Ashurbanipal’s celebrative inscriptions may have ended around 635 bc, but the king had already achieved his greatest accomplishments by 646 bc, with his victory over Elam and the Arabs (ca. 645 bc?). The following years of his reign were spent gaining ceremonial recognition of his authority from the surviving kingdoms in the empire’s periphery: from the Persians in Anshan to the Urartians and the Lydians. In the final years of Ashurbanipal’s reign, however, the first signs of the empire’s crisis began to appear, at least in the western regions, which were devastated by the Scythians, who descended in the Levant. Moreover, the crisis spread throughout the mountains north of Assyria, now controlled by the local populations (especially the Medes).
Unfortunately, we do not know with precision when Ashurbanipal’s reign ended. It is likely that the old king retired in 631 bc, leaving the Assyrian throne to his son Ashur-etil-ilani and then died in 627 bc, the same year as the Babylonian king Kandalanu. The phase between 635 and 626 bc remains relatively obscure due to the lack of evidence, but was probably marked by a civil war in Assyria and the loss of Assyrian control in Babylonia. In the year defined by the Babylonian Chronicle as ‘without a king’ (626 bc), the civil war ended with the rise as king of Assyria of another son of Ashurbanipal, Sin-shar-ishkun. From 626 bc, the lack of evidence is resolved by a series of tablets providing an annalistic account of Babylonian events. These tablets must have formed a continuous sequence, although the ones that have survived to us present several gaps. Between 626 and 623 bc, the constant Assyrian incursions in the south only managed to strengthen the anti-Assyrian rebellions in the Babylonian cities (from Uruk to Nippur, Babylon and Der). This situation greatly benefited the leader of the Chaldeans, Nabopolassar of Bit Yakini, who would eventually be recognised as king of the Babylonians (625—605 bc).
Following a gap in the chronicles, the series continues with the year 616 bc (and ends in 594 bc), describing an entirely new situation (Text 31.1). Nabopolassar gained full control of the south, defeating the last Assyrian garrisons in Babylonia, and marched north in the Assyrian territory. The Babylonian king’s expansion mainly moved in two directions. Along the Euphrates, the king conquered Suhu and Hindanu, and reached the Balikh River without encountering any opposition. By then, Assyria had lost control of Syria and the Levant to Egypt, but had gained its military support. The Egyptian army is already attested as fighting in Mesopotamia alongside the Assyrians around 616 bc. Assyria had also lost control of the Middle Euphrates, which Nabopolassar promptly crossed to surround his rival and separate him from Egypt. The other and more decisive direction ofBabylonian expansion was along the Tigris. This move first forced the
Assyrians to retreat near the Zab. Then, Nabopolassar attacked the southernmost Assyrian cities, namely, Arrapha and Ashur. In this direction, however, the Babylonian king had to face the interference of the local mountain populations. At the time, the Mannaeans were supporting the Assyrians, while the Medes were fighting against them. The Mannaeans and the Medes were clearly fighting (or at least competing) over control of the Iranian plateau. Consequently, their choice of allies was to become a defining factor in the events to come. In the end, the collapse of the Neo-Assyrian empire led to the fall of the Mannaeans and the subsequent victory of the Medes.
World History
