Agum II

Agum II
King of Babylon
Pinches’s line art of the Agum Kakrime Inscription.
Reign	ca. 1500 BC
Predecessor	? Šipta-Ulzi
Successor	? Burna-Buriyåš I
House	Kassite

Agum II (also known as Agum Kakrime) was possibly a Kassite ruler who may have become the 8th or more likely the 9th king of the third Babylonian dynasty sometime after Babylonia was defeated and sacked by the Hittite king Mursilis I in 1531 BC (short chronology), establishing the Kassite Dynasty which was to last in Babylon until 1155 BC. A later tradition, the Marduk Prophecy, gives 24 years after a statue was taken, before it returned of its own accord to Babylon, suggesting a Kassite occupation beginning around 1507 BC.

The only historical source describes him as son of Urzigurumaš, the 6th king of the dynasty, but the Synchronistic King List has two lacunae where the 8th and 9th kings precede Burna-Buriaš I, who was the 10th The 7th position is occupied by a name containing “Ḫarba.” It has been suggested that the 9th position may show traces of the name “Kakrime”, purported to mean Sword of Mercy or Weapon of Thunder.

Everything that is known about him is through the Agum-Kakrime Inscription, an Akkadian text written in the neo-Assyrian cuneiform script but in very short lines in imitation of an antiquarian style. It is extant in two copies, which describe the King’s recovery of the cultic Statue of Marduk from the land of Ḫana (KUR ḫa-ni-i), pilfered by the Hittites during their sack of Babylon, and its restoration in the newly refurbished temple of Ésagila. In it, Agum portrays himself as the legitimate ruler and caring “shepherd” of both the Kassites and the Akkadians. He asserts his suzerainty over Padan and Alman and also the Guteans, “a foolish people,” groups variously located in regions of the Zagros mountains.

The inscription begins with an introduction, giving the King’s name, genealogy, epithets and so on. He is a descendent of Abi[rattash], “the fierce hero.” It continues with a long narrative of the return of Marduk and his consort Zarpanītum and then lists Agum-Kakrime’s many generous donations to the temple and includes descriptions of the purification of the house itself by a snake charmer and the construction of protective demons for the doorway.