ASHURBANIPAL
![](576px-The_Royal_lion_hunt_reliefs_from_the_Assyrian_palace_at_Nineveh,_the_king_is_hunting,_about_645-635_BC,_British_Museum_(12254914313).jpg)
Ashurbanipal,
closeup from the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal
Ashurbanipal |
•
King
of Assyria • King
of Sumer and Akkad • King
of the Lands •
King
of the Four Corners of the World •
King
of the Universe
|
King
of the Neo-Assyrian Empire |
Reign |
669
- 631 BC |
Predecessor |
Esarhaddon |
Successor |
Ashur-etil-ilani |
Born |
685 BC |
Died |
631 BC (aged c. 54) |
Spouse |
Libbali-sharrat |
Issue |
Ashur-etil-ilani,
Sinsharishkun, Ninurta-sharru-usur |
Akkadian |
Aššur-bani-apli,
Aššur-bani-habal |
Dynasty |
Sargonid
dynasty |
Father |
Esarhaddon |
Mother |
Unknown, of
Assyrian origin |
Religion |
Ancient
Mesopotamian religion |
Ashurbanipal,
also spelled Assurbanipal, Asshurbanipal and Asurbanipal (Neo-Assyrian
cuneiform: Aššur-bani-apli or Aššur-bani-habal,
meaning "Ashur has given a son-heir") was the king of
the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Esarhaddon
in 668 BC to his own death in 631 BC. The fourth king of the Sargonid
dynasty, Ashurbanipal is generally remembered as the last great
king of Assyria.
At
the time of Ashurbanipal's reign, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was the
largest empire that the world had ever seen and its capital, Nineveh,
was probably the largest city on the planet. Selected as heir by
his father in 672 BC despite not being the eldest son, Ashurbanipal
ascended to the throne in 669 BC jointly with his elder brother
Shamash-shum-ukin, who became king of Babylon. Much of the early
years of Ashurbanipal's reign was spent fighting rebellions in Egypt,
which had been conquered by his father.
The
greatest campaigns of Ashurbanipal were those directed towards Elam,
an ancient enemy of Assyria, and against Shamash-shum-ukin, who
had expected to be an equal to Ashurbanipal and began to resent
the overbearing control that his younger brother held over him.
Elam was defeated in a series of campaigns in 665 BC and 647–646
BC, after which the cities of Elam were destroyed, its people slaughtered,
and the land was left barren and undefended. Shamash-shum-ukin rebelled
in 652 BC and assembled a coalition of Assyria's enemies to fight
against Ashurbanipal alongside him, but was defeated by Ashurbanipal.
Ashurbanipal
is most famous for the construction of the Library of Ashurbanipal,
the first systematically organized library in the world. The king
himself considered the library, a collection of over 30,000 clay
tablets with texts of several genres, including religious documents,
handbooks, and traditional Mesopotamian stories, as his greatest
achievement. Ashurbanipal's library is the primary reason why texts
such as the Epic of Gilgamesh managed to survive to the present
day.
Background
:
![](512px-Ashurbanipal_as_restorer_of_the_shrine_of_Ea_in_the_Temple_of_Marduk_in_Babylon,_Babylon,_668-655_BCE.jpg)
Ashurbanipal
depicted as a builder of Temples, restorer of the shrine of Ea in
the Temple of Marduk in Babylon, 668 – 655 BC. British Museum
Ashurbanipal was probably King Esarhaddon's fourth eldest son, younger
than the crown prince Sin-nadin-apli and the other two sons Shamash-shum-ukin
and Shamash-metu-uballit. He also had an older sister, Serua-eterat,
and several younger brothers. Sin-nadin-apli died unexpectedly in
674 BC and Esarhaddon, who was keen to avoid a succession crisis
as he himself had only ascended to the throne with great difficulty,
soon started making new succession plans. Esarhaddon entirely bypassed
the third eldest son, Shamash-metu-uballit, possibly because this
prince suffered from poor health.
In
May 672 BC, Ashurbanipal was appointed by Esarhaddon as the heir
to Assyria and Shamash-shum-ukin was appointed as the heir to Babylonia.
The two princes arrived at the capital of Nineveh together and partook
in a celebration with foreign representatives and Assyrian nobles
and soldiers. Promoting one of his sons as the heir to Assyria and
another as the heir to Babylon was a new idea, for the past decades
the Assyrian king had simultaneously been the King of Babylon. Esarhaddon
might have decided to split his titles between his sons since Esarhaddon's
brothers had murdered his father Sennacherib and attempted to usurp
the throne after Esarhaddon had been proclaimed as heir decades
prior. By splitting rulership of the empire, he might have surmised
that such jealousy and rivalry could be avoided.
The
choice to name a younger son as crown prince of Assyria, which was
clearly Esarhaddon's primary title, and an older son as crown prince
of Babylon might be explained by the mothers of the two sons. While
Ashurbanipal's mother was likely Assyrian, Shamash-shum-ukin was
the son of a woman from Babylon (though this is uncertain, Ashurbanipal
and Shamash-shum-ukin may have shared the same mother) which might
have had problematic consequences if Shamash-shum-ukin was to ascend
to the Assyrian throne. Since Ashubanipal was the next oldest son,
he then was the superior candidate to the throne. Esarhaddon might
then have surmised that the Babylonians would be content with someone
of Babylonian heritage as their king and as such set Shamash-shum-ukin
to inherit Babylon and the southern parts of his empire instead.
Treaties drawn up by Esarhaddon are somewhat unclear as to the relationship
he intended his two sons to have. It is clear that Ashurbanipal
was the primary heir to the empire and that Shamash-shum-ukin was
to swear him an oath of allegiance but other parts also specify
that Ashurbanipal was not to interfere in Shamash-shum-ukin's affairs
which indicates a more equal standing.
After
Ashurbanipal was appointed as crown prince, he began preparing himself
to be a king by observing his father, learning etiquette and studying
military tactics. Ashurbanipal also worked as a spymaster, compiling
reports for his father based on information gathered from agents
throughout the Assyrian Empire. He was educated by the general Nabu-shar-usur
and the scribe Nabu-ahi-eriba and developed an interest in literature
and history. The crown prince mastered scribal and religious knowledge
and became proficient in reading both his native Akkadian language
and Sumerian. According to Ashurbanipal's own later accounts (his
annals representing the major historical sources for his reign),
Esarhaddon had favored him due to his intelligence and bravery.
Because
Esarhaddon was constantly ill, much of the administrative duties
of the empire fell upon Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin during
the last few years of their father's reign. When Esarhaddon left
to campaign against Egypt, Ashurbanipal became responsible for the
affairs of the court and upon his father's death in 669 BC, full
power was transferred to Ashurbanipal without any incidents.
Reign
:
Early reign and Egyptian campaigns :
![](640px-Map_of_Assyria.png)
The Neo-Assyrian Empire in 671 BC, after Esarhaddon's (Ashurbanipal's
father and predecessor) successful invasion of Egypt
After Esarhaddon's death in late 669 BC, Ashurbanipal became the
Assyrian king as per his father's succession plans. In the spring
of the next year, Shamash-shum-ukin was inaugurated as the king
of Babylon and returned the statue of Bêl (Bêl, or Marduk,
being the patron deity of Babylon) to the city, stolen by his grandfather
King Sennacherib twenty years prior. Shamash-shum-ukin would rule
at Babylon for sixteen years, apparently mostly peacefully in regards
to his younger brother, but there would be repeated disagreements
on the exact extent of his control. Although Esarhaddon's inscriptions
suggest that Shamash-shum-ukin should have been granted the entirety
of Babylonia to rule, contemporary records only definitely prove
that Shamash-shum-ukin held Babylon itself and its vicinity. The
governors of some Babylonian cities, such as Nippur, Uruk and Ur,
and the rulers in the Sea Land (the marshy lands in southern Sumer,
near the shores of the Persian Gulf), all ignored the existence
of a king in Babylon and saw Ashurbanipal as their monarch.
After
he and his brother had been properly inaugurated as monarchs, Ashurbanipal
turned his attention towards Egypt. Egypt had been conquered by
Esarhaddon in 671 BC, one of Ashurbanipal's father's greatest accomplishments.
Though Esarhaddon had placed loyal governors in charge of the
new Egyptian territories and had captured most of the Egyptian royal
court, including the son and wife of the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh Taharqa
had escaped to Kush in the south.
![](640px-Ashurbanipal_II%27s_army_attacking_Memphis,_Egypt,_645-635_BCE,_from_Nineveh,_Iraq._British_Museum.jpg)
Assyrian siege of an Egyptian fortified city, probably Memphis,
during the Assyrian conquest of Egypt in 667 BC. Sculpted in 645
– 635 BC, under Ashurbanipal. British Museum
![](640px-Exhibition_I_am_Ashurbanipal_king_of_the_world,_king_of_Assyria,_British_Museum_(45973251301).jpg)
Egyptian
prisoners escorted by Assyrian guards out of the Egyptian city.
British Museum
In 669 BC, Taharqa had reappeared from the south and had inspired
Egypt to attempt to free itself from Esarhaddon's control. Esarhaddon
had received word of this rebellion and learnt that even some of
his own governors who he had appointed in Egypt had ceased to pay
tribute to him and joined the rebels. Esarhaddon had marched to
defeat this rebellion but had died before reaching the Egyptian
border. To quell the threat, Ashurbanipal invaded Egypt in c. 667
BC, marching the Assyrian army as far south as Thebes, one of Egypt's
ancient capitals, and sacking numerous revolting cities. Ashurbanipal's
Rassam cylinder records the following :
In
my first campaign I marched against Magan, Meluhha, and Taharqa,
king of Egypt and Ethiopia, whom Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, the
father who begot me, had defeated, and whose land he brought under
his sway. This same Taharqa forgot the might of Ashur, Ishtar and
the other great gods, my lords, and put his trust upon his own power.
He turned against the kings and regents whom my own father had appointed
in Egypt. He entered and took residence in Memphis, the city which
my own father had conquered and incorporated into Assyrian territory.
The
rebellion was stopped and Ashurbanipal appointed as his vassal ruler
in Egypt Necho I, who had been king of the city Sais, and Necho's
son Psamtik I, who had been educated at the Assyrian capital of
Nineveh during Esarhaddon's reign.
Ashurbanipal
left Egypt after his victory. The country was thus seen as vulnerable
and Taharqa's nephew and designated successor Tantamani invaded
Egypt in hopes of restoring his family to the throne. He met the
forces of Necho at Memphis, the Egyptian capital, and though Tantamani
was defeated, Necho also died in the battle. The situation quickly
turned in Tantamani's favor as the Egyptians themselves rose up
alongside him against Psamtik, who escaped into hiding. Hearing
of this, Ashurbanipal again marched his army to Egypt and defeated
Tantamani. In 663 BC Thebes, the stronghold of the Kushites in Egypt,
was sacked for a third time in less than a decade, and Tantamani
abandoned the campaign and escaped back to Kush.
Victorious,
Ashurbanipal made Psamtik the full Pharaoh of Egypt in 665 BC and
granted him Assyrian garrisons throughout Egypt. The next few years
saw Ashurbanipal occupied elsewhere, leading his army in Anatolia
against Tabal, in the north against Urartu and in the south-east
against Elam. With little attention given to Egypt, the kingdom
would slowly slip away from Assyrian control without the need for
a bloody conflict.
First
Elamite campaign :
![](640px-Battle_of_Ulai_(composite).jpg)
Elam was vanquished by the armies of Ashurbanipal at the Battle
of Ulai in 653 BC. The monumental relief shows the Elamite army
been pushed into the river Ulai to the right. Exhibited at the British
Museum.
![](640px-Exhibition_I_am_Ashurbanipal_king_of_the_world,_king_of_Assyria,_British_Museum_(44156996760).jpg)
Tongue
removal and live flaying of Elamite chiefs after the Battle of Ulai,
at the coronation of Ummanigash and his brother Tammaritu, 653 BC.
British Museum
In 665 BC, the Elamite king Urtak launched a surprise attack against
Babylonia, but was successfully driven back into Elam, dying shortly
thereafter. Urtak was succeeded as Elamite king by Teumman, who
was unrelated to the previous monarch and had to stabilize his rule
by killing his political rivals. Three of Urtak's sons, chief rival
claimants to the Elamite throne, escaped to Assyria and were harbored
by Ashurbanipal, despite Teumman demanding them to be returned to
Elam.
Following
his victory over the Elamites, Ashurbanipal had to deal with a series
of revolts within his own borders. Bel-iqisha, chieftain of the
Gambulians (an Aramean tribe) in Babylonia, rebelled after he had
been implicated as supporting the Elamite invasion and had been
forced to relinquish some of his authority. Little is known of this
revolt, but there is a letter preserved in which Ashurbanipal orders
the governor of Uruk, Nabu-ushabshi, to attack Bel-iqisha. Nabu-ushabshi
apparently claimed that Bel-iqisha was solely to blame for the Elamite
invasion. Bel-iqisha's revolt does not appear to have caused much
damage and he was killed shortly after revolting by a boar. Shortly
thereafter in 663 BC, Bel-iqisha's son Dunanu surrendered to Ashurbanipal.
Shamash-shum-ukin
appears to have tired of Ashurbanipal's rule by 653 BC; inscriptions
from Babylon suggest that Ashurbanipal had been managing the affairs
of Shamash-shum-ukin and had been essentially dictating his decrees.
Shamash-shum-ukin sent diplomats to Teumann in Elam, hoping to use
his army to destabilize Ashurbanipal's rule. Ashurbanipal appears
to have been unaware of Shamash-shum-ukin's involvement, though
he successfully defeated the Elamites in 653 BC and ravaged their
cities and country. The final battle in this campaign, the Battle
of Ulai, took place near the Elamite capital of Susa and was a decisive
Assyrian victory, partly due to defections in the Elamite army.
King Teumann was killed in the battle, as was one of his vassals
called Shutruk-Nahhunte, the king of the city Hidalu. In the aftermath
of his victory, Ashurbanipal installed two of Urtak's sons as rulers,
proclaiming Ummanigash as king at Madaktu and Susa and Tammaritu
I as king at Hidalu. In his inscriptions, Ashurbanipal describes
his victory as follows :
Like
the onset of a terrible hurricane I overwhelmed Elam in its entirety.
I cut off the head of Teumann, their king, – the haughty one,
who plotted evil. Countless of his warriors I slew. Alive, with
my hands, I seized his fighters. With their corpses I filled the
plain about Susa as with baltu and ashagu. Their blood I let run
down the Ulai; its water I dyed red like wool.
Dunanu,
who had joined the Elamites in the war, was captured alongside his
family and executed and the Gambulians were attacked by Ashurbanipal's
army and brutally punished, with their capital of Shapibel being
flooded and many of its inhabitants slaughtered. In Dananu's stead,
Ashurbanipal appointed a noble called Rimutu as the new Gambulian
chieftain after he had agreed to pay a considerable sum in tribute
to the Assyrian king. Ashurbanipal described his vengeance against
Dananu with these words :
On
my return march I set my face against Dunanu, (king) of Gambulu,
who had put his faith in Elam. Shapibel, the stronghold of Gambulu,
I captured. I entered that city; its inhabitants I slaughtered like
lambs. Dunanu and Sam'gunu, who had made difficult for me the exercising
of sovereignty, – in shackles, fetters of iron, bonds of iron,
I bound them hand and foot. The rest of the sons of Bel-iqisha,
his family, the seed of his father's house, all there were, Nabû-nâ'id,
Bêl-êtir, sons of Nabû-shum-êresh, the proconsul,
and the bones of the father who begot them, together with Urbi and
Tebê, peoples of Gambulu, cattle, sheep, asses, horses, mules,
I carried off from Gambulu to Assyria. Shapibel, his stronghold,
I devastated, I destroyed, I laid waste to by flooding it.
Dealings
with Lydia and the Cimmerians :
![](640px-Palace_relief_from_Nineveh_-_Pergamonmuseum_-_Berlin_-_Germany_2017.jpg)
Assyrian
spearmen depicted in a palace relief from Nineveh, 7th century BC.
Exhibited at the Pergamon Museum
The Cimmerians, a nomadic Indo-European people living in the southern
Caucasus north of Assyria, had invaded Assyria during the reign
of Ashurbanipal's father. After Esarhaddon defeated them, the Cimmerians
had turned to attack the Lydian kingdom in western Anatolia, ruled
by the king Gyges. After allegedly receiving advice from Assyria's
god, Assur, in a dream, Gyges sent his diplomats to ask Ashurbanipal
for assistance. The Assyrians did not even know that Lydia existed
and after the two states successfully established communication
with the help of interpreters, the Cimmerian invasion of Lydia was
defeated in c. 665 BC, with two Cimmerian chiefs being imprisoned
in Nineveh and large amounts of spoils being secured by Ashurbanipal's
forces. The extent to which the Assyrian army was involved in the
Lydian campaign is unknown, but it appears that Gyges was disappointed
with the help as he just twelve years later broke his alliance with
Ashurbanipal, allying with Psamtik I of Egypt instead. After this,
Ashurbanipal cursed Gyges and when Lydia was overrun by its enemies
c. 652–650 BC there was much rejoicing in Assyria.
While
the Assyrian forces were on campaign in Elam, an alliance of Persians,
Cimmerians and Medes marched on the capital Nineveh and managed
to reach the city's walls. To counteract this threat, Ashurbanipal
called on his Scythian allies and successfully defeated the enemy
army. The Median king, Phraortes, is generally held to have been
killed in the fighting. This attack is poorly documented and it
is possible that Phraortes wasn't present at all and his unfortunate
death instead belongs to a Median campaign during the reign of one
of Ashurbanipal's successors.
After
his death c. 652 BC, Gyges was succeeded by his son Ardys. Because
the Scythians had driven the Cimmerians from their homes, the Cimmerians
invaded Lydia again and successfully captured most of the kingdom.
As his father had before him, Ardys also sent for aid from Ashurbanipal,
stating that "You cursed my father and bad luck befell him;
but bless me, your humble servant, and I will carry your yoke".
It is unknown if any Assyrian aid arrived, but Lydia was successfully
freed from the Cimmerians. They would not be driven out of Lydia
completely until the reign of Ardys's grandson Alyattes.
Revolt
of Shamash-shum-ukin in Babylon :
![](640px-Ashurbanipal_inspects_booty_and_prisoners_from_Babylon,_645-640_BCE.jpg)
Ashurbanipal
inspects booty and prisoners from Babylon after a two years long
siege, 648 BC. British Museum
By the 650s BC, the hostility between Shamash-shum-ukin and Ashurbanipal
would have been apparent to their vassals. A letter from Zakir,
a courtier at Shamash-shum-ukin's court, to Ashurbanipal described
how visitors from the Sea Land had publicly criticized Ashurbanipal
in front of Shamash-shum-ukin, using the phrase "this is not
the word of a king!". Zakir reported that though Shamash-shum-ukin
was angered, he and his governor of Babylon, Ubaru, chose to not
take action against the visitors. Perhaps the most important factors
behind Shamash-shum-ukin's revolt was his dissatisfaction with his
position relative to that of his brother, the constant resentment
of Assyria in general by the Babylonians and the constant willingness
of the ruler of Elam to join anyone who waged war against Assyria.
Shamash-shum-ukin
rebelled against Ashurbanipal in 652 BC. This civil war would last
for three years. Inscription evidence suggests that Shamash-shum-ukin
addressed the citizens of Babylon to join him in his revolt. In
Ashurbanipal's inscriptions, Shamash-shum-ukin is quoted to have
said "Ashurbanipal will cover with shame the name of the Babylonians",
which Ashurbanipal refers to as "wind" and "lies".
Soon after Shamash-shum-ukin began his revolt, the rest of southern
Mesopotamia rose up against Ashurbanipal alongside him. The beginning
of Ashurbanipal's inscriptions regarding Shamash-shum-ukin read
as follows :
In
these days Shamash-shum-ukin, the faithless brother of mine, whom
I had treated well and had set up as king of Babylon, – every
imaginable thing that kingship calls for, I made and gave him; soldiers,
horses, chariots, I equipped and put into his hands; cities, fields,
plantations, together with the people who live therein, I gave him
in larger numbers than my father had ordered. But he forgot this
kindness I had shown him and planned evil. Outwardly, with his lips,
he was speaking fair words while inwardly his heart was designing
murder. The Babylonians, who had been loyal to Assyria and faithful
vassals of mine, he deceived, speaking lies to them.
According
to the inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Shamash-shum-ukin was very
successful in finding allies against the Assyrians. Ashurbanipal
identifies three groups that aided his brother, first and foremost
there were the Chaldeans, Arameans and the other peoples of Babylonia,
then there were the Elamites and lastly the kings of Gutium, Amurru
and Meluhha.
This last group of kings might refer to the Medes (as Gutium, Amurru
and Meluhha no longer existed at this point) but this is uncertain.
Meluhha might have referred to Egypt, which did not aid Shamash-shum-ukin
in the war. Shamash-shum-ukin's ambassadors to the Elamites had
offered gifts (called "bribes" by Ashurbanipal) and their
king, Ummanigash, sent an army under the command of Undashe, the
son of King Teumman, to aid in the conflict.
Despite
the seemingly strong alliance of Assyrian enemies, Shamash-shum-ukin's
situation looked grim by 650 BC, with Ashubanipal's forces having
besieged Sippar, Borsippa, Kutha and Babylon itself. Having endured
starvation and disease over the course of the siege, Babylon finally
fell in 648 BC and was plundered by Ashurbanipal. Shamash-shum-ukin
is traditionally believed to have committed suicide by setting himself
and his family on fire in his palace, but contemporary texts only
say that he "met a cruel death" and that the gods "consigned
him to a fire and destroyed his life". In addition to suicide
though self-immolation or other means, it is possible that he was
executed, died accidentally or was killed in some other way. Ashurbanipal
describes his victory and his vengeance against those that had supported
Shamash-shum-ukin in his inscriptions as follows :
![](640px-Babylonian_prisoners_under_Assyrian_guard,_reign_of_Ashurbanipal_668-630_BCE,_Nineveh,_ME_124788.jpg)
Babylonian prisoners under Assyrian guard, reign of Ashurbanipal
668 – 630 BC, Nineveh. Exhibited at the British Museum
Assur, Sin, Shamash, Adad, Bêl, Nabû, Ishtar of Nineveh,
the queen of Kidmuri, Ishtar of Arbela, Urta, Nergal and Nusku,
who march before me, slaying my foes, cast Shamash-shum-ukin, my
hostile brother, who became my enemy, into the burning flames of
a conflagration and destroyed him. As for the people who hatched
these plans for Shamash-shum-ukin, my hostile brother, and did the
evil, but who were afraid of death and valued their lives highly,
they did not cast themselves into the fire with Shamash-shum-ukin,
their lord. Those of them who fled before the murderous iron dagger,
famine, want and flaming fire, and found a refuge, – the net
of the great gods, my lords, which cannot be eluded, brought them
low. Not one escaped; not one sinner slipped through my hands, of
those whom the gods had counted for my hands.
The chariots, coaches, palanquins, his concubines, the goods of
his palace, they brought before me. As for those men and their vulgar
mouths, who uttered vulgarity against Assur, my god, and plotted
evil against me, the prince who fears him, – I slit their
tongues and brought them low. The rest of the people, alive, by
the colossi, between which they had cut down Sennacherib, the father
of the father who begot me, – at that time, I cut down those
people there, as an offering to his shade. Their dismembered bodies
I fed to the dogs, swine, wolves and eagles, to the birds of heaven
and the fish of the deep.
After
Shamash-shum-ukin's defeat, Ashurbanipal appointed a new governor
of the city, Kandalanu, possibly one of his younger brothers. Kandalanu's
realm was the same as Shamash-shum-ukin's with the exception of
the city of Nippur, which Ashurbanipal converted into a powerful
Assyrian fortress. The authority of Kandalanu is likely to have
been very limited and few records survive of his reign at Babylon.
If he wasn't one of Ashurbanipal's brothers, he was likely a Babylonian
noble who had allied with Ashurbanipal in the civil war and had
been rewarded with the rank of king. Kandalanu probably lacked any
true political and military power, which was instead firmly in the
hands of the Assyrians.
Second
Elamite campaign :
![](640px-2018_Ashurbanipal_-_Siege_of_Hamanu.jpg)
The
siege of the city of Hamanu in Elam, 645 – 635 BC. British
Museum
The Elamites under Ummanigash had joined Shamash-shum-ukin in the
war, partly to restore control over the parts of Elam that Ashurbanipal
had incorporated into the Assyrian Empire. Ummanigash's army was
defeated near the city Der and as a result, he was deposed in Elam
by Tammaritu II, who then ruled as king. Ummanigash fled to the
Assyrian court and was granted asylum by Ashurbanipal. Tammaritu
II's rule was brief and despite success in some battles alongside
the Chaldean warlord Nabu-bel-shumati, he was deposed in another
revolt in 649 BC. The new king, Indabibi, had an extremely brief
reign and was murdered after Ashurbanipal threatened to invade Elam
again because of Elam's role in supporting his enemies.
In
Indibibi's stead, Humban-haltash III became king in Elam. Nabu-bel-shumati
continued fighting against Ashurbanipal from outposts within Elam
and though Humban-haltash was in favor of giving up the Chaldean
rebel, Nabu-bel-shumati had too many supporters in Elam in order
for this to go through. As such, Ashurbanipal invaded Elam again
in 647 BC and after his short-lived resistance failed, Humban-haltash
abandoned his seat at Madaktu and fled into the mountains. Humban-haltash
was briefly replaced as king by Tammaritu II, who regained his throne.
After the Assyrians had plundered the region of Khuzistan the Assyrian
army returned home and Humban-haltash returned and retook the throne.
![](616px-thumbnail.jpg)
Ashurbanipal's campaign against Elam is triumphantly recorded in
this relief showing the destruction of Hamanu. Here, flames rise
from the city as Assyrian soldiers topple it with pickaxes and crowbars
and carry off the spoils. 645–635 BC. British Museum.
Ashurbanipal returned to Elam in 646 BC and Humban-haltash again
abandoned Madaktu, fleeing first to the city Dur-Untash and then
into the mountains in eastern Elam. Ashurbanipal's forces pursued
Humban-haltash, plundering and razing cities on their way. All major
political centers in Elam were crushed and nearby chiefdoms and
petty kingdoms who had previously paid tribute to the Elamite king
began paying tribute to Ashurbanipal instead. Among these kingdoms
was Parsua, possibly a predecessor of the empire that would be founded
by the Achaemenids a century later. Parsua's king, Cyrus (possibly
the same person as Cyrus I, the grandfather of Cyrus the Great),
had originally sided with the Elamites at the beginning of the campaign,
and had thus been forced to supply his son Arukku as a hostage.
Countries which had never previously had contact with the Assyrians,
such as a kingdom ruled by a king called Hudimiri which "extended
beyond Elam", also began paying tribute to the Assyrians for
the first time.
On
their way back from their campaign, the Assyrian forces brutally
plundered Susa. In Ashurbanipal's triumphant inscriptions detailing
the sack it is described in great detail, recounting how the Assyrians
desecrated the royal tombs, looted and razed temples, stole the
statues of the Elamite gods and sowed salt in the ground. The detail
and length of these inscriptions suggest that the event was meant
to shock the world through its proclamation of the defeat and eradication
of the Elamites as a distinct cultural entity. Translated into English,
a part of Ashurbanipal's inscription of the sack reads :
"Susa, the great holy city, abode of their gods, seat of their
mysteries, I conquered. I entered its palaces, I opened their treasuries
where silver and gold, goods and wealth were amassed... I destroyed
the ziggurat of Susa. I smashed its shining copper horns. I reduced
the temples of Elam to naught; their gods and goddesses I scattered
to the winds. The tombs of their ancient and recent kings I devastated,
I exposed to the sun, and I carried away their bones toward the
land of Ashur. I devastated the provinces of Elam and on their lands
I sowed salt."
Despite
the thorough and brutal campaign, the Elamites endured as a political
entity for some time. Humban-haltash returned to rule at Madaktu
and (belatedly) sent Nabu-bel-shumati to Ashurbanipal, though the
Chaldean committed suicide on his way to Nineveh. After Humban-haltash
was deposed, captured and sent to the Assyrians in a revolt shortly
thereafter, Assyrian records cease to speak of Elam. Ashurbanipal
appointed no new governors of the Elamite cities after his campaign
and made no attempts to integrate the country as an Assyrian province,
instead leaving it open and undefended. The fields were left empty
and barren. In the decades following the campaign, the Persians
would migrate into the region and rebuild the devastated cities.
Arabian
campaigns :
![](640px-Assyrians_pursue_Arabs_on_camelback._Ashurbanipal,_North_Palace_of_Nineveh._660-650_BCE.jpg)
Assyrians
pursue Arabs on camelback. Ashurbanipal, North Palace of Nineveh.
660 – 650 BC. British Museum
Ashurbanipal's war against tribes in the Arabian Peninsula has received
relatively little attention from modern historians but is the campaign
with the longest account in his own writings. The chronology of
these campaigns is uncertain and based on the series of annals Ashurbanipal
wrote, although the narrative appears to have been slightly altered
over the course of a few years. Ashurbanipal's earliest account
of his campaign against the Arabs was created in 649 BC and describes
how the king Yauta, son of Hazael, king of the Qedarites (who had
been a tributary of Ashurbanipal's father) revolted against Ashurbanipal,
together with another Arabic king called Ammuladdin, and plundered
the western lands of the Assyrian Empire. According to Ashurbanipal's
account, his army, together with the army King Kamas-halta of Moab,
defeated the rebel forces. Ammuladdin was captured and sent in chains
to Assyria and Yauta escaped. In the place of Yauta a loyal Arabian
warlord called Abiyate was granted kingship of the Qedarites. This
early narrative of the campaign is different from most of Ashurbanipal's
other military accounts in that the phrase "in my nth campaign"
is missing, the king is not described as defeating the enemy in
person and the enemy king survives and flees rather than being captured
and executed.
The
second version of the narrative, composed in 648 BC, also includes
that Ashurbanipal defeated Adiya, a queen of the Arabs, and that
Yauta fled to another chieftain, Natnu of the Nabayyate, who refused
him and remained loyal to Ashurbanipal. Even later versions
of the narrative also include mentions of how Yauta also had revolted
against Esarhaddon, years prior. These later accounts also explicitly
connect Yauta's rebellion to the revolt of Shamash-shum-ukin, placing
it at the same time and suggesting that the western raids by the
Arabs were prompted by the instability caused by the Assyrian civil
war.
![](640px-Combat_between_Assyrians_and_Arabs_during_the_reign_of_Ashurbanipal_660-650_BCE_British_Museum_BM_124925.jpg)
Combat between Assyrians and Arabs during the reign of
Ashurbanipal 660 – 650 BC. British Museum
Sometime after the conclusion of this first brief conflict, Ashurbanipal
conducted a second campaign against the Arabs. Ashurbanipal's account
of this conflict largely concerns the movements of his army through
Syria in search of Uiate (conflated with Yauta but possibly a different
person) and his Arabian soldiers. According to the account, the
Assyrian army marched from Syria to Damascus and then on to Hulhuliti,
after which they captured Abiyate and defeated Uššo and
Akko. There is no mention of the reason behind Abiyate's rebellion.
Furthermore, the Nabayyate, who had aided Ashurbanipal in the previous
campaign, are mentioned as being defeated in his second war against
the Arabs, without any further information on what had led to the
change in their relationship between the two campaigns.
The
latest version of the Arabian narrative specifies the two campaigns
as composing Ashurbanipal's ninth campaign and further expands upon
its contents. In this version, it is specified that the Abiyate
who replaced Yauta as king of the Qedarites and the king Ammuladdin
had been the chief Arabian generals joining Shamash-shum-ukin's
war and that spoils brought back to Assyria from the campaigns caused
inflation in Ashurbanipal's empire and famine in Arabia. It is also
made clear that Ashurbanipal himself, not just his army, had been
personally victorious in the conflict. This later version also states
that Uiate was captured and paraded in Nineveh together with prisoners
captured during the wars in Elam.
Succession
and chronology :
![](611px-Delacroix_-_La_Mort_de_Sardanapale_(1827).jpg)
The
Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix (1827), depicting
an erroneous and romanticized version of Ashurbanipal known as Sardanapalus,
depicted as carelessly watching invaders plunder his city and slaughter
his harem, based on the work of ancient Greek writers.
The end of Ashurbanipal's reign and the beginning of the reign of
his successor, Ashur-etil-ilani, is shrouded in mystery on account
of a lack of available sources. The annals kept by Ashurbanipal,
the main sources to his reign, end in 636 BC, possibly because the
king was ill. Inscriptions by Ashur-etil-ilani suggest that his
father died a natural death, but do not shed light on when exactly
this happened. Before archaeological excavations and discoveries
in the 1800s, Ashurbanipal was known by the name Sardanapalus (Romanized:
Sardanápalos), based on the writings of the ancient Greeks,
and had been misidentified as the last king of Assyria. One popular
story of his end was that Sardanapalus had burnt himself, his concubines
and servants alive, along with his entire palace at the Fall of
Nineveh in 612 BC (almost twenty years after the actual Ashurbanipal
died).
Although
Ashurbanipal's final year is often repeated as 627 BC, this follows
an inscription at Harran made by the mother of the Neo-Babylonian
king Nabonidus nearly a century later. The final contemporary evidence
for Ashurbanipal being alive and reigning as king is a contract
from the city of Nippur made in 631 BC. To get the attested lengths
of the reigns of his successors to match, it is generally agreed
that Ashurbanipal either died, abdicated or was deposed in 631 BC.
631 BC is typically used as the year of his death. If Ashurbanipal's
reign had ended in 627 BC, the inscriptions of his successors Ashur-etil-ilani
and Sinsharishkun in Babylon would have been impossible, as the
city was seized by Nabopolassar in 626 BC, and never again fell
into Assyrian hands.
One
possible way to justify a 42-year reign of Ashurbanipal is by assuming
there was a coregency between him and Ashur-etil-ilani, but there
had never been a coregency in prior Assyrian history and the idea
is explicitly contradicted by Ashur-etil-ilani's own inscriptions
which describe him as ascending to the throne after the end of his
father's reign. It is possible that the 42-year error came about
in later Mesopotamian historiography on account of the knowledge
that Ashurbanipal ruled concurrently with Babylonian rulers Shamash-shum-ukin
and Kandalanu, whose reigns together amount to 42 years, but Kandalanu
survived Ashurbanipal by three years, dying in 627 BC.
![](640px-Gardens_of_Ashurbanipal.jpg)
The
luxurious palace and gardens of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, with original
color reconstitution. Irrigation canals radiate from an aqueduct.
The king appears under the porch. British Museum.
Another once popular idea, for instance defended by Polish historian
Stefan Zawadski in his book The Fall of Assyria (1988), is that
Ashubanipal and Kandalanu were the same person, "Kandalanu"
simply being the name the king used in Babylon. This is considered
unlikely for several reasons. No previous Assyrian king is known
to have used an alternate name in Babylon. Inscriptions from Babylonia
also show a difference in the lengths of the reigns of Ashurbanipal
and Kandalanu; Ashurbanipal's reign is counted from his first full
year as king (668 BC) and Kandalanu's is counted from his first
full year as king (647 BC). All Assyrian kings who personally ruled
Babylon used the title "King of Babylon" in their own
inscriptions, but it is not used in Ashurbanipal's inscriptions,
even those made after 648 BC. Most importantly, Babylonian documents
treat Ashurbanipal and Kandalanu as two different people. No contemporary
Babylonian sources describe Ashurbanipal as King of Babylon.
Ashurbanipal
was succeeded as king by his son, Ashur-etil-ilani, and he seems
to have been inspired by the succession plans of his father as another
of his sons, Sinsharishkun, was granted the fortress-city of Nippur
and was designated to be the successor of Kandalanu at Babylon once
Kandalanu died.
Family
and children :
![](640px-Assyrian_Relief_of_the_Banquet_of_Ashurbanipal_From_Nineveh_Gypsum_N_Palace_British_Museum_01.jpg)
Ashurbanipal
and his queen Libbali-sharrat depicted dining (center-right). The
severed head of Elamite King Teumman is hanging in a tree to the
left. British Museum
The name of Ashurbanipal's queen was Libbali-sharrat (Akkadian:
Libbali-šarrat). Not much is known of Libbali-sharrat, but
she was already married to Ashurbanipal when he became king and
might have married him as early as 673 BC, at around the time of
the death of Esarhaddon's queen Esharra-hammat.
Three
of Ashurbanipal's children are known by name :
•
Ashur-etil-ilani
(Akkadian: Aššur-etil-ilani) – son who ruled as
king of Assyria 631 – 627 BC.
• Sinsharishkun
(Akkadian: Sîn-šar-iškun) – son who ruled
as king of Assyria 627 – 612 BC.
• Ninurta-sharru-usur
(Akkadian: Ninurta-šarru-usur) – son born of a lower
wife (i.e., not Libbali-sharrat), seems to have played no political
role.
The inscriptions of Sinsharishkun which mention him being selected
for the kingship "from among his equals" (i.e., brothers)
suggests that Ashurbanipal had more sons in addition to Ashur-etil-ilani,
Sinsharishkun and Ninurta-sharru-usur.
It
is possible that Ashurbanipal's lineage returned to power in Mesopotamia
after the fall of Assyria in 612–609 BC. The mother of the
last of the Neo-Babylonian kings, Nabonidus (r. 556–539 BC),
was from Harran and had Assyrian ancestry. This woman, Addagoppe,
was according to her own inscriptions born in the 20th year of Ashurbanipal's
reign (648 BC, as years were counted from the king's first full
year). British scholar Stephanie Dalley considers it "almost
certain" that Addagoppe was a daughter of Ashurbanipal on account
of her own inscriptions claiming that Nabonidus was of Ashurbanipal's
dynastic line. American Professor of Biblical Studies Michael B.
Dick has refuted this, pointing out that even though Nabonidus did
go to some length to revive some old Assyrian symbols (such as wearing
a wrapped cloak in his depictions, absent in those of other Neo-Babylonian
kings but present in Assyrian art) and attempted to link himself
to the Sargonid dynasty, there is "no evidence whatsoever that
Nabonidus was related to the Sargonid Dynasty".
Legacy
:
Library
of Ashurbanipal :
![](640px-Library_of_Ashurbanipal.jpg)
The Library of Ashurbanipal in the British Museum
![](530px-British_Museum_Flood_Tablet.jpg)
Tablet
containing a part of the Epic of Gilgamesh from the Library of Ashurbanipal.
Now exhibited at the British Museum
The Library of Ashurbanipal was the first systematically organized
library in the world. The library is the best known of Ashurbanipal's
accomplishments and the king himself considered it his greatest.
The library was assembled at Ashurbanipal's command, with scribes
being sent out throughout his empire to collect and copy texts of
every type and genre from the libraries of the temples. Most of
the collected texts were observations of events and omens, texts
detailing the behaviour of certain men and of animals, texts on
the movements of celestial objects and so forth. Present in the
library were also dictionaries for Sumerian, Akkadian and other
languages and many religious texts, such as rituals, fables, prayers
and incantations.
Most
of the traditional Mesopotamian stories and tales known today, such
as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Enûma Eliš (the Babylonian
creation myth), Erra, the Myth of Etana and the Epic of Anzu, only
survived until the modern era because they were included in Ashurbanipal's
library. The library covered the entire spectrum of Ashurbanipal's
literary interests and also included folk tales (such as The Poor
Man of Nippur, a predecessor of one of the tales in One Thousand
and One Nights), handbooks and scientific texts.
Ashurbanipal
described the reasoning behind collecting such a vast library, amounting
to over 30,000 clay tablets, with these words :
I,
Ashurbanipal, king of the universe, on whom the gods have bestowed
intelligence, who has acquired penetrating acumen for the most recondite
details of scholarly erudition (none of my predecessors having any
comprehension of such matters), I have placed these tablets for
the future in the library at Nineveh for my life and for the well-being
of my soul, to sustain the foundations of my royal name.
Nineveh
was destroyed in 612 BC and the Library of Ashurbanipal was buried
under the walls of Ashurbanipal's burning palace and lost to history
for more than two thousand years. It was unearthed in the 19th century
by Austen Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam and the translations of
the contents within it by George Smith brought the ancient Mesopotamian
texts to the modern world. Prior to its discovery, there was a widespread
notion that the Bible was the oldest book and a work without precedent,
an idea which was decisively disproven with the discovery of the
library.
Assessment
by historians :
![](640px-Ashurbanipal_II,_detail_of_a_lion-hunt_scene_from_Nineveh,_7th_century_BC,_the_British_Museum.jpg)
Ashurbanipal
depicted in the Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal
At the time of Ashurbanipal's reign, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was
the largest empire the world had ever seen and its capital, Nineveh,
at about 120,000 citizens, was probably the largest city on the
planet. During his reign, the Assyrian Empire prospered economically,
despite its continuing expansion. He is often regarded as the last
great king of Assyria and is recognized, alongside his two predecessors
Esarhaddon and Sennacherib, as one of the greatest Assyrian kings.
Ashurbanipal
has sometimes been characterized as a zealot. The king rebuilt,
repaired and expanded a majority of the major shrines throughout
his empire and many of the actions he took during his reign were
due to omen reports, something he was very interested in. He appointed
two of his younger brothers, Ashur-mukin-paleya and Ashur-etel-shame-erseti-muballissu,
as priests in the cities Assur and Harran respectively. He has also
been seen as a patron of the arts due to the many sculptures and
reliefs he erected in his palaces at Nineveh, depicting the most
important events from his long reign. The style used in these works
of art has an "epic quality" unlike the artwork produced
under his predecessors.
Assessment
of Ashurbanipal has not solely been positive. In 639 BC, Ashurbanipal
named the year (years were generally named after people in ancient
Assyria, often military officials) after his chief musician, Bullutu,
which Assyriologist Julian E. Reade saw as the move of an "irresponsible
and self-indulgent" king. Though Assyria reached the apex of
its power under Ashurbanipal's rule, the empire collapsed quickly
after his death. Whether Ashurbanipal is partly to blame for Assyria's
downfall is disputed. J. A. Delaunay, author of the Encyclopaedia
Iranica entry on the king writes that the Neo-Assyrian Empire under
Ashurbanipal had already began "exhibiting clear symptoms of
impending dislocation and fall", while Donald John Wiseman,
in the Encyclopaedia Britannica article on the king, holds that
"It is no indictment of his rule that his empire fell within
two decades after his death; this was due to external pressures
rather than to internal strife".
In
art and popular culture :
![](511px-San_Francisco_Civic_Center_Historic_District_09.jpg)
Ashurbanipal,
a bronze sculpture by Fred Parhad in the Civic Center of San Francisco
Depictions of Ashurbanipal in artwork survive from his reign. The
Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal, a set of Assyrian palace reliefs from
Ashurbanipal's palace, can be seen at the British Museum in London.
These reliefs depict the king hunting and killing Mesopotamian lions.
The Assyrian king was tasked with protecting his own people, often
being referred to as a "shepherd". This protection included
defending against external enemies and defending citizens from dangerous
wild animals. To the Assyrians, the most dangerous animal of all
was the lion, used (similarly to foreign powers) as an example of
chaos and disorder due to their aggressive nature. To prove themselves
worthy of rule and illustrate that they were competent protectors,
Assyrian kings engaged in ritual lion hunts. Lion-hunting was reserved
for Assyrian royalty and was a public event, staged at parks in
or near the Assyrian cities.
Ashurbanipal
has also been the subject of artwork created in modern times. In
1958, surrealist painter Leonora Carrington painted Assurbanipal
Abluting Harpies, an oil on canvas at the Israel Museum depicting
Ashurbanipal pouring a white substance onto the heads of pigeon-like
creatures with human faces. A statue of the king, called Ashurbanipal,
was created by sculptor Fred Parhad in 1988 and placed on a street
near the San Francisco City Hall. The statue cost $100,000 and was
described as the "first sizable bronze statue of Ashurbanipal".
It was presented to the City of San Francisco as a gift from the
Assyrian people on May 29, 1988, Parhad being of Assyrian descent.
Some local Assyrians expressed fears that the statue resembled the
legendary Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh more than it resembled the
actual Ashurbanipal. Parhad defended the statue as representing
Ashurbanipal, though explained that he had taken some artistic liberties.
Ashurbanipal
has also made occasional appearances in popular culture in various
media. Robert E. Howard wrote a short story entitled The Fire of
Asshurbanipal, first published in the December 1936 issue of Weird
Tales magazine, about an "accursed jewel belonging to a king
of long ago, whom the Grecians called Sardanapalus and the Semitic
peoples Asshurbanipal". "The Mesopotamians", a 2007
song by They Might Be Giants, mentions Ashurbanipal alongside Gilgamesh,
Sargon, and Hammurabi. Ashurbanipal was used as the ruler of the
Assyrians in the game Civilization V.
Titles
:
In an inscription on a cylinder dated to 648 BC, Ashurbanipal uses
the following titles :
I
am Ashurbanipal, the great king, the mighty king, king of the universe,
king of Assyria, king of the four regions of the world; offspring
of the loins of Esarhaddon, king of the universe, king of Assyria,
viceroy of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad; grandson of Sennacherib,
king of the universe, king of Assyria.
A
similar titulature is used on one of Ashurbanipal's many tablets
:
I,
Ashurbanipal, the great king, the mighty king, king of the universe,
king of Assyria, king of the four regions of the world, son of Esarhaddon,
king of the universe, king of Assyria, grandson of Sennacherib,
king of the universe, king of Assyria, eternal seed of royalty ...
A
longer variant is presented on one of Ashurbanipal's building inscriptions
in Babylon :
Ashurbanipal,
the mighty king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, king of
the four regions of the world, king of kings, unrivaled prince,
who, from the Upper to the Lower Sea, holds sway and has brought
in submission at his feet all rulers; son of Esarhaddon, the great
king, the mighty king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, viceroy
of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad; grandson of Sennacherib, the
mighty king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, am I.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Ashurbanipal