the pantheon assuming distinct
shapes. The strong tendency towards concentrating in one deity--Marduk--the
attributes of all others was offset by the natural desire to make the
position of Marduk accord with the rank acquired by the secular rulers. As
these emphasized their supremacy by grouping around them a court of loyal
attendants dependent in rank and ready to do their master's bidding, so the
gods of the chief centres and those of the minor local cults formed a group
around Marduk; and the larger the group the greater was the reflected glory
of the chief figure. Hence throughout the subsequent periods of Babylonian
history, and despite a decided progress towards a monotheistic conception
of divine government of the universe, the recognition of a large number of
gods and their consorts by the side of Marduk remained a firmly embedded
doctrine in the Babylonian religion as it did in the Assyrian religion,
with the important variation, however, of transferring the role of the head
of the pantheon from Marduk to Assur. Originally the patron god of the city
of Assur (_q.v._), when this city became the centre of a growing and
independent district, Assur was naturally advanced to the same position in
the north that Marduk occupied in the south. The religious predominance of
the city of Babylon served to maintain for Marduk recognition even on the
part of the Assyrian rulers, who, on the political side likewise, conceded
to Babylonia the form at least of an independent district even when, as
kings of Assyria, they exercised absolute control over it. They appointed
their sons or brothers governors of Babylonia, and in the long array of
titles that the kings gave themselves, a special phrase was always set
aside to indicate their mastery over Babylonia. "To take the hand of
Bel-Marduk" was the ceremony of installation which Assyrian rulers
recognized equally with Babylonians as an essential preliminary to
exercising authority in the Euphrates valley. Marduk and Assur became
rivals only when Babylonia gave the Assyrians trouble; and when in 689 B.C.
Sennacherib, whose patience had been exhausted by the difficulties
encountered in maintaining peace in the south, actually besieged and
destroyed the city of Babylon, he removed the statue of Marduk to Nineveh
as a symbol that the god's rule had come to an end. His grandson
Assur-bani-pal, with a view of re-establishing amicable relations, restored
the statue to the temple E-Saggila