2018 Volume 60 Issue 2 Pages 169-183
This paper discusses how rebellions were described in the Assyrian royal inscriptions and the role of such descriptions, taking the inscriptions of Esarhaddon as an example.
The inscription written in 676 BC (RINAP 4, No. 2) describes only the event concerning Bīt-Dakkuri as a rebellion. In contrast to this inscription, a later inscription written in 673 BC (RINAP 4, No. 1) begins with an “apology” that details Esarhaddon’s succession through suppressing the coup of his brothers, and then reports the rebellions in the “Sea land” and in Sidon, which are not described as rebellions in the earlier inscription.
The addition of the “apology” and the rewriting of the accounts are related to the political circumstances at the time of the composition of the inscription: the Assyrian defeat in Egypt and the appointment of Ashurbanipal as the crown prince. These events pressed Esarhaddon to legitimate his authority and to pay more attention to the risk of rebellion. The series of accounts of rebellions placed at the top of the inscription functioned to warn potential rebels against plotting a rebellion, by presenting typical rebellions by ruling elites and describing the fate that they met.
The ruler of Arzā, whose behavior is not described as rebellious in the earlier inscriptions, is first described as a rebel in the inscription written after the conquest of Egypt (RINAP 4, No. 30). Arzā had been topographically important as the boundary that was used to glorify royal deeds in Assyrian royal inscriptions. Therefore the campaign to Arzā had been described as military activity in a foreign land, but after the conquest of Egypt the city lost its significance as the boundary.
