Ashurbanipal

Ashurbanipal (reigned 669-627 bc), last great monarch of the Assyrian Empire. He inherited a wide realm stretching from northern Egypt to Persia, and before 652 he had expanded this area to include southern Egypt and western Anatolia.

Assyrian literature and art reached its height during his reign. He was one of the rare ancient Middle Eastern rulers who was literate, and his scribes amassed the first systematically collected library in that area; it included scholarly and literary texts and works on magic. His royal residences, especially at Nineveh, were decorated with magnificent reliefs depicting scenes of war, wild-animal hunts, and everyday palace life.

Although the Assyrian Empire reached its greatest extent under Ashurbanipal, the first signs of its decline also appeared during his reign. In 652 bc, his brother, Shamash-shum-ukin, led a revolt that gained widespread support among the Babylonians, Arameans, Elamites, and Arabs. It took Ashurbanipal four years to subdue Babylonia and at least three years more to punish the other rebels. This extensive military effort exhausted the resources of Assyria, and for most of its remaining decades as an imperial power it was confined to fighting defensive actions and border skirmishes.