The Elamites invade Babylonia
The punishment
Elamites to take refuge in his land, and afterwards restored them to their country. He also sent grain into Elam itself. But, perhaps as consequence of having spied out the land, the Elamites contrived to make Urtaku attack Assyria. He was incited to this act by Bêl-iḳisha, prince of the Gambûlai, who inhabited the marshes about the mouth of the Uknû, or Blue River, perhaps the modern Karoon, bordering on Elam. Bêl-iḳisha rebelled against Assyria, and with his troops joined Elam. Nabû-shum-êresh, the TIK-EN-NA, apparently sheik of the district of Dupliash, another Assyrian subject, seems to have done the same. Marduk-shum-ibnî, the general of Urtaku, who led the invasion, was evidently not an Elamite, but perhaps a Chaldean, or renegade Babylonian. At any rate, the Elamites invaded Akkad and covered the land like grasshoppers. They laid siege to Babylon. On the approach of the Assyrian army, the invaders fled. Urtaku died. Bêl-iḳisha was killed by a wild boar. Nabû-shum-êresh was smitten with dropsy and died. “In one year the gods cut them off.” The throne of Elam fell to Teumman, a brother of Urtaku, who maintained a hostile attitude. Dunânu, son and successor of Bêl-iḳisha, joined Teumman. Ashurbânipal accordingly invaded Elam, defeated and slew Teumman, ravaged the land of Gambulû and captured Dunânu, who was taken to Nineveh and made to march in the triumphal procession, with the head of Teumman slung about his neck, and was finally tortured to death.
Nabû-ushabshi's letters as governor of Southern Babylonia
All the time that Shamash-shum-ukîn was king in Babylon, Ashurbânipal seems to have retained the rule over Southern Babylonia. At any rate, the governors of the cities there wrote to him as their king and lord. The above-mentioned revolt in Gambulû was a direct concern of the governor of Erech, who seems to have suffered severely. As late as the twentieth year of Ashurbânipal, [pg 362] Nabû-ushabshi was governor there. We have many letters from him to the king. One[909] refers to the above events:
To the king of countries, my lord, thy servant Nabû-ushabshi. Erech and E-anna (the temple of Ishtar at Erech), be gracious to the king of countries, my lord. Daily I pray to Ishtar of Erech and Nanâ for the well-being of the life of the king, my lord. The king, my lord, sent, saying, “Take troops and send against Gambulû. The gods of the king, my lord, assuredly know how, from the time that Bêl-iḳisha revolted from the hands of the king, my lord, and went to Elam, he plundered my father's house and went about to kill my brother.”
Then comes a break, in which the fragments indicate that Nabû-ushabshi prayed daily for revenge. Then we read:
Now as the king, my lord, has sent, I will go and fulfil all his bidding. If on any ground, over there, the inhabitants of Gambulû will not obey, if it be pleasing to the king, my lord, let a messenger come and let us assemble all Akkad and we will go with him, we will win back the land and give it to the king, my lord. I have sent. Let the king, my lord, do what he will. Preserve this letter.
The last request is very unusual, but we are glad it was obeyed. Another of his letters refers to the intrigues of Pir'-Bêl, son of Bêl-eṭir. This Bêl-eṭir may be the son of Nabû-shum-êresh, who, with his brother, Nabû-nâ'id, was carried captive to Nineveh, along with Dunânu, and there made to desecrate the bones of their father. But it seems possible that we have here to do with another Bêl-eṭir, as these events seem earlier in the history. After the same introduction as before, the letter[910] reads:
Pir'-Bêl, the son of Bêl-eṭir, sometime after he and his father went, some ten years ago, to Elam, came again from Elam to Akkad, he and his father. When they came, whatever was evil against Assyria, they kept on doing in Erech. Afterwards when they went back to Elam, Bêl-eṭir, his father, died in Elam; and he in Marchesvan [pg 363] brought letters to me, and to Aplîa, the governor, we sent the letters on by Daru-Sharru, the body-guard.