Family Rebellions and Political Instability in the Assyrian Empire: A Study of Cuneiform Sources and Visual Representation

Abstract

This study examines rebellions and dynastic conflicts within the Assyrian royal house as a recurring source of political vulnerability in the Neo-Assyrian Empire (911–609 BC). It integrates two bodies of evidence: cuneiform sources—especially royal inscriptions, Babylonian chronicles, eponym records, treaties, and administrative correspondence—and visual representations from palaces, stelae, and seals. The analysis combines historical reconstruction, source criticism, discourse analysis, and contextual study of images within their architectural and communicative settings. The comparison shows that succession crises were not isolated incidents but recurrent manifestations of weaknesses in the transfer of royal power, visible in the revolt of Aššur-dān-apli (827/826–820 BC), Sennacherib’s assassination and the ensuing struggle for the throne (681–680 BC), the rebellion of Šamaš-šumu-ukīn (652–648 BC), and the disturbances of the empire’s final decades. The article proposes the concept of “selective visual silence” to explain the limited representation of conflict within the royal family when compared with the extensive depiction of defeated foreign enemies; absence, however, is treated as contextual evidence rather than proof in itself. The study concludes that dynastic warfare, the disruption of elite networks, and the erosion of royal legitimacy contributed substantially to Assyria’s declining capacity to withstand Babylonian and Median pressure, without reducing the empire’s fall to a single internal cause.