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ASSURBANIPAL

(Akk. Aššur-bāni-apli)

The last of the great Assyrian kings (668-627 b.c.e.). Esarhaddon appointed his son Assurbanipal heir apparent during his reign, probably as a result of the trauma experienced upon his own succession. The Assyrian vassals swore their loyalty to Assurbanipal as king of Assyria, and to his brother Šamaš-šum-ukin, who occupied the throne of Babylon during Esarhaddon’s reign. Consequently, upon Esarhaddon’s death Assurbanipal did not have to begin his reign quelling revolts as other Assyrian kings did, and thus could continue his father’s attempt to control Egypt.

Assurbanipal gathered auxiliary troops from the Mediterranean coast and managed to enter Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt. The distance between Assyria and Egypt was too great for direct Assyrian management, so local rulers subject to Assyria were placed in control. Revolts erupted shortly thereafter, prompting Assurbanipal to utterly destroy Thebes. The uprising in Egypt caused Tyre and Arvad to revolt; both island cities were reduced to famine before they surrendered. Assurbanipal then became deeply involved with Elam, at which time Egypt was reinforced with Ionian and Carian troops as recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus. Assurbanipal eventually killed the Elamite ruler Teʾumman and brought his head back to Nineveh, as depicted on his wall relief. It was just after this that Šamaš-šum-ukin tired of his secondary status in Babylon and led a revolt. It took three years to quell, ending only when the Babylonian king set fire to his own palace and died in the flames. Assurbanipal took the throne of Babylon under the name Kandalanu. No extant records describe the last 12 years of his reign.

Assurbanipal is the only Assyrian ruler who claims literacy, and his library at Nineveh, discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1852, was one of the keys which unlocked the language and history of the Akkadian civilizations. The library includes letters, contracts, economic and historical inscriptions, literary, religious, and scientific texts.

Tammi J. Schneider

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ASSURBANIPAL

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)