A New Attestation of Ardaya, the General of Babylonia under the Declining Seleucid Rule

Abstract

This paper introduces an unpublished cuneiform Akkadian (Late Babylonian) document on the clay tablet BM 35183 of the British Museum. This document is a part of an astronomical diary, and includes a long historical account. A part of it concerns Ardaya, “the general of Babylonia,” i.e. the commander of the army in Babylonia, and sheds new light on the collapse of Seleucid rule of Babylonia in the late 140s B.C. The new document reports that someone “abandoned” Ardaya, probably at a point between his defeat by the Elamite king Kamniskires I and the appointments of the new “general above the four generals” (governorgeneral of the Upper Satrapies of the Seleucids; however, the office’s jurisdiction seems to have been restricted to Babylonia under the Arsacids) and “the general of Babylonia” at the conquest of Babylonia by the Arsacids. Another part of the document increases our knowledge of the administration of Esagil in the late second century B.C. It mentions Bēllūmur with his title zazakku. A person Bēl-lūmur as the šatammu of Esagil is attested in two documents of the 120s and the 110s B.C. If he is the same person as Bēl-lūmur mentioned in the new document, it shows his past office in the late 140s B.C. and indicates that a person once served as the zazakku could become the šatammu.