The Babylonian World - Historia Antigua

— Looking down the Tigris —
Like his predecessors, Sennacherib (704–681) was personally king of Babylon at
the beginning of his reign. But the unexpected death of his father Sargon, who had
been killed in battle and was not buried at home, made him change his Babylonian
policy (Brinkman 1975; Chamaza 2002: 73–91). After crushing a major rebellion in
his second year as king of Assyria and Babylonia he installed a loyal native Babylonian
on the throne of Babylon. Bel-ibni, who had been educated at the Assyrian court,
reigned for three years but was unable to control matters in Babylonia. Sennacherib
removed him in 700 BCE and made his eldest son Ashur-nadin-shumi king of Babylon.
He was seized by the Babylonians after six years of kingship and handed over to the
king of Elam in retaliation for a military expedition carried out by the Assyrians in
the southern marshes of Mesopotamia. It took about ten years before Sennacherib
answered this rebellion and marched into Babylonia. He defeated an alliance of
Chaldaeans, Babylonians, Aramaeans, Elamites and Iranians at Halule on the Tigris
(the outcome of this battle is, however, disputed: Grayson 1965). He then attacked
Babylon itself and conquered it in 689 BCE after a siege of over fifteen months. He
had the city completely devastated, the temples destroyed and the divine statues
smashed or carried away. Then the Assyrians diverted the Euphrates river and flooded
the ruins so that Babylon might not be remembered in the future. In his inscriptions,
Sennacherib blamed his soldiers for the desecration of the temples and the destruction
of the divine statues. But he also states that it was the financial support which the
Marduk temple gave to the anti-Assyrian uprising that had provoked this harsh
treatment (Galter 1984; Chamaza 2002: 92–107).
Sennacherib left Babylonia without a ruler. The land lay waste and the cities were
in ruins. The Babylonian Chronicle speaks about a time when there was no king in
the land. But under Esarhaddon (680–669), Sennacherib’s son, the Assyrian policy
towards Babylonia again changed. A literary text from Nineveh documents this new
attitude. According to this unique document, the state of war between Assyria and
Babylonia had been provoked by Sargon II. His son Sennacherib was hindered in his
attempts of reconciliation by ‘Assyrian intellectuals’. Now Esarhaddon is called upon
to bring justice to Babylonia (Tadmor et al. 1989). His policy of appeasement found
its most visible expression in the rebuilding of Babylon and its temples. He also
confirmed again the traditional privileges of the Babylonian cities and returned agricultural
land around Babylon to its original owners. Finally he had the statues of
Marduk and his consort Sarpanitum restored. They were returned to Babylon at the
beginning of Ashurbanipal’s reign (Brinkman 1983, 1990: 232–239; Porter 1993;
Chamaza 2002: 168–201; for the history of Babylonia between 689 and 627 see
Frame 1992).
In 672 BCE Esarhaddon decreed that his elder son Shamash-shumu-ukin should
be future king of Babylon and his younger brother Ashurbanipal should rule Assyria.
So, after his death in 669 BCE, Assyria and Babylonia again became independent
but closely related states. During his early years Ashurbanipal (668–631/27) followed
the policy of his father. He supervised the triumphal return of the divine statues
to Babylon and confirmed the tax exemption of Babylonian temples and cities. But
in 652 BCE Shamash-shumu-ukin revolted against his brother. This act destroyed the
fragile arrangement Esarhaddon had made to forge Babylonia and Assyria into one
state. In a famous letter Ashurbanipal tried to convince the Babylonians not to follow
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