26 Facts About Shamash-shum-ukin

Shamash-shum-ukin, was king of Babylon as a vassal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 668 BC to his death in 648.

Shamash-shum-ukin assimilated well into Babylonia, despite being ethnically and culturally Assyrian.

Shamash-shum-ukin participated in the Babylonian New Year's festival and is recorded as partaking in other Babylonian traditions.

The Statue of Marduk, the main cult image of Babylon's patron deity Marduk, was returned to Babylon in 668 at Shamash-shum-ukin's coronation, having been stolen from the city by his grandfather Sennacherib twenty years prior.

In 652, Shamash-shum-ukin revolted, inspiring the Babylonians to join him and recruiting a coalition of enemies of Assyria, including the Elamites, Chaldeans, Arameans and perhaps the Medes.

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Babylon was captured by Ashurbanipal in 648 after a lengthy siege and Shamash-shum-ukin died, though the exact circumstances of his death are unclear.

Shamash-shum-ukin was probably the second eldest son of Esarhaddon, the third king of the Sargonid dynasty, younger only than the crown prince Sin-nadin-apli.

The decision to bypass Shamash-shum-ukin as heir to Assyria was a remarkable one, given that Esarhaddon's own accession issues had been the direct result of his father Sennacherib acting in a similar way.

Shamash-shum-ukin was somewhat belatedly crowned as king of Babylon in the spring of the next year.

Shamash-shum-ukin's coronation was marked by Ashurbanipal returning the religiously important Statue of Marduk, stolen by Sennacherib twenty years prior, to Babylon.

Shamash-shum-ukin was however very clearly a closely monitored vassal rather than an autonomous ruler.

Shamash-shum-ukin was not entrusted with any substantial military forces; when the Elamite king Teumman invaded Babylonia in 653, Shamash-shum-ukin was unable to defend his country and had to rely on Ashurbanipal for military support.

Shamash-shum-ukin is recorded as having participated in several traditional Babylonian royal activities.

Shamash-shum-ukin rebuilt the walls of the city Sippar and is known to have participated in the Babylonian New Year's festival, which had been suspended during the time that the god's statue was absent from the city.

Shamash-shum-ukin gave considerable attention to the temples of his domain, confirming offerings in several temples in his inscriptions and increasing the land of the Ishtar temple in Uruk.

Shamash-shum-ukin was ethnically and culturally Assyrian, but appears to have assimilated well into Babylonia.

Shamash-shum-ukin is recorded as restoring shrines in several cities and as rebuilding the city wall of Sippar.

Shamash-shum-ukin himself seems to have seen himself as Ashurbanipal's equal, simply addressing him as "my brother" in his letters.

Zakir reported that though Shamash-shum-ukin was angered, he and his governor of Babylon, Ubaru, chose to not take action against the visitors.

Inscription evidence suggests that Shamash-shum-ukin addressed the citizens of Babylon to join him in his revolt.

One of Shamash-shum-ukin's recorded prayers records his despair in the final stages of the war:.

Shamash-shum-ukin is traditionally believed by historians to have committed suicide by setting himself on fire in his palace, but contemporary texts only say that he "met a cruel death" and that the gods "consigned him to a fire and destroyed his life".

Matters might have been complicated further by the fact that unlike many other rebels faced by the Assyrians, Shamash-shum-ukin was not a usurper, but the legitimately installed ruler of Babylon, by decree of an Assyrian king.

Shamash-shum-ukin assumed other traditional Babylonian royal titles, such as sar mat Sumeri u Akkadi.

Significantly, Shamash-shum-ukin left out any mentions of the role of his royal ancestors as chief priests of Assyria's god Ashur, a concept intrinsically linked to Assyrian ideas of kingship.

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In many places in his titles, Shamash-shum-ukin appropriated Assyrian titular conventions in regards to how deities were used but substituted the important gods in Assyria, such as Ashur, Ishtar and Sin, for deities more venerated in the south, such as Marduk and Sarpanit.