Sargon II (722–705 BC) bas-relief from the royal palace of
Sargon II at
Dur-Sharrukin, depicting the king. Exhibited at the
Iraq Museum In the aftermath of Sargon II's assumption of the kingship, the political situation throughout the Neo-Assyrian Empire was unstable and volatile. The new king was faced with numerous revolts against his rule and he also had to finish the unfinished final military campaigns of his predecessor Shalmaneser V. Sargon II's quick resolution of Shalmaneser's three-year long siege of
Samaria, the capital of the
Kingdom of Israel, resulted in the kingdom's fall and the famous loss of the
Ten Lost Tribes of Israel as nearly 30,000 Israelites were deported and spread out throughout the empire.'''''' Though there were uprisings in the Assyrian heartland (as verified by references to "guilty Assyrians" in Sargon II's inscriptions), greater rebellions directed at Sargon II sprung up along the periphery of the empire. A revolt by several of the previously independent kingdoms in the
Levant, such as
Damascus,
Hamath and
Arpad, was crushed in 720 BC but an uprising in Babylonia in the south, led by newly proclaimed Babylonian king
Marduk-apla-iddina II, successfully defeated Sargon II's attempt at suppressing it, re-establishing Babylonia as an independent kingdom. With the most directly threatening revolts dealt with and his position consolidated, Sargon II embarked on several campaigns aimed at expanding the borders of the Assyrian Empire. Emulating himself after his ancient namesake,
Sargon of Akkad (whom Sargon II probably took his throne name from), Sargon II dreamt of conquering the entire world. In 717 BC, Sargon II conquered the militarily weak but economically strong
Kingdom of Carchemish in modern-day Syria, recognized as the successor of the ancient
Hittite Empire by its contemporaries, and significantly bolstered the Assyrian treasury. In 714 BC, Sargon II campaigned against Assyria's northern neighbor, Urartu. In order to avoid a series of fortifications alongside Urartu's southern border, Sargon II marched his army around them, through the mountains in modern-day
Kermanshah, Iran. Though his troops were exhausted once the Assyrians arrived in Urartian territory, a near-suicidal attack led by just Sargon II and his personal guard against the entire Urartian army rallied his army and Urartu was defeated. Though Sargon II chose not to conquer the entire kingdom due to the exhaustion of his army, he successfully seized and plundered Urartu's holiest city,
Musasir. From 713 BC to the end of his reign, Sargon II constructed a new city,
Dur-Sharrukin (meaning 'Sargon's fortress'), which he intended to serve as the new Assyrian capital, though the city was never completely finished, Sargon II moved into the city's palace in 706 BC. In 710 BC, Sargon II and his army marched to reconquer Babylonia. Instead of attacking the south from the north, as he had in his failed attempt a decade earlier, Sargon II marched his army down alongside the eastern bank of the river Tigris and then attacked Babylon from the southeast. Marduk-apla-iddina fled rather than face Sargon II, was later defeated and Sargon II was formally inaugurated as King of Babylon. Sargon II's final campaign was against the Kingdom of
Tabal in Anatolia, which had thrown off Assyrian control a few years earlier. As in his other campaigns, Sargon II personally led his troops and he died in battle, his body being lost to the enemy.
Sennacherib (705–681 BC) during his Babylonian war, relief from his palace in
Nineveh Sennacherib ascended to the throne following his father's death in battle, and like most Assyrian kings spent his reign engaging in a series of campaigns and building projects. Sennacherib is most notably remembered for his campaigns against
Babylonia and
Judah. The
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, may have been in Nineveh as part of Sennacherib's magnification works on the city as the new royal capital. Sennacherib moved the capital to Nineveh, abandoning Dur-Sharrukin, due to the death of Sargon II in battle being perceived as an ill omen. Sennacherib's military campaigning began in 703 BC with the king campaigning against Marduk-apla-iddina II of Babylon, Sargon II's old rival, successfully defeating him. Marduk-apla-iddina fled, Babylon was taken once more and the Babylonian palace was plundered, though the citizens were not harmed. A puppet king named
Bel-ibni was placed on the throne and for the next two years Babylon was left in peace. In 701 BC, Sennacherib turned from Babylonia to the western part of the empire, where King
Hezekiah of Judah had renounced Assyrian allegiance through incitement by
Egypt and Marduk-apla-iddina. Various small states in the area which had participated in the rebellion,
Sidon and
Ashkelon, were taken by force and a string of other cities and states, including
Byblos,
Ashdod,
Ammon,
Moab and
Edom then paid tribute without resistance.
Ekron called on Egypt for help but the Egyptians were defeated. Sennacherib then besieged Hezekiah's capital,
Jerusalem, and gave its surrounding towns to Assyrian vassal rulers in Ekron, Gaza and Ashdod. There is no description of how the siege ended, but the annals record a submission by Hezekiah and a list of booty sent from Jerusalem to Nineveh. Hezekiah remained on his throne as a vassal ruler. and
Nabu-shar-usur escaping after murdering their father
SennacheribSennacherib placed his eldest son and crown prince
Ashur-nadin-shumi on the throne of Babylon in 699 BC. Marduk-apla-iddina continued his rebellion with the help of
Elam, and in 694 BC Sennacherib took a fleet of
Phoenician ships down the Tigris river to destroy the Elamite base on the shore of the
Persian Gulf, but while he was doing this the Elamites captured Ashur-nadin-shumi and put
Nergal-ushezib, the son of Marduk-apla-iddina, on the throne of Babylon. Nergal-ushezib was captured in 693 BC and taken to Nineveh, and Sennacherib attacked Elam again. The Elamite king fled to the mountains and Sennacherib plundered his kingdom, but when he withdrew the Elamites returned to Babylon and put another rebel leader,
Mushezib-Marduk, on the Babylonian throne. Babylon eventually fell to the Assyrians in 689 BC after a lengthy siege, and Sennacherib dealt with the "Babylonian problem" by utterly destroying the city and even the mound on which it stood by diverting the water of the surrounding canals over the site. With Ashur-nadin-shumi presumed dead following his abduction by the Elamites, Sennacherib eventually chose to proclaim a younger son, Esarhaddon, as the crown prince rather than
Arda-Mulissu who was the next oldest son and had been crown prince for several years following Ashur-nadin-shumi's disappearance. Arda-Mulissu remained a popular and became an increasingly powerful figure in the royal court, attracting support from the aristocrats and scribes. Troubled by this, Sennacherib sent crown prince Esarhaddon to the safety of the western provinces. Arda-Mulissu, feeling that a decisive act would grant him the kingship, made "a treaty of rebellion" with co-conspirators, including another son of Sennacherib,
Nabu-shar-usur, and moved to kill his father. Sennacherib was then murdered, either stabbed directly by his son or killed while he was praying by being crushed underneath a statue of a winged bull colossus that guarded the temple, although the former is more likely than the latter.'''''' Arda-Mulissu used Sennacherib's destruction of the ancient city of Babylon as a justification for murdering his father.''''''
Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) copy of
Esarhaddon's
victory stele at the
Harvard Semitic Museum After Sennacherib's murder, Esarhaddon first had to defeat his brothers Arda-Mulissu and Nabu-shar-usur in six weeks of civil war. Their betrayal deeply affected Esarhaddon, who would remain paranoid and distrustful, particularly of his male relatives, for the rest of his reign.'
Though the brothers who had betrayed him managed to escape, their families, associates and supporters were captured and executed, as was the security staff in the royal palace.' To not allow the same justification being used to supplant him as ruler, Esarhaddon quickly moved to rebuild Babylon and issued an official proclamation which made clear that it had been the will of the gods that Babylon be destroyed because the city had lost its respect for the divine. The proclamation makes no mention of Esarhaddon's father but clearly states that Esarhaddon was to be a divinely chosen restorer of the city.'''''' Esarhaddon successfully rebuilt the city gates, battlements, drains, courtyards, shrines and various other buildings and structures. Great care was taken during rebuilding of the
Esagila (Babylon's great temple), depositing precious stones, scented oils and perfumes into its foundations. Precious metals were chosen to cover the doors of the temple and the pedestal that was to house the
Statue of Marduk (the main cult image of Babylon's god,
Marduk) was manufactured in gold.'''''' in 671 BC, following
Esarhaddon's conquests It was due to Esarhaddon's military campaigns that the Neo-Assyrian Empire reached its largest ever extent. He established borders stretching from
Nubia in the south-west to the
Zagros Mountains in the north-east, including regions such as the Levant, south-eastern
Anatolia and all of Mesopotamia. The combination of attentive administration of the government and the successful military campaigns ensured that the empire would remain stable throughout his reign as king and allowed for advances within art, astronomy, architecture, math, medicine and literature.'''''' Perhaps his greatest conquest was
Egypt, which dramatically increased the size of his empire. After having been defeated in a first failed attempt to conquer the country in 673 BC, Esarhaddon's armies successfully defeated Pharaoh
Taharqa in 671 BC after which he captured the Pharaoh's family, including his son and wife, and most of the royal court, which were sent back to Assyria as hostages. Governors loyal to the Assyrian king were then placed in charge of the conquered territories along the
Nile.'''''' Not wishing to repeat the bloody transition of power that had begun his own reign, Esarhaddon took steps to ensure that the succession following his own death would be a peaceful one.'''''' He designated his eldest living son,
Shamash-shum-ukin, as his heir in Babylon and his favored, but younger, son
Ashurbanipal as the heir to the Assyrian throne. Although the reasoning behind this is unknown, it is possible that Shamash-shum-ukin's mother was a Babylonian woman, which would have made his eligibility to the Assyrian throne questionable. Esarhaddon's mother
Naqi'a issued a treaty commanding the royal court and the various provinces of the empire to accept Esarhaddon's son, Ashurbanipal, as king, and Esarhaddon himself entered into treaties with rival powers, such as the Medians and the Persians, which saw them submit as vassals to Ashurbanipal in advance.'''''' After Esarhaddon's death in late 669 BC, Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin ascended to their thrones peacefully, proving his succession plans a success.
Ashurbanipal (669–631 BC) , closeup from the
Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal After ascending the Assyrian throne and attending the inauguration of his brother Shamash-shum-ukin as the King of Babylon, Ashurbanipal had to immediately deal with Egypt, which had rebelled against Assyrian rule shortly before Esarhaddon's death. The rebellion, led by the same Pharaoh Taharqa that Esarhaddon had defeated in 671 BC was only stopped after Ashurbanipal invaded Egypt 667 BC, marching his army as far south as
Thebes, sacking several cities in his path and eventually defeating the revolt and appointing
Necho I, the former king of
Sais, as Egyptian vassal ruler. In 665 BC, Ashurbanipal was forced to war in Egypt again, this time as the country was invaded by Taharqa's designated successor,
Tantamani. Although Egypt would be aligned with Assyria for the rest of Assyria's existence, direct control slowly slipped away over the course of Ashurbanipal's reign and by the time of his death, Egypt would be a fully independent kingdom once more, without the need for another revolt.'''''' During the years that followed his Egyptian campaign, Ashurbanipal was kept busy elsewhere. Perhaps the most famous of his many military campaigns were his two wars against Elam, which had long been a thorn in Assyria's side. Though he had successfully defeated Elam in his first campaign in 653 BC, the Elamites rose against Assyria again in 647 BC. Elam's second attack was punished severely by Ashurbanipal, who invaded the country in 647–646 BC, a campaign which saw the brutal plunder and razing of numerous Elamite cities, including the capital
Susa. The campaign was thorough; statues of Elamite gods were destroyed, royal tombs were desecrated and the ground was sowed with salt. Ashurbanipal's inscriptions suggest that he had intended to wipe out the Elamites as a distinct cultural group. Hostility had been building up between Ashurbanipal and his brother Shamash-shum-ukin throughout their reigns, probably mainly because Ashurbanipal exercised significant control over Shamash-shum-ukin's actions, despite Esarhaddon possibly having intended the two to be equals. When Shamash-shum-ukin openly declared war on his brother in 652 BC, much of southern Mesopotamia followed him in his rebellion. Although Shamash-shum-ukin seemed to initially have the upper hand, successfully securing many allies, his imminent defeat was apparent by 650 BC, when Babylon and many other prominent southern cities were besieged by Ashurbanipal. When Babylon fell to Ashurbanipal's troops in 648 BC, Shamash-shum-ukin is traditionally believed to have committed suicide by
setting himself on fire in the palace,'''''' but contemporary texts only say that he "met a cruel death" and that the gods "consigned him to a fire and destroyed his life". In addition to suicide though self-immolation or other means, it is possible that he was executed, died accidentally or was killed in some other way. The end of Ashurbanipal's reign and the beginning of the reign of his son and successor,
Ashur-etil-ilani, is shrouded in mystery because of a lack of available sources, but it appears that Ashurbanipal died a natural death in 631 BC.'
Although his military activities were impressive, Ashurbanipal is today chiefly remembered because of the Library of Ashurbanipal, the first systematically organized library in the world. The library, composed of more than 30,000 clay tablets containing stories, poems, scientific texts and other writings, was considered by Ashurbanipal himself as his greatest accomplishment.''' When Assyria fell two decades after Ashurbanipal's death, the library was buried beneath the ruins of Nineveh where many tablets survived undamaged, this being the main reason why many ancient Mesopotamian texts survive to this day.''''''
Final kings of Assyria (631–609 BC) to
Nabopolassar of
Babylon, in which he recognizes him as
king of Babylon and pleads to be allowed to retain his kingdom. Now in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The authenticity of the letter is a matter of debate. Ashur-etil-ilani's brief reign (631–627 BC) was initially met with opposition, as with most successions in Assyria.''
Although the capital experienced a brief period of unrest and violence, those who conspired against Ashur-etil-ilani were quickly defeated by his rab ša rēši
(great/chief eunuch), Sin-shumu-lishir.'' Though few sources remain from Ashur-etil-ilani's reign, Kandalanu continued to serve as vassal king in Babylonia and it appears that Ashur-etil-ilani exercised the same amount of control as his father had.'
It is possible that he was perceived as a weak ruler; the palaces he constructed were unusually small by Assyrian standards and he is not recorded to have ever gone on a military campaign or a hunting trip, activities who were otherwise common for the Assyrian kings and cemented their position as warrior-kings.' Ashur-etil-ilani's brother
Sinsharishkun became king in 627 BC. Although the common idea has been that Sinsharishkun had struggled with his brother and eventually deposed him, there is no evidence to suggest that the succession was violent or that Ashur-etil-ilani's death was unnatural.'''' The rise of a new king might have endangered the general Sin-shumu-lishir's position at the court and Ashur-etil-ilani's old general rebelled, seizing control of northern Babylonia for three months before being defeated. The instability caused by this brief civil war might have been what allowed another general or official,
Nabopolassar to revolt in 626 BC. Sinsharishkun failed to efficiently deal with Nabopolassar's revolt, which led to the foundation of the
Neo-Babylonian Empire. This new empire allied with the
Median Empire to the east and the following
Medo-Babylonian war against the Assyrian Empire would have catastrophic effects for Assyria.'''' In 614 BC, the Medes sacked and razed the city of Assur, one of Assyria's previous capitals and still its religious heart and from June to August in 612 BC, the Medes and Babylonians besieged Nineveh. The walls were breached in August, leading to a
lengthy and brutal sack, during which Sinsharishkun is assumed to have been killed.'''''' Sinsharishkun's successor (possibly his son)
Ashur-uballit II, rallied what remained of the Assyrian army at the city
Harran, where he would be defeated by the Medes and Babylonians in 609 BC, ending the ancient Assyrian monarchy. Ashur-uballit probably died at some point during the following years, 608–606 BC.'''''' Although Assyria fell during the rule of the Sargonid dynasty, the Sargonid kings also ruled the country during the apex of its power. Sargon II's three immediate successors; Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, are generally regarded as three of the greatest Assyrian kings.''''
The term Sargonids
is sometimes used solely for these three monarchs.'''' == Politics ==