Sennacherib
2. Describe the military campaigns of Sennacherib
Sennacherib was a prominent king within the Sargonid period that ruled Assyria when it was at its peak. Unlike his predecessors, Sennacherib's reign was largely marked by military campaigns however he did have nine prominent military campaigns which were documented in his famous ‘Palace without Rival’ which will be elaborated on throughout this response.
The first military campaign of Sennacherib was to the south in 703 BCE. This was caused due to the actions of the Chaldeans south of Assyrian. They were being lead by Merodach Baladan II, chief of the Bit – Yakin tribe. This leader took advantage of the new king of Assyria. As he assumed the empire would be unstable he began to revolt. As a response to this, in February 703 BCE, Sennacherib swept south to subdue the areas controlled by the Chaldean tribes and ended the campaign with a raid into the Aramean tribal areas, east of the Tigris river. As a result of this, all revolting states were subdued and conquered. Furthermore, booty and slaves were taken back to Nineveh were Sennacherib resided. In addition to this, Merodach Baladan II fled allowing a puppet king to be installed in Babylon. According to Sennacherib’s Annals he states “in my first campaign I defeated Merodach Baladan, king of Babylon”. Moreover, in his Annals Sennacherib claims, “I carried off to Assyria a heavy booty of 208,000 people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep without number...” thus allowing historians to believe that Sennacherib did in fact take back plenty of booty from his first campaign. However it is imminent that it is recorded that this was according only to Sennacherib and his somewhat biased wall reliefs.
Sennacherib’s second campaign had begun in 702 BCE due to the Kassites refusal to submit to ‘the kings, my father’s from of old” (Annals of Sennacherib, Forbes, p. 70). Sennacherib swept through the area and extracted
Sennacherib was a prominent king within the Sargonid period that ruled Assyria when it was at its peak. Unlike his predecessors, Sennacherib's reign was largely marked by military campaigns however he did have nine prominent military campaigns which were documented in his famous ‘Palace without Rival’ which will be elaborated on throughout this response.
The first military campaign of Sennacherib was to the south in 703 BCE. This was caused due to the actions of the Chaldeans south of Assyrian. They were being lead by Merodach Baladan II, chief of the Bit – Yakin tribe. This leader took advantage of the new king of Assyria. As he assumed the empire would be unstable he began to revolt. As a response to this, in February 703 BCE, Sennacherib swept south to subdue the areas controlled by the Chaldean tribes and ended the campaign with a raid into the Aramean tribal areas, east of the Tigris river. As a result of this, all revolting states were subdued and conquered. Furthermore, booty and slaves were taken back to Nineveh were Sennacherib resided. In addition to this, Merodach Baladan II fled allowing a puppet king to be installed in Babylon. According to Sennacherib’s Annals he states “in my first campaign I defeated Merodach Baladan, king of Babylon”. Moreover, in his Annals Sennacherib claims, “I carried off to Assyria a heavy booty of 208,000 people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep without number...” thus allowing historians to believe that Sennacherib did in fact take back plenty of booty from his first campaign. However it is imminent that it is recorded that this was according only to Sennacherib and his somewhat biased wall reliefs.
Sennacherib’s second campaign had begun in 702 BCE due to the Kassites refusal to submit to ‘the kings, my father’s from of old” (Annals of Sennacherib, Forbes, p. 70). Sennacherib swept through the area and extracted