Ancient History - Part 10: The Crux of Power

(Map obtained for educational use from American Bible Study at AmericanBible.org)

And so the Harri were expelled from the lands of the Mitanni for the crimes of conspiracy (to overthrow their previous unjust king) and attempted to settle within the lands of Babylonia. However, the king of Babylon, having just lost in battle to and not wishing to anger Assyria further, captured these fugitives at once, seizing all that the Harri owned, which included two hundred chariots, in the case that it might garner favor or praise.

While the newly crowned king of Mitanni, Shuttarna III, carried out every effort to rebuild his fallen kingdom, one harsh reality remained: His people were starving.

It was at that moment when the Hittites seized the day, as their king, Shubbiluliuma, rationalized that a weaker king at the head of the Mitanni would prove a better ally than the stronger leader that was beginning to emerge. First, he fed their starving populace to gain support. Next, he led his armies into the lands of the Mitanni, defeating Shuttarna's inferior force on the battlefield, before driving out any Assyrian and Alshe forces poaching on the lands. He then installed Mattiuaza to the throne. This was the same Mattiuaza that the Harri once tried to replace Artatami II with.

As a price for his efforts, the Hittite king presented conditions in which the newly crowned king of the Mitanni, Mattiuaza, took his daughter in a royal marriage, thusly joining their houses. This was a play that the Egyptians failed to secure with the Hittites earlier that could have prevented a fatal enemy.

Throughout the 1350s and beyond, the Near East was rapidly changing:

• In 1352 B.C. Egypt's pharaoh died. By the time of his passing, all of Syria and Palestine had broken free. 
• Once driving the Assyrians and her allies from Mitanni lands, King Shubbiluliuma secured successor plans for his two sons, Murshil II and Arnuwandash II, both young men with fiery blood, who were honored with important tasks in service to the Hittite state.
• Murshil traveled to the former Amorite lands within Syria and with aid of the local Ammuru, thwarted an attempted coup, and restored order to the local region just south of Aleppo, placing it within Hittite control.
• While Assyria's pride been harmed in their desperate retreat, their physical wounds and casualties were minimal. With the Kassites of Babylon still cooed to friendly relations, on the heels of their embarrassing defeat on the Tigris, Assyria turned its eyes eastward, and to the direction of Elam.

Egypt's children had broken free and the once peaceful polity degenerated into warring nations battling for supremacy.

Ancient History - Part 9: Sins of the Father

The window of opportunity opened to Assyria. With the kingdom of the Mitanni in ruin, the northwest lands were split between Assyria itself, and a newer emerging small kingdom, Alshe. The time of Ashur-uballit had passed, and as his heir, the new Assyrian king, Enlil-nirari (1368-1346), finished securing the borders and made a surprising move, turning south toward the Kassites. Specifically, Babylon.

Everyone in the Near East viewed Assyria and Babylon as staunch allies, forged by brotherhood and bound by the blood stemming from king Ashur-uballit's loins. In spite of all pretense, Enlil-niari led his expedition against Kurigalzu III until the two armies met in an engagement along the Tigris River, specifically near the site of Sugagi. A significant battle took place, which resulted in king Kurigalzu III's forces being routed and the boundary lines between the two countries to shift in favor of Assyria gaining more lands.

King Enlil-niari's successful exploit was forever etched in time:

1. In the Old Testament, the Battle of Sugagi is directly referenced in both Books of Chronicles.
2. A boundary stone (kudurru) recovered in Susa (eastern Iran) still exists today that references this war.
3. A traditional heroic inscription scribed into cuneiform, during the time of his grand-children, commemorated this victory for Assyria. Translation: 'Enlil-nirari . . . destroyed the army of Kassites . . . overcame. . . his enemies . . . enlarged boundary and border.'  

Meanwhile, the new king of the weakened Mitanni, Artatama II, welcomed peaceful relations with Assyria. Yet, a new growing faction within Mitanni borders, the Harri people, wished to replace their king with a younger son (Mattiuaza) of the beloved Tushratta, the former king (slain by Artatama II's own hands). Artatama II accomplished little during his reign, other than to push back against the support of these rebellious sentiments, always worried that someone may stab him in the back, and overthrow him for his throne. Justice comes in many forms and perhaps this was a form of punishment in of itself, the price for his cursed prize: That the very act of murdering his elder brother and father for power, would haunt him until his dying day, and be all he'd be remembered.

Once he'd passed, Artatama II's son, Shuttarna III, did not wish to pay for the sins of the father. His first act was to secure strong peaceful relations with the Mitanni's neighbors once again, so he returned the legendary gate (doors of silver and gold) to Assyria that had been stolen during the days of Shaushshatar. The Harri, on the other hand, he dealt with harshly, driving them out of Mitanni lands, and into the lands of Babylon.

Ancient History - Part 8: The Boy Who Would Be King

Kurigalzu III, a child by modern day approximations, managed to escape unharmed during two subsequent revolts which changed the hands of the Babylonian throne. First, by those who overthrew and killed Kadashman-Kharbe, followed by his great-grandfather's retribution, in slaying those very same revolutionaries, and being responsible for placing the seat into his hands. With the king of Assyria's support, the child-king ascended to rulership without resistance.

King Kurigalzu III of Babylon led a campaign against Elam, for reasons unknown. There is no record to admit Elam's hand in the revolts ever taking place, and yet the Kassites attacked king Khurbatilla's lands all the same. This war effort was such a success that by its end, Kurigalzu III's forces had managed to capture the king of Elam, Khurbatilla, as prisoner, before enjoying the rich spoils that followed.

However, instead of returning home as a celebrated conqueror on the cries of victory, Babylon's young king was met by grave tidings which infected the Near East like an overnight plague. The Asiatic provinces of Egypt were seething with anger. Open revolts by several localized populaces led governors of their respective region to plead to king Ikhnaton to send reinforcements to fight back against open rebellion. The Egyptian king, nearing the end of his reign, continued to turn a deaf ear, and one-by-one the empire of the Nile's dominion fell into turmoil.

Simultaneously, as Egypt's decadence spiraled into a fall from grace, the Hittite nation of the north rose. Ruled by king Shubbiluliuma, the Hittite king (1411-1359), and his people were bound by peace treaties (made by his predecessors) to Egypt during this period, but not by intermarriage as was oftimes customary between royal houses. This meant that their peace was based on a promise. . . Bound by words, not blood. And so the Hittite king waited patiently. It was said that as Syria revolted against Egypt, he smiled. Though this pleasure was short-lived due to an unforeseen interference: The Mitanni.

While Egypt declined to reinforce her territories, its ally in the Mitanni did in fact arrive, in a valiant attempt to stem the violence with order. The key to the entire uprising was a small strategic point on the Phoenician Coast, Simyra, and king Tushratta (1399-1360) of the Mitanni led a counter-attack against it. Even though unsuccessful, king Shubbiluliuma's displeasure at the Mitanni's aid, in trying to revitalize the power of their Egyptian overlords, revealed his true intentions all along.

The Hittites then invaded the Mitanni, Egypt's only saving grace amidst the chaos. The neighboring lands between their nations (Ishuwa) now shifted ownership to the Hittites. As Tushratta retreated with his forces back to safety, yet another uprising took place, where he was killed by his own son, Artatama1.

While the west raged in wildfire and blood, the untouched region of the east, remained in question. How would Assyria and Babylon, now united and ruled by the same blood of king Ashur-uballit, respond to this storm?

1. ARATAMA NOT ONLY MURDERED HIS FATHER, BUT ONCE THE DUST HAD SETTLED AND THE SMOKE HAD CLEARED, IT WAS THEREAFTER REVEALED THAT HE ALSO CARRIED OUT THE SAME CRUEL FATE TO HIS ELDER BROTHER.

Ancient History - Part 7: The Old Man's War

Following what was assumed to be Egypt's concessions to both Assyria and Babylon (in gold talents), the king of Babylon shifted gears. Instead of harboring further open resentment towards his rival, he arranged a marriage between Assyria and his own kingdom - In the form of the Assyrian princess Muballitat-sherua, daughter of Ashur-uballit, and his son Kara-khardash.

This marriage had an unintended aftereffect, as their half-Assyrian, half-Kassite firstborn son, Kadashman-Kharbe (1369-1368 B.C.) inherited the Babylonian throne with a focus upon Assyria's well-being as much as Babylon's. He set out to subdue the Bedouin tribes, particularly the Suti, who had plagued the road from Egypt to Assyria, an issue stemming from his mother's time. After successfully driving them far into the deserts, he ordered fortifications to be constructed along the road, guarding against future incursions from any nomadic peoples. 

But what began as a promising start for a new leader, resulted in a short reign, for a sudden civil war broke out in Babylonia, in which Kasdashman-Kharbe was killed.

There are a few theories for why this occurred: 

1. Kadashman-Kharbe's queen-mother was never popular and he thus acquired both her unpopularity along with her Assyrian sensibilities (his harsh actions against the Suti evidence of this).
2. Egypt was losing control over Palestine and Syria. The vast empire of the Nile had undergone a transformation once its pharaoh, Amenhotep IV, renamed himself 'Ikhnaton', living god of the sun, and turned his attentions internally, by first forbidding the worship of numerous deities of Egypt's pantheon. This new era, known as the Amarna Period, echoed into the Near East, who no longer wished to emulate the once proud and powerful empire, and began to seek independence from its waning influence. Babylon had a tendency to copy and Egyptianize their kingdom and perhaps this revolution was a cultural backlash to this multigenerational trend.
3. Lastly, there are those who believe an anti-Assyrian party responsible for fanning the seeds of discontent for many years, that this person or persons or network secretly supported the Suti's efforts in harassing Assyrian travelers on the road, and when the time arrived to remove an unwelcome half-breed from their throne, the knife was firmly twisted, with their former ruler anything but sorely missed.

Ashur-uballit, now a man of venerable age, still sat upon the Assyrian throne, and nothing dissuaded him from quickly announcing in an open declaration, his vow, seeking justice for his grandson's murder. The old king himself led an army into Babylon, who following the transition of their violent coup, was taken completely unawares, and in their unreadiness, Assyria overthrew those who had taken power. The usurper was killed (records conflict if the leader responsible for Kadashman-Karbe's demise was Shuzigash or Nazibugash) and the Assyrian king placed the kingdom of Babylon into the hands of his great-grandson Kurigalzu III.

If the Kassites believed that the Suti would come to their aid . . . They were quite mistaken.