Biography
The 9th century BC was marked by a recovery of sorts after terrible instability of the preceding hundred and fifty years when Aramaean tribes had wantonly raided into Mesopotamia. He was the 2nd of four successive generations of a single family to rule. His father, Nabû-šuma-ukin I, had preceded him and he was to be succeeded by his son, Marduk-zakir-šumi I. The Synchronistic Kinglist gives his Assyrian contemporary as Aššur-nāṣir-apli II although his reign extended on into that of Šulmānu-ašarēdu III.
He provided troops to the state of Suḫu in the middle Euphrates valley as part of its 878 BC revolt against Aššur-nāṣir-apli II. Kudurru the governor of the fortress of Suru had defiantly refused to pay the Assyrians tribute, provoking their wrath. Nabû-apla-iddina's own brother Zabdanu and the diviner Bel-apli-iddina led the army of 3000 and following their defeat were taken prisoner. Although Aššur-nāṣir-apli claimed to have conquered the border fortresses Hirimmu and Harutu in his own inscriptions, this may be a restatement of his father, Tukulti-Ninurta II’s campaigns.
His reign marks the last time a governor of Isin was to appear as a prominent official in a legal document, and the roles of Kassites were to be central to the monarchy, occupying high positions at court. The province of Chaldea in southern Babylonia was first mentioned and the šakin temi begins to serve as regional governor. There was a shift in fashion, where, for example, the feathered crown is replaced by a peaked dome as a headdress of the king.
His inscriptions adorn perhaps five kudurrus, a possession inscription of his eldest son, and he is referenced in three Assyrian kinglists and two chronicles. Towards the end of his reign he concluded a treaty with Šulmānu-ašarēdu III which was to prove instrumental in stabilizing his successor Marduk-zakir-šumi I’s rule, following the revolt of his brother, Marduk-bēl-ušati. His reign is mentioned in a later copy of an offering list of aromatics used in the cult of Marduk in the Esagila at Babylon, and in a contemporary temple ordinance tablet distributing meats in the Eanna temple in Uruk.
Read more about this topic: Nabu-apla-iddina
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“A biography is like a handshake down the years, that can become an arm-wrestle.”
—Richard Holmes (b. 1945)
“The best part of a writer’s biography is not the record of his adventures but the story of his style.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)