E&Chaldeans

858/850-824/814 Marduk-zākir-šumi I, Seventy-Fifth King of Babylon. The first known event of his reign is the revolt of his brother, accompanied by Kassite and Chaldean revolts, which required the assistance of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III to put down. Shalmaneser waged two campaigns deep in Babylonian territory to deal with the rebel (the Assyrian sources portray this as a single-handed effort, with no aid from Marduk-zakir-šumi at all). Having dealt with the rebel, the Assyrian king entered Babylon in triumph and then continued south to bring the Chaldeans under control. Shalmanesar returned once more, in 843, to deal with a rebellion in the borderland between Assyria and Babylon; once more he was triumphant. The general picture is one of a weak Babylonian regime, supported by a much more dynamic Assyrian one. The positions were soon to be reversed. In 827, the elderly Shalmaneser's sons rebelled and it was only with the help of Marduk-zākir-šumi that order was restored in Assyria. Having restored order, Marduk-zākir-šumi imposed degrading terms upon the new Assyrian king, Shalmaneser IV. In so doing, he entirely misjudged the power-dynamic; despite the disorder, Assyria remained a dynamic power with the most powerful army in the world, while Babylon still teetered on the brink of collapse. All Marduk-zākir-šumi had done was to give the young Assyrian king a cause for war. He then promptly died.

• 1) Marduk-belassu-iqbi, Seventy-Sixth King of Babylon (see below)

823/813-813 Marduk-belassu-iqbi, Seventy-Sixth King of Babylon. The seeds of war laid by his father bore bitter fruit in 814. Shalmaneser IV invaded the Babylonian territory  and Marduk-belassu-iqbi retreated east of the Tigris to Gunnanate and Der, where he was beseiged for two years. In 813 both fortresses fell, and Shalmaneser IV led him back to Assyria in chains. The power-dynamic between Assyria and Babylon was now perfectly clear.

812 Bābu-aḫa-iddina, Seventy-Seventh King of Babylon. As the son of Lindanu, an official, he was unrelated to his predecessor and seems to have taken advantage of the power vacuum to seize power. The next year, Shalmaneser IV returned once more, easily defeated him, and toured the rest of the country for good measure. When he returned home he added "King of Babylonia" to his official titulary. For an uncertain number of years there was no king in Babylon.

NON-DYNASTIC

??? Ninurta-apl..., Seventy-Eighth King of Babylon. Not even his name is known.

??? Marduk-bēl-zēri, Seventy-Ninth King of Babylon. Not much more is known. There seem to have been more Assyrian invasions and Adad-Nirari III may have taken control of the city of Babylon.

CHALDEAN DYNASTS

(???-729)

???-770? Marduk-apla-uṣur, Eightieth King of Babylon. The Chaldeans were a semi-nomadic group who had occupied the Sealand (the delta region of the Euphrates and Tigris, beside the Persian Gulf) some time in the preceding two centuries. They were divided into three large tribes, whose leaders were powerful enough to be referred to as kings. As shown by the interventions of the Assyrian kings in the region during the E dynasty, they had long been disorderly. With Babylon under Assyrian sway, they became effectively independent - the last force in Mesopotamia to be entirely outside the Assyrian sphere. It was in this context that the Chaldean Marduk-apla-uṣur came to the throne. Unfortunately, nothing more is known about him and his rule. 

769?-761? Erība-Marduk, Eighty-First King of Babylon. Son of Marduk-šakin-šumi, son of Marduk-zera-uballiṭ, he like his grandfather was King of the Jakin Tribe of the Chaldeans. It is clear that he did not rule with Assyrian approval, because the Assyrian King, Aššur-Dan invaded in 771, 770, 769, and 767. The successive invasions suggest that Eriba-Marduk was competent enough to turn back the Assyrian armies. After 767,  Aššur-Dan was embroiled in disorder at home and Eriba-Marduk turned his attention to the Aramaeans, who had been seizing fertile borderlands for themselves. He forced them off - but not permanently. 

He was able to spare funds for the expansion of the Nanna's Eanna shrine in Uruk and his reign was a reign of prosperity, at least from the perspective of later generations who remembered him as the king who "re-established the foundation of the land."

760?-748 Nabû-šuma-iškun, Eighty-Second King of Babylon. Nabû-šuma-iškun came from the Dakkaru tribe; it seems that the Chaldean tribes were taking the kingship in turns. The Babylonian tradition remembered him as a vile king who slaughtered enemies often and for no reason, favoured the gods of the Aramaeans and Chaldeans over those of Babylon, ignored religious taboos, stole from the temples and apprpriated great swathes of Babylon for himself. He seems to have attempted to drive Aramaeans off the fields as his predecessor had done and possibly the records of driving people out of Babylon reflect attempts to resettle the fields with Babylonians. Whatever the cause things did not go well. The Aramaeans revolted. He came into conflict with and beseiged Borsippa, one of the most important cities in the realm. Eventually, this was resolved, but our evidence does not say how.

747-734 Nabonassar, Eighty-Third King of Babylon. His name is more correctly (but almost never) rendered as Nabû-nāṣir. Historically he is most important for a decision that he probably did not consider of overwhelming importance: Nabonassar's reign was the beginning of intensive astronomical investigations at Babylon. Every night, dedicated priests would watch the sky and record everything that occurred. During the day the priest would record the prices of goods at the market, the height of the river, and events of interest. The idea was to build up a database which could be used for astrological predictions. It proved to be the single-longest running scientific endeavour in human history - the priests were still dutifully recording their observations seven hundred years later. These records were passed on to Greek, Latin, and Arabic traditions (in abbreviated form) and thereby provode the basis for much of Western astronomy. Large portions of the full records have also been unearthed and these make it possible to date events fairly accurately - often to the exact day.

    The other events of Nabonassar's reign were less positive. Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria led several invasions against Aramaeans who should have been the responsibility of Babylon (745, 744, 738 & 737), suggesting either that the Assyrians were once again asserting themselves in the Babylonian sphere, or that the Babylonians had proven entirely incapable of controlling the borderlands. There was a revolt in Borsippa, perhaps connected to the revolt in the previous reign, which the king was able to put down. In the south, temple repairs at Uruk had to be organised and funded by local officials; their dedication castigates the king for not doing it himself, which implies that they feared no retribution from him. In 734, he died of sickness.

• 1) Nabû-nādin-zēri, Eighty-Fourth King of Babylon (see below)

733-732 Nabû-nādin-zēri, Eighty-Fourth King of Babylon. After only two years of rule, possibly as an Assyrian vassal, he was deposed by a rebellious governor.

732 Nabû-šuma-ukin II, Eighty-Fifth King of Babylon. Having rebelled against his predecessor, he retained power for only a month before he too was deposed. 

731-729 Nabû-mukin-zēri, Eighty-Sixth King of Babylon. A Chaldean from the Amukanu tribe, he took power as the second usurper in a year. The unstable situation either tempted or forced Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria to act. He invaded in 731 and again in 729. Babylon was conquered and Nabû-mukin-zēri beseiged in Shapija, his ancestral fort, from which he watched as the Assyrian army despoiled the country round about. 

ASSYRIAN DOMINANCE

(729-689)

729-722 Assyrian Rule. Rather than appointing yet another incapable Babylonian king (appointing a capable Babylonian king was obviously not in Assyrian interests), Tiglath-Pileser III seized the throne for himself. He ruled for two years before he died of old age and his son Shalmaneser V adopted the same path, ruling as King of Assyria and of Babylon simultaneously. The Babylonians found Assyrian rule objectionable, not because they objected to being ruled by foreigners (most Babylonian kings were technically foreigners of some description), but because the Assyrian kings based themselves in Assyria and were not present to carry out the religious and cultural rituals that the Babylonians expected of their kings, especially the New Year Festival.