• Corpus ID: 6128352

Assyrian Royal Titulary in Babylonia

@inproceedings{Karlsson2017AssyrianRT,
  title={Assyrian Royal Titulary in Babylonia},
  author={Mattias Karlsson},
  year={2017}
}

• M. Karlsson
• Published 2017
• History

Assyria and Babylonia have varying reputations in history books, with the former being linked to the use of military force and the latter associated with peaceful activities such as temple building (Fuchs 2009). Although somewhat exaggerated, this difference gets apparent when studying Assyrian and Babylonian royal inscriptions (Tadmor 1997: 334-35). Not only the aspect of violence separates the two ideological traditions, but also the emphasis in Assyria on royal genealogy, the king’s physical attributes and moral qualities (such as his wisdom), and his less distinct role in the judicial system serve to differentiate Assyrian and Babylonian propaganda (Garelli 1981: 4-5, Renger 1980-83: 72, Postgate 1974). In relation to the south, Assyrian state ideology was a hybrid creature of old and new elements – partly adhering to southern traditions, partly containing own ideas (Postgate 1995). The insight that Assyrian propaganda was – at least to some extent – adapted to the spatial context in which it was disseminated has gained strength in recent years. Assyrian royal inscriptions and iconography thus did not function as a monolithic bloc, imposed everywhere in the same manner. Assyrian propaganda in Babylonia is claimed to be especially noteworthy in this respect. For example, the Assyrian state had a special religious policy in relation to Babylonia (Fales 2010: 24). The state god Ashur was not promoted in the south (nor was he taboo). Rather, the cults of southern deities were the centre of attention (Frame 1997). Also, monuments in Babylonia from the times of Esarhaddon (680-669) and Ashurbanipal (668-c. 627) were adapted to the southern, cultural milieu – with mixed results (Porter 2003a-b). The question arises as to how and to what extent Assyrian propaganda in Babylonia was adapted. This paper deals with these issues. In terms of primary sources, there are about 100 Assyrian royal inscriptions preserved which have Babylonia as their provenance or centre point. These texts all derive from Late Neo-Assyrian rulers: some from Sargon II (721-705), a few from Sennacherib (704-681), many from Esarhaddon, quite a few from Ashurbanipal, and some from Shamash-shuma-ukin (667-648) and Ashur-etelilani (c. 626-623). The appendix attached to this paper clarifies this. Royal titles and epithets are great sources when investigating the official ideology of an ancient polity, since their being concise and programmatic in nature. For this reason (and for a delimitation need), I will focus on titles and epithets in this study. Moreover, this stress can serve to complement the iconography-centred studies by Porter (2003a-b).