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Aššurbāniapli 𒀸𒋩𒆕𒀀 | |
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| Born | c. 685 BCE Ninua, Assyria |
| Died | 631 BCE Ninua, Assyria |
| Nationality | Assyrian |
Aššurbāniapli (c. 685 BCE – 631 BCE) was the king of Assyria from 669 BCE to 631 BCE. He inherited most of the Assyrian Empire from his father Aššuraḫaiddina, while his brother and vassal Šamaššumaukin inherited Babylon and the surrounding cities. The Assyrian Empire began to decline at the end of Aššurbāniapli's reign.[1]
Wars[edit | edit source]
Šamaššumaukin secretly allied with Egypt, Elam, and the Aramaean and Arab tribes and rebelled against his brother. Aššurbāniapli defeated Elam in 655 BCE and beheaded its king Teumman. In 651 BCE, he organized a coup against king Ummanigash of Elam to prevent the Elamites from supporting Babylon. He conquered Babylonia and defeated his brother in mid-648 BCE after a three-year siege.[1]
Library[edit | edit source]
Aššurbāniapli's palace at Ninua (Nineveh) contained the largest library in Mesopotamian history, with about 25,000 tablets and fragments. His scribes copied books from state and private collections or collected the original copies. The books included historical texts, treaties, laws, myths, literary works, prayers, list of plants and animals, texts on chemistry and minerals, dictionaries, and grammar exercises. Some longer books consisted of over to 100 tablets, and many works had several copies. The tablets were numbered and classified according to subject. The library survived the destruction of Ninua in 612 BCE and was rediscovered in 1853 by Hormuzd Rassam.[1]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Grigory Bongard-Levin, Boris Piotrovsky (1988). Ancient Civilisations of East and West. https://archive.org/details/ancientciveastwest/mode/1up.