Sennacherib (the English form of the name Sîn-ahhe-eriba, which means "Sîn has replaced his brothers") was king of Assyria from 704 to 681 BCE. He was the son of the warlike Sargon II and as a young man commanded the armies along Assyria’s frontiers with the kingdoms of Urartu and Media. As a ruler Sennacherib was a cultured patron of architecture, science, and agriculture. His reign was a period of prosperity that has been called the pax Assyrica (Assyrian peace).
Despite the fact that Sennacherib appeared less interested in warfare than most other kings of Assyria, he was still a good soldier and a successful general, and much of his reign was spent crushing rebellions against his rule by peoples on the edges of his kingdom.
The War in Judah
In 701 BCE Sennacherib set out to put down a rebellion in Syria, Palestine, and Judah, where Assyrian vassal territories had taken up arms after the death of Sargon II. Much is known about Sennacherib’s war against Judah because it was recorded in the Old Testament as well as on a well-preserved series of bas-reliefs in his palace at Nineveh. The reliefs show the Assyrian army besieging and capturing the fortress of Lachish. Sennacherib also besieged Jerusalem until a plague fell on his troops and forced him to retreat. Sennacherib captured thousands of Hebrews and took them back to Assyria as slaves.
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IN NOVEMBER 689 BCE SENNACHERIB RECAPTURED THE CITY OF BABYLON, WHICH HAD REBELLED AGAINST HIS RULE. ANGRY AFTER AN EXPENSIVE FIFTEEN-MONTH SIEGE, HE ORDERED THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY. ALTHOUGH IT WAS AN ANCIENT AND SACRED PLACE, HE LEVELED THE BUILDINGS AND FLOODED THE SITE, POSSIBLY BY DIVERTING THE EUPHRATES RIVER. SENNACHERIB LATER BOASTED ABOUT THIS DREADFUL ACT: Like a hurricane I attacked the city and like a storm I overthrew it. … I spared none of its people, young or old, and I filled the streets of the city with their corpses. I devastated the town and its houses from the foundations to the roofs … So that even the soil of its temples be forgotten in the future, I ravaged the land with water and turned it into pastures. … I removed the dust of Babylon. … and stored some of it in a covered jar in the Temple of the New Year Festival in Assur. CITED IN D. D. LUCKENBILL, ANCIENT RECORDS OF ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA, VOL. 11
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Pax Assyrica
Assyrian kings had traditionally set out to wage war every spring, when the marching season arrived. However, records of only eight campaigns in Sennacherib’s twenty-four-year reign survive.
Sennacherib spent much time restoring the ancient city of Nineveh, which he chose to be his capital. He built dams, canals, and aqueducts to carry water to the city and to irrigate the surrounding fields. The fertile grain farms around Nineveh were needed to feed the city’s rapidly growing population. Sennacherib also ordered the building of temples and other public works around his kingdom.
