Shamasch-schum-ukin , King of Babylon

• Preferred Name: Shamasch-schum-ukin , King of Babylon^[1]
  
• Gender: M
  
• MilitaryService: killed during the Siege of Babylon648 BC
  
• Religion: His coronation was marked by Ashurbanipal returning the religiously important Statue of Marduk, stolen by Sennacherib twenty years prior, to Babylon
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: 16th King of Babylon - in the 9th (Assyrian) DynastyBET MAR 668 BC AND 648 BC with note:
  
• Birth: ABT 692 BC in Nineveh, Assyria, Iraq at LATI: N3 LONG: E4
  
• FSID: GQHY-RQ7
  
• MilitaryService: civil war between brothers Shamasch and AshurbanipalBET 652 BC AND 648 BC with note: The rebellion was not an attempt to claim the Assyrian throne, but rather an attempt at securing the independence of Babylonia
  
• Death: JUN 648 BC in Babylonia at LATI: N2.54 LONG: E4.42
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: King of Sumer and AkkadBET MAY 672 BC AND 648 BC
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  Shamash-shum-ukin (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: Shamash-shum-ukin or Šamaš-šumu-ukīn, meaning "Shamash has established the name"), was king of Babylon as a vassal of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 668 BC to his death in 648. Born into the Assyrian royal family, Shamash-shum-ukin was the son of the Neo-Assyrian king Esarhaddon and the elder brother of Esarhaddon's successor Ashurbanipal.
  
  Despite being the elder son, Shamash-shum-ukin was for unknown reasons bypassed as heir to Assyria. His designation as heir to Babylonia was likely devised by Esarhaddon as a means to counteract future rivalry and jealousy between the brothers. Although Esarhaddon specified that Shamash-shum-ukin was to swear an oath of allegiance to Ashurbanipal, the clear primary heir, Shamash-shum-ukin was also referred to as Ashurbanipal's "equal brother" and Ashurbanipal was to stay out of his affairs. This part of the succession plans were not upheld by Ashurbanipal after Esarhaddon's death; Shamash-shum-ukin only acceded to the Babylonian throne months after Ashubanipal had become king and was throughout his reign a closely monitored vassal, not entrusted with all of Babylonia or substantial military forces and only allowed to make decisions if they were approved and verified by Ashurbanipal.
  
  Shamash-shum-ukin assimilated well into Babylonia, despite being ethnically and culturally Assyrian. His royal inscriptions are far more "quintessentially Babylonian" than those of other Assyrian rulers of southern Mesopotamia, using Babylonian imagery and rhetoric to an unprecedented extent. He participated in the Babylonian New Year's festival and is recorded as partaking in other Babylonian traditions. The Statue of Marduk, the main cult image of Babylon's patron deity Marduk, was returned to Babylon in 668 at Shamash-shum-ukin's coronation, having been stolen from the city by his grandfather Sennacherib twenty years prior.
  
  Though Shamash-shum-ukin maintained peaceful relations with his younger brother for many years, resentment gradually grew between them due to Ashurbanipal's overbearing control. In 652, Shamash-shum-ukin revolted, inspiring the Babylonians to join him and recruiting a coalition of enemies of Assyria, including the Elamites, Chaldeans, Arameans and perhaps the Medes. Though the conflict was initially indecisive, it eventually ended in disaster for Shamash-shum-ukin. Babylon was captured by Ashurbanipal in 648 after a lengthy siege and Shamash-shum-ukin died, though the exact circumstances of his death are unclear. After his defeat and death there is evidence of a large-scale damnatio memoriae campaign, with images of the king being mutilated, erasing his face.
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  Despite the coalition of Assyrian enemies he had assembled, Shamash-shum-ukin's revolt was unsuccessful. The coalition failed to hald Ashurbanipal's advance and Shamash-shum-ukin's forces, allies and lands were gradually lost. The Elamites, his primary ally, were defeated near Der and ceased to play a role in the conflict. By 650 Shamash-shum-ukin's situation looked grim, with Ashubanipal's forces having besieged Sippar, Borsippa, Kutha and Babylon itself. During the siege of Babylon, the city entered into a period of famine. Ashurbanipal's account of the siege claimed that some of the citizens grew so hungry and desperate that they ate their own children. After enduring the siege for two years, Babylon finally fell in 648 and was plundered by the Assyrian army. Ashurbanipal initiated a bloodbath in the city, described in detail in his later inscriptions: "their carved up bodies I fed to dogs, to pigs, to wolves, to eagles, to birds of the heavens, to fishes of the deep".
  
  At the time Babylon fell to Ashurbanipal, a great fire spread within the city. Shamash-shum-ukin's fate is not entirely clear. He is traditionally believed by historians to have committed suicide by setting himself on fire in his palace, but contemporary texts only say that he "met a cruel death" and that the gods "consigned him to a fire and destroyed his life". In addition to suicide through self-immolation or other means, it is possible that Shamash-shum-ukin was executed, died accidentally or was killed in some other way. Most of the accounts of his death state that it involved fire in some capacity, but do not give more elaborate details. The gods are typically identified as playing a part (perhaps burning him away with fire themselves) due to Shamash-shum-ukin's war against Ashurbanipal also being framed by Ashurbanipal as impious If Shamash-shum-ukin was executed, it would be logical for the Assyrian scribes to leave this out of historical records since fratricide (killing a brother) was illegal and even if a soldier (and not Ashurbanipal) had carried it out, it would still constitute a murder of a member of the Assyrian royal family. Had a soldier killed Shamash-shum-ukin, he might very well have been executed himself. After Shamash-shum-ukin's death, Ashubanipal placed one of his officials, Kandalanu, on the Babylonian throne as his vassal.

1. Shuadamqua van Assyrie, b. 650 BC    

1. Title: Morte Se brûle vif dans son palais, alors que les Assyriens prennent la ville. Fontes Morte: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamash-shum-ukin