Kadashman-Enlil II

Reign

Regency

Kadashman-Enlil II ascended the throne as a child. Consequently, the political power was held by the influential vizier Itti-Marduk-balatu.

During this regency, Hattusili III of Hatti had to deal with the vizier who proved negative of the Hittites, noting: “whom the gods have caused to live far too long and [from] whose mouth unfavourable words never cease”, according to Ḫattušili III. The vizier seems to have adopted a sharply antagonistic position towards the Hittites, favoring the appeasement of their belligerent Assyrian northerly neighbor.

Correspondence with Ḫattušili III

In the first place the Hittite king, Ḫattušili III, wrote to Itti-Marduk-balatu (“With-Marduk-[there is]-Life”) to reestablish relations with Kadašman-Turgu's successor, because “my brother (Kadašman-Enlil) was a child in those days, and they did not read out the tablets in your presence.” This drew an angry response from the vizier, who accused Ḫattušili of treating them like vassals.

Kadašman-Enlil had allowed his diplomatic missions with the Hittite court to lapse, prompting an anxious Ḫattušili to ask why. “Since the Ahlamu are hostile I have stopped sending my messengers. The King of Assyria prevents my messenger from crossing his territory” – were his feeble responses, and this drew the curt reply: “Only when two kings are at enmity do their messengers cease regular travel between them”. Kadašman Enlil's envoy, Adad-šar-ilani, had witnessed Bentešina of Amurru's sworn rebuttal that he had cursed Babylonia, helping to diffuse an international crisis.

Complimenting him on his hunting prowess, Ḫattušili observed, “I have heard that my brother has become a grown man and regularly goes out to hunt,” before goading him to make war on a weaker neighbor, presumably Assyria. “Do not keep sitting around, my brother, but go against an enemy land and defeat the enemy! [Against which land] should [my brother] go out? Go against a land over which you enjoy three – or fourfold numerical superiority.” The exact same advice was given to Bābu-aḫa-iddina, an important Assyrian official, for a young Tukulti-Ninurta I on his accession to the throne of Assyria, very possibly by Ḫattušili or his son Tudhaliya IV. A diplomatic marriage may have been in the offing with Ḫattušili's wife Puduhepa matchmaking Kadašman Enlil's betrothal to one of her daughters, if the assignment of the recipients and sequence of related letters is correct, but alas it was not to come to pass as he died young.Tablets KUB 21:38 to Kudur-Enlil and KUB 26.88 to Kadašman-Enlil or Kadašman-Turgu.

Diplomacy with Egypt

Relations with Egypt were restored and possibly cemented with a diplomatic marriage of a “daughter of Babylon who had been given to Egypt”, who must surely have been Kadašman-Enlil's sister.

More horses than straw

In his correspondence with Kadašman-Enlil, Ḫattušili had observed that “in my brother’s country, the horses are more plentiful than straw,”

However, Babylon was the source of more than equine commodities. It also provided high-in-demand physicians and other skilled artisans, such as sculptors, conjurers, and incantation priests. Kadašman-Enlil had complained about the failure to return loaned doctors. Ḫattušili had concurred: "Detaining a doctor is not right!" But one named Rabâ-ša-Marduk had been enticed to stay, with provision of a “fine house” and a royal marriage. Another had the misfortune to have died, which failed to shame the unabashed Ḫattušili from requesting the services of a sculptor.

Kadashman-Enlil II's reign was fairly short, up to nine years attested on the date formulae of more than forty economic texts. Inscribed bricks of Kadashman-Enlil II were found in a Kassite temple at Larsa.

Inscriptions

Notes

References

References

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7. (2009). "Epic and History in Hittite Anatolia". Wiley-Blackwell.
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9. (1999). "Egypt and the Egyptians". Cambridge University Press.
10. Marian H. Feldman. (2006). "Diplomacy by design: luxury arts and an "international style" in the ancient Near East, 1400–1200 BC". University of Chicago Press.
11. J. A. Brinkman. (1976). "Materials for the Study of Kassite History, Vol. I". Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
12. Excavations in Iraq, 1983-84.” Iraq, vol. 47, 1985, pp. 215–39