The great revolt

The list of localities where we find texts dated by names of years of Rim-Sin II allows us to reconstruct the extent of his kingdom : Ur, Larsa, Kutalla, Ašdubba, Bad-tibira, Lagaš, Isin and Nippur : it corresponds to the former kingdom of Larsa, with the notable exception of Uruk, where Rim-Anum reigned as we have seen. Samsu-iluna describes him as " Rim-Sin, who had caused Emutbalum to rebel and who had been elevated to the kingship of Larsa ". These are the reasons why historians refer to him as Rim-Sin II, considering that he had taken over from the great Rim-Sin. But " Rim-Sin II " itself is nowhere defined in relation to Larsa : on two occasions , it is in relation to Keš and his goddess Ninmah. It is remarkable that several individuals had new seals made declaring themselves to be " servants of Rim-Sin " : this proves that, in the eyes of many, the situation was irreversible. Yet it was economically very fragile, as various indicators show.

The period was also troubled by a Kassite invasion. This is the first time their name appears in the history of Mesopotamia, and we know that a dynasty originating from this people eventually came to power at the end of the ^1st Babylonian Dynasty shortly after 1600. The Kassites, who had hitherto lived quietly in the Zagros mountains, saw the people of the plains killing each other, and no doubt judged the time ripe for a raid. We can assume that, after plundering heavily, they returned to their mountains laden with booty - - which is why both Samsu-iluna and Rim-Sin II claimed that they had victoriously repulsed them... There is no further mention of them until the reign of Abi-ešuh, son and successor of Samsu-iluna.

For a long time, it was thought that the revolt had only affected the south and east of the Babylonian kingdom, mainly because Samsu-iluna in the Kiš inscription mentions nothing else ; we now understand that this was also the case in the west. What happened in the ancient kingdom of Mari after the destruction of the palace and the city, during the end of Hammu-rabi's reign and the beginning of Samsu-iluna's, is not known. But tablets have been found at Terqa, which deliver the names of three kings of the " kingdom of Hana " : Yapah-Sumu-abum, Iṣi-Sumu-abum and Yadih-abum. They were recognized along the Middle Euphrates from Harradum to above Terqa and in lower Habur, as recent Japanese excavations at Tell Ṭaban, the ancient Ṭabatum, have shown. Samsu-iluna had too much to do in the south and east, and was unable to prevent the rebirth of the kingdom of Mari that his father had annihilated twenty years earlier, in 1760.

It seems that the Babylonian reconquest began with Larsa : Samsu-iluna was again recognized there as early as 20/ii of the year 10, but in Ur only in the month VIII, i.e. six months later. The reconquest of year 10 was commemorated by the name given to year 11 : " Samsu-iluna, the king, on the orders of An and Enlil, destroyed the great walls of Ur and Uruk and defeated the army of Akkad for once. " Note the absence of Larsa in this enumeration : it is Ur that is punished, but also Uruk. Its king Rim-Anum having rallied to Samsu-iluna, it seems that Rim-Sin wanted to extend his hold over Uruk. It was then that some of the inhabitants, including the clergy, who had supported Rim-Anum's new pro-Babylonian policy, fled to northern Babylonia. So it was Samsu-iluna who destroyed the wall of Uruk, but in retaliation against Rim-Sin II, in the same way as at Ur. The difference is that Uruk was not reoccupied in the year 11.

By contrast, no fewer than 15 texts dated to the year 11 of Samsu-iluna have been found in Ur, including 4 in the house of general Abisum excavated in 2017. The year 11 seems to have been peaceful, with Babylonian rule restored. A new revolt broke out at the beginning of 12. Some of the inhabitants chose the path of exile, as the inhabitants of Uruk had done earlier. But others chose to remain : in the month VIII of Samsu-iluna 12, guardians can be seen protecting the temple of Ningal and its treasures. This last-ditch resistance was soon swept away, and the city completely looted and destroyed, without the identity of the attackers being known.

In his Kiš inscription, Samsu-iluna also mentions his victory over an Ešnunna king named Iluni. Iluni remained little-known until two neighboring sites in the Diyala valley, Tell es-Sib and Tell Haddad, the ancient city of Me-Turan, yielded documents dating from his reign. Letters written by Iluni, whose archaeological origin is undetermined, have also recently become available. The number of Iluni's name-years appears to be quite large, but we don't know when his reign began. It seems that his armies joined those of Rim-Sin II to fight Samsu-iluna, if we pay attention to a variant of the name from the year 10 of Samsu-iluna, where the Babylonian king claimed to have won a victory over " the army of Ida-Maraṣ (variant : the army of Ešnunna), from the land of Yamutbalum, Uruk and Isin ". We don't know when Iluni was eliminated, but in the Kiš inscription, Samsu-iluna states : " As for Iluni, the king of Ešnunna, who was rebellious to his orders, he captured him, brought him in a shackle and had him strangled. "

At the end of these two years of turmoil, the kingdom of Samsu-iluna found itself cut off from its southernmost part : the entire region around Larsa, Ur and Uruk escaped his control for good, while he managed to recover the area around Nippur and Isin. We don't know exactly what control he regained over Ešnunna and the Diyala valley, despite his claim to have eliminated Iluni. And to the west, the entire Middle Euphrates valley came under the power of a new dynasty that resurrected the kingdom of Mari. Hammu-rabi's legacy was thus largely lost.