The History of Antiquity, Vol. 3 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 3 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
The city of Babylon was not attacked by
Sennacherib.
The stubborn resistance of Babylonia against Sennacherib was supported,
as the inscriptions clearly show, by Elam, where a new king, Kudur
Nanchundi, had succeeded Sutruk Nanchundi (p. 103).[263] In order, no
doubt, to isolate the Babylonians and take from them this support of
their resistance, Sennacherib directed his seventh campaign against
Elam: "The king of Elam," we are told in the inscription of Nebbi Yunus,
"had been the ally of the people of Babel."[264] The two cities which
Sargon had taken from Sutruk Nanchundi,[265] which the Elamites had
subsequently reconquered, were taken by Sennacherib, who besides
enumerates 34 large cities of Elam, which he had besieged, conquered,
and burnt. Kudur Nanchundi abandoned his chief city, Madaktu, and
escaped into a distant region. Sennacherib intended to besiege Madaktu,
but snow and rain detained him in the mountains; he returned to
Nineveh.[266]
Sennacherib had not attained his object, the subjugation of Elam. What
Sennacherib announces as the result of his campaign must have appeared
to the Babylonians as very small, if not altogether a failure. In the
cylinder Taylor a new struggle against Babylon follows the return of
Sennacherib to Nineveh, a struggle more important and severe than any
preceding. Suzub, whom Sennacherib had taken captive in 696 B.C.,
escaped out of imprisonment, and again appeared as king at the head of
Babylonia. Merodach Baladan is no more, but his son unites with Suzub;
all Chaldæa rises; and by its side the Elamites, Aramæans, and several
tribes of Arabia. This great rebellion ends with the capture and
destruction of Babylon. The date of these events, which took place in
the eighth campaign of Sennacherib, can only be defined by the fact that
they belong to the period after the year 696 B.C., and before the year
692 B.C. The cylinder which narrates them bears the date of the
beginning of the year of Belsimiani, i.e. of the year 691 B.C. The
events of the eighth campaign are connected, and follow immediately on
each other; the close was the conquest of Babylon and second capture of
Suzub, as the introductory words to this campaign on the cylinder prove:
"In my eighth campaign the dominion of Suzub came to an end." After the
conquest of Babel, this inscription only mentions the erection of the
building at Nebbi Yunus (p. 108). We must, therefore, put the beginning
of the new struggle in the year 695 B.C., the destruction of Babylon in
the year 694 B.C.
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