King Tukulti-Ninurta quickly discovered that his triumph over Babylon on the battlefield would prove an easier task than to rule over her lands. Soon, he was plagued by a series of unfortunate happenings that lay with his Assyrian-blooded governors. The first of these, Enlil-nadin-shum, held office largely in name only, collecting payments and doing little else in the ways of delegation or decision-making for his selected region.
Catching the scent of feeble prey, the neighboring nation of Elam interpreted this as an opportunity to launch an invasion upon Enlil-nadin-shum's jurisdiction, whereupon the two cities under his protection, Der and Nippur, were thusly sacked (gold and goods stolen, the cities abandoned). Kidin-Khutrutash, the king of the Elamite people, likely received news from Kassite migrants, in-depth descriptions of the lack of discipline in Babylonia under the new government of these would-be Assyrian conquerors.
In only a year and half (1241), Enlil-nadin-shum effectively removed himself from office, stepping down as Nippur's governor, after this embarrassing defeat. His replacement was none other than Kadashman-Kharbe II (1240-1239), who unlike all of the other initial choices for governors, was a Kassite. One might theorize this as an attempt to win over the local populace by this time choosing from among their own. Or perhaps merit was deemed a necessary requirement for the responsibility of carrying out the duties his predecessor had fallen short of, merit that went beyond the available Assyrian replacements at hand.
Despite the reasons for his selection, Kadashman-Kharbe II only held office for a short tenure as well, and after two years was replaced by yet another governor, Adad-shum-iddin (1238-1233). It soon became clear that the position of a regional governor within this Assyrian-occupied Babylonia was far from a simple exercise. Each must serve oneself upon a mantle of dedicated mind and spirit in order to soothe the Kassite population's begrudging acceptance of their leadership whilst simultaneously expelling perilous invasions from the outside.
Not one of king Tukulti-Ninurta's governors demonstrated such temperance at anytime during Assyria's seven-year rule over Babylonia.
[THE RUINS OF NIPPUR]
No comments:
Post a Comment