Ashurbanipal

Lore & Background

Ashurbanipal inherited the throne as his father Esarhaddon’s favored heir, bypassing the elder son Shamash-shum-ukin, who was designated heir to Babylonia. Much of the early years of Ashurbanipal's reign were spent fighting rebellions in Egypt, which had been conquered by his father. The most extensive campaigns were those directed towards Elam, an ancient enemy of Assyria, and against Shamash-shum-ukin, who gradually began to resent the overbearing control of his younger brother.

Reader's Guide

Ashurbanipal's reign is significant as both the apogee of ancient Assyria and the beginning of its end. He is recognized as one of the most brutal Assyrian kings, boasting of gory massacres of rebellious civilians, and his extensive destruction of Elam has been described as a genocide. Though the Assyrians won many battles under him, campaigning further from the Assyrian heartland than ever before, several campaigns achieved little strategic advantage. He failed to maintain control of Egypt, and his wars in Arabia cost time and resources without establishing longterm Assyrian control. His extensive sack of Babylon after defeating Shamash-shum-ukin weakened the resources of the empire and fanned anti-Assyrian sentiment in southern Mesopotamia, perhaps contributing to the rise of the Neo-Babylonian Empire five years after his death. Whether his policies led to the fall of the Assyrian Empire only two decades after his death is disputed in modern Assyriology. A distorted legend of Ashurbanipal was remembered in Greco-Roman literary tradition under the name Sardanapalus, purportedly the effeminate and decadent last king of Assyria whose vices led to the fall of his empire.

Did You Know?

• Ashurbanipal's name means 'Ashur is the creator of the heir' in Neo-Assyrian Akkadian.
• His 38-year reign was among the longest of any Assyrian king.
• Ashurbanipal was one of the few Assyrian rulers to boast of his gory massacres of rebellious civilians.