Battle of Nineveh (612 BC)

Coordinates: 36°21′34″N 43°09′10″E / 36.35944°N 43.15278°E / 36.35944; 43.15278
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Battle of Nineveh
Part of Medo-Babylonian conquest of the Assyrian Empire

The Fall of Nineveh, by John Martin
Date612 BC
Location
Nineveh
36°21′34″N 43°09′10″E / 36.35944°N 43.15278°E / 36.35944; 43.15278
Result

Medo-Babylonian victory[1]

  • Destruction of Assyria's capital
  • Neo-Assyrian Empire severely weakened
Belligerents
Neo-Assyrian Empire

Neo-Babylonian Empire
Median Empire

Supported by: Scythian kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Sinsharishkun † Cyaxares
Nabopolassar
Casualties and losses
Unknown Unknown
Battle of Nineveh (612 BC) is located in Iraq
Battle of Nineveh (612 BC)
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Location within Iraq

The Battle of Nineveh is conventionally dated between 613 and 611 BC, with 612 BC being the most supported date. Rebelling against the

hectares of what was, at that time, one of the greatest cities in the world. The fall of Nineveh led to the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire over the next three years[2] as the dominant state in the Ancient Near East. Archeological records show that the capital of the once mighty Assyrian Empire was extensively de-urbanized and depopulated in the decades and centuries following the battle. A garbled account of the fall of the city later led to the story of the legendary king Sardanapalus
.

Babylon became the imperial center of

Neo-Babylonian
Empire, claiming imperial continuity as a new dynasty.

Background

The Neo-Assyrian Empire emerged in the 10th century BC and peaked in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, succeeding the Middle Assyrian Empire (1366–1074 BC) as the largest empire the world had yet seen. By the reign of

Mediterranean coasts of Anatolia and the Levant
in the west.

However, after the death of King

Babylonians
, and Chaldean became increasingly hostile under the Assyrian hegemony.

The Assyrians had, by the accounts of their own records, been brutal rulers even by the standards of the time, and thus had accumulated many hitherto impotent enemies. It had been weakened by a three-front struggle to maintain power in Egypt, wage a costly but victorious war against the

Elamites, and put down rebellions among their southern Mesopotamian Babylonian kinsmen, even though the core of the empire had been largely at peace. The Assyrian monarchs
wrote constantly of internal danger and fear of palace intrigue and rebellion.

Upon the death of Ashurbanipal, a series of bitter and bloody wars of succession occurred, weakening the empire – from 625 BC onward, the empire's domination over the

East Mediterranean
gradually began to fade.

An alliance formed between external states, such as the Chaldeans, who took advantage of the upheavals in Assyria to take control of much of

Neo-Babylonian Empire, whose goal was to overthrow the Neo-Assyrian Empire, seize the capital Nineveh, and transfer the seat of Mesopotamian power to Babylon. Nineveh was not only a political capital, but home to one of the great libraries of Akkadian
tablets and a recipient of tribute from across the near east, making it a valuable location to sack.

The Assyrian chronicles end abruptly in 639 BC after the destruction of

Eastern Aramaic speaking and Christian Assyrians of northern Iraq, southeast Turkey, northwest Iran and northeast Syria
.

The Medes were ruled by King Cyaxares. Although initially defeated by the Assyrians, he rebuilt his army and attacked Nineveh in conjunction with other warring factions.

Account of the battle

Babylonians in 612 BC.[3]

One of the recountings of the actual battle is taken from the excerpts of

Photius, whose account may have been mixed with accounts of other battles.[4]

According to a Babylonian clay tablet discovered in the 19th century named the Fall of Nineveh Chronicle, there was a bitter 12-year struggle between Babylon and Assyria, as well as civil wars in Assyria itself. They describe that in the tenth year of Nabopolassar (616 BC) the Babylonians defeated the Assyrian army and marched up the river, sacking Mane, Sahiri and Baliḫu.

The conflict was renewed the next year, with the Assyrians mustering their army and driving the Babylonians back to Takritain. Nabopolassar stationed his army in the fortress of Takritain, and the two armies fought there the next year. The Assyrians were beaten and retreated to Assyria.

The Babylonians then allied with the Medes and Scythians. The Median army took Tarbisu, near Nineveh, and encamped nearby; they then attacked the city of Assur, with the Babylonian text recounting how in 614 BC their Median ally destroyed Assur's temples and sacked the city, but their army did not reach the city until after the plundering had been done.[5]

In 612 BC, the Babylonians mustered their army again and joined with Median king

Sin-shar-ishkun was killed in the siege. His brother Ashur-uballit II was made King of Assyria. He refused to submit, however, and successfully fought his way out of Nineveh, founding a final capital at Harran
.

According to tradition laid out in Diodorus, the Tigris river flooded the city. While his account is often suspect, this aspect has been given attention. The allied armies entered the area of the outer wall and fought to enter the palace. Temples were looted and the palace was burned, though this did not destroy the city, and may have aided the preservation of clay texts.

Aftermath

There would be several more campaigns against Assyria by the Neo-Babylonians and their allies, including one against an allied Egyptian-Assyrian army. Thus, while the battle of Nineveh was a turning point in the war, Ashur-uballit II would fight on for several more years. His ultimate fate is not known or recorded — he may have been killed at the fall of Harran in 609 BC (which ended the Assyrian Empire) or at Carchemish in 605 BC (where Egypt and remnants of the army of the former Assyrian Empire were defeated); or he may have simply disappeared into obscurity.

See also

References

  1. ^ A Companion to Assyria "The decisive blow came in 612, when Babylonian and Median armies , after a two-month long siege, conquered Nineveh"
  2. ^ Georges Roux - Ancient Iraq p 376
  3. S2CID 193037843
    .
  4. JSTOR 23064050
    .
  5. ^ The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem: Judah Under Babylonian Rule : page 18
  6. ^ Encyclopedia Iranica "Finally, after three months of siege, in August of 612, the joined forces of the Medes and Babylonians stormed Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, and took it. The major part in the city’s downfall was played by the Medes."

External links

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