Ashur-dan was a son of Adad-nirari III (r. 811–783 BC) and succeeded his brother Shalmaneser IV as king.
Ashur-dan's reign was a particularly difficult one as he was faced with two outbreaks of plague and five of his eighteen years as king were devoted to putting down revolts.
In particular, the power of the king himself was being threatened due to the emergence of extraordinarily powerful officials, whom while they accepted the authority of the Assyrian monarch in practice acted with supreme authority themselves and began to issue their own inscriptions, similar to those of the kings.
This period of Assyrian decline for instance coincided with the peak of the northern Kingdom of Urartu.
[6] Only a single fragmentary royal inscription, on a clay cone, survives from Ashur-dan.
Given that this city had previously been under Assyrian control, the fact that Ashur-dan had to wage war on it in 772 BC (and in two later campaigns as well) indicates that Assyria's dominion over its westernmost territories was deteriorating.
[10] Perhaps the many revolts were in response to the plague epidemic as well as The Bur-Sagale solar eclipse on 15 June 763 BC.