Esarhaddon, an Assyrian, refers to an earlier period when gods, angered by insolent mortals, created destructive floods. According to inscriptions recorded during his reign, Esarhaddon besieges Tyre, cutting off food and water.
Pausanias speaks of an Etolian town named Phana (perhaps the Paeanium of Polybius) besieged by the Achaeans, but without success. After an unsuccessful consultation with the Oracle of Delphi, the Achaeans accidentally discover the spring from which the besieged town derives its only supply of water. This being cut off, the town is forced to surrender.
Fergana (Yuan), the capital of China, surrenders after the enemy cuts off the city’s water supplies. “In the city of the king of Yuan there were no wells, and the people had to obtain water from a river outside the city, whereupon experts in hydraulics were sent to divert the course of the river, thus depriving the city of water, besides effecting an opening though which the city might be laid open to access. General Ir-shi wished to attack Yu-chong…
When King Hezekiah of Judah sees that Sennacherib of Assyria is coming in war, he has springs and a brook outside Jerusalem stopped to keep water from the Assyrians. (“So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water” 2 Chronicles 32:1″4).
Returning from the razing of Persepolis, Alexander proceeds to India. After the Indian campaigns, he heads back to Babylon via the Persian Gulf and the Tigris, where he tears down defensive weirs that the Persians had constructed along the river. The Greek historian Arrian describes Alexander’s disdain for the Persians’ attempt to block navigation, which he saw as “unbecoming to men who are victorious in battle.”
A coalition of Egyptian, Median (Persian), and Babylonian forces attacks and destroys Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. Nebuchadnezzar’s father, Nabopolassar, leads the Babylonians. The converging armies divert the Khosr River to create a flood, which allows them to elevate their siege engines on rafts.
Ashurbanipal’s inscriptions also refer to a siege against Tyre, although scholars attribute it to Esarhaddon. In campaigns against both Arabia and Elam in 645 B.C., Ashurbanipal, son of Esarhaddon, dries up wells to deprive Elamite troops. He also guards wells from Arabian fugitives in an earlier Arabian war. On his return from victorious battle against Elam, Ashurbanipal floods the city of Sapibel, and ally of Elam. According to inscriptions, he dams the Ulai River with the bodies of dead Elamite…
Nebuchadnezzar builds immense walls around Babylon, using the Euphrates and canals as defensive moats surrounding the inner castle.
Assyrians poison the wells of their enemies with rye ergot.
According to Herodotus, Cyrus invades Babylon by diverting the Euphrates above the city and marching troops along the dry riverbed. This popular account describes a midnight attack that coincided with a Babylonian feast.