Sargon entered Babylon in triumph, and "took the hands of Bel." His title to rule was acknowledged by the god and the priesthood, and an Assyrian was once more the lord of western Asia.
Four years later the old warrior was murdered by a soldier, and on the 12th of Ab, or July, his son Sennacherib was proclaimed king.
Sennacherib was a different man from his father.

Sargon had been an able and energetic general, rough perhaps and uncultured, but vigorous and determined.

His son was weak and boastful, and under him the newly-formed Assyrian empire met with its first check.

It is significant that the Babylonian priests never acknowledged him as the successor of their ancient kings; he revenged himself by razing the city and sanctuary of Bel to the ground.
Merodach-baladan re-entered Babylon immediately after the death of Sargon in B.C.705, but he was soon driven back to his retreat in the Chaldaean marshes, and an Assyrian named Bel-ibni was appointed king in his place.

The next campaign of importance undertaken by Sennacherib was in B.C.701.