KADASHMAN-ENLIL
II
KBo
I 10 original publication of letter from Hattušili III to
Kadašman-Enlil II
Reign
: 1263 - 1255 BC
Preceded by : Kadašman-Turgu
Succeeded by : Kudur-Enlil
I
Regnal titles of Kadashman-Enlil II : King of Babylon
House
: Kassite
Kadashman-Enlil
II / Kadašman-Enlil II, typically rendered dka-dáš-man-dEN.LÍL
in contemporary inscriptions, meaning “he believes in Enlil”
(1263-1255 BC short chronology) was the 25th king of the Kassite
or 3rd dynasty of Babylon.
He
succeeded Kadašman-Turgu as a child and political power was
exercised at first by an influential vizier, Itti-Marduk-balatu,
“whom the gods have caused to live far too long and [from]
whose mouth unfavourable words never cease”, according to
Hattušili 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 Hattušili III :
A
letter from Hattusili III to Kadasman-Enlil II, 13th century BC,
from Hattusa, Istanbul Archaeological Museum
In the first place the Hittite king, Hattušili 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.” Itti-Marduk-balatu
seems to have adopted the part of viceroy and, on one hand, Hattušili
tried to renew the alliance entered into by the late king and, on
the other, warn him – “If you do not protect my brother’s
progeny in the kingship, I shall become your enemy.” This
drew an angry response from the vizier, who accused Hattušili
of treating them like vassals.
Kadašman-Enlil
had allowed his diplomatic missions with the Hittite court to lapse,
prompting an anxious ?attušili 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”. However, when Kadašman-Enlil
complained to Hattušili that his traders were being killed
in Amurru and Ugarit, he refuted that any such thing could happen
in Hittite territory. 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, ?attušili 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 Babu-a?a-iddina, an important Assyrian
official, for a young Tukulti-Ninurta I on his accession to the
throne of Assyria, very possibly by Hattušili or his son Tudhaliya
IV. A diplomatic marriage may have been in the offing with Hattušili'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.
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, Hattušili had
observed that “in my brother’s country, the horses are
more plentiful than straw,” echoing the earlier sentiment
of a letter from the Amarna corpus that stated, ‘’gold
is like dust in the land of my brother,” rejoined by ‘’there
are more horses than straw in the land of my Kassite brother.”
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. Hattušili
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
Hattušili 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.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadashman-Enlil_II