The siege of Babylon in 689 BC took place after

Assyrian king The king of Assyria (Akkadian: ''Išši'ak Aššur'', later ''šar māt Aššur'') was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Assyria, which was founded in the late 21st century BC and fell in the late 7th century BC. For much of its ear ...

Sennacherib Sennacherib ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: or , meaning " Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sargon II in 705BC to his own death in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynas ...

's victory over the Elamites at the Battle of River Diyala. Although the Assyrians had suffered heavy casualties at the river, they had beaten the Elamites such that the

Babylonians Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. 1 ...

now stood alone. Sennacherib then successfully besieged Babylon for up to fifteen months and destroyed it.

Assault

King Sennacherib had lost his eldest son in the revolt and had also suffered heavy losses. Prior to this, most Assyrian attempts at punishing Babylon were lenient, due to a strong pro-Babylon presence in Assyrian governmental ranks. However, Sennacherib, now an old man with nothing to lose, found no pity in his heart and sacked Babylon. Large amounts of desecration took place, even by Assyrian standards. The destruction was so much so, it may have been a factor in Sennacherib's murder by two of his sons, eight years after the destruction. Another of his sons,

Esarhaddon Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of hi ...

, succeeded him and endeavored to compensate Babylonia for his father's sacrilege by releasing Babylonian exiles and rebuilding Babylon.

References

{{coord missing, Iraq Babylon Babylon Babylon 7th century BC Sennacherib