Arpad was a city of ancient Syria. In 743 BCE, Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III led a military expedition to Syria, defeating there an army of Urartu. But the city of Arpad, which had formed an alliance with Urartu, did not surrender easily. It took Tiglath-pileser three years of siege to conquer Arpad, whereupon he massacred its inhabitants and destroyed the city.