Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal (Neo-Assyrian Akkadian: 𒀸𒋩𒆕𒀀, romanized: *Aššur-bāni-apli*, "Ashur creates the heir") ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BC until his death in 631. He is widely seen as Assyria's final great king. His 38-year reign, one of the longest for any Assyrian ruler, is often considered the empire's peak, but it was also the last period in which Assyrian armies campaigned across the entire ancient Near East, marking the beginning of the empire's decline. Ashurbanipal was chosen as heir by his father, Esarhaddon, around 673 BC. This decision passed over the elder son, Shamash-shum-ukin. To prevent future conflict, Esarhaddon made Shamash-shum-ukin the heir to Babylonia. After Esarhaddon died in 669, both brothers took their thrones, but Shamash-shum-ukin was effectively a vassal under Ashurbanipal's watchful control. The early years of Ashurbanipal's rule were spent putting down rebellions in Egypt, which his father had conquered. His most significant campaigns were against Elam, a longtime enemy of Assyria, and against Shamash-shum-ukin, who grew resentful of his younger brother's dominance. Elam was defeated in a series of conflicts in 665, 653, and 647–646. Shamash-shum-ukin rebelled in 652, gathering a coalition of Assyria's enemies, but he was defeated and died during Ashurbanipal's siege of Babylon in 648. Because few records survive, much of Ashurbanipal's later reign remains obscure. Today, Ashurbanipal is best known for his cultural achievements. A patron of art and literature, he had a deep interest in Mesopotamia's ancient literary traditions. Over his long reign, he used the empire's vast resources to build the Library of Ashurbanipal, a collection of texts and documents covering many genres. At its peak, it may have held over 100,000 texts, making it the largest library until the Library of Alexandria centuries later. More than 30,000 cuneiform texts from the library survive, providing crucial insight into ancient Mesopotamian language, religion, literature, and science. Art produced under Ashurbanipal was innovative in style and subject matter, often described as having an "epic quality" missing from earlier royal art. Ashurbanipal is also remembered as one of Assyria's most brutal kings, openly boasting about massacring rebellious civilians. His destruction of Elam has been called a genocide. Though the Assyrians won many battles under him and campaigned farther from home than ever before, several of these campaigns brought little strategic gain. He failed to hold Egypt, and his wars in Arabia drained resources without securing lasting control. His thorough sacking of Babylon after defeating Shamash-shum-ukin weakened the empire's resources and stirred anti-Assyrian feeling in southern Mesopotamia, possibly helping the Neo-Babylonian Empire rise just five years after his death. Whether Ashurbanipal's policies caused the fall of the Assyrian Empire only two decades later remains debated among modern scholars. A distorted version of Ashurbanipal survived in Greco-Roman tradition under the name Sardanapalus, portrayed as an effeminate, decadent last king whose vices doomed his empire. **Background and accession**

**Becoming the heir to Assyria**

Born around 685 BC, Ashurbanipal succeeded his father Esarhaddon (r. 681–669). Although his inscriptions claim he was divinely chosen, his path to power was complicated and planted the seeds for later civil war. He was probably Esarhaddon's fourth eldest son, younger than the first 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. The Assyrian court was thrown into chaos when Sin-nadin-apli died unexpectedly in 674. Esarhaddon's own father, Sennacherib, had bypassed his elder son Arda-Mulissu for the throne, and the rejected heir murdered Sennacherib, leading to a civil war that Esarhaddon won. After losing his own heir, Esarhaddon quickly made new succession plans. He named his younger son Ashurbanipal as primary heir and emperor of Assyria, and his eldest surviving son, Shamash-shum-ukin, as king of Babylon (southern Mesopotamia), with the two to rule as "equal brothers." He entirely passed over his third eldest son, Shamash-metu-uballit, who was older than Ashurbanipal, possibly due to poor health. Scholars have speculated about Esarhaddon's reasons for this divided succession, which broke with Assyrian tradition of unitary rule. The arrangement may have been meant to soothe Shamash-shum-ukin's jealousy toward his younger brother and avoid future rivalry. One theory holds that Ashurbanipal's mother was Assyrian while Shamash-shum-ukin's was Babylonian, which might have disqualified him for the Assyrian throne. However, it is equally possible that the two heirs shared a mother, perhaps Esharra-hammat (Esarhaddon's primary consort). The two princes arrived together at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh and took part in a celebration in May 672 with foreign representatives, Assyrian nobles, and military commanders. Since the name Ashurbanipal (*Aššur-bāni-apli*) means "Ashur creates the heir," it was likely given at this time; his earlier name is unknown.