Assault
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 utterly wasted Babylon. An act of desecration of such high-proportions for an Assyrian that he was subsequently murdered by two of his sons. Another of his sons, Esarhaddon succeeded him and endeavored to compensate Babylonia for his father's sacrilege by releasing Babylonian exiles and rebuilding Babylon.
Read more about this topic: Siege Of Babylon
Famous quotes containing the word assault:
“[Humanity] has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution—these can lift at a colossal humbug—push it a little—weaken it a little, century by century; but only laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works. An assault upon a town is a bad thing; but starving it is still worse.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“To assault the total culture totally is to be free to use all the fruits of mankind’s wisdom and experience without the rotten structure in which these glories are encased and encrusted.”
—Judith Malina (b. 1926)