The Assyrian Empire in Crisis: A Succession of Blood and Power
The assassination of Sennacherib in 681 BC plunged the Assyrian Empire into chaos. According to biblical accounts preserved in Isaiah, the king’s killers fled north to Urartu, where King Rusas II granted them sanctuary – a deliberate provocation against Assyrian power. This regicide triggered a brutal war of succession among Sennacherib’s sons, ultimately won by the younger prince Esarhaddon through a combination of military force and carefully crafted propaganda.
Esarhaddon’s victory account, inscribed on a hexagonal prism, reveals much about Assyrian royal ideology. He claimed divine selection by Ashur and Shamash, portraying his brothers as mad usurpers while positioning himself as the rightful heir. However, historians note the conspicuous absence of any direct reference to his father’s murder in these records, suggesting Esarhaddon’s delicate position in legitimizing his rule while avoiding condemnation of his predecessor.
Rebuilding Babylon: Divine Wrath and Political Necessity
One of Esarhaddon’s first major challenges was addressing the controversial destruction of Babylon by his father Sennacherib. The earlier king’s brutal leveling of the sacred city had created significant political and religious tensions, as Babylon’s gods were closely linked to Assyria’s own pantheon. Esarhaddon’s solution was a masterclass in political spin:
He initiated an ambitious reconstruction program while carefully avoiding any direct criticism of his father. His official accounts attributed Babylon’s destruction to divine wrath rather than Assyrian military action, claiming the Arahtu river’s flooding (rather than Assyrian engineers) had devastated the city. This allowed him to position himself as Marduk’s chosen instrument for restoration while maintaining dynastic continuity.
Archaeological evidence reveals the scale of this project, with thousands of bricks stamped with Esarhaddon’s name and titles paving the processional way to Esagila, Babylon’s great temple complex. The king’s careful balancing act extended to religious policy – while returning many Babylonian deities to their shrines, he kept the statue of Marduk in Assyria as a symbolic assertion of authority.
The Cimmerian Threat and the Fall of Phrygia
As Esarhaddon consolidated power, a new nomadic threat emerged from the northeast – the Cimmerians. These fierce warriors from the Caspian region formed dangerous alliances with Urartu and began pressuring Assyria’s northern frontiers. In 676 BC, the crisis reached its peak when Cimmerian forces invaded Phrygia with devastating speed.
The Phrygian kingdom, known for its distinctive facade monuments and prosperous trade networks, proved unable to withstand the nomadic onslaught. King Midas II (grandson of the legendary golden touch monarch) committed suicide as Gordium fell to the invaders. Archaeological evidence confirms the city’s violent destruction, with layers of ash marking this catastrophic event.
Esarhaddon personally led Assyrian forces to confront the Cimmerians in Cilicia, claiming to have slain their king Teushpa in single combat. While this halted further westward expansion, Phrygia never recovered. The power vacuum allowed Lydia under King Gyges to emerge as Asia Minor’s dominant power – a development that would have significant future consequences.
The Struggle for Egypt: Assyrian Triumph and Eventual Retreat
Esarhaddon turned his attention southward to Egypt, where Nubian pharaoh Tirhakah of the 25th Dynasty ruled. Initial Assyrian campaigns met with failure, including a significant defeat at Ashkelon where combined Egyptian and Philistine forces repelled the invaders. However, Esarhaddon persisted, launching a successful 671 BC invasion that captured Memphis and forced Tirhakah’s retreat to Nubia.
The Assyrian administration of Egypt proved unstable. Despite taking numerous royal hostages (including future pharaoh Psammetichus) to Nineveh for “Assyrianization,” local resistance remained strong. When Esarhaddon died during a second Egyptian campaign in 669 BC, his successor Ashurbanipal faced renewed challenges from both Tirhakah and his successor Tantamani.
Ashurbanipal’s brutal 663 BC campaign, which included the unprecedented sack of Thebes, marked the height of Assyrian power in Egypt. Yet within a decade, his carefully installed vassal Psammetichus would lead a successful rebellion, expelling Assyrian forces and founding Egypt’s 26th Dynasty through shrewd political marriages and alliances with Lydia.
Cultural Impacts and Historical Legacy
This turbulent period (681-653 BC) reshaped the ancient Near East in profound ways:
The fall of Phrygia permanently altered Anatolian power structures, paving the way for Lydia’s rise. The Cimmerian invasions demonstrated the vulnerability of settled kingdoms to nomadic warfare, a pattern that would recur throughout ancient history.
In Egypt, Psammetichus’ rebellion marked the end of Nubian rule and began the Saite Renaissance, a period of cultural revival that looked back to Old Kingdom traditions. His successful defiance of Assyria proved the empire’s overextension, though it would take decades for this weakness to become fatal.
Assyria’s experience with Babylon established important precedents for imperial governance of culturally distinct subject cities. The careful balance between military domination and religious accommodation would influence later empires, including the Neo-Babylonian and Persian regimes.
Perhaps most significantly, these events demonstrated the limits of pure military power. Despite unprecedented battlefield successes, Assyria struggled to maintain control over distant Egypt and faced persistent resistance in Babylon – challenges that would ultimately contribute to the empire’s dramatic collapse in the late 7th century BC. The period thus stands as a pivotal moment in ancient history, showing both the heights of imperial power and the seeds of its eventual dissolution.