Blood Rivers of Babylon...

The “legend of Sardanapale” Words and names vary from language to language and for the purpose of this short historical analysis I will use the word “Sardanapale” for the King of Nineveh back in 612 BC. The legend or what has been the “recorded history” for many years (and is still peddled in many modern history book and some web sites) is that “Sardanapale” the King of Nineveh died when the Babylonian, with the help of the Medes, besieged Nineveh until it fell in their hands.

In relation to modern geography, Nineveh’s site is on the outskirts of Mosul and the site of Babylon is only a few kilometres from Baghdad — both major cities in Modern Iraq. Ancient human history revisited. In 612 BC, “Sardanapale” was claimed to be “morally” corrupt and could not face his enemies so he organised a collective suicide, building a giant pyre, burned his own palace after having assembled all his treasures and his closest people, including his mistresses and eunuchs.

For many years (and for some people to this day) people regarded Sadarnapale as the king of debauchery — a dog, an evil character, a pig of a man, a madman. See some resemblance with someone described to us as an “evil” man.  [This was written before Saddam was hanged.]

HISTORY

This “historical” legend comes to us via a so-called Clesias who wrote a history of Persia, and a chronological list of Persian kings, and a few others who copied his work and each other. Clesias was from Cnidus on the coast of Caria in Asia Minor. For seventeen years (401-384 BC) he was court physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, whom he treated for a wound received in a battle (Cunaxa).

Clesias accused Herodotus (the Greek historian) of being a liar, but Clesias also, if not more, indulged in the manipulation of facts. When writing his history of “Persia”, Clesias accessed the Persian archives, whereas in regard to his history on “India” he had no access to documents but did forge something anyway. In this, hearsay and story telling became “the truth”.

From biblical “teachings” we learn something slightly different: the Babylonian empire was established by Nimrod and enlarged and embellished by his successors. The head of gold in the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar in his dream was recalled by the prophet Daniel. Some believers turn to Book III, Chapter 1. In fact, another text mentions that Nimrod was the founder of Nineveh as well as being the last of the Assyrian empire kings, so who knows?

Other readings try to tell us that the Assyrian empire was undoubtedly one of the most powerful in the world. Two opinions chiefly prevailed in regard to its duration. Some authors, like Clesias, give it a duration of thirteen hundred years, but others make it five hundred and twenty, including Herodotus. Interruptions of power that happened in this vast empire could vindicate the difference of opinion.  

“The history of those early times is so obscure ... [what] convey it down to us so contrary to each other, and the systems of the moderns upon that matter so different, that it is difficult to lay down any opinion about it as certain and incontestable.”
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Some people equate the Assyrian empire with the city of Babylon, its capital. From another more modern text:
“...The area between the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea that is a part of present-day Iran has a turbulent history that goes back for more than 25 centuries.” ... “Because of its location, the area has always been a critical one. Over the years various groups of people have dominated it in turn.” ... “The Medes first appeared on the historical scene around the 9th century BC, when they were mentioned in contemporary Assyrian texts. They were an Indo-European tribe who, like the Persians had entered western Iran at some earlier and as yet undetermined date.” “Unlike the Assyrians who preceded them, the Medes were not a Semitic people [Arab and Jews]. Over several generations the Medes became increasingly powerful.” “By 612 BC their strength had grown to the point where under the leadership of King Cyaxares (625-585 BC.) they launched a successful attack against the Assyrian capital of Nineveh”
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So far the history is converging reasonably well apart from minor differences and some major TIME FRAMES discrepancies.
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“According to the 5th Century BC Greek historian Herodotus, Cyaxares renewed the war with the Assyrians after his father, Phraortes, had been slain in battle. While besieging Nineveh, he was attacked and defeated by a great army of Scythians, who then ruled Media (Medes) until their chiefs were slain by Cyaxares at a banquet. It was probably Cyaxares, not his father, as is maintained by Herodotus, who united the tribes of ancient Iran. He also reorganized the Median army, dividing it into spearmen, bowmen, and cavalry and instituting changes in clothing and weapons.
“Cyaxares once more renewed the war with Assyria; in 614 the Medes took Ashur, and in 612 they occupied and sacked Nineveh. About the same time they seem to have conquered the kingdom of Mannai in what is now northwestern Iran”
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And so on the wars of the Eastern world went on...
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The “real story of Sardanapale”

The “real” story of this king of Nineveh?

Going back in time once more beneath the surface of illusions, legends and make believe... The “legend” of Queen Semiramis... Semiramis was the emblem of the Assyrian empire. She had beauty, strength, wisdom, voluptuousness, and alluring power. She “had built Babylon” with its hanging gardens, erected other cities, conquered Egypt and much of Asia including Ethiopia, warred against the Medes and the Chaldeans but unsuccessful attacked India where she nearly lost her life...” G.J. Whyfe-Melville states in what appears to be his only novel “Sarchedon: A Legend of the Great Queen”

“She was beautiful no doubt, in the nameless beauty that wins, no less than in the lofty beauty that compels. Her form was matchless in symmetry, so that her every gesture, in the saddle or on the throne, was womanly, dignified, and graceful, while each dress she wore, from royal robe and jeweled tiara to steel breast-plate and golden headpiece, seemed that in which she looked her best. With a man’s strength of body, she possessed more than a man’s power of mind and force of will.”
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Legend or reality? Well this last bit was written in a novel... including what follows:
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“... those bright eyes, despite their thick lashes and loving glance, the genius that can command an army and found an empire; in that delicate, exquisitely chiseled face, the lines that tell of tameless pride and unbending resolution; in the full curves of that rosy mouth, in the clean-cut jaw and prominence of the beautifully molded chin, a cold recklessness that could harden on occasion to pitiless cruelty — stern, impracticable, immovable as fate.”
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Semiramis was recorded in the historical writings of Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian living about the same time as Julius Caesar. But I would propose here that all these writers and “historians” were mostly peddling rumours and legends to satisfy demands from their rulers... Legends were thus created, stories were embellished, events were distorted... for a very specific purpose...

SARDANAPALE
In the story of Sardanapale, the hoax was deeper than a straight fudging of the truth...
What did happen? There is no reliable record of “Sardanapale” existence...

According to the Assyrian historic records there was a king of Nineveh called “Assurbanipal” who ruled this town from 659 to 630 and, once it had been “captured” in 649, but Assurbanipal ruled there for another 19 years till he died of natural causes. This king was well known for being “enlightened” as the founder of the library of tablets where this information is coming from... Self promotion?

His brother, who ruled Babylon, headed a revolt by many of Assurbanipal’s enemies. Assurbanipal suppressed this “insurgency” and in retaliation, Assurbanipal took Babylon (648 B.C.) and slaughtered many of the inhabitants. Excavations at Nineveh have uncovered 22,000 clay tablets from Assurbanipal’s library (the main source of knowledge on ancient Mesopotamia). Among the tablets were found “stories” about the Babylonian flood and creation stories, later appearing in the bible...

Assyria succumbed to the Medes and the Persians nearly twenty years after Assurbanipal’s death. And 612 BC thus happened, but not as recorded by the Greeks... When Assurbanipal’s brother had seen that all was lost in BABYLON in 648 BC, he killed his family and himself in a massive fire of his palace...

So I would suggest the Greek historians mixed the two brothers’ stories, the dates and the events of the capture of Babylon and the fall of Nineveh, under good porky telling from the Babylonians who thought it was a good turn to avenge the death of the brother and the fall of Babylon back then... Porkies!!!

One of the reason people tell porkies, especially rulers in these instances, is to spin the glory of war and of victory, and rule! To rule demands obedience no matter what. It calls for dedication to a belief, to a concept. There’s something to do with democracy as well. Democracy also demands that we accept the will of the majority. So there is a war of information to control what the majority believes. Rulers know this very well. Porkies are flying. Despite all the contradiction in the record of Nineveh, the only thing we can be certain of is that there was NO recorded DEBAUCHERY.
Yet it was peddled as a source of its downfall.

MORALITY
Morality was thus entering history in a big way, followed by the fall of the Greek and Roman Empires due to DEBAUCHERY — not because of weaknesses of governments. No, not even if the governments became DEBAUCHED, not because other lunatics like the Goths had better ways to fight including mobility tactics. Beautifully managed Porkies! Blame defeat and civilisation collapses on the masses — for being of loose morality. This is why many modern governments are fighting a small side-issue that exists in the natural world: homosexuality. Same sex couples. They are afraid that this would be the thin wedge of people not being part of the big MORALITY-con — the big con that holds the masses like dogs on chains. Apart from work, collectively or individual, all societies have “spare” time for entertainment but governments want to also control this entertainment as not to become outside its realm of influence, which could let people access the truer reality of living — that is living well without a defined purpose.

The Romans had the Christians to the lions. As well as being a warning to those who would convert it was also entertainment like we go to the movies. It was also a way to blood people like greyhounds are bloodied to follow and catch a rabbit. It becomes part of the bonding of a people.

These days this entertaining anaesthetic is achieved through many varied means, including magazines, especially women’s magazines, and sports for the blokes. The reality of what we do becomes secondary to events in which we are “glorified” spectators rather than participants. Rulers make sure most people do not think outside the square or ask questions — and become enlightened to the reality of pain... and life as it could be. Comfort is well managed.

We have had witches burned at stakes, inquisitions and all, designed to make sure we do not go astray and stop providing an income to church and state, or live communally without “apparent rules” or not paying to a greater self-appointed authority. There are always rules but not necessarily “rulers” who privately accumulate the loot. Even in the simplest of Aboriginal communities there were rules and defined systems of determining right and wrong, and a panel of elders who could adjudicate on the matter.

In these modern times, I would propose, the only time the rulers badly slipped was during the Vietnam War. Information was not controlled and the truth came out. The rulers lost the war. These days the media is embedded and/or working for the rulers in order to dish the anaesthetic with a semblance of reality. It’s not the NUZ. One of the rare mainstream printed media that is not doing so is the New Internationalist — a publication not afraid of tackling the issues of humanity front on. On the television front we have Al Jazeera which is often declared illegal because “they promote other points of view.”
 
In our mainstream media of books and journalist’s articles we have had the Margo Kingston and the John Pilger, but they are demonised by all in power, and even sometimes too often by those who believe what they say but “ to a lesser extent”... The truth tellers are too far and few in between, and the truth often lacks entertainment value. Many Jocks are professional muddlers. People like the illusions of magic. People like to be managed or led in order to avoid having to make difficult decisions.

In order to win war these days, the rulers will orchestrate the “demonisation” of the “enemy” in which every way they can, and they will make sure they can win with the minimum of effort and low loss of life on their side.

Rule numero uno: You do not attack someone who is bigger than you are, even if you have “good” reasons to do so. WE can see the bad obvious threads in Dubya’s rhetoric. The axis of evil! You’re with us or against us, WMDs, etc. But some of his premises are well hidden and are very deceptive. We live in a comfortable society of Porkie Purveyors. Some of our rulers have some “morals”, some have none, and no ethics.

We’re fodder for all their little games in modern looting. And we’re accomplices in this competition in which we need to create more, always more.

And in their ruling, debauchery leads to low productivity... The next step is to define the spectrum of debauchery...