranu
[i.5] and abducted the gods of Šapazza.
[i.6] In the time of Nabû-nasir Borsippa
[i.7] committed hostile acts against Babylon but the battle which Nabû-Nasir
[i.8] waged against Borsippa is not written. [i.e. the author of the chronicle was unable to find a description that he could include.]
Translation of Column I – ABC 1 BM 92502
Upon ascending the throne, he claimed (in Annal 9, which dates to 745 BCE, his first regnal year) to have annexed Babylonia, from “Dur-(Kuri)galzu, Sippar of Shamash, … the cities [of Ba]bylonia up to the Uqnu river [by the shore of the Lo]wer [Sea]”[3] (which referred to the Persian Gulf), and subsequently placed his eunuch over them as governor. Also in his first year of reign he defeated the powerful kingdom of Urartu (Armenia), whose hegemony under the rulership of Sarduri II had extended to Asia Minor, northern Mesopotamia, western Iran and Syria; there he found unrivalled horses for his war-chariots.[4] He also defeated the Medes before making war on and conquering the Neo-Hittites, Syria and Phoenicia.
19Pul, [Tiglath-Pileser III] king of Assyria, came against the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver so that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom under his rule.20Then Menahem exacted the money from Israel, even from all the mighty men of wealth, from each man fifty shekels of silver to pay the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria returned and did not remain there in the land.