609 BC

Ashur-uballit II

Aššur-uballiṭ II and an Egyptian army fail to recapture Harran

The article filed under this date describes a Crusader battle at Harran in 1104 CE — about 1,713 years after the event it is supposed to cover.

Wrong battle, wrong millennium

The corpus article for this entry is about the Crusader defeat at Harran in 1104 CE — Baldwin II, Bohemond, Tancred, Jikirmish and Sokman — none of whom had anything to do with 609 BCE.

The actual participants were the remaining Assyrians under Aššur-uballiṭ II, their Egyptian allies, and Nabopolassar's Babylonians.

The listing's own summary is also off by a year: Babylonian and Median forces captured Harran in 610 BCE. What happened in 609 was a failed attempt to take it back.

Du'uzu to Ululu, outside the walls

In Nabopolassar's seventeenth regnal year, 609/608 BCE, Aššur-uballiṭ II crossed the Euphrates with a large Egyptian army and advanced on Harran. On the approach the force captured a place whose name is lost in a damaged passage and defeated the Babylonian garrison there.

They then encamped against Harran and fought from the month Du'uzu until Ululu without taking the city.

Nabopolassar moved north to support his troops but, the chronicle says, never met the main enemy army in battle; he campaigned instead in the mountain region of Izalla.

What 'disappears from history' means

After the failed counteroffensive, Aššur-uballiṭ II is not attested again. That is the limit of the evidence — no source records his death in 609 or anywhere else.

The chronicle also does not report a Babylonian victory over the main Assyro-Egyptian force in a pitched battle. It reports that the attackers failed and that Nabopolassar did not engage them.

The Assyrian population and culture did not vanish with the last attested king; Egypt kept contesting northern Syria until its defeat at Carchemish in 605 BCE.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The chronicle supplies months but no exact day for the campaign.
A damaged passage prevents secure identification of the place captured before the siege of Harran.
Aššur-uballiṭ's fate is unknown. 'Disappears from history' means he is no longer attested, not that his death in 609 BCE is recorded.