View source for Battle of Susa

{{Short description|647 BCE military engagement between Assyria and Elam}}
{{Infobox military conflict
|conflict=Battle of Susa
|partof=the [[Assyrian conquest of Elam]]
| image= Susa-destruction.jpg
| image_size = 250
|caption=City of [[Hamanu]] in Elam, sacked by the Assyrians. [[Ashurbanipal]]'s brutal campaign against Susa in 647 BC is triumphantly recorded in this relief. Here, flames rise from the city as [[Assyria]]n soldiers topple it with pickaxes and crowbars and carry off the spoils.
|date=647 BC
|place=[[Mesopotamia]], [[Elam]]
|result={{ublist|Assyrian victory}}
*Looting and total destruction of Susa
|combatant1=[[Assyria]]
|combatant2= [[Elam]]
|commander1=King [[Assurbanipal]]
|commander2=King [[Humban-haltash III]]
|strength1= Unknown
|strength2= Unknown
|casualties1=Unknown
|casualties2=Unknown
}}
{{Battles involving Assyria}}
The '''Battle of Susa''' was a battle involving [[ancient Assyrians|Assyrians]] and [[Elamites]]. The Assyrian king [[Ashurbanipal]], had grown tired of the Elamites' attacks on the Mesopotamians, and he decided to destroy [[Susa]] as punishment.<ref>[http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=The_Elamite_Empire#section_2 The Elamite Empire – All Empires<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927183906/http://www.allempires.com/article/index.php?q=The_Elamite_Empire#section_2 |date=September 27, 2007 }}</ref>

In 647 BC, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal leveled the city during a war in which the people of [[Susa]] apparently participated on the other side. A tablet unearthed in 1854 by [[Austen Henry Layard]] in [[Nineveh]] reveals Ashurbanipal as an "avenger", seeking retribution for the humiliations the Elamites had inflicted on the Mesopotamians over the centuries. Ashurbanipal dictates Assyrian retribution after his successful siege of Susa:

{{cquote|Susa, the great holy city, abode of their gods, seat of their mysteries, I conquered. I entered its palaces, I opened their treasuries where silver and gold, goods and wealth were amassed... I destroyed the ziggurat of Susa. I smashed its shining copper horns. I reduced the temples of Elam to naught; their gods and goddesses I scattered to the winds. The tombs of their ancient and recent kings I devastated, I exposed to the sun, and I carried away their bones toward the land of Ashur. I devastated the provinces of Elam and on their lands I sowed salt.|author=Ashurbanipal<ref name="Susa">Persians: Masters of Empire" {{ISBN|0-8094-9104-4}} p. 7-8</ref>}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

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[[Category:7th-century BC conflicts|Susa]]
[[Category:Battles involving Assyria|Susa]]
[[Category:7th century BC in Assyria]]
[[Category:640s BC]]
[[Category:Susa]]
[[Category:Elam]]
[[Category:Ashurbanipal]]


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