The Assyrian Civil War, Part Two
In the aftermath of Hadadezer's coup in Aram-Damascus, King Psamtik and other Egyptian leaders distanced themselves from the Aramean cause so as to not alienate the Babylonians, led by Ashurbanipal's brother. It nevertheless created a rift between the allies. King Sinidinnapla lost trust in Psamtik and also lost the faith of his Assyrian supporters, who worried that the Babylonians or Chaldeans could do something similar at home. He attempted to negotiate with the new king Hadadezer, but could not even win the freedom of his nephews and nieces, as the former general feared they would be used to re-establish Assyrian power in Damascus. They would coordinate their offensives no longer: they stayed on the same side only because Nineveh was still the greatest power, and infighting would yield all of their gains to their mutual enemy. The war maintained its momentum for another two years.
In 632 BCE, misfortune struck the fair King Sinidinnapla, who fell from his chariot after being hit by an arrow. He died shortly thereafter, leaving his son Ashurnadinapli to take the throne of Babylon. Ashurnadinapli, as the crown prince of Babylon, had been trained as a formidable general, but also had lived his life embarrassed that unlike his father he was a half-Egyptian. The faction that he commanded in court were mainly Assyrians, along with those Babylonians and Egyptians who had once benefited from the Triple Monarchy. Where Sinidinnapla wanted a return to the status quo of the Triple Monarchy, Ashurnadinapli wanted more. He demanded of his cousin in Nineveh a harsh price for peace: half of the Assyrian heartland, though he had not yet taken even that. He also spoke openly to his court that he regarded King Hadadezer as a traitor and that after Nineveh was humbled, they would have to find a way to punish Damascus as well. With such a man in power in Babylon, the civil war would go on.
Another reason the war would continue for another three years was that the neighbors of the Assyrian heartland had grown restless as they watched the regional hegemon bleed. The Cimmerians, the Scythians, the Medes, and the Persians wanted whatever goods and treasures that they could seize by force while the Assyrians were distracted. As Psamtik pulled back Egyptian forces to take new vassals in the Levant, and the Babylonians struggled with bad harvests, invasion from the north and the east kept Nineveh from being able to win a decisive victory.
The event that would lead to the end of the war was the successful plotting of court conspirators against the new King Ashurnadinapli. Many did not want him as a king, and more importantly the Babylonians were struggling to continue the war effort for so long. Factions coalesced around Erishum IV, the second son of Siniddinapla. Unlike his brother, Erishum embraced his Egyptian heritage, and also had married a Chaldean noble. He had the support of the common people in Babylon, and much of the Chaldean army. After receiving vows from several nobles who would prefer his leadership, Erishum ordered a group of soldiers and mercenaries to kill his brother on the road to Kish. The attack succeeded, and Babylon lost its second king in a year.
King Erishum IV, later known as Marduk-kudurriusur, killed his brother for the throne and only reigned for four years. He is credited for ending the Assyrian Civil War and winning Babylonian independence
After his ascension to the throne, Erishum IV sent new concessions and demands for his cousin the High King for a conditional peace. First, he didn't want half of the Assyrian heartland, he wanted to keep what territory his forces actually controlled (much less). This was significant. He continued the demands of both his brother and father for authority over the Chaldeans and Elamites, which was reasonable. Less easy for Ashurnasirpal to accede to was the demand for Babylonian independence. Like the Arameans years earlier, the Babylonians now wanted out of the Triple Monarchy.
King Ashurnasirpal knew that such a peace would leave Assyrians with much less territory under their control than before the war. It would be considered a great loss. When his cousin first sent his overtures, many in his court resisted. While raids from the north had left the Assyrians weakened, their power had not yet been exhausted. Treasuries continued to pay for mercenaries and weapons, there was still enough fertile farmland that had escaped the war to provide more food, the cities continued to attract migrants and recruits, rivers made trade and transport easy, and supply lines were always short.
Yet, Assyria had lost the ability to project its force against so many enemies all at once, and the Iranian invaders would not relent. After suffering defeats and being chased over the mountains, the raiders would gather greater numbers, and strike a different part of the borderland, wherever there was weakness. Nineveh could not expel the Arameans from Aram-Damascus, nor the Babylonians from the south, nor the Egyptians from the Levant, not while they were being attacked on all fronts. After seven years of war, the peoples of the Assyrian heartland wanted peace, and after a time the royal court and the military realized they would be satisfied if they could leave Assyria strong so that after the peace, they could start making new vassals by preying on their weakest neighbors. They reasoned that there were enough Assyrians in the south that Babylon could be retaken when it didn't have such motivated allies, and then they could eventually retake the Arameans. Those who advised the king convinced him of their plans, and in time peace negotations began.
In the resulting peace, decided in Mari, Aram-Damascus won its independence, and was allowed to reign over territory that almost cut the Assyrians off from the Mediterranean Sea. The Egyptians were able to keep their new vassals in the Levant, up to Samaria, marking the greatest expansion of Egyptian power since the New Kingdom period. The Babylonians received all that was demanded by their new king, effectively seizing the deep south of the former Assyrian empire. Assyria kept what was left. It didn't take them long to fill border garrisons to their capacity and begin a reconstruction program for new forts, roads, and walls. The Nineveh court had been wise: the much reduced Kingdom of Assyria regained its strength quickly, benefitting from a surge in trade, and also of labor as Assyrians of the newly-created kingdoms returned to the heartland. Yet King Ashurnasirpal faced a loss of personal power and prestige as the local priesthoods heaped blame upon him for every trouble. Knowing that the gods would be eager to cast him into disfavor, since he had lost so much of the empire, Ashurnasirpal consented to build a new temple to Ashur in order to appease their wrath. Though the peace had been forged out of a secret commitment to vengeance, Assyria turned inward instead, and would bide its time.
In the mountains to the east, the Iranian tribes began to organize and plot...