Tabnit I was succeeded by his sister-wife Amoashtart who ruled alone until Eshmunazar II's birth, and then acted as his regent until the time he would have reached majority.

[3] The name is also transliterated as: ʾEšmunʿazor,[4] ʾšmnʿzr,[5] Achmounazar,[6] Ashmounazar,[7] Ashmunazar,[8] Ashmunezer,[9] Echmounazar,[10] Echmounazor,[11] Eschmoun-ʿEzer,[12] Eschmunazar,[13] Eshmnʿzr,[2] Eshmunazor,[14] Esmounazar,[15] Esmunasar,[16] Esmunazar,[17] Ešmunʿazor,[18] Ešmunazar,[19] Ešmunazor.

The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883 – 859 BC) conquered the Lebanon mountain range and its coastal cities, including Sidon.

[21] In 705 BC, King Luli, who reigned over both Tyre and Sidon,[22] joined forces with the Egyptians and Judah in an unsuccessful rebellion against Assyrian rule.

[a][26] Josette Elayi believes that Ittobaal was of royal Sidonian lineage, a family line driven out of power by the reigning Tyrian kings.

including inscribed Tyrian seals,[40] and stamps excavated by the Lebanese archaeologist Maurice Chehab in 1972 from Jal el-Bahr, a neighborhood in the north of Tyre.

[41] Elayi also used Phoenician inscriptions discovered by the French archaeologist Maurice Dunand in Sidon in 1965,[42] and conducted a systematic study of Sidonian coins.

[48] The construction and restoration of temples and the execution of priestly duties served as promotional tools used by Sidonian monarchs to bolster their political power and magnificence, and to depict them as pious recipients of divine favor and protection.

[46] This royal function was manifested by Eshmunazar II and his mother Queen Amoashtart through the construction of new temples and religious buildings for the Phoenician gods Baal, Astarte, and Eshmun in a number of Sidon's neighborhoods and its adjoining territory.

[c][46][49] In recognition of Sidon's naval warfare contributions, the Achaemenids awarded Eshmunazar II the territories of Dor, Joppa, and the Plain of Sharon.

The royal ancestry and lineage of Sidonian kings were documented up to the second- or third-degree ancestor, as evidenced by lines 13 and 14 of Eshmunazar II's sarcophagus inscription.

[53] Eshmunazar II's father, Tabnit I, ruled for a short time and died before the birth of his son; he was succeeded by his sister-wife Amoashtart, who assumed the role of regent during the interregnum.

It was found outside a hollowed-out rocky mound locally known as Magharet Abloun ('The Cavern of Apollo'), a part of a large complex of Achaemenid era necropoli.