Sennacherib and Tarsus

Author(s): Stephanie Dalley

Source: Anatolian Studies, Vol. 49, Anatolian Iron Ages 4. Proceedings of the Fourth
Anatolian Iron Ages Colloquium Held at Mersin, 19-23 May 1997 (1999), pp. 73-80
Published by: British Institute at Ankara
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3643063
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 Sennacherib and Tarsus

Stephanie Dalley
University of Oxford

The aim of the research presented in this paper was to Therefore we can no longer dismiss lightly other details
find out more about Tarsus in the time of Sennacherib in his account.
and his successors from a Mesopotamian standpoint, and We know for certain from Assyrian records that the
to discover whether Assyrian influence persisted into
army of Sennacherib campaigned to Cilicia and Tarsus in
subsequent periods1. 696 BC (King 1909: 5; 1910). Sennacherib's father,
Two fragments of text attributed to the Babylonian
Sargon II, was involved in an action at sea against
lonians,
priest Berossus, who lived in Babylon under Antiochus I, and it is possible that later historians conflated
the
have been transmitted by Eusebius and were attributed totwo events (Desideri, Jasink 1990: 45-6, 120-7). We
Polyhistor and to Abydenus as intermediaries. They know from archaeological evidence that the city of
relate the deeds of Sennacherib in Cilicia. Both versions Tarsus had been in existence for many centuries before
say that he built the city of Tarsus in the image of that time, and was flourishing under Hittite rule in the
Babylon. Both versions say that Sennacherib defeated Late Bronze Age. For that reason Burstein accuses
Ionians or Greeks in Cilicia. The version of Polyhistor Berossus of being wrong in saying Sennacherib built
claims that Sennacherib left a statue of himself in Cilicia Tarsus in the image of Babylon, for he assumes that the
with a record of his deeds inscribed in 'Chaldaean' word 'built' implies the city did not exist beforehand.
script, and the text claims, in saying 'as he (sc. However, if we suppose that a contemporary Assyrian
Sennacherib) reports', to be derived from a contem- inscription lies behind this statement, we can point out
porary account of Sennacherib's deeds (Burstein 1978: numerous examples to show that Assyrian kings
24 fn 79). Abydenus' version says that the king had his normally say 'build' when they mean 'rebuild', or 'do a
deeds inscribed truthfully and mentions that he built a bit of building work on'4. So Berossus need be accused
'temple of the Athenians'2 and erected bronze pillars3. only of a literal translation or understanding of an
Other parts of Berossus' writings, long misunder- Akkadian wording, if there are other reasons to suppose
stood, eventually proved to be valid as new cuneiform that he told some form of the truth.

texts came to light and evidence needed for under- The expression 'in the image of Babylon' sounds like
standing them increased. The story of Oannes the a direct translation of an Akkadian term, attested in
primeval fish-man goes back to a fundamental traditioninscriptions from the seventh century onwards, in which
about the origins of culture in Mesopotamia, and a city is said to be 'the image of Babylon'. The word
Berossus also gives a recognisable account of mythicaltamsilu is used in the Epic of Creation for buildings,
events derived from the Babylonian Epic of Creation.especially temples, which imitate places where the gods
dwell, whether heaven or the apsu, which is the region of
sweet water beneath the earth. Since Babylon was the
prime example, in the seventh century, of a cult centre
1 A version of this paper was delivered at the Fourth Anatolian
designed to reflect the conceptual home of the gods,
Iron Ages Symposium, held in May 1997 in Mersin. It has
other holy cities might be described as being in the image
benefitted since then from helpful criticisms of R Lane Fox,
of Babylon; such a city was Arbela in the time of Assur-
J Dillery, C King, C Howgego, H Kim and J D Hawkins. I am
banipal, the great Assyrian king of the mid-seventh
grateful to Bryn Mawr College archives for supplying the
photograph from which the copy fig 2 was made. century and Sennacherib's grandson, who composed a
2 Jacoby 1968: 3C1 268-70, F43-44. Verbruggte, Wickerstam
1996; Burstein 1978: 24 has gratuitously replaced 'of the
Athenians' with 'of Sandes who is Heracles'; Cory 1832 trans-
lated 'at Athens'. 4 See e.g. Oppenheim et al 1958: s.v. epesu 2b 'to build or
3 Cory 1832 translates 'statues'. rebuild (a house, temple or palace, or part of it)'.

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 Anatolian Studies 1999

northeast of Tarsus. Gurdi seems to have harboured anti-

hymn celebrating Arbela as the image of Babylon, tamsil
sa Babili (Livingstone 1989: 20 no 8:18). Recent work Assyrian rebels from Milid, and to have been a
has shown that some aspects of Enlil's temple complex at ringleader in the revolt in Cilicia recorded by
Nippur were borrowed for the temple complex of Sennacherib, so he was the target of Sennacherib's
Marduk at Babylon, and that the architecture as well as
campaign after the expedition against Kirua of Illubru
some ceremonial names were borrowed from Babylon which involved Tarsus8. Since the dreadful event of
and put in place at both Assur and Uruk5. This is part of
Sargon's death in battle far from home implied that the
a grand conception in which the great temples gods had withdrawn their support from the Assyrian
symbolised the cosmos and so had to have certain king, Sennacherib tried to find out what sin had been
features in common, such as the Holy Mound, the Dais
committed, and suggested: 'Was it because [he esteemed]
of Destinies, and the Assembly Hall of the Gods. That
the gods o[f Assyria too much], [placing them] above the
reality was less tidy than its ideal conception is cleargods of Babylonia?'. This was the question he addressed
from the way in which Esarhaddon described Babylonto
as the oracle, hoping for a clear result in extispicy. If the
a square, which it was not according to the clear results
oracle confirmed that this was so, an obvious act of
of archaeological survey and excavation (George 1993:atonement would have been to build or embellish a
15 fn 58). An Assyrian temple or a major shrine within
temple dedicated to Sanda-Marduk in the very country
an existing temple would presumably have where Sargon had died. In any case, the sources imply
Mesopotamian texts and scholars, priests and that a huge Assyrian investment went into the building
astronomers, attached to it. works at Tarsus. It can hardly be doubted that a new or
There was a more particular reason, however, renewed
for temple would have incorporated elements of
supposing that Tarsus was an ideal city in which to Assyrian design and ritual.
recreate the image of Babylon. Since the Late Bronze This may be the reason why, in the second century
Age and perhaps even earlier, the patron god Sanda (also BC when coins of Tarsus first show an image of Sanda
Sandon, Santas etc.) had been equated with Marduk to standing on a homed, short-legged, long-bodied animal,
the extent that the name Sanda was written with the the god of Tarsus resembles great Assyrian gods of the
logogram for Marduk in Hittite texts6. Even more than
seventh century shown standing on their characteristic
this, a special and personal motive for Sennacherib's animals9. The best comparisons for dress, stance and the
deed in building (or rebuilding) a city which included a disk above the god's head come from Sennacherib's rock
temple to him may be deduced from a text known as The sculpture at Maltai, and from cylinder seals of c.700 BC
Sin of Sargon7. (fig 1)?0. The comparison is so close that a divine statue
Sennacherib's father Sargon died in battle in Tabal, put up by Sennacherib in Tarsus as part of his rebuilding
mountainous country in upper Cilicia (Edzard et al 1972- programme must have lasted for many centuries. Coins
75: s.v. Hilakku), according to the Babylonian chronicle showing Sanda as an Assyrian-style god appear in the
(Grayson 1975: I.ii.6). The events surrounding this reign of Antiochus VII' and continue into the reign of
tragedy have recently been clarified, for the eponym Gallienus, AD 260-268 (Goldman 1940: 544; Gardner
chronicle, once thought to record the involvement of a 1878; Houghton 1983: nos 479, 486-497). Such a long
man from the Median city Kuluman named Espai, has span of time implies that it was no passing fad to put an
now been correctly read to identify Gurdi of Kulummu, Assyrian-style Sanda on coins of Tarsus.
a city in Til-garimmu in the plain of Elbistan to the

8 Espai the man of Kulummu in the Eponym Chronicle and Hidi

5 George 1996: 374; 1993: esp 290-1. Cosmic dimensions for the man of Til-garimmu in Luckenbill 1927: 62 v 4 should both
holy cities including Babylon, Arbela, Kesh, Borsippa, Ashur be read Gurdi; Kulummu is distinct from Kuluman; and the
and Jerusalem are emphasised by Hurowitz 1992: appendix 7, whole episode has no demonstrable link with a hypothetical
335-7. Cimmerian advance. See Parpola 1993: 235, n 398; Saggs
6 Edzard et al 1987-1990: s.v. Marduk; Kammenhuber 1990. 1984: 97; and Hawkins 1982: 422, 429. The two corrections
Neither of these works was able to include the references to are given by Millard 1994: 48, and by Parpola 1987: 70-1, no
Sanda, phonetically spelt, in Anatolian rituals from Emar 76.
(Amaud 1986: nos 471, 472, 474 and 479). 9 Hill 1900: pls XXXII 13-16, XXXIII 1-3, compared with e.g.
7 Livingstone 1989: 77-9, no 33; Tadmor 1989. Another Collon 1987: no 344.
connection of a personal kind between Sennacherib and Cilicia 10 Zoroglu n.d., 20; Goldman (1940) pointed this out, but was
came through the marriage of Sennacherib's sister Ahat-abisa, unaware at that time that Sandon was equated with Marduk in
daughter of Sargon II, to a ruler of Tabal, see Frahm 1997: 1 fn Hittite cuneiform texts.
4. For Sargon's relations with Tabal, see Hawkins and Postgate 1 Levante 1986: 909ff prefers Antiochus IV, for unstated
1988. reasons.

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 Dalley

Tarsus, dating to the fourth century BC, conveniently

labelled in Aramaic B'L TRZ 'Lord of Tarsus', show
Sanda with an ear of corn and a bunch of grapes,
continuing the iconographic tradition most notably
reproduced on the Ivriz rock relief, but also on other
stone sculptures14. On the coins he sits on an Assyrian-
style backless throne, with his feet resting on a footstool.
This Heracles-type of Sanda as the patron god of Tarsus
has the same iconography on the Early Iron Age rock
carvings as on the Graeco-Roman coins, but this identifi-
cation has not, as far as I know, been applied to the rock
reliefs, including the one at Ivriz. The inscription at tvriz
refers to the god as Tarhu, which may be interpreted as
an epithet, 'the victorious one', comparable to Ba'al and
Bel, a title bestowed on the hero-god in recognition of his
victory over chaos. Such was the prestige of this god that
Macedonian coinage minted by Alexander modelled
(a) (b)
Zeus after the god of Tarsus (Troxell 1991).
The god with corn and grapes, clearly a giant at Ivriz,
fits the equation with Heracles in the Classical tradition,
but many of his characteristics can be illustrated much
earlier, from Hittite texts: Sanda as a funerary god of
violence and the Underworld in the Kululu text (Hawkins
1980), and as a god of bloody rites in the Ritual of
Zarpiya. Sanda has been categorised with the god Yard,
for they were both gods of war and pestilence armed with
a bow (Gumey 1977: 16). In an unpublished Hittite text
(Guiterbock, Hoffner 1989: 201 s.v. Marwai), Yarri is
accompanied by the Seven Gods, like Mesopotamian
Erra/Nergal/Heracles, the underworld god of pestilence.
(c) (d) Sanda is also known from Emar and from neo-Hittite
(Luwian) records15.
Fig 1. Assyrian god: a) from cylinder seal c.709 BC; b)
The existence of both types of Sanda on coins
from rock relief at Maltai, reign of Sennacherib; c) from
indicates that the statue put up by Sennacherib did not
terracotta plaque found at Tarsus, third century BC; d)
replace an older statue. So both remained important in
from tetradrachm of Tarsus, reign of Hadrian. The
the cult, showing that Sennacherib did not replace the
horned animal may in all cases be Marduk's red dragon.
existing cult or its statue, but added to it, complementing
the existing arrangements to avoid offending the
Upland Cilicia (Tabal) as well as lowland Cilicia indigenous cult. Such sensitivity to local feeling
(Hilakku) practiced the cult of Sanda. The cult was suggests that Sennacherib would have been regarded as a
already ancient in Sennacherib's day, attested from thebenefactor rather than as a hated oppressor, enabling
records of the Old Assyrian trading colonies. In HittiteAssyrian innovations to survive the fall of Assyria.
times the god was worshipped in cities of Kizzuwatna
(Cilicia and Commagene) according to the Ritual of
Zarpiya, a physician of Kizzuwatna'2. Within this large
region there existed the aspect of Sanda which was later 14 For example Hill 1900: pls XXX and XXXI passim. For the
chronology of Tarsus' coins see Kraay 1962; and for inter-
assimilated with Heracles, and is distinct in iconography
change between similar images labelled NRGL and Sandon,
from the Assyrian form of Sanda'3. Other coins from see Mildenberg 1973. Many recently identified sculptures of
this god from the Early Iron Age were described in the paper of
Mustafa $ahin (see this volume) at the conference. One shows
12 Translated recently in Collins 1997: 162-3. the god with the winged disk above, another with forked
13 Goldman 1949, discussed without knowledge of the Bronze lightning in his left hand.
Age evidence, from a mainly Classical point of view. A late 15 Kammenhuber 1987-1990: s.v. Mardul-A II. See also note 6
Assyrian text already equated Nergal (the Semitic form of above.
Heracles) with Marduk-of-battle. See King 1908: 50:4.

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 Anatolian Studies 1999

A quite different kind of evidence suggests a special

the same period'9. This detail in Berossus' account may
relationship between Babylon and Tarsus. It comes from
therefore be true. Since the temple is mentioned before
the Stoic tradition of philosophy. Diogenes of Babylon
the topic of Tarsus, presumably the shrine was put up in
(born c.240 BC), when he was in Athens, had a pupil another part of Cilicia.
from Tarsus, one Archidemus, who, according to Berossus' account, like that of Polybius 8.12.3, says
Plutarch, went on to found a new school for Stoics in that Sennacherib left a statue of himself and an account
Babylonia. Another Tarsian pupil of Diogenes was of his deeds in cuneiform (if this, rather than Aramaic, is
Antipater, who succeeded his teacher as head of the Stoa
to be understood from the expression 'Chaldaean
in Athens"6. John Dillery has suggested that Berossus, in
script'). This is sometimes questioned because of lack of
picking out Sennacherib's campaign in Cilicia and the support from material evidence, and because the king
building of Tarsus like Babylon for his account of himself did not lead the expeditions to Cilicia (Hawkins
Mesopotamian traditions, was emphasising historic ties1982: 426-7). But we know that in Cyprus Sennacherib's
between Tarsus and Babylon, and perhaps implied that father Sargon had a stele set up, inscribed with his royal
Antiochus I was comparable with Sennacherib. Alterna-accomplishments and showing himself in low relief,
tively, the extract concerning Tarsus may have survivedeven though he did not go to Cyprus in person nor
by contrast with many other episodes simply because it
impose direct rule upon its city-states.
was of particular interest to the Greeks and to Stoic These are the items attributed to Berossus concerning
philosophers. Tarsus. None of them can be shown to be incorrect, and
The extract of Berossus given by Abydenus explains all of them, for different reasons, are quite likely to be
that Sennacherib made Tarsus like Babylon by making true and to emanate from contemporary Mesopotamian
the river run through the middle of it. This may be an sources. We now turn to certain finds from the excava-

explanatory gloss, since it is not found in Eusebius' tions at Tarsus.

extract. It is true that Babylon has a river running The cuneiform tablets found at Tarsus are of a format
through it, and this is a feature that might have seemed and script normally identified as neo-Assyrian. Goetze
exceptional to a Greek, although it is so common in was wrong in reading a date upon the damaged tablet
Mesopotamia as to be unworthy of note; examples are which was excavated after he left the site towards the end
Nineveh, Kish, and Uruk in addition to Babylon itself. It of the season, so that he studied it only from photo-
does not necessarily mean that the Assyrians diverted a graphs. He thought that a number on an administrative
river, or built on a virgin site beside the old city17. The text referred to year 33 of Assurbanipal's reign, ignoring
walls of Mesopotamian cities served as much to keep the fact that Assyrian tablets are dated by eponym, not by
flood water from washing through the city, and to keep years of reign except in Babylonia (Goetze 1939;
out wild animals, as to protect from foreign armies, Boardman 1965). The number represents a total of items
whereas the Greeks regarded walls as purely military and added up from a list. So the date of 636 which he gave
defensive, with a river that cut through a city being an is wrong, and we have no secure date for any of the
obvious weakness in the overall plan18. Tarsus tablets. Recently tablets with Assyrian format
Berossus records that the temple had bronze pillars, and script, yet dated to the neo-Babylonian king
and this finds an echo in an inscription of Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar II, were discovered at Sheh Hamad on
who was proud of having cast and placed bronze pillars, the Khabur river in northeastern Syria. They serve to
timme siparri, in a new building, the bit kutalli-arsenal at warn us that undated 'Assyrian' tablets could in fact be
Nineveh which was completed c.689 BC (Luckenbill neo-Babylonian in places where Assyrian influence was
1927: 133; comments by Walker 1988: 116). He is the strong and persisted after 612 BC, although this option
only ancient Mesopotamian king who claimed to have seems to be excluded on this occasion by the date of
built using pillars of bronze. Bronze column bases for associated Greek pottery. I have made a copy of the
hilani-palaces are also mentioned in an Assyrian letter of tablet from a photograph kindly supplied from
excavation archives, from which cuneiformists can see
clearly that no neo-Assyrian date is involved (fig 2).

16 The unusual nature of scholarly tradition at Tarsus is

described by Strabo 14.5.13-15.
17 Or a canal; the word would be the same in Akkadian. See
Boardman 1965.
19 ABL 452 = Parpola 1987: no 66. King 1909 pointed out that
18 Prof Dillery has drawn my attention to the pertinent comment
of Herodotus 1.191. Berossus was supported by Assyrian sources on this point.

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 Dalley

and nirpapparminu (Tallon 1995; Galter 1987: 15).

These particular stones were placed near a sleeping
woman to ensure safe pregnancy and child-bearing; men
used them to avert loss of hair, or trembling hands, or evil
caused by snakes (Maul 1996: 108-11), and they were set
in necklaces with particular apotropaic purposes. Many
namburbi texts end with an order to leave a string of
various, specified stones including these for up to seven
days with the sufferer. Powdered stones were added to
brews of medicine. Chips or grains from the working of
these specific stones were put on the ground in front of
royal horse troughs of Sennacherib to do good to the
hooves of horses (MacGinnis 1989: 189). Sennacherib
gave to his son Esarhaddon a string of eye-stones
pappardilu, papparminu and huldlu set in gold, taken
from the booty of Chaldaeans in Bit Amukani. An eye-
stone bead found in Syria was inscribed on behalf of
Assur-iddin and bore an incantation protecting him
against death (Nougayrol 1970: 67-8). Stones of banded
agate cut to resemble an eyeball were fashionable in
Assyria since at least the Middle Assyrian period; fine
examples have been found in Middle Assyrian graves at
Assur (see, for example, Harper et al 1995: 56).
These stones occur naturally on the coasts of the Red
Fig 2. Copy of cuneiform tablet from Tarsus showing that
Sea in Yemen, in southern Egypt, and on the Deccan
the number previously identified as a date is in fact a
plateau of India. It is virtually certain now that the
total, summing up a list.
Assyrians imported gemstones from India at this period,
for the distinctive 'grossular granite' has been identified
New work has been done on the amulet text from as the material from which some neo-Assyrian seals were
Tarsus. It is an incantation of the type known by its made. Real agates for seals and beads were prized items
of long-distance trade, and Arabians in particular seem to
Sumerian category as namburbi, for warding off evil that
was foretold by omens. This one was designed against have traded in them20. The Assyrians had recipes for
putting artificial bands on to plain chalcedony
bad dreams, and it has very close parallels for both shape
(amulet-shaped clay tablets) and text from the Assyrian(Sollberger 1987), and for making entirely artificial glass
capital Assur, specifically from the palace which beads to imitate pappardilu and huldlu, a skill which
Sennacherib had built for his younger son Assur-ili- goes back at least to the Late Bronze Age (Oppenheim
muballissu. Three incantation tablets from that palace 1970: 14-5; 1966: 29ff). West of Assyria the real stones
have virtually the same incantation as was found at are rare; glass imitations are common (Sax 1991).
Tarsus, so that Maul has drawn up an edition of a single At Tarsus glass imitations of eye-stones have been
text with variants, using three versions from Assur with found (Goldman 1963: 155), and they can be connected
the Tarsus version (Maul 1996: 185). The latest dated with the incantation because they were indispensible for
text from the building is 658, the earliest is 708, and so it the ritual that went with it21. The beads were found in
is likely that the Tarsus texts lie within those time-limits. two different levels, which in the final report are called
The Tarsus incantation was written out for a man named the pre-Assyrian Iron Age level and the Assyrian level,
Nabu-dur-ilisu, and one of the Assur texts was made out in or near the same building. The stratified beads 2 and
for one Bulalu. Unfortunately neither man is yet known 3 were by the wall Oa - Ob, and bead 4 in North St,
from other contexts. adjacent to the house in an area which was difficult to
Incantations such as these were accompanied by
rituals in which certain stones were used for their
20 Cavigneaux and Ismail 1990. Note too that the seal from
magical powers, especially the chalcedony stones (Sax
'Ana with a south Arabian inscription is made of agate (Collon
1992), including agates and onyxes, which have been
1987: no 379).
more or less identified with the Akkadian words huldlu
21 See also Russell 1997, especially the 'bit nakkapti' text on p
(Sumerian nir), pappardilu, papparminu, nirpappardila,
300.

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 Anatolian Studies 1999

understand in that level, but which certainly was part of with or without a cuneiform version. In the
Aramaic,
that house in the following level. Bead 5 was foundmid
in eighth century in Til Barsip and Arslan Tash, the
the pit called Xc, and ascribed to the pre-Assyrian Assyrian
level, governor Shamshi-ilu put up public inscriptions
and bead 6 was found in the wall Xa - Xd in the Assyrian
in both scripts, alphabetic Aramaic and Akkadian
level. For bead 7 no findspot is recorded, though it cuneiform
is put (as well as Luwian hieroglyphs), and an
with the Assyrian level beads; the bead 8 was foundAssyrian
in decree to regulate the tax liability of merchants
who
another house, Yb, just across the street. Within came up from Babylonia may date from the late
the
same house X was the room where the tablets and the eighth or seventh century (Dupont-Sommer 1965;
incantation were found. The two different levels with Lipifiski 1975). So Greeks who came into contact with
these glass beads show considerable continuity of Assyrians at Tarsus did not have to learn cuneiform to
habitation. understand official communications. Aramaic inscrip-
Can we identify the owner of the house from this tions from Cilicia dated roughly to the fifth century have
range of finds? Since eye-beads were found in both been found, 35km northeast of Tarsus at Kesecek K6yti,
levels, we can perhaps reject an identification which and 20km north of Mersin at Gozne. Both invoke the
would give Nabu-dur-ilisu as the inhabitant. The beads Mesopotamian sun-god SMS, and presumably reflect
were sufficiently valuable that they would probably have earlier, Assyrian influence22. At least one of the earliest
been lent out with the incantation dispensed by the incan- coins from Tarsus is inscribed in both Aramaic and
tation priest, who would have kept a stock of them. Greek (Hill 1900: 166, pl XXIX:6).
There is a good possibility that we have the house of the In conclusion, we can affirm that Berossus gives
incantation priest himself under Assyrian occupation, useful and accurate information about Sennacherib's

one of his patients being Nabu-dur-ilisu. In a small way, deeds at Tarsus, almost certainly based on contemporary
we can make a comparison with the house of the incan- Mesopotamian sources in cuneiform or Aramaic. In
tation priest found at Assur (Pedersen 1986: 41-76 N4). rebuilding the city, or parts of it, he made a new statue for
The latter house, which was heavily defended against Sanda-Marduk which was still eminent in the time of
intrusive evil by means of foundation boxes containing Hadrian, and he may also have built a temple with bronze
apotropaic figurines, included many incantations and pillars elsewhere in Cilicia. Not only did Sennacherib
namburbi-prescriptions, manuals of stones and amulets, bring Assyrian administration through cuneiform
as well as administrative lists. Akkadian writing to Tarsus, but also Mesopotamian
Apart from the legendary character of Semiramis, scholarship, including incantations and the prestigious
Greek knowledge of Assyrian history and personalitiespractices that went with them, stimulating the production
seems to begin with Sennacherib. West (1995) maintainsof glass beads which resembled the stones appropriate
that an account of Sennacherib's destruction of Babylon for preventing and healing illnesses.
was the inspiration for the episode of the Achaean Wall
in the Iliad. Even before the time of Sennacherib, it had
become customary for public records to be set up in 22 Donner, Rollig 1962-64: 258, 259.

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 Dalley

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