Editing Sennacherib (section)

=== Destruction of Babylon ===
{{Main|Siege of Babylon}}
[[File:Sennacherib cylinder.jpg|thumb|alt= A six-sided stone prism with text carved into its faces | Prism of Sennacherib, containing records of his military campaigns, culminating with [[Siege of Babylon|Babylon's destruction]]]]
Despite the defeat of Nergal-ushezib and the flight of the Elamites, Babylonia did not surrender to Sennacherib. The rebel Shuzubu, hunted by Sennacherib in his 700 BC invasion of the south, had resurfaced under the name Mushezib-Marduk and, seemingly without foreign support, acceded to the throne of Babylon. As he was king by 692 BC, but not described in Assyrian sources as "revolting" until 691 BC, it is possible that his rule was initially accepted by Sennacherib. There was also a change in rulership in Elam, where Kutur-Nahhunte was deposed in favor of [[Humban-menanu]], who began assembling the anti-Assyrian coalition once more. Mushezib-Marduk ensured Humban-menanu's support by bribing him.{{Sfn|Levine|1982|p=|pp=40, 47–49}} The Assyrian records considered Humban-menanu's decision to support Babylonia to be unintelligent, describing him as a "man without any sense or judgement".{{Sfn|Luckenbill|1924|p=16}}

Sennacherib met his enemies in battle near the city of [[Halule]]. Humban-menanu and his commander, [[Humban-undasha]], led the Babylonian and Elamite forces. The outcome of the [[Battle of Halule]] is unclear since the records of both sides claim a great victory. Sennacherib claims in his annals that Humban-undasha was killed and that the enemy kings fled for their lives whereas the [[Babylonian Chronicles|Babylonian chronicles]] claim that it was the Assyrians who retreated. If the battle was a southern victory, the setback faced by the Assyrians would have to have been minor as Babylon was under siege in the late summer of 690 BC (and had apparently been under siege for some time at that point). The Assyrians had not marched on Babylon immediately, however, as military actions are recorded elsewhere.{{Sfn|Levine|1982|p=|pp=49–50}} In 1973, the Assyriologist John A. Brinkman wrote that it was likely that the southerners won the battle, though probably suffering many casualties, since both of Sennacherib's enemies still remained on their respective thrones after the fighting.{{Sfn|Brinkman|1973|p=93}} In 1982, Assyriologist Louis D. Levine wrote that the battle was probably an Assyrian victory, though not a decisive one and that though the southerners had been defeated and fled, the Assyrian advance on Babylon itself was temporarily halted. The Assyrian army's diversion from its course could then be interpreted by the Babylonian chroniclers as an Assyrian retreat.{{Sfn|Levine|1982|p=50}}
[[File:The Destruction of Babylon by Sennacherib.png|thumb|20th-century illustration of Sennacherib's destruction of Babylon]]
In 690&nbsp;BC, Humban-menanu suffered a stroke and his jaw became locked in a way that prevented him from speaking.{{Sfn|Luckenbill|1924|p=17}} Taking advantage of the situation, Sennacherib embarked on his final campaign against Babylon.{{Sfn|Luckenbill|1924|p=17}} Although the Babylonians were successful initially, that was short-lived, and in the same year, the siege of Babylon was already well underway.{{Sfn|Brinkman|1973|p=93}} It is likely Babylon would have been in a poor position once it fell to Sennacherib in 689&nbsp;BC, having been besieged for over fifteen months.{{Sfn|Brinkman|1973|p=94}} Although Sennacherib had once anxiously considered the implications of Sargon's seizure of Babylon and the role that the city's offended gods may have played in his father's downfall, his attitude towards the city had shifted by 689 BC. Ultimately, Sennacherib decided to destroy Babylon. Brinkman believed that Sennacherib's change in attitude came from a will to avenge his son and tiring of a city well within the borders of his empire repeatedly rebelling against his rule. According to Brinkman, Sennacherib might have lost the affection he once had for Babylon's gods because they had inspired their people to attack him. Sennacherib's own account of the destruction reads:{{Sfn|Brinkman|1973|p=94}}

{{blockquote|quote=Into my land I carried off alive Mušēzib-Marduk, king of Babylonia, together with his family and officials. I counted out the wealth of that city—silver, gold, precious stones, property and goods—into the hands of my people; and they took it as their own. The hands of my people laid hold of the gods dwelling there and smashed them; they took their property and goods.<br />I destroyed the city and its houses, from foundation to parapet; I devastated and burned them. I razed the brick and earthenwork of the outer and inner wall of the city, of the temples, and of the ziggurat; and I dumped these into the Araḫtu canal. I dug canals through the midst of that city, I overwhelmed it with water, I made its very foundations disappear, and I destroyed it more completely than a devastating flood. So that it might be impossible in future days to recognize the site of that city and its temples, I utterly dissolved it with water and made it like inundated land.{{Sfn|Brinkman|1973|p=94}}|author=|title=|source=}}

Although Sennacherib destroyed the city, he appears to have still been somewhat fearful of Babylon's ancient gods. Earlier in his account of the campaign, he specifically mentions the sanctuaries of the Babylonian deities had provided financial support to his enemies. The passage describing the seizure of the property of the gods and the destruction of some of their statues is one of the few where Sennacherib uses "my people" rather than "I".{{Sfn|Brinkman|1973|p=94}} Brinkman interpreted this in 1973 as leaving the blame of the fate of the temples not personally on Sennacherib himself, but on the decisions made by the temple personnel and the actions of the Assyrian people.{{Sfn|Brinkman|1973|p=95}}

During the destruction of the city, Sennacherib destroyed the temples and the images of the gods, except for that of Marduk, which he took to Assyria.{{sfn|Grayson|1991|p=118}} This caused consternation in Assyria itself, where Babylon and its gods were held in high esteem.{{sfn|Leick|2009|p=156}} Sennacherib attempted justifying his actions to his own countrymen through a campaign of religious propaganda.{{sfn|Grayson|1991|pp=118–119}} Among the elements of this campaign, he commissioned a myth in which Marduk was put on trial before [[Ashur (god)|Ashur]], the god of Assyria. This text is fragmentary, but it seems Marduk is found guilty of some grave offense.{{sfn|Grayson|1991|p=119}} Sennacherib described his defeat of the Babylonian rebels in the language of the [[Enûma Eliš|Babylonian creation myth]], identifying Babylon with the evil demon-goddess [[Tiamat]] and himself with Marduk.{{sfn|McCormick|2002|pp=156, 158}} Ashur replaced Marduk in the New Year's festival, and in the temple of the festival he placed a symbolic pile of rubble from Babylon.{{sfn|Grayson|1991|p=116}} In Babylonia, Sennacherib's policy spawned a deep-seated hatred amongst much of the populace.{{sfn|Grayson|1991|p=109}}

Sennacherib's goal was the complete eradication of Babylonia as a political entity.{{Sfn|Frahm|2014|p=210}} Though some northern Babylonian territories became Assyrian provinces, the Assyrians made no effort to rebuild Babylon itself, and southern chronicles from the time refer to the era as the "kingless" period when there was no king in the land.{{Sfn|Brinkman|1973|p=95}}