For the most part, he appears to have been non-belligerent and content to stay at home at the seat of his kingdom as none of his year names describe the waging of war or the building of monumental edifices.
[4] Samsu-ditāna apparently feared an attack as evidenced in extant tamitu texts, oracle questions addressed to the gods Šamaš and Adad, which name seven “rebel” enemies.
[5] However, he was powerless to prevent it, as the Babylonian state was in decay, with offices becoming hereditary, usurping royal prerogative, and payments accepted in lieu of military service to fund the bloated bureaucracy.
The Chronicle of Early Kings[i 3] tersely reported: “At the time of Samsu-ditāna, the Hittites marched against Akkad.” Muršili conquered just to seize loot and captives, without attempting any lasting occupation, a strategy he had previously employed in his opportunistic putsch against Halpa (ancient Aleppo).
Babylon was left in ruins and was not reoccupied until the advent of the Kassite dynasty, where documents from Tell Muhammad are dated by the number of years after it was resettled for the reign of Šipta'ulzi.