Samsu-iluna

Fragmentation of the Empire

In the 9th year of Samsu-iluna's reign a man calling himself Rim-sin (known in the literature as Rim-Sîn II, and thought to perhaps be a nephew of the Rim-sin who opposed Hammurabi) raised a rebellion against Babylonian authority in Larsa which spread to include some 26 cities, among them Uruk, Ur, Isin, and Kisurra in the south, and Eshnunna in the north. There is a statue inscription of Samsu-iluna which describes some of this conflict.

Samsu-iluna seems to have had the upper-hand militarily. Within a year he dealt the coalition a shattering blow which took the northern cities out of the fight. In the aftermath, the king of Eshnunna, Ilūni, was dragged to Babylon and executed by strangulation. Over the course of the next 4 years, Samsu-iluna's armies tangled with Rim-sin's forces up and down the borderlands between Babylon, Sumer, and Elam. Eventually, Samsu-iluna attacked Ur, pulled down its walls and put the city to the sack, he then did the same to Uruk, and Isin as well. Finally, Larsa itself was defeated and Rim-sin II was killed, thus ending the struggle.

A few years later, a pretender calling himself Ilum-ma-ili, and claiming descent from the last king of Isin, raised another pan-Sumerian revolt. Samsu-iluna marched an army to Sumer, and the two met in a battle which proved indecisive; a second battle sometime later went Ilum-ma-ili's way, and in its aftermath, he founded the First Dynasty of Sea-Land, which would remain in control of Sumer for the next 300 years. Samsu-iluna seems to have taken a defensive approach after this; in the 18th year of his reign, he saw to the rebuilding of 6 fortresses in the vicinity of Nippur which might have been intended to keep that city under Babylonian control. Ultimately, this proved fruitless; by the time of Samsu-iluna's death, Nippur recognized Ilum-ma-ili as king.

Apparently, Eshnunna had not reconciled itself to Babylonian control either, because in Samsu-iluna's 20th year it rebelled again. Samsu-iluna marched his army through the region and, presumably after some bloodshed, constructed the fortress of Dur-samsuiluna to keep them in line. This seems to have done the trick, as later documents see Samsu-iluna take a more conciliatory stance repairing infrastructure and restoring waterways.

Both Assyria and Elam used the general chaos to re-assert their independence. Kuturnahunte I of Elam, seizing the opportunity left by Samsu-iluna's attack on Uruk, marched into the (now wall-less) city and plundered it. Among the items looted was a statue of Inanna which would not be returned until the reign of Ashurbanipal eleven centuries later. In Assyria, a native vice regent named Puzur-Sin ejected Asinum who had been a vassal king of his fellow Amorite Hammurabi. A native king Ashur-dugul seized the throne, and a period of civil war in Assyria ensued. Samsu-Iluna seems to have been powerless to intervene, and finally a king named Adasi restored a stable native dynasty in Assyria, removing any vestages of Amorite-Babylonian influence.

In the end, Samsu-iluna was left with a kingdom that was only fractionally larger than the one he started out with (but which did leave him mastery of the Euphrates River up to and including the ruins of Mari and its dependencies). The status of Eshnunna is difficult to determine with any accuracy, and while it may have remained in Babylonian hands the city was exhausted and its political influence at an end.

Depopulation of Sumer

Samsu-iluna's campaigns might not have been solely responsible for the havoc wreaked upon Uruk and Ur, and his loss of Sumer might have been as much a calculated retreat as defeat.

Records in the cities of Ur and Uruk essentially stop after the 10th year of Samsu-iluna's reign. Their priests apparently continued writing, but from more northerly cities. Larsa's records also end about this time. Records keep going in Nippur and Isin until Samsu-iluna's 29th year, and then cease there as well. These breaks are also observed in the archeological record, where evidence points to these cities being largely or completely abandoned for hundreds of years, until well into the Kassite period.

Reasons for this are hard to come by. Certainly the constant warfare cannot have helped matters, but Samsu-iluna appears to have campaigned just as hard in the north, and that region was thriving during the period. The rise of Babylon marks a definite end to Sumerian cultural dominance of Mesopotamia and a shift to Akkadian for government and popular writing; perhaps people who claimed cultural ties to the Sumerian past retrenched around the southerly cities which Iluna-ilu controlled. Several members of his dynasty took Sumerian names, and it appears they consciously strove to return to the region's Sumerian roots. It is also possible that economic or environmental factors were involved; it is known that both Hammurabi and Rim-sin I had instituted policies which altered the economies of the region. These may have proven unsustainable in the long-term.

Other campaigns

• Slaving raids by Sutean tribes appear to have been a constant problem for Babylon during this period, and Samsu-iluna spent some time dealing with them. He promulgated a law barring Babylonian citizens from purchasing as slaves citizens of the (presumably oft-raided) cities of Idamaras and Arrapha.
• In the 9th year of his reign, Samsu-iluna turned back an invasion by a Kassite army. This is the earliest known mention of the Kassites, who would go on to rule Babylonia after the collapse of the Amorite dynasty.
• Around the 24th year of his reign, Samsu-iluna attacked and destroyed the city of Apum, killing its king Yakun-ashar. A year later he seems to have attacked the city of Terqa as well, possibly adding it to his kingdom.
• In his 28th year, Samsu-iluna defeated the armies of two otherwise unknown western kings recorded as Iadikhabum and Muti-kurshana.
• In the 35th year of his reign, Samsu-iluna repelled an Amorite invasion.

Religious and Astronomical achievements

Though troubled, Samsu-iluna's reign was not entirely focused on war. He is known to have rebuilt the walls of Kish, Nippur and Sippar for example, and to have propagated the Marduk cult as had his father. He also apparently restored the E-babbar temple of Shamash (Also known as Utu) in Larsa, ziggurats at Sippar, and the ziggurat of Zababa and Ishtar at Kish.

Additionally, there is speculation that Samsu-iluna instituted the Standard Babylonian calendar, possibly as a means of tying his empire more closely together.

Family

Samsu-iluna had at least one attested child:

• Abi-Eshuh: his successor
• Iltani: devotee (nadītum) of Šamaš, probably this king’s daughter