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Sennacherib

ANC-SEN is worth about 25 marks out of 100 in recent HSC Ancient History papers. Practise 11 exam-style questions (multiple choice, short answer) with instant marking and a worked solution for every question.

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Topic notes

Sennacherib — the Neo-Assyrian empire, his background and accession, his campaigns against Babylon, the west (Judah and Lachish) and Elam, his building at Nineveh, his murder and how the sources and historians present him, with how to answer the Section III question.

  1. 1What you need to know
  2. 2Historical context
  3. 3Background and accession
  4. 4Campaigns
  5. 5Building at Nineveh
  6. 6Succession and death
  7. 7Evidence and interpretations
  8. 8Building an evaluation
  9. 9Common mistakes
  10. 10Exam tips
  11. 11Links to other topics
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Example questions

Example 1 · 1 mark · multiple choice

Which city did Sennacherib rebuild as his capital, with the palace he called the ‘Palace without Rival’?

  1. ABabylon
  2. BDur-Sharrukin
  3. CNineveh
  4. DKalhu (Nimrud)

Example 2 · 1 mark · multiple choice

What happened to Sennacherib's father, Sargon II, in 705 BC that shaped the start of Sennacherib's reign?

  1. AHe died in battle and his body was never recovered
  2. BHe was murdered in Babylon by Merodach-baladan
  3. CHe gave up the throne to rule only as king of Babylon
  4. DHe died of plague in his new city of Dur-Sharrukin

Example 3 · 15 marks · short answer

Source B — From the Hebrew Bible, 2 Kings 19.35–37, part of the account of Sennacherib's campaign against Judah, in a history of the kings of Israel and Judah compiled over several centuries (adapted from the Hebrew)

‘On that night the messenger of the LORD went out and struck the Assyrian camp: a hundred and eighty-five thousand. At dawn, the camp was full of corpses. Sennacherib king of Assyria set out, returned home and remained in Nineveh. Once, while he bowed down in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, killed him with the sword and fled to the land of Ararat; Esarhaddon his son reigned after him.’

Using Source B and your own knowledge, evaluate the usefulness and reliability of the ancient sources for Sennacherib's reign.

(15 marks)

Answers and worked solutions appear when you practise these questions.

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