The Concubine's Son

by H A CULLEY

  Abi-Maras walked up and, placing his foot on the corpse’s back, tugged the spear out.

  ‘We may yet need this. Come on, let’s get the rest out of that pit, then take father home.’

  ~#~

  Hammurabi stood beside Bashaa in a two wheeled chariot as the walls of Babylon came into sight. Behind him, a mixture of two-wheeled and four-wheeled chariots stirred up the dust that lay inches deep on the road north from Borsippa. In total, he had a force of forty chariots, about the same number as Babylon could field. The chariots had solid wooden wheels and were drawn by onagers; a pair for the smaller type and four for the larger. The two-wheeled version carried two men – a driver and an archer – and the larger type was manned by an archer and a spearman in addition to the driver.

  The two city watches came next followed by the four thousand infantry. All were armed with a bronze tipped spear and a wooden framed shield. Some were cross braced in wood with a thick leather cover and some had woven wickerwork tied to the frame. All the city guards wore bronze helmets and carried thick leather cloaks to protect them in battle. On the other hand, most of the militia lacked any form of protection.

  Five hundred archers on foot came next whilst the final contingent consisted of boys and youths armed with slingshots. The bows used in the chariots were the more powerful layered type made from several strips of wood laminated together. The foot archers were equipped with the cheaper and less effective type made from a single piece of wood. Nearly everyone also carried a bronze dagger or a knife of some sort.

  Hammurabi was ashamed to find that the palms of his hands were sweaty and clammy. He had never been more nervous in his life. He only hoped that his plan would work, but it did rely on the Babylonian army taking the field. If they stayed behind the city walls he would have no option but to blockade Babylon and hope for an uprising inside the city. If a stalemate dragged on for too long he was certain that his neighbours wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to invade.

  As the army reached the plain in front of the south gates of the city they fanned out into position, with the foot archers and slingers in two loose rows to the front and the spearmen in a mass six rows deep behind them. The left flank was anchored on the east bank of the River Euphrates and the four wheeled chariots secured the right flank. The faster two wheeled chariots were kept in reserve, together with a force of sixty camels controlled by boys with archers perched on the hump. As far as Hammurabi knew, this had never been tried in battle before.

  The banners carried aloft for each division of the infantry were dyed the bright blue of Babylon but that flying from an upright pole attached to Hammurabi’s chariot was dyed with the blood of a sacrificed bullock in memory of the murdered king.

  When everyone was in position Hammurabi rode across the front of the army in his chariot. The soldiers cheered as he passed by and waved their weapons in the air. The Babylonian army waiting inside the city could not see what was happening but they could hear the cheering and wondered what was going on.

  Zuuthusu hadn’t mentioned Hammurabi in his speech to them. He had merely told them that Babylon had been invaded and they must slay the enemy or the city would be sacked and their families killed or sold into slavery.

  Then the great gates swung open and the chariots led the way onto the plain in front of the opposing army. As the infantry swung into position they started to point at the blue banners and ask each other who these enemy were who flew the same colour flags. As soon as they were formed up their archers and slingers started to march across their front. However, before they had reached their positions, a chariot flying a blood red banner came round the side of the enemy formation and moved towards the middle of the ground between the two hosts, just out of range of the archers.

  Hammurabi didn’t trust his adolescent voice to carry to the men facing him so he had asked Bashaa to shout his message.

  ‘People of Babylon. This is Hammurabi, beloved son of King Sin-Muballit, who was cruelly murdered by Zuuthusu. He comes in peace to ask you for justice for his father and to arrest his foul killers.’

  ‘If he comes in peace why does he need an army behind him? It’s a trick, I tell you. He is the one who killed our father.’ Zuuthusu’s voice carried over his army from the rear where he had positioned himself. ‘Chariots! Advance and kill the traitor!’

  For a moment nothing happened, then the chariots containing the palace guard and others loyal to Zuuthusu started to move forward from their place on the left flank towards Hammurabi’s chariot. As they did so the latter’s camel troop started to move as well. Onagers could rarely be encouraged to move at more than a fast trot, especially when pulling a heavy chariot, but the camels could move at a much faster pace.

  When they came within range of the chariots the boys pulled their camels to a halt to give the archers a more stable platform from which to shoot. They didn’t aim at the drivers or the archers but at the much larger onagers. At least one of the onagers in each team was killed or seriously wounded in the first two volleys. The chariots were stranded and so the camel troop returned to its position in line. They had sustained a few casualties in return but shooting accurately from a chariot on the move over bumpy ground was never easy, especially when aiming upwards at riders on a camel.

  ‘Zuuthusu lies!’ Hammurabi’s voice broke the silence. ‘He is the one who killed my father. Are you prepared to die for such a man?’

  As the Babylonian army hesitated and arguments began to break out in its ranks, the gates of the city swung open once more and everyone turned round to watch a strange procession emerge. Two carts emerged pulled by oxen, in which six members of the previous city council sat, each supported by two boys. The oxen lumbered forward and the infantry ranks parted to let them through.

  The councillors looked quite different to when they had been rescued an hour ago. A wash and clean clothes made them look and feel human again and, although they could only move with help, Isiratuu had insisted on being taken to address the army once he heard what was happening.

  The carts stopped in front of the army and Isiratuu was helped to his feet by two of his sons.

  ‘My fellow citizens. What Hammurabi says is true. Zuuthusu foully murdered Sin-Muballit and seized the throne because he knew that the king was about to make Hammurabi his heir. Zuuthusu then threw your city council into a pit in the ground and left us there to die. If it hadn’t been for the courage of my sons and his friends we would still be there. As it is eight of our number died in that pit and were left in there with us to rot.’

  A howl of anger greeted his speech and the army turned towards where Zuuthusu and his senior officers had been standing in their chariots, but they were no longer there. They had quietly left whilst all eyes were on the two ox carts. However, Hammurabi had no time to think about where Zuuthusu might be as he was surrounded by cheering men acclaiming him as their king.

  As the two armies escorted him into Babylon he signalled to the camel troop. ‘Search for Zuuthusu to the north and west and bring him back alive to face justice.’

  A few hours after nightfall the camel troop returned. ‘I’m sorry, lord king,’ their commander reported. ‘We followed their dust trial heading north but we couldn’t catch them before it got dark. They were headed towards Eshnunna.’

  Hammurabi’s elation at his easy victory over his brother and reunion with Ashlatum and his siblings evaporated. Eshnunna was an independent city state, but it lay in the sphere of influence of Elam. The last thing he needed was Zuuthusu conspiring against him with the Elamites.

  Chapter Two– Preparations – 1792 BCE

  Hammurabi sat round a sand table with his closest advisors. He had allowed his beard to grow in the months since he had been crowned, but it was hardly impressive. He had therefore started the fashion of wearing a curly false beard which covered his chin like a hairy spade. Now many of the more sycophantic nobles and merchants had copied him. Others kept their opinions to themselves, but privately thou
ght that this displayed a certain lack of self-confidence on the part of their young king.

  He had unwillingly retained Ibbi-Addad as his chief minister for the time being; no one else knew the inner workings of government like he did, but he didn’t trust the man. He had made Isiratuu deputy to Ibbi-Addad, with the secret intention of making him chief minister just as soon as Isiratuu had learned all he could from him.

  Sin-Bel-Aplim was no longer Governor of Kish. Hammurabi had kept him in Babylon to advise him on relations with the city states that surrounded them. He was already proving his worth by building up a network of agents – mainly merchants – who kept Babylon well informed. He had also retained Abilkisu as his treasurer. One of the king’s primary concerns was money. His father had left little in the way of silver and gold in the vaults and half of what gold he had left had been carted away in Zuuthusu’s chariots when he fled. He grinned to himself. His brother can’t have been very confident of victory if he had had the foresight to place treasury chests in his chariot and those of his most trusted supporters. He wasn’t certain yet of Abilkisu’s loyalty but he was confident about his honesty.

  Bashaa had been the obvious person to make captain of the palace guards but finding the right man to become commander of the army was proving more difficult. Surrounded as he was by potential enemies, Hammurabi needed someone he could not only trust but who had the necessary experience as a soldier to build up a strong army to deter invasion.

  For the moment he had appointed Rihat, the new captain of the city watch, as his military advisor. The high priest of Marduk, Mannui-Qipi, and Isiratuu’s replacement as chief elder, Kinaa, completed the council.

  Sin-Bel-Aplim had drawn a very rough representation of the region surrounding Babylon in the sand. Two furrows in which blue wool had been laid represented the two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, though the courses depicted were much straighter than they were in reality. Blue painted stones represented the cities of Babylon, Borsippa, Kish and Sippar as well as the other major settlements of Dilbata in the south and Kutu midway between Kish and Sippar.

  A bank of sand to the east of the Tigris represented the Zagros Mountains. The kingdom of Elam stretched from the east bank of the Tigris into the mountains. Immediately to the east and south-east of Hammurabi’s territory lay Sumeria ruled by Rim-Sin, King of Larsa, shown on the sand table by red painted stones. These stretched as far south as the shores of the Gulf.

  Eshnunna to the north east of Sippar was an independent kingdom centred on the city of the same name, but it lay on the trade route that came up from Elam and crossed the Tigris before continuing to Mari, Syria and the Mediterranean Sea. It was allied to Elam and, of more concern, was the fact that it harboured Zuuthusu and those who had fled with him.

  Mari, another city state on the Euphrates, was one hundred and fifty miles to the north of Sippar. To the east of Mari, centred on the northern Tigris and Lower Zab Rivers, lay the kingdom of Assyria. Under its king, Shamshi-Adad, Assyria had expanded significantly from its original cities of Nineveh and Assur. Sometimes this expansion was achieved by direct conquest and sometimes through diplomacy, whereby Shamshi-Adad persuaded kings of weak states to become his vassals.

  After Sin-Bel-Aplim had explained the layout of the sand table and what the various coloured stones represented, he started to evaluate the threat posed by each of Babylon’s neighbours.

  ‘I think we can discount Elam as a threat in the immediate future,’ he began, waving a stick in the general direction of the pile of sand representing the Zagros Mountains. ‘Their king, Siwe-Palar-Hupah, seems disinclined to leave his mountain fastness at Ashnan and, in any case, he is more concerned about the nomads that raid his territory from the east and the threat posed by Rim-Sin. His sub-king in Susa, Kidu-zulash, is more of a concern. However, they need us to buy the copper and tin produced in their mines as Babylon has more bronze foundries than any other city in Mesopotamia.’

  He pointed his stick to the north of Babylon. ‘Now, Assyria may well prove to be a concern in the years to come. Under Shamshi-Adad they have seized the city of Terqa.’ He pointed to a green painted stone at the top end of the sand table adjacent to the blue wool that marked the northern course of the River Euphrates. ‘Mari to the south of Terqa is a powerful city state and, so far, it has been able to resist a number of probing attacks by the Assyrians, helped by the number of minor rebellions that keep breaking out within Assyria. This has prevented Shamshi-Adad from embarking on further expansion for the moment. Babylon may be threatened by the Assyrians in due course, but I think we can ignore it for now.’

  He pointed at the red stones with his stick. ‘But Sumeria is a different matter. Rim-Sin has conquered Ur, Kutallu, Uruk and a dozen other city states during the thirty years since he came to throne of Larsa. As you know, he took advantage of the struggle for Babylon’s throne last year in order to capture Isin. Although independent, the king there had always had a good relationship with your father and Isin used to act as a useful buffer state between us and Sumeria.’

  ‘Rim-Sin has sent messages to assure us that he only seeks peace with Babylon, but the fact remains that our border with Sumeria now lies a mere twenty five miles away.’ Sin-Bel-Aplim put his stick away and folded his arms to indicate that he had finished his briefing.

  For several moments no-one said anything; they were too stunned by the seriousness of their position. Then Hammurabi cleared his throat.

  ‘Thank you for a very clear outline of the situation,’ he began a little uncertainly. ‘So you think that Sumeria poses the biggest immediate threat?’

  ‘Not necessarily, lord king. Rim-Sin might be amenable to an alliance against Elam.’

  ‘Is Rim-Sin contemplating war against Elam then?’

  ‘I wouldn’t think so for a moment.’ Seeing the confused look on Hammurabi’s face, Sin-Bel-Aplim adopted a resigned expression as if he was explaining the obvious to a small child. ‘Diplomacy is all about perceived threats, alliances and subterfuge.’

  ‘I see. So I support Rim-Sim in case of an attack by the Elamites against Sumeria, which is unlikely but still a concern. In return, he supports me against Eshnunna in case they invade to put Zuuthusu on the throne of Babylon as their puppet! Not only does this negate Sumeria as a threat for the moment but it strengthens my hand against my brother.’

  Sin-Bel-Aplim positively beamed with pleasure at how quickly the king had grasped the essentials of the situation. Then his face grew serious again.

  ‘There is one further threat that we need to deal with, lord king.’

  ‘Is there?’ Hammurabi peered at the sand table trying to find somewhere they had overlooked. Then he suddenly realised what his minister was getting at.

  ‘You mean the enemy within.’

  ‘Quite. There are still supporters of Zuuthusu in Babylon and there are the sons of King Sin-Muballit by other concubines. At the moment none appear to be a threat to you, but that might change.’

  ‘You’re not suggesting that I kill them all?’

  ‘That’s one solution, but one that is likely to be unpopular and create more problems than it solves. No, I was thinking of binding them to you, perhaps as a bodyguard in due course. If you keep them all together they’ll be too busy watching each other to conspire against you. They might even become genuinely loyal.’

  ‘But some are still young boys at the moment. The eldest is only a year older than I am. A bodyguard of children and youths is likely to make me laughing stock.’

  ‘Then start to train them in a special military school. You could include the sons of merchants as well and develop them as future leaders for the army.’

  Hammurabi’s interest was sparked by this idea and, after a few minutes thought, he nodded in agreement.

  ‘Yes, that has some merit. I want you and Rihat to get that particular ball rolling as soon as you can.’

  ~#~

  That problem solved, the king turned his attention to another thorn i
n his side – the former queen, Nidintu, and his father’s concubines. Often a new king would take over his predecessor’s lovers, but the idea didn’t appeal to Hammurabi in the least. His mother was amongst the youngest and the thought of bedding what he regarded as old women made him shudder. He had moved Ashlatum, Arishaka and his two sisters – Humusi and Ettu – into rooms next to his but he had left the rest where they were for the moment.

  Nidintu was a particular problem. He knew she was stirring up trouble for him and, no doubt, poisoning the minds of his half-brothers, but she was the sister of the King of Elam and Hammurabi wasn’t anxious to antagonise him any further than his alliance with Rim-Sin of Sumeria already had.

  Eventually he decided to discuss the problem with his mother. Ashlatum hadn’t risen to be Sin-Muballit’s favourite concubine through her looks and skill in bed alone, though these had undoubtedly helped a great deal. She had also needed to establish her position within the pecking order amongst the other women. This took cunning, ruthlessness and a certain amount of courage.

  All the concubines, and there were a dozen of them, viewed the others as rivals but the one thing that united them was dislike of the queen. Nidintu surrounded herself with those she regarded as least threatening and then bullied the rest. Anyone who stood up to her, or became too much of a favourite with the king, found themselves suffering from mysterious stomach pains, became seriously ill and, within days, died painfully. Everyone amongst the women knew they had been poisoned, but none were brave enough to say so.

  After Ashlatum was invited to spend the night with the king three nights in a row, Nidintu sent her a dish of expensive sweetmeats. A stupid girl would have been excited by this mark of favour and eaten them, perhaps giving one or two to her particular friends. Ashlatum took them straight to the queen and invited her to share them with her as a token of her gratitude for the gift. Nidintu looked at the dish with horror and threw them out of the window. It was unfortunate that her two favourite dogs were being exercised in the garden at the time. Their painful deaths convinced her not to try to poison Ashlatum again.