Eshmunazar I (
Phoenician: 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓 ', a
theophoric name
A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that dei ...
meaning '
Eshmun
Eshmun (or Eshmoun, less accurately Esmun or Esmoun; phn, 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍 '; akk, 𒅀𒋢𒈬𒉡 ''Yasumunu'') was a Phoenician god of healing and the tutelary god of Sidon.
History
This god was known at least from the Iron Age period at ...
helps') was a priest of
Astarte
Astarte (; , ) is the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess Ashtart or Athtart ( Northwest Semitic), a deity closely related to Ishtar ( East Semitic), who was worshipped from the Bronze Age through classical antiquity. The name ...
and the
Phoenician King of Sidon (). He was the founder of his namesake dynasty, and a vassal king of the
Achaemenid Empire. Eshmunazar participated in the
Neo-Babylonian
The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and bein ...
campaigns against Egypt under the command of
Nebuchadnezzar II or
Nabonidus. The king is mentioned in the funerary inscriptions engraved on the royal sarcophagi of his son
Tabnit and his grandson
Eshmunazar II. The monarch's name is also attested in the dedicatory temple inscriptions of his other grandson, King
Bodashtart.
Etymology
Eshmunazar is the Latinized form of the Phoenician
theophoric name
A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that dei ...
, meaning "Eshmun helps".
Chronology
The absolute chronology of the
Kings of Sidon from the dynasty of Eshmunazar I has been much discussed in the literature; traditionally placed in the course of the fifth century, inscriptions of this dynasty have been dated back to an earlier period on the basis of
numismatic, historical and archaeological evidence. The most complete work addressing the dates of the reigns of these Sidonian kings is by the French historian
Josette Elayi who shifted away from the use of
biblical chronology
The chronology of the Bible is an elaborate system of lifespans, 'generations', and other means by which the Masoretic Hebrew Bible (the text of the Bible most commonly in use today) measures the passage of events from the creation to around 164 ...
. Elayi used all the available documentation of the time and included inscribed
Tyrian seals and
stamps
Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to:
Official documents and related impressions
* Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail
* Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods
* Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...
excavated by the Lebanese archaeologist
Maurice Chehab in 1972 from Jal el-Bahr, a neighborhood in the north of Tyre, Phoenician inscriptions discovered by the French archaeologist
Maurice Dunand
Maurice Dunand (4 March 1898 – 23 March 1987) was a prominent French archaeologist specializing in the ancient Near East, who served as director of the Mission Archéologique Française in Lebanon. Dunand excavated Byblos from 1924 to 1975, and ...
in Sidon in 1965, and the systematic study of Sidonian coins which were the first coins to bear
minting
Minting is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The village is situated south from the A158 road. The population (including Gautby) at the 2011 census was 286.
Minting Priory was located here.
Mi ...
dates in antiquity based on the years of reign of the Sidonian kings. According to her work Eshmunazar reigned from
c.575 BC to c.550 BC.
Historical context
Sidon, which was a flourishing and independent
Phoenician city-state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...
, came under
Mesopotamian occupation in the ninth century BC. The
Assyrian king
Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC) conquered
the Lebanon mountain range and its coastal cities, including Sidon.
In 705, the Sidonian king
Luli joined forces with the
Egyptians and
Judah in an unsuccessful rebellion against Assyrian rule, but was forced to flee to
Kition
Kition ( Egyptian: ; Phoenician: , , or , ; Ancient Greek: , ; Latin: ) was a city-kingdom on the southern coast of Cyprus (in present-day Larnaca). According to the text on the plaque closest to the excavation pit of the Kathari site (as of ...
with the arrival of the Assyrian army headed by
Sennacherib
Sennacherib ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: or , meaning " Sîn has replaced the brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sargon II in 705BC to his own death in 681BC. The second king of the Sargonid dynas ...
. Sennacherib instated
Ittobaal on the throne of Sidon and reimposed the annual
tribute
A tribute (; from Latin ''tributum'', "contribution") is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conqu ...
. When
Abdi-Milkutti
Abdi-Milkutti (=Abdi-milki) was a King of Sidon (reigned ca. 680-677 BC) who rose up against Assyrian rule. He had formed an alliance with , king of Kundi and Sizu, a prince of the Lebanon, probably during the time of the civil war waged between ...
ascended to Sidon's throne in 680 BC, he also rebelled against the Assyrians. In response, the Assyrian king
Esarhaddon
Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon ( Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of hi ...
captured and beheaded Abdi-Milkutti in 677 BC after a three-year siege; Sidon was stripped of its territory, which was awarded to
Baal I
Baal I was a king of Tyre (680–660 BC). His name is the same as that of the Phoenician deity, Baal. He was tributary to the Assyrians, who had conquered the rest of Phoenicia.
Treaty with Esarhaddon
In c. 675 BC, Baal I entered into a vassa ...
, the king of rival Tyre and loyal
vassal
A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...
to Esarhaddon.
Sidon returned to its former prosperity while Tyre was besieged for 13 years (586–573 BC) by the
Chaldean king
Nebuchadnezzar II. After the
Achaemenid conquest in 529 BC Phoenicia was divided into four vassal kingdoms: Sidon, Tyre,
Byblos
Byblos ( ; gr, Βύβλος), also known as Jbeil or Jubayl ( ar, جُبَيْل, Jubayl, locally ; phn, 𐤂𐤁𐤋, , probably ), is a city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. It is believed to have been first occupied between 8 ...
and
Arwad. Eshmunazar I, a priest of Astarte and the founder of his namesake dynasty became king around the time of the Achaemenid conquest of the
Levant
The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is ...
.
Reign
Little is known about Eshmunazar I's reign. According to Elayi, Eshmunazar was a usurper since, unlike the royal customs of the Phoenician royalty, the name of his father is not mentioned in any of the royal inscriptions. Eshmunazar participated in the
Neo-Babylonian
The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and bein ...
campaigns against Egypt under the command of
Nebuchadnezzar II or
Nabonidus. The king seized Egyptian stone sarcophagi belonging to members of the Egyptian elite; three of these sarcophagi were unearthed in the royal necropolis of Sidon.
Epigraphic mentions
Eshmunazar I is mentioned in the funerary inscriptions engraved on the royal sarcophagi of his son
Tabnit and his grandson
Eshmunazar II. The monarch's name is also attested in the dedicatory temple inscriptions of his other grandson, King
Bodashtart.
Genealogy
Eshmunazar I was the founder of his namesake dynasty; his heir was his son
Tabnit, who fathered Eshmunazar II from his sister
Amoashtart.
See also
*
King of Sidon – List of monarchs of Sidon.
References
Bibliography
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6th-century BC rulers in Asia
Kings of Sidon
Rulers in the Achaemenid Empire
6th-century BC Phoenician people
{{Rulers of the Ancient Near East