Part 3/7:
The city’s defense was stretched thin since the main armies, led by the king, were far away on an eastern campaign against the Elamites. This absence left Babylon vulnerable to the surprise assault from the north by the mighty Assyrian armies. The defenders, outnumbered and outflanked, fought valiantly atop the walls, repelling climbers with arrows and flaming oil, and thwarting battering rams from breaching their gates.