Sennacherib

Sennacherib ruled Assyria from 705 to 681 BC, destroyed Babylon, and failed to take Jerusalem. He was the son of Sargon II, who was killed on campaign and whose body was never recovered — an event Sennacherib appears to have regarded as evidence of divine displeasure, since he abandoned his father's new capital and moved to Nineveh. He rebuilt Nineveh on an enormous scale: a wall twelve kilometres round with fifteen gates, streets laid out and widened, and the Palace Without Rival, decorated with kilometres of carved reliefs. His engineering was more remarkable than his conquests. He built a system of canals and an aqueduct at Jerwan — some 280 metres long, of about two million dressed stones with waterproofed joints — to bring water fifty kilometres to the city and its gardens. The gardens themselves were irrigated by screw pumps, and a recent argument holds that these, rather than anything at Babylon, were the hanging gardens the Greeks described. Babylon revolted repeatedly. After his son, installed as king there, was handed to the Elamites and killed, Sennacherib took the city in 689 BC, demolished it, and diverted canals over the site. His campaign in Judah in 701 BC is described from both sides. His own annals say he shut Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and took forty-six walled towns, including Lachish, whose siege is carved in detail. The biblical account says an angel destroyed his army; Sennacherib records tribute and does not claim the city. He was murdered by his own sons in 681 BC.

• Lived: 745 BCE – 681 BCE
• Nationality: Iraqi
• Roles: ruler, military_leader, builder