Akkadian royal titulary

In the Akkadian-speaking kingdoms of Assyria and Babylonia, distinct styles of Akkadian titulature would develop, retaining titles and elements of earlier kings but applying new royal traditions.

Mesopotamian royal titles vary in their contents, epithets and order depending on the ruler, dynasty and the length of a monarch's reign.

[4] The adoption of the title "God of Akkad" may have been due to Naram-Sin winning a great victory over a large-scale revolt against his rule.

Since the ruler of Ur was deified and thus technically a god, ruling titles like šar ("king") were applied to the principal deities of the cities.

[10] Over the course of the centuries after the fall of the Third Dynasty of Ur, the main kingdoms that would develop in Mesopotamia were Assyria in the north and Babylonia in the south.

Some cases display lineage stretching back much further, Shamash-shuma-ukin (r. 667–648 BC) describes himself as a "descendant of Sargon II", his great-grandfather.

More extremely, Esarhaddon (r. 681–669 BC) calls himself a "descendant of the eternal seed of Bel-bani", a king who would have lived more than a thousand years before him.

[2] Epithets like "chosen by the god Marduk and the goddess Sarpanit" and "favourite of the god Ashur and the goddess Mullissu", both assumed by Esarhaddon, illustrate that he was both Assyrian (Ashur and Mullissu, the main pair of Assyrian deities) and a legitimate ruler over Babylon (Marduk and Sarpanit, the main pair of Babylonian deities).

The founder of the Neo-Babylonian empire, Nabopolassar (r. 625–605 BC) uses some of the titles (prominently "mighty king") in his early inscriptions, possibly due to his family originating as high-ranking officials for the Assyrians (a fact he otherwise was careful to mask).

It is possible given the large amount of time separating the Antiochus Cylinder from the last known previous example (the Cyrus Cylinder) and the rather simply and short nature of the titulary that it mixes traditions and ideas due to the limited amount of sources the scribe would have had to work with, but royal titularies were usually created with great care and consideration.

[17] Similar to how Cyrus the Great stressed that his lineage was royal despite him not being born to the Babylonian throne, Antiochus titulary contains the information that he is the son and heir of Seleucus I Nicator (the first Seleucid king, r. 305–281 BC), who is referred to as "the Macedonian", connecting him with the kingship of Alexander the Great and his line and granting Antiochus further legitimacy.

Neo-Assyrian rulers, including Ashurbanipal, Esarhaddon and Shamash-shuma-ukin, frequently employed the epithet rē’û kēnu (meaning "righteous shepherd") to illustrate royal benevolence.

[50] Epithets often also illustrate the king as selected to rule by the gods, the chosen words typically being migru ("favourite") and/or nibītu ("designate").

Religious epithets can also speak of the king's piety through his actions, typically focusing on construction (often utilizing the word epēšu, "build" or "make").

Esarhaddon again being an example, he refers to himself as maḫīru kīnu ešēru ebūru napāš Nisaba ušaššû ina māti ("he who brought stable prices, successful harvests, (and) an abundance of grain to the land").

[30] Assyrian epithets often emphasize the king as a military leader and relates war to the divine as an issue part of the idea of universal rule.

Epithets like "the god Aššur gave me the power to let cities fall into ruins and to enlarge Assyrian territory" are common.

The titles preserved in Babylon for Nebuchadnezzar II, who reigned 605–562 BC, read as follows:[51]King of Babylon, true shepherd, chosen by the steadfast heart of Marduk, exalted governor, beloved of Nabu, knowing one, wise one, who pays attention to the ways of the great gods, untiring governor, provider of Esagila and EzidaSeleucid titulary: Antiochus I

At the time it was made, Akkadian was no longer a spoken language and the cylinder's contents were likely inspired by earlier royal inscriptions by Assyrian and Babylonian kings.

Head of an ancient Mesopotamian or Iranian ruler, 2300–2000 BC, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York .
Seal of the Neo-Sumerian king Ur-Nammu in the British Museum . The inscription gives Ur-Nammu's titulature as "Ur-Nammu, strong man, king of Ur ".
Relief with Naram-Sin of Akkad 's portrait. Naram-Sin, who reigned between 2254 and 2218 BC, has been described as the first great "innovator" when it comes to Mesopotamian royal titles. Relief today housed at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum .
Text and seal of Shamash-shum-ukim , a Neo-Assyrian king of Babylon , featuring a depiction of the king fighting an oryx antelope . Now housed in the British Museum .
The Antiochus Cylinder of Antiochus I of the Seleucid Empire contains the last known example of a royal titulary written in Akkadian . The cylinder is today housed at the British Museum .
Detail of a stone monument of Ashurbanipal of Assyria as a basket-bearer. Kings only expressed inferiority and humility before the divine, often using epithets to describe themselves as "providers" for the gods. Currently housed in the British Museum .