King Esarhaddon ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 681 to 669 BCE. He was the third ruler of the Sargonid Dynasty, the youngest son of the famous King Sennacherib, and the father of the infamous King Ashurbanipal. Esarhaddon’s reign was characterized by extensive military campaigns, the restoration of Babylon, and a dedication to astrology not seen under any prior Assyrian kings. He is notorious not only as a military leader but also as a successful statesman who utilized strategy and politics at an international level.
Esarhaddon’s Ascension: Civil War and Fratricide
Esarhaddon was never Sennacherib’s intended heir. Assur-nadin-sumi was Sennacherib’s heir and ruled as King of Babylon from 700 BCE after Sennacherib had conquered the city. This was until 694 BCE, when the Elamites rose up against the Neo-Assyrian Empire and kidnapped Assur-nadin-sumi. He was never heard from again and is, therefore, assumed to have been executed. Sennacherib then went on a vengeful attack against Babylonia and the Elamites, which culminated in a nine-month siege and the complete decimation of Babylon.
As a result, chaos erupted within the Assyrian court. Sennacherib appointed Arda-Mulissu as heir but changed his mind. In 684 BCE, he named his younger son Esarhaddon as his successor. Enraged by his demotion, Arda-Mulissu and another brother murdered Sennacherib in 681 BCE, causing a civil war between the three brothers. However, when they met in battle, many of Arda-Mulissu’s army deserted him to join Esarhaddon’s troops, so the youngest brother was able to enter Nineveh with little resistance.
Once Esarhaddon was officially crowned, he wasted no time in punishing the conspirators. His merciless retribution manifested in the execution of his brothers’ families (although the brothers themselves had escaped to Urartu), all the security personnel in the royal palace at Nineveh, and many political prisoners.
Restoration of Babylon
After his father’s controversial attempts at subduing Babylon, Esarhaddon took a different approach to Assyrian and Babylonian relations. Shortly after his ascension, Esarhaddon began an intensive reconstruction of the city. This started with the removal of wreckage left after Sennacherib’s assault and then continued with the reconstruction of important civic buildings, such as the great temple complex called the Esagila dedicated to the god Marduk. Esarhaddon also had individual homes, two inner city walls, and the ziggurat complex, named the Etemenanki, rebuilt. Furthermore, he returned many idols taken as spoils of war to Babylon and other cities across southern Mesopotamia.
Throughout the restoration project, Esarhaddon carved his name into multiple bricks across Babylon so that the people would remember who restored Babylon to its former glory. Yet, Esarhaddon’s tactics of ensuring his popularity in Babylon did not end there. The king distanced himself from his father and other predecessors who fought against the city. Across the rest of the Assyrian Empire, Esarhaddon emphasized his family lineage, but within Babylon, he was the king chosen by the gods. Moreover, he stated that the demolition of Babylon was caused by the inhabitants displeasing their deities.
Similarly, Esarhaddon had a prophecy relating to Babylon altered for his benefit. The oracles stated Babylon would not be renovated for another 70 years, but Esarhaddon had the cuneiform read upside down, which meant 11 years, exactly the amount of time he had outlined his project would take. Ultimately, Esarhaddon’s efforts on multiple fronts substantiated his position as King of Babylon. The Babylonian ideals of kingship prioritized the concept of a “holy builder” who protected and restored, as opposed to the Assyrian notion of a warrior king who subjugated, although both ideas are notably important to both cultures.
The Military Leader
As the restoration of Babylon was well underway, Esarhaddon also initiated regenerative projects in the Assyrian heartland. He probably did not want to show favoritism to the south of the Empire. Temples across Assur, Nineveh, and Arbela were renovated and repaired, and Esarhaddon greatly improved military and administrative structures, something he did not pursue in Babylonia.
Esarhaddon’s revamped fortifications were almost immediately put to the test as the nomadic Cimmerian people attacked the Assyrian western borders. Despite Assyria’s distrust of the Scythians (another nomadic tribe), Esarhaddon formed a treaty with them to fight against the Cimmerians. By 676 BCE, Esarhaddon’s forces met the Cimmerians in battle at Cilicia and defeated them. In his inscriptions of the event, Esarhaddon claims to have personally killed the Cimmerian King Teushpa.
Simultaneously, an uprising mounted in Sidon in the Levant, and Esarhaddon marched his army to the city and executed the vassal king. There was yet another rebellion by a vassal king, and in gruesome style, Esarhaddon had the heads of both vassals hung around the necks of two nobles, who made a spectacle of them back in Nineveh.
Next, Esarhaddon focused on Assyria’s old foe to the north, Urartu, where his two rebellious brothers still resided. The Assyrian troops first attacked Urartian allies and vassal states, such as the Manneans and the kingdom of Shupria, which he plundered greatly. By 673 BCE, Esarhaddon had vanquished the Urartian army and sent them back to their northern heartland. Supposedly, around 675 BCE, there were skirmishes with the Elamites in Babylonia. The Elamite king died swiftly after taking Sippur, and the new king relinquished the conquest and signed a peace treaty with Assyria.
War With Egypt
In 673 BCE, Esarhaddon also set his sights on Egypt. Egypt had supported Assyrian rebels for years, and Esarhaddon had an ambitious plan of vengeance. However, his first campaign failed dramatically. Few Assyrian sources mention this attempt at all, which hints at how great the Assyrian defeat was. Esarhaddon marched his troops at great speed, so by the time they met Pharaoh Taharqa outside the city of Ashkelon, the Assyrians were exhausted. Esarhaddon and his army were crushed and then forced to make the long journey back to Assyria empty-handed.
Two years later, Esarhaddon tried again with a contrasting approach whereby his army was much larger and moved much slower. This technique proved much more successful. The Assyrian army eventually seized the Egyptian capital of Memphis. Although the pharaoh managed to escape, his entire family and a vast number of Egyptian citizens and booty were taken back to Assyria. Meanwhile, he appointed Assyrian statesmen to prominent positions in Egypt before returning home to Nineveh himself. Esarhaddon commissioned a great victory stele that depicted him as towering over his vassals, one of whom is assumed to be the pharaoh’s son, with a rope around his neck.
Deteriorating Health and Death
After his first conquest in Egypt, Esarhaddon’s spirits and health took a downturn. Notes and letters from the Assyrian court echo the king’s profound sadness after the death of his wife and newborn child around 672 BCE. Furthermore, his physical health declined, with Esarhaddon regularly experiencing vomiting, nosebleeds, and a skin rash that covered his entire body. In ancient Assyria, a king who was ill was thought to be a sign that the gods were against him, so he hid his affliction from his subjects.
Likewise, when Esarhaddon returned from his victorious stint in Egypt, he learned of a conspiracy against him. An oracle at Harran declared a man named Sasi as the rightful Assyrian monarch, an alleged relative of Sargon II. Esarhaddon reflected on the information before slaughtering the conspirators, including Sasi and the oracle. So many officials were killed in the carnage that Esarhaddon reconfigured the court’s structure and security so that fewer people could meet him.
The conspiracy of 670 BCE increased the king’s already palpable paranoia. Upon hearing of the chaos in Esarhaddon’s court, Pharaoh Taharqa promptly reappeared on the Egyptian political scene, ready to rebel against the Assyrian overlords. Notably, some of Esarhaddon’s appointed officials joined the Egyptian efforts, and the Assyrian ruler began to mobilize his army for his third campaign in Egypt. However, Esarhaddon died in Harran before he could reach the Egyptian borders, just a year after he had quashed the potential civil war. Nevertheless, his succession plan was successful. Both of his sons smoothly transitioned to their new roles of King of Assyria and King of Babylonia, respectively.
Paranoia, Rituals, and Feminism?
Paranoia ran rampant in Esarhaddon’s mind. Due to the betrayal of his father by his brothers and his subsequent disorderly ascension, Esarhaddon was incredibly suspicious of officials, servants, and especially his family members. This likely led to the meticulously organized layout of his succession. Esarhaddon declared his eldest son, Sin-nadin-apli, his heir. But Sin-nadin-apli died just two years later, and Esarhaddon made his next son, Shamash-shum-ukin, heir to Babylon and his younger son, Ashurbanipal, heir to Assyria. By appointing two crown princes, Esarhaddon likely hoped to stabilize the Empire and limit the possibility of civil war.
The choice of appointing the older son as ruler of Babylon was strategic, as his mother was presumably of Babylonian ancestry, whereas Ashurbanipal’s mother was Assyrian. Correspondingly, Esarhaddon’s distrust of power-hungry male relatives materialized in an increase in the power of women in court. His mother, wife, and daughter all held notable authority in Assyrian politics. Indeed, it was Esarhaddon’s mother, Naqi’a Zakutu, who ensured all men with ties to the throne swore allegiance to Ashurbanipal, which was called the Loyalty Treaty of Naqi’a Zakutu, in around 669 BCE.
Another symptom of Esarhaddon’s paranoia was his intensified use of rituals, astrology, and oracles. His employment of these methods of securing success as king was unparalleled by previous Assyrian monarchs. Esarhaddon performed the substitute king ritual multiple times, including in Egypt and after hearing of Sasi’s conspiracy. In this way, he demonstrated his trust in the divine over humanity. In the substitute king ritual, the king went into hiding for 100 days, and a substitute would take his place. The idea was that any evil intended for the king would impact the replacement instead, and he would be killed at the end of the 100 days, whether any harm had befallen him or not.
