[CHAPTER VIII]
THE LATER DYNASTIES AND THE ASSYRIAN DOMINATION
The historian of ancient Babylonia has reason to be grateful to Shutruk-Nakhkhunte and his son for their raids into the Euphrates valley, since certain of the monuments they carried off as spoil have been preserved in the mounds of Susa, until the French expedition brought them again to light. Thanks to Babylon's misfortunes at this time, we have recovered some of her finest memorials, including the famous Stele of Narâm-Sin, Hammurabi's Code of Laws, and an important series of the Kassite kudurrus, or boundary-stones, which, as we have seen, throw considerable light upon the economic condition of the country. These doubtless represent but a small proportion of the booty secured by Elam at this period, but they suffice to show the manner in which the great Babylonian cities were denuded of their treasures. Under the earlier kings of the Fourth Dynasty it would seem that Elam continued to be a menace, and it was not until the reign of Nebuchadnezzar I. that the land was freed from further danger of Elamite invasion. We possess two interesting memorials of his successful campaigns, during which he not only regained his own territories, but carried the war into the enemy's country. One is a charter of privileges, which the king conferred upon Ritti-Marduk, the Captain of his chariots, for signal service against Elam. The text is engraved on a block of calcareous limestone, and on one side of it are a series of divine symbols, sculptured in high relief, in order to place the record under the protection of the gods, in accordance with the custom introduced during the Kassite period. The campaign in Elam which furnished the occasion for the charter was undertaken, according to the text,[1] with the object of "avenging Akkad," that is to say, in retaliation for the Elamite raids in Northern Babylonia. The campaign was conducted from the frontier city of Dêr, or Dûr-ilu, and, as it was carried out in the summer, the Babylonian army suffered considerably on the march. The heat of the sun was so great that, in the words of the record, the axe burned like fire, the roads scorched like flame, and through the lack of drinking-water "the vigour of the great horses failed, and the legs of the strong man turned aside." Ritti-Marduk, as Captain of the chariots, encouraged the troops by his example, and eventually brought them to the Euheus, where they gave battle to the Elamite confederation which had been summoned to oppose them.
The record describes the subsequent battle in vivid phraseology. "The kings took their stand round about and offered battle. Fire was kindled in their midst; by their dust was the face of the sun darkened. The hurricane sweeps along, the storm rages; in the storm of their battle the warrior in the chariot perceives not the companion at his side." Here again Ritti-Marduk did good service by leading the attack. "He turned evil against the King of Elam, so that destruction overtook him; King Nebuchadnezzar triumphed, he captured the land of Elam, he plundered its possessions." On his return from the campaign Nebuchadnezzar granted the charter to Ritti-Marduk, freeing the towns and villages of Bît-Karziabku, of which he was the head-man, from the jurisdiction of the neighbouring town of Namar. In addition to freedom from all taxation and the corvée, the privileges secured the inhabitants from liability to arrest by imperial soldiers stationed in the district, and forbade the billeting of such troops upon them. This portion of the text affords an interesting glimpse of the military organization of the kingdom.
The second memorial too has a bearing on this war, since it exhibits Nebuchadnezzar as a patron of Elamite refugees. It is a copy of a deed recording a grant of land and privileges to Shamfia and his son Shamfiia, priests of the Elamite god Rîa, who, in fear of the Elamite king, fled from their own country and secured Nebuchadnezzar's protection. The text states that, when the king undertook an expedition on their behalf, they accompanied him and brought back the statue of the god Rîa, whose cult Nebuchadnezzar inaugurated in the Babylonian city of Khuṣṣi, after he had introduced the foreign god into Babylon at the Feast of the New Year. The deed records the grant of five estates to the two Elamite priests and their god, and it exempts the land in future from all liability to taxation and forced labour.[2]
Though Nebuchadnezzar restored the fortunes of his country, he was not the founder of his dynasty,[3] Of his three predecessors, the name of one may now be restored as Marduk-shapik-zêrim. His name has been read on a kudurru-fragment in the Yale Collection, which is dated in the eighth year of Marduk-nadin-akhê, and refers to the twelfth year of Marduk-shapik-zêrim.[4] That he cannot be identified with Marduk-shapik-zêr-mâti is certain, since we know from the "Synchronistic History" that the latter succeeded Marduk-nadin-akhê upon the throne of Babylon, the one being the contemporary of Tiglath-pileser I., the other of his son Ashur-bêl-kala.[5] The close sequence of the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar I., Enlil-nadin-apli, and Marduk-nadin-akhê has long been recognized from the occurrence of the same officials on legal documents of the period.[6] We must therefore place the newly recovered ruler in the gap before Nebuchadnezzar I.; he must be one of the first three kings of the dynasty, possibly its founder, whose name in the Kings' List begins with the divine title Marduk, and who ruled for seventeen years according to the same authority. Another of these missing rulers may perhaps be restored as Ea-nadin-[....], if the royal name in the broken inscription of Nebuchadnezzar I., to which reference has already been made,[7] is to be read in that way and not identified as that of the last member of the Kassite Dynasty. During the earlier years of the Dynasty of Isin Babylonia must have been subject to further Elamite aggression, and portions of the country may for a time have acknowledged the suzerainty of her rulers.
