Although many of the events of Sennacherib's reign are well documented in his res gestae, the internal chronology of his twenty-four-year reign is not as certain as one would like. There is difficulty not only about the precise years of some of the royal expeditions, but also about how many there were. The problem of dating arises out of the fact that Sennacherib's campaigns are generally not dated by eponym or regnal year, but are merely numbered sequentially as first, second, third, etc.[12] The official numbering, which goes up to eight in the extant corpus, included only expeditions personally led by the king. Campaigns led by Sennacherib's officials were usually excluded from royally sponsored compositions. Two of those, however, were recorded in some official inscriptions, but they were never given an official campaign number. This intentional omission of events and the fact that few texts written after his 16th regnal year (689) survive today make it impossible to know the exact number of campaigns. Chronographic texts, unfortunately, shed little light on this problem, as the Eponym Chronicle is not preserved except for the beginning of his reign, and as the Babylonian Chronicle is concerned only with events in Babylonia (and Elam). Furthermore, the latter text records events by the regnal years of Babylonian kings, without reference to Sennacherib's regnal years.[13] Thus, despite the numerous sources for Sennacherib's reign, there are still many gaps in our knowledge.
In total, twelve campaigns are recorded in the extant corpus of Sennacherib's inscriptions. These took place between his accession year (705) and his 16th regnal year (689). Events from his 17th regnal year (688) to his death in 681 (his 24th regnal year), however, are completely unknown. Eight campaigns were given an official number, while the other four were not. Two campaigns led by the king's officials are also known. Those events were never given an official campaign number; their date, however, is known as one inscription records the regnal years during which they took place (696 and 695; Sennacherib's 9th and 10th regnal years). It is unclear how the second conquest of Babylon (689), which is referred to as his second campaign in the Bavian Inscription,[14] and the campaign to Arabia were designated in Sennacherib's annalistic texts since reports of the former event are not preserved in extant foundation inscriptions (those written on clay prisms) and since the latter event is known only from a badly damaged summary inscription, a text where official campaign numbers were not included. More specifically, we do not know if Sennacherib referred to the second conquest of Babylon as his ninth campaign and the Arabian expedition as his tenth campaign.
For details on the military campaigns narrated in the texts edited in this volume, see the five tables (Tables 1–2d) below.
Table 1: Dates and Targets of Military Campaigns
| Year(s) | Regnal Year(s) | Campaign Number/ Reference | Target(s) of Campaign |
|---|---|---|---|
| 704 | 1st | — | The Kulummians |
| Late 704–Early 702 | Late 1st–Early 3rd | 1st Campaign | Marduk-apla-iddina II of Babylonia and his Elamite, Chaldean, and Aramean allies; Aramean tribes; the city Ḫirimmu |
| 702 | 3rd | 2nd Campaign | The Kassites and Yasubigallians living in the Zagros Mountains; Ispabāra of Ellipi |
| 701 | 4th | 3rd Campaign | Lulî, the king of Sidon; Ṣidqâ of the city Ashkelon; the nobles and citizens of the city Ekron, and their Egyptian and Ethiopian allies; Hezekiah of Judah and Jerusalem |
| 700 | 5th | 4th Campaign | The Chaldean ruler Šūzubu (Mušēzib-Marduk), Bīt-Yakīn |
| 5th Campaign | The inhabitants of cities located on and near Mount Nipur; Maniye of the city Ukku | ||
| 696 | 9th | Eponymy of Šulmu-Bēl | Kirūa of the city Illubru (in Ḫilakku [Cilicia]); the cities Illubru, Ingirâ, and Tarsus |
| 695 | 10th | Eponymy of Aššur-bēlu-uṣur | Gurdî of the city Urdutu (in Tabal) |
| 694–693 | 11th–12th | 6th Campaign | the Bīt-Yakīn exiles living in Elam; Nergal-ušēzib (a king of Babylon installed by the Elamite king) |
| Late 693 | 12th | 7th Campaign | Border cities of Elam (including Rāši); the city Madaktu |
| 691–Late 689 | 14th | 8th Campaign | Mušēzib-Marduk (king of Babylon), Umman-menanu (king of Elam), and their allies at the city Ḫalulê |
| 690–Late 689 | 15th–Late 16th | — | Babylon |
| 690 | 15th | — | Teʾelḫunu, queen of the Arabs, and Hazael; the city Adummatu and another Arabian city |
Table 2a: Military Campaigns Narrated on Clay Cylinders
| Campaign | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5–62 | 5–19 | 5–19 | 5–17 | [...] | [...] | [...] | 5–16 | 5–13 | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | — | 20–33 | 20–33 | 18–31 | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | [...] | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | — | — | — | 32–58 | [...] | 1'–14' | [...] | [...] | [?] | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | — | — | — | — | [...] | 15' | [...] | [...] | [?] | — | — | — | — |
Table 2b: Military Campaigns Narrated on Octagonal Clay Prisms[15]
| Campaign | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Y | i 1'–ii 10 | i 27–ii 5 | i 22–77 | i 1''–13'' |
| 2 | Y | ii 1'–37'' | ii 6–75 | i 78–ii 57 | i 14''–ii 28' |
| 3 | Y | iii 1–iv 14' | ii 76–iv 37 | ii 58–iii 81 | ii 1''–iii 31 |
| 4 | Y | iv 15'–v 9 | iv 38–69 | iii 82–iv 17 | iii 1'–30' |
| 5 | — | — | iv 70–v 32 | iv 18–60 | iii 1''–iv 10 |
| Year 696 | — | — | — | iv 61–91 | — |
| Year 695 | — | — | — | v 1–14 | — |
| 6 | — | — | — | — | iv 1'–6' |
| 7 | — | — | — | — | iv 7'–11'' |
| 8 | — | — | — | — | v 1'–vi 15' |
| Babylon 689 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Arabia | — | — | — | — | — |
Table 2c: Military Campaigns Narrated on Hexagonal Clay Prisms[16]
| Campaign | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [...] | [...] | i 20–64 | i 18–58 | i 19–26 | [...] | i 1'–4'a | |
| 2 | [...] | [...] | [...] | i 65–ii 36 | i 59–ii 34 | ii 1'–9' | [...] | i 6'–8' |
| 3 | i' 1'–14' | [...] | i' 1'–7' | ii 37–iii 49 | ii 35–iii 42 | [...] | [...] | i 9'–13' |
| 4 | i' 15'–16' | [...] | ii' 1'–8' | iii 50–74 | iii 43–65 | [...] | [...] | i 4'b–5' |
| 5 | ii' 1'–13'a | [...] | [...] | iii 75–iv 31 | iii 66–iv 25 | [...] | [...] | i 14'–17' |
| Year 696 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | i 18' |
| Year 695 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | [...] |
| 6 | — | i' 1–13 | [?] | iv 32–53 | iv 26–46 | [...] | [...] | ii 1'–6' |
| 7 | — | [?] | [?] | iv 54–v 16 | iv 47–v 8 | [...] | [...] | ii 7'–13' |
| 8 | — | [?] | [?] | v 17–vi 35 | v 9–vi 30 | [...] | i 1'–12' | [...] |
| Babylon 689 | — | — | — | — | — | vi 1'–16' | [...] | [?] |
| Arabia | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | [?] |
Table 2d: Military Campaigns Narrated on Stone Tablets
| Campaign | 34 | 35 | 36 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6b–8a | [...] | |
| 2 | 12b–13a | [...] | rev. 1'– 2' |
| 3 | 13b–15 | [...] | — |
| 4 | 8b–12a | [...] | — |
| 5 | 16–17a | [...] | — |
| Year 696 | 17b–18 | [...] | — |
| Year 695 | 19a | [...] | — |
| 6 | 19b–36a | 1'–15' | — |
| 7 | 36b–44a | 16'–29'a | — |
| 8 | 44b–55a | 29'b–52' | — |
| Babylon 689 | — | — | — |
| Arabia | — | 53'–9'' | — |
12 In so-called "double datings" found in some colophons from Sennacherib's reign, there are a few inconsistencies with regard to his 1st regnal year (705, 704, or 703). It has been suggested that these discrepancies arose because the Assyrians were not accustomed to dating texts by regnal year (that is, in a Babylonian fashion) or because Assyrian scribes did not always achieve precision when calculating dates according to varying calendrical systems. On "double datings," see Millard, SAAS 2 pp. 70–71. For example, the Baltimore Inscription line 126 (Grayson, AfO 20 [1963] p. 96) states that the eponymy of Nabû-kēnu-uṣur was Sennacherib's 14th regnal year, thus making 703 his 1st regnal year.
13 For translations of the chronographic texts, see pp. 23–27.
14 Luckenbill, Senn. p. 83 line 43: i-na 2-i ger-ri-ia "on my second campaign." Note that the Bavian Inscription, which will be edited in Part 2, records only two campaigns: (1) the battle of Ḫalulê (the eighth campaign) and (2) the second conquest of Babylon.
15 Y= Yes, campaign included. We assume that text no. 14 included the first four campaigns, but line numbers cannot be assigned since that text is unpublished and not available for study.
16 Text nos. 28–33 are excluded from Table 2c since those inscriptions are not well preserved.
A. Kirk Grayson & Jamie Novotny
A. Kirk Grayson & Jamie Novotny, 'Military Campaigns, Part 1', RINAP 3: Sennacherib, The RINAP 3 sub-project of the RINAP Project, 2019 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap3/RINAP31Introduction/MilitaryCampaigns/]