Resurgence of Assyrian power Initial reconquest (934–912 BCEE),
Adad-nirari II (911–891 BCEE) and
Tukulti-Ninurta II (890–884 BCEE) The early Neo-Assyrian kings initially set out to reverse the long decline of
Assyria, retake its former lands, and reestablish the position it held at the height of its power. These two empires were not as distinct as their portrayal sometimes suggests, with Neo-Assyrian rulers part of the same continuous
dynasty as their earlier counterparts. The outward reexpansion by these new kings was cast as war to liberate those Assyrians cut off from Assyrian territory and forced to live under foreign rulers. This held at least some truth, with material evidence from sites lost and then reconquered by the empire demonstrating an endurance of Assyrian culture in the interim. Early efforts at reconquest were mostly focused on the region up to the
Khabur in the west. One of the first conquests of Ashur-dan II had been
Katmuḫu in this region, which he made a
vassal state rather than annexing it outright; this suggests that the resources available to the early Neo-Assyrian rulers were very limited and that the imperial reconquest had to begin nearly from scratch. In this context, the successful expansion conducted under early rulers was an extraordinary achievement. The initial phase of the Assyrian was slow, beginning under Ashur-dan II near the end of the Middle Assyrian period and covering the reigns of the first two Neo-Assyrian rulers,
Adad-nirari II (911–891 BCE) and
Tukulti-Ninurta II (890–884 BCE). Ashur-dan's efforts mostly worked to pave the way for the more sustained work under Adad-nirari and Tukulti-Ninurta. (890–884 BCEE), recounting one of his campaigns Among the conquests of Adad-nirari, the most strategically important campaigns were the wars directed to the southeast, beyond the
Little Zab. These lands had previously been under Babylonian rule. One of Adad-nirari's wars brought the Neo-Assyrian army as far south as
Der, close to the border of the southwestern kingdom of
Elam. Though Adad-nirari did not manage to incorporate territories so far from the Assyrian heartland into the empire, he secured
Arrapha (now
Kirkuk), which later served as the launching point for numerous Assyrian campaigns into eastern lands. Adad-nirari managed to secure a border agreement with the Babylonian king
Nabu-shuma-ukin I, sealed by both kings marrying the other's daughter. Adad-nirari continued Ashur-dan's efforts in the west; in his wars, he defeated numerous small western kingdoms. Several small states, such as
Guzana, were made vassals, and others, such as
Nisibis, were placed under pro-Assyrian puppet kings. After his successful wars in the region, Adad-nirari was able to undertake a long march along the Khabur and the
Euphrates, collecting tribute from all the local rulers without military opposition. He also conducted important building projects; Apku, located between
Nineveh and
Sinjar and destroyed , was rebuilt and became an important administrative center. Though he reigned only briefly, Adad-nirari's son, Tukulti-Ninurta, continued his father's policies. In 885 BCE, Tukulti-Ninurta repeated his father's march along the Euphrates and Khabur, though he went in the opposite direction, beginning in the south at
Dur-Kurigalzu and then collecting tribute while he travelled north. Some of the southern cities that sent tribute to Tukulti-Ninurta during this march were historically more closely aligned with Babylon. Tukulti-Ninurta fought small states in the east to strengthen Assyrian control in that direction. Among the lands he defeated were
Kirruri,
Ḫubuškia and
Gilzan. In later times, Gilzan often supplied Assyria with horses.
Dominion over the Near East of
Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BCE) The second phase of the was initiated in the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta's son and successor
Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BCE). Under his rule, Assyria rose to become the dominant political power in the Near East. In terms of personality, Ashurnasirpal was a complex figure; he was a relentless warrior and one of the most brutal kings in Assyrian history, but he also cared about the people, working to increase the prosperity and comfort of his subjects, establishing extensive water reserves and food depots in times of crisis. As a result of the successful campaigns of his predecessors, Ashurnasirpal inherited an impressive amount of resources with which he could work to re-establish Assyrian dominance. Ashurnasirpal's first campaign in 883 BCE was against the revolting cities of
Suru and
Tela along the northern portion of the
Tigris river. At Tela he brutally repressed the citizens, among other punishments cutting off noses, ears, fingers and limbs, gouging out eyes and overseeing impalements and decapitations. Ashurnasirpal's later campaigns included three wars against the kingdom of
Zamua in the eastern
Zagros Mountains, repeated campaigns against
Nairi and
Urartu in the north, and, most prominently, near continuous conflict with
Aramean and
Neo-Hittite kingdoms in the west. The Arameans and Neo-Hittites had evolved into well-organized kingdoms, possibly in response to pressure from Assyria. One of Ashurnasirpal's most persistent enemies was the Aramean king
Ahuni, who ruled
Bit Adini. Ahuni's forces broke through across the Khabur and Euphrates several times, and it was only after years of war that he at last accepted Ashurnasirpal as his
suzerain. Ahuni's defeat was highly important as it marked the first time since
Ashur-bel-kala two centuries prior that Assyrian forces campaigned further west than the Euphrates. Ashurnasirpal made use of this opportunity. In his ninth campaign, he marched to Lebanon and then to the
Mediterranean coast. Though few of them became formally incorporated into the empire at this point, many kingdoms on the way paid tribute to Ashurnasirpal to avoid being attacked, including
Carchemish and
Patina, as well as
Phoenician cities such as
Sidon,
Byblos,
Tyre and
Arwad. Ashurnasirpal's royal inscriptions proudly proclaim that he and his army symbolically cleaned their weapons in the water of the Mediterranean. Ashurnasirpal financed several large-scale building projects at cities like Assur, Nineveh and
Balawat. The most impressive and important project conducted was the restoration of the ruined town of
Nimrud, located on the eastern bank of the Tigris in the Assyrian heartland. In 879 BCE, Ashurnasirpal made Nimrud the capital of the empire and employed thousands of workers to construct fortifications, palaces and temples in the city. Assur became a ceremonial city, although it was still the empire's religious center. Ashurnasirpal's aggressive military politics were continued under his son
Shalmaneser III (859–824 BCEE), whose reign saw a considerable expansion of Assyrian territory. The lands along the Khabur and Euphrates rivers in the west were consolidated under Assyrian control. Ahuni of Bit Adini resisted for several years, but he surrendered to Shalmaneser in the winter of 857/856 BCE. When Shalmaneser visited the city in the summer of the next year, he renamed it Kar-Salmanu‐ašared ("fortress of Shalmaneser"), settled a substantial number of Assyrians there, and made it the administrative center of a new province, placed under the (commander in chief). Shalmaneser also placed other powerful officials, so-called "magnates", in charge of other vulnerable provinces and regions of the empire. The most powerful and threatening enemy of Assyria at this point was Urartu in the north; the Urartian administration, culture, writing system, and religion closely followed those of Assyria. The Urartian kings were autocrats similar to the Assyrian kings. The Assyrians also took some inspiration from Urartu. For instance, Assyrian irrigation technology and cavalry units, introduced by Shalmaneser, may have been derived from encounters with Urartu. The imperialist expansion undertaken by the kings of both Urartu and Assyria led to frequent military clashes between the two, despite their separation by the
Taurus Mountains. In 856 BCE, Shalmaneser conducted an ambitious military campaign, marching through mountainous territory to the source of the Euphrates and then attacking Urartu from the west. King
Arame was forced to flee as Shalmaneser's forces sacked the Urartian capital of
Arzashkun, devastated the Urartian heartland, and then marched into what today is western Iran before returning to
Arbela in Assyria. (left) Although Shalmaneser's campaign against Urartu compelled many small states in northern Syria to pay tribute, he was unable to fully exploit the situation. In 853 BCE, a coalition of western states assembled at
Tell Qarqur in Syria against Assyrian expansion. The coalition included numerous kings of various peoples, including the earliest historically verifiable
Israelite and Arab rulers, and was led by King
Hadadezer of
Aram-Damascus. Shalmaneser engaged the coalition in the same year that it was formed. Although Assyrian records claim he won a great victory at the
Battle of Qarqar, it is more likely the battle was indecisive, as no substantial political or territorial gains were achieved. After Qarqar, Shalmaneser focused much on the south and in 851–850 BCE, aided the Babylonian king
Marduk-zakir-shumi I to defeat a revolt by his brother
Marduk-bel-ushati. After defeating the rebel, Shalmaneser spent some time visiting cities in Babylon and further aiding Marduk-zakir-shumi in fighting the
Chaldeans in the far south of Mesopotamia. As Babylonian culture was greatly appreciated in Assyria, Shalmaneser was proud of his alliance with the Babylonian king; a surviving work of art depicts the two rulers shaking hands. In the 840s and 830s BCE, Shalmaneser again campaigned in Syria and succeeded in receiving tribute from numerous western states after the coalition against him collapsed with Hadadezer's death in 841 BCE. Assyrian forces thrice tried to capture
Damascus but were unsuccessful. Shalmaneser's failed attempts to impose Assyrian rule in Syria resulted from his energetic campaigns, which overextended the empire too quickly. In the 830s BCE, his armies reached into
Cilicia in Anatolia, and in 836 BCE, Shalmaneser reached
Ḫubušna (near what is now
Ereğli, Konya), one of the westernmost places reached by Assyrian forces. Though Shalmaneser's conquests were wide-ranging and inspired fear among the other kings of the Near East, he lacked the means to stabilize and consolidate his new lands, and imperial control in many places remained shaky.
Age of the magnates (824–811 BCE) In the latter years of Shalmaneser's reign, Urartu rose again as a powerful adversary. Though the Assyrians campaigned against them in 830 BCE, they failed to fully neutralize the threat posed by the restored kingdom. The 830 BCE campaign against Urartu was not led by Shalmaneser but by the long-serving and prominent
Dayyan-Assur. Dayyan-Assur led other campaigns on behalf of the kings. Shalmaneser's final years became preoccupied by an internal crisis when one of his sons,
Ashur-danin-pal, rebelled in an attempt to seize the throne, possibly because the younger son
Shamshi-Adad V had been designated as heir instead of him. When Shalmaneser died in 824 BCE, Ashur-danin-pal was still in revolt, supported by a significant portion of the country, including Assur. Shamshi-Adad was perhaps initially a minor and a puppet of Dayyan-Assur. Though Dayyan-Assur died during the early stages of the civil war, Shamshi-Adad was eventually victorious, apparently with help from Marduk-zakir-shumi or his successor
Marduk-balassu-iqbi. Shamshi-Adad's accession marked the beginning of a new age of Neo-Assyrian history, sometimes dubbed the "age of the magnates". This time was marked by the number of royal inscriptions being much smaller than in preceding and succeeding times, and Assyrian magnates—such as Dayyan-Assur and other prominent generals and officials—being the dominant political actors, with the kings wielding significantly less power and influence. Though the consequences of this shift in power remain debated, the age of the magnates has often been characterized as a period of decline. Assyria endured through this period largely unscathed, but there was little to no territorial expansion and central power grew unusually weak. Some developments were good for the longevity of the empire, since many magnates took the opportunity to develop stronger military and economic structures and institutions in their own lands throughout the empire. Shamshi-Adad's earliest campaigns were against a series of Urartian fortresses and western Iran and quite limited in scope. Most of Shamshi-Adad's early reign was relatively unsuccessful; his third campaign against the small states in the Zagros Mountains region may have ended in an Assyrian defeat, and many of the small kingdoms in northern Syria ceased paying tribute. In 817 or 816 BCE, there was a rebellion against the king at
Tillê, within the Assyrian heartland. , a palace herald, made in the reign of
Shalmaneser IV (783–773 BCEE) From 815 BCE, Shamshi-Adad directed his efforts mainly against Marduk-balassu-iqbi. In 813 BCE, he defeated Marduk-balassu-iqbi and brought him to Assyria as a captive. A year later, he defeated the Babylonian successor
Baba-aha-iddina and annexed several territories in northern Babylonia. Southern Mesopotamia was left in disarray after Shamshi-Adad's victories. Though Babylonia nominally came under Assyrian control, Shamshi-Adad took the ancient Babylonian title "
king of Sumer and Akkad" but not the conventional "king of Babylon". Due to Assyria's perhaps somewhat weakened state he was unable to fully exploit the victory, and the Babylonian throne remained unoccupied for several years. Shamshi-Adad's son
Adad-nirari III (811–783 BCEE) was probably very young at the time of his father's death in 811 BCE, and real political power during his early reign was probably wielded by the
Nergal‐ila'i and by Adad-nirari's mother
Shammuramat. Shammuramat was one of the most powerful women in Assyrian history and perhaps for a time served as co-regent; she is recorded to have partaken in a military campaign, the only ancient Assyriain woman known to have done so, against
Kummuh in Syria and is credited in inscriptions alongside her son for expanding Assyrian territory, usually only a royal privilege. After Shammuramat's death, Adad-nirari continued to be dominated by other figures, such as the eunuch
Nergal-eresh. Despite his limited sole authority, Adad-nirari's reign saw some military successes, and Assyrian armies campaigned in western Iran at least 13 times. The western territories, now more or less autonomous, were only attacked four times, though Adad-nirari managed to defeat Aram-Damascus. In 790 BCE, Adad-nirari conducted the first Assyrian campaign against the Aramaic tribes living in the Assyro-Babylonian border regions. In Adad-nirari appointed the new
Shamshi-ilu. Shamshi-ilu would occupy this position for about 40 years and was for most of that time likely the most powerful political actor in Assyria. After Adad-nirari's death in 783 BCE, three of his sons ruled in succession:
Shalmaneser IV (783–773 BCE),
Ashur-dan III (773–755 BCE) and
Ashur-nirari V (755–745 BCE). Their reigns collectively appear to mark the low point of Assyrian royal power, as only a remarkably small number of royal inscriptions are known from them. In Shalmaneser IV's reign, Shamshi-ilu eventually grew bold enough to stop crediting the king at all in his inscriptions and instead claimed to act completely on his own, more openly flaunting his power. Probably under Shamshi-ilu's leadership, the Assyrian army began to mainly focus on Urartu. In 774 BCE, Shamshi-ilu scored an important victory against
Argishti I of Urartu, though Urartu was not decisively beaten. There was however some significant successes in the west since Shamshi-ilu captured Damascus in 773 BCE and secured tribute from the city to the king. Another official who acted with usually royal privileges in Shalmaneser's time was the palace herald
Bel-harran-beli-usur, who founded a city, Dur-Bel-harran-beli-usur (named after himself), and claimed in a stele that it was he, and not the king, who had established tax exemptions for the city. Though little information survives concerning Ashur-dan III's reign, it is clear that it was particularly difficult. Much of his reign was spent putting down revolts. These revolts were perhaps the result of the plague epidemics sweeping Assyria and the
Assyrian eclipse of 15 June 763 BCE; both the epidemics and the eclipse could have been interpreted by the Assyrian populace as the gods withdrawing their divine support for Ashur-dan's rule. Though Assyria stabilized again under Ashur-nirari V, he appears to have been relatively idle. Ashur-nirari campaigned in only three of the ten years of his reign and is not recorded to have conducted any construction projects. Though the Assyrian army under Ashur-nirari was successful against
Arpad in northwestern Syria in 754 BCE, they were also beaten at an important battle against
Sarduri II of Urartu.
Revitalization and rise (745–727 BCE) In 745 BCE, Ashur-nirari was succeeded by
Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BCE), probably another son of Adad-nirari III. His accession ushered in a new era of Neo-Assyrian history. While the conquests of earlier kings were impressive, they contributed little to Assyria's rise as a consolidated empire. Through campaigns aimed at conquest and not just extraction of seasonal tribute, as well as reforms meant to efficiently organize the army and centralize the realm, Tiglath-Pileser is regarded by some as the first true initiator of Assyria's "imperial" phase. Tiglath-Pileser is the earliest Assyrian king mentioned in the
Babylonian Chronicles and the
Hebrew Bible, and thus the earliest king for which there exists important outside perspectives on his reign. Early on, Tiglath-Pileser reduced the influence of the previously powerful magnates, dividing their territories into smaller provinces under the rule of royally appointed provincial governors and withdrawing their right to commission official building inscriptions in their own names. Shamshi-ilu appears to have been subjected to a , as his name and tiles were erased from some of his inscriptions. 's capture of
Damascus During his 18-year reign, Tiglath-Pileser campaigned in all directions. In his first year as king, he waged war against
Nabonassar, the Chaldean king of Babylon, and conquered territories on the eastern bank of the Tigris. In 746 BCE, he conducted a successful campaign in the Zagros, where he created two new provinces. From 743 to 739 BCE, he focused on Urartu and northern Syria. Campaigns against both targets proved resoundingly successful; in 743 BCE,
Sarduri II of Urartu was defeated, and in 740 BCE,
Arpad, Syria was conquered after a three-year siege. With the nearest threats dealt with, Tiglath-Pileser began to focus on lands that had never been under solid Assyrian rule. In 738 BCE, the
Neo-Hittite states of
Pattin and
Hatarikka, and the Phoenician city of
Sumur were conquered. In 734 BCE, the Assyrian army marched through the Levant all the way to the Egyptian border, forcing several of the states on the way—such as
Ammon,
Edom,
Moab and the
Kingdom of Judah—to pay tribute and become Assyrian vassals. In 732 BCE, the Assyrians captured
Damascus and much of
Transjordan and
Galilee. Tiglath-Pileser's conquests are, in addition to their extent, also noteworthy because of the large scale in which
he undertook resettlement policies; he settled tens to hundreds of thousands of foreigners in both the Assyrian heartland and in distant, underdeveloped provinces. 's reign Late in his reign, Tiglath-Pileser turned his eye towards Lower Mesopotamia. For a long time, the political situation in the south had been volatile, with conflict between the traditional Babylonian urban elites of the cities, nomadic
Arameans in the countryside, and Chaldean warlords in the south. In 732 BCE, the Chaldean warlord
Nabû-mukin-zēri seized Babylon and became king, a development Tiglath-Pileser used as an excuse to invade. In 729 BCE, he captured Babylon, defeated Nabu-mukin-zēri, and thus assumed the titles "king of Babylon" and "king of Assyria." To increase the willingness of the Babylonian populace to accept him as ruler, Tiglath-Pileser twice partook in the traditional Babylonian
Akitu (New Year's) celebrations, held in honor of the national deity
Marduk. Control over Babylonia was secured through campaigns against the remaining Chaldean strongholds in the south. By the time of his death in 727 BCE, Tiglath-Pileser had more than doubled the territory of the empire. His policy of direct rule rather than rule through vassal states brought important changes to the Assyrian state and its economy; rather than tribute, the empire grew more reliant on taxes collected by provincial governors, a development which increased administrative costs but also reduced the need for military intervention. Tiglath-Pileser was succeeded by his son
Shalmaneser V (727–722 BCE). Though little to no royal inscriptions and other sources survive from Shalmaneser's brief reign, the empire appears to have been largely stable under his rule. Shalmaneser managed to secure some lasting achievements; he was probably the Assyrian king responsible for the conquest of Samaria and the resulting
Assyrian captivity, and thus bringing an end to the ancient
Kingdom of Yisrael-Samaria, establishing the province of
Samerina in its place. He also appears to have annexed lands in northern Syria and Cilicia.
Imperial apogee Sargon II and Sennacherib Shalmaneser was succeeded by
Sargon II (722–705 BCE), who in all likelihood was a usurper who deposed his predecessor in a palace coup. Like Tiglath-Pileser before him, Sargon in his inscriptions made no references to prior kings and instead ascribed his accession purely to divine selection. Sargon's rise to power marked the foundation of the
Sargonid dynasty, leading to considerable internal unrest. In his own inscriptions, Sargon claims to have deported 6,300 "guilty Assyrians", probably Assyrians from the heartland who opposed his accession. Several peripheral regions of the empire also revolted and regained their independence. The most significant of the revolts was the successful uprising of the Chaldean warlord
Marduk-apla-iddina II, who took control of Babylon, restoring Babylonian independence, and allied with the Elamite king
Ḫuban‐nikaš I. Though Sargon tried early on to dislodge Marduk-apla-iddina, attacking Aramean tribes who supported Marduk-apla-iddina and marching out to fight the Elamites, his efforts were initially unsuccessful, and in 720 BCE, the Elamites defeated Sargon's forces at
Der. Sargon's early reign was more successful in the west. There, another movement, led by
Yau-bi'di of
Hamath and supported by Simirra, Damascus, Samaria and Arpad, also sought to regain independence and threatened to destroy the sophisticated provincial system imposed on the region under Tiglath-Pileser. While Sargon was campaigning in the east in 720 BCE, his generals defeated Yau-bi'di and the others. Sargon continued to focus on both east and west, successfully warring against
Šinuḫtu in Anatolia and
Mannaya in western Iran. In 717 BCE, Sargon retook Carchemish and secured the city's substantial silver treasury. Perhaps it was the acquisition of these funds that inspired Sargon to begin constructing a new capital of the empire from scratch, named
Dur-Sharrukin ("Fort Sargon") after himself. Perhaps the motivating factor was that Sargon did not feel safe at Nimrud after the early conspiracies against him. As construction work progressed, Sargon continued to go on military campaigns, which ensured that Assyria's geopolitical dominance and influence expanded significantly in his reign. Between 716 and 713 BCE, Sargon fought against Urartu, the
Medes, Arab tribes, and
Ionian pirates in the eastern Mediterranean. A significant victory was the 714 BCE campaign against Urartu, in which
Rusa I was defeated and much of the Urartian heartland was plundered. In 709 BCE Sargon won against seven kings in the land of Ia', in the district of Iadnana or Atnana. The land of Ia' is assumed to be the Assyrian name for Cyprus, and some scholars suggest that the latter may mean 'the islands of the
Danaans', or Greece. There are other inscriptions referring to the land of Ia' in Sargon's palace at
Khorsabad. Cyprus was thus absorbed into the Assyrian Empire, with the victory commemorated with a stele found near present-day
Larnaca. Late in his reign, Sargon again turned his attention to Babylon. When Sargon marched south in 710 BCE he encountered little resistance. After Marduk-apla-iddina fled to
Dur-Yakin, the stronghold of his Chaldean tribe, the citizens of Babylon willingly opened the gates of Babylon to Sargon. The situation was somewhat uncertain until Sargon made peace with Marduk-apla-iddina after prolonged negotiations, which resulted in Marduk-apla-iddina and his family being given the right to escape to Elam in exchange for Sargon being allowed to dismantle the walls of Dur-Yakin. Between 710 and 707 BCE, Sargon resided in Babylon, receiving foreign delegations there and participating in local traditions, such as the Akitu festival. In 707 BCE Sargon returned to Nimrud, and in 706 BCE Dur-Sharrukin was inaugurated as the empire's capital. Sargon did not get to enjoy his new city for long; in 705 BCE he embarked on his final campaign, directed against
Tabal in Anatolia. Sargon was killed in battle, and the army was unable to recover his body. (705–681 BCE) on campaign in a chariot Shocked and frightened by the manner of his father's death and its theological implications, Sargon's son
Sennacherib distanced himself from his father. Sennacherib never mentioned Sargon in his inscriptions and abandoned Dur-Sharrukin, instead moving the capital to Nineveh, previously the residence of the crown prince. One of the first building projects he undertook was restoring a temple dedicated to the death-god
Nergal, likely due to worries concerning his father's fate. Several of the vassal states in the Levant stopped paying tribute, and Marduk-apla-iddina retook Babylon with the aid of the Elamites. Sennacherib was thus faced with numerous enemies almost immediately upon his accession, and it took years to defeat them all. In 704 BCE he sent the Assyrian army, led by officials, to Anatolia to avenge Sargon's death. Sennacherib began warring against Marduk-apla-iddina. After fighting against Babylonia for nearly two years, Sennacherib succeeded in recapturing Babylonia, though Marduk-apla-iddina fled to Elam once again, and
Bel-ibni, a Babylonian noble who had been raised at the Assyrian court, was installed as vassal king of Babylon. In 701 BCE Sennacherib undertook the most famous campaign of his reign,
invading the Levant to force the states there to pay tribute again. This conflict is the first Assyrian war to be recorded in great detail sources other than Assyrian inscriptions including the
Hebrew Bible. The Assyrian account diverges somewhat from the Biblical one; whereas the Assyrian inscriptions describe the campaign as a resounding success, in which tribute was regained, some states were annexed outright and Sennacherib even managed to stop Egyptian ambitions in the region, the Bible describes Sennacherib suffering a crushing defeat outside
Jerusalem. Since
Hezekiah, the king of Judah (who ruled Jerusalem), paid a heavy tribute to Sennacherib after the campaign, modern scholars consider it more likely that the Biblical account, motivated by theological concerns, is highly distorted and that Sennacherib succeeded in his goals of the campaign and re-imposed Assyrian authority in the region. Despite this,
Herodotus, a Greek historian, noted an Assyrian defeat. The majority of scholars in this area believe the discrepancy is due to two sieges, one resulting in an Assyrian victory, the other in a failure. , made capital under Sennacherib Bel-ibni's tenure as Babylonian vassal ruler did not last long, and he continually opposed by Marduk-apla-iddina and another Chaldean warlord,
Mushezib-Marduk, who hoped to seize power for themselves. In 700 BCE Sennacherib invaded Babylonia again and drove Marduk-apla-iddina and Mushezib-Marduk away. Needing a vassal ruler with stronger authority, he placed his eldest son,
Ashur-nadin-shumi, on the throne of Babylon. For a few years, internal peace was restored, and Sennacherib kept the army busy with a few minor campaigns. During this time, Sennacherib focused his attention mainly on building projects; between 699 and 695 BCE he ambitiously renovated Nineveh, constructing among other works the
Southwest Palace and a 12 kilometer (7.5-mile) long and 25 meter (82 feet) tall wall. It is possible that a large park constructed near the Southwest Palace served as the inspiration for the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Sennacherib's choice of making Nineveh capital probably resulted not only from him having long lived in the city as crown prince, but also because of its ideal location, being an important point in the established road and trade systems and also located close to an important
ford across the Tigris river. In 694 BCE Sennacherib invaded Elam, with the explicit goal to root out Marduk-apla-iddina and his supporters. Sennacherib sailed across the
Persian Gulf with a fleet built by Phoenician and Greek shipwrights and captured and sacked countless Elamite cities. He never got his revenge on Marduk-apla-iddina, who died of natural causes before the Assyrian army landed, and the campaign instead significantly escalated the conflict with the anti-Assyrian faction in Babylonia and with the Elamites. The Elamite king
Hallushu-Inshushinak took revenge on Sennacherib by marching on Babylonia while the Assyrians were busy in his lands. During this campaign, Ashur-nadin-shumi was captured and taken to Elam, where he was probably executed. In his place, the Elamites and Babylonians crowned the Babylonian noble
Nergal-ushezib as king of Babylon. Though Senacherib just a few months later defeated and captured Nergal-ushezib in battle, the war dragged on as the Chaldean warlord Mushezib-Marduk took control of Babylon late in 693 BCE and assembled a large coalition of Chaldeans, Arameans, Arabs and Elamites to resist Assyrian retribution. After a series of battles, Sennacherib finally recaptured Babylon in 689 BCE. Mushezib-Marduk was captured and
Babylon was destroyed in an effort to eradicate Babylonian political identity. The last years of Sennacherib's reign were relatively peaceful, but problems began to arise within the royal court. Though Sennacherib's next eldest son,
Arda-Mulissu, had replaced Ashur-nadin-shumi as heir, around 684 BCE the younger son
Esarhaddon was proclaimed heir instead. Perhaps Sennacherib was influenced by Esarhaddon's mother
Naqi'a, who in later times became increasingly prominent and powerful. Disappointed, Arda-Mulissu and his supporters pressured Sennacherib to reinstate him as heir. Though they succeeded in forcing Esarhaddon into exile in the west for his own protection, Sennacherib did not accept Arda-Mulissu as heir. In late 681 BCE Arda-Mulissu killed his father in a temple in Nineveh. Because of the regicide, Arda-Mulissu lost some of his previous support and was unable to undergo a coronation before Esarhaddon returned with an army. Two months after Sennacherib was murdered, Esarhaddon captured Nineveh and became king, Arda-Mulissu and his supporters fleeing from the empire.
Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal as depicted in his
victory stele Esarhaddon sought to establish a balance of power between the northern and southern parts of his empire. Thus, he rebuilt Babylon in the south, viewing Sennacherib's destruction of the city as excessively brutal, but also made sure not to neglect the temples and cults of Assyria. As a result of his tumultuous rise to the throne he was distrustful of his officials and family members; something which also had the side effect of an increased prominence of women in his reign, whom he trusted more. Esarhaddon's mother Naqi'a, his queen
Esharra-hammat and his daughter
Serua-eterat were all more powerful and prominent than most women in earlier Assyrian history. The king was also frequently ill and sickly and also appears to have suffered from
depression, which intensified after the deaths of his queen and several of his children. Despite his physical and mental health, Esarhaddon led many successful military campaigns, several of them farther away from the Assyrian heartland than those of any previous king. He defeated the
Cimmerians who plagued the northwestern part of the empire, conquered the cities of Kundu and Sissû in Anatolia, and conquered the Phoenician city of
Sidon, which was renamed Kar-Aššur‐aḫu‐iddina ("fortress of Esarhaddon"). After fighting the Medes in the Zagros Mountains, Esarhaddon campaigned further to the east than any king before him, reaching as far into what is now Iran as
Dasht-e Kavir, in the
Assyrian conquest of Elam. Esarhaddon also invaded the eastern
Arabian peninsula where he conquered a large number of cities, including
Diḫranu (modern
Dhahran). , the Egyptian capital, during the
Assyrian conquest of Egypt Esarhaddon's greatest military achievement was his 671 BCE
conquest of Egypt. With logistical support from various Arab tribes, the 671 BCE invasion took a difficult route through central
Sinai and caught the Egyptian armies by surprise. After a series of three large battles against Pharaoh
Taharqa, Esarhaddon captured
Memphis, the Egyptian capital. Taharqa fled south to
Nubia, and Esarhaddon allowed most of the local governors to remain in place, though he left some of his representatives to oversee them. The conquest of Egypt brought the Neo-Assyrian Empire to its greatest extent. Though he was among the most successful kings in Assyrian history, Esarhaddon faced numerous conspiracies against his rule, perhaps because the king suffering from illness could be seen as the gods withdrawing their divine support for his rule. Around the time of the Egyptian campaigns, there were at least three major insurgencies against Esarhaddon; in Nineveh, the chief eunuch
Ashur-nasir was prophesied by a Babylonian hostage to replace Esarhaddon as king; a prophetess in
Harran proclaimed that Esarhaddon and his lineage would be "destroyed" and that a usurper named Sasî would become king; and in Assur, the local governor instigated a plot after receiving a prophetic dream in which a child rose from a tomb and handed him a staff. Through a well-developed network of spies and informants, Esarhaddon uncovered all of these coup attempts and in 670 BCE had a large number of high-ranking officials put to death. In 672 BCE, Esarhaddon decreed that his younger son
Ashurbanipal (669–631 BCE) would succeed him in Assyria and that the older son
Shamash-shum-ukin would rule Babylon. To ensure that the succession to the throne would go more smoothly than his own accession, Esarhaddon forced everyone in the empire, not only the prominent officials but also far-away vassal rulers and members of the royal family, to swear oaths of allegiance to the successors and respect the arrangement. When Esarhaddon died of an illness while on his way to campaign in Egypt in 669 BCE, Naqi'a forced similar oaths of allegiance to Ashurbanipal, who became king without incident. One year later, Ashurbanipal oversaw Shamash-shum-ukin's inauguration as (largely ceremonial) king of Babylon. Ashurbanipal is often regarded to have been the last great king of Assyria. His reign saw the last time Assyrian troops marched in all directions of the Near East. In 667 and 664 BCE, Ashurbanipal invaded Egypt in the wake of anti-Assyrian uprisings; both Pharaoh Taharqa and his nephew
Tantamani were defeated, and Ashurbanipal captured the southern Egyptian capital of
Thebes, from which enormous amounts of plundered booty was sent back to Assyria. In 664 BCE, after a prolonged period of peace, the Elamite king
Urtak launched a surprise invasion of Babylonia which renewed hostilities. After indecisive campaigns for ten years, the Elamite king
Teumman was defeated in 653 BCE, captured and executed in a battle by the
Ulai river. Teumman's head was brought back to Nineveh and displayed for the public. Elam however, remained undefeated and continued to work against Assyria for some time. One of the growing problems in Ashurbanipal's early reign were disagreements between Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin. While Esarhaddon's documents suggest that Shamash-shum-ukin was intended to inherit all of Babylonia, it appears that he only controlled the immediate vicinity of Babylon since numerous other Babylonian cities apparently ignored him and considered Ashurbanipal to be their king. Over time, it seems that Shamash-shum-ukin grew to resent his brother's overbearing control, and in 652 BCE he revolted with the aid of several Elamite kings. In 648 BCE Ashurbanipal captured Babylon after a long siege and devastated the city. Shamash-shum-ukin might have died by setting himself on fire in his palace. Ashurbanipal replaced him with the puppet ruler
Kandalanu and then marched on Elam. The Elamite capital of
Susa was captured and devastated, and large numbers of Elamite prisoners were brought to Nineveh, tortured and humiliated. Ashurbanipal chose to not annex and integrate Elam into the Neo-Assyrian Empire, instead leaving it open and undefended. In the following decades, the
Persians would migrate into the region and rebuild the ruined Elamite strongholds for their own use. Though Ashurbanipal's inscriptions present Assyria as an uncontested and divinely supported hegemon over all the world, cracks were starting to form in the empire during his reign. At some point after 656 BCE, the empire lost control of Egypt, which was ruled by Pharaoh
Psamtik I, founder of Egypt's
twenty-sixth dynasty. Ashurbanipal went on numerous campaigns against various Arab tribes, which failed to consolidate rule over their lands and wasted Assyrian resources. Perhaps most importantly, his devastation of Babylon after defeating Shamash-shum-ukin fanned anti-Assyrian sentiments in southern Mesopotamia, which soon after his death would have disastrous consequences. Ashurbanipal's reign also appears to have seen a growing disconnect between the king and the traditional elite of the empire; eunuchs grew powerful in his time, being granted large tracts of lands and numerous tax exemptions.
Collapse and fall of the empire usurper Sîn-šumu-līšir (626 BCE) After Ashurbanipal's death in 631 BCE, the throne was inherited by his son,
Aššur-etil-ilāni. Though some historians have forwarded the idea that Ashur-etil-ilani was a minor upon his accession, this is unlikely given that he is attested to have had children during his brief reign. Despite being his father's legitimate successor, he appears to have been installed against considerable opposition with the aid of the chief eunuch,
Sîn-šumu-līšir. Assyrian official Nabû-riḫtu-uṣūr appears to have attempted to usurp the throne, but Sîn-šumu-līšir swiftly crushed his revolt. Since excavated ruins at Nineveh from around the time of Ashurbanipal's death show evidence of fire damage, the plot might have resulted in violence and unrest within the capital. Aššur-etil-ilāni appears to have been a relatively idle ruler; no records of any military campaigns are known, and his palace at Nimrud was much smaller than that of previous kings. It is possible that the government was more or less run by Sîn-šumu-līšir throughout his reign. After a reign of four years, Aššur-etil-ilāni died in unclear circumstances in 627 BCE and was succeeded by his brother,
Sîn-šar-iškun. Sîn-šar-iškun's accession did not go unchallenged. Immediately upon his rise to the throne, Sîn-šumu-līšir rebelled and attempted to claim the throne for himself, despite the lack of any genealogical claim and as the only eunuch to ever do so in Assyrian history. Sîn-šumu-līšir successfully seized several prominent cities in Babylonia, including
Nippur and Babylon, but was defeated by Sîn-šar-iškun after three months. This victory did little to alleviate Sîn-šar-iškun's problems. The Babylonian vassal king Kandalanu also died in 627 BCE. The swift regime changes and internal unrest bolstered Babylonian hopes to shake off Assyrian rule and regain independence, a movement which swiftly proclaimed
Nabopolassar as its leader, who was probably a member of a prominent political family in
Uruk. Some months after Sin-shumu-lishir's defeat, Nabopolassar and his allies captured both Nippur and Babylon, though the Assyrian response was swift and Nippur was recaptured in October 626 BCE. Sîn-šar-iškun's attempts to retake Babylon and Uruk were unsuccessful, however, and in the aftermath Nabopolassar was formally invested as king of Babylon in November 626 BCE, restoring Babylonia as an independent kingdom. In the years that followed Nabopolassar's coronation, Babylonia became a brutal battleground between Assyrian and Babylonian armies. Though cities often repeatedly changed hands, the Babylonians slowly pushed Sîn-šar-iškun's armies out of the south. Under Sîn-šar-iškun's personal leadership, the Assyrian campaigns against Nabopolassar initially looked to be successful: in 625 BCE,
Sippar was retaken and Nabopolassar failed to take Nippur; in 623 BCE, the Assyrians recaptured Nabopolassar's ancestral home city Uruk. Sîn-šar-iškun might ultimately have been victorious had it not been for a usurper, whose name is not known, from the empire's western territories rebelling in 622 BCE, marching on Nineveh and seizing the capital. Though this usurper was defeated by Sîn-šar-iškun after 100 days, the absence of the Assyrian army allowed Nabopolassar's forces to capture all of Babylonia in 622–620 BCE. Despite this loss, there was little reason for the Assyrians to suspect that Nabopolassar's consolidation of Babylonia was a significant event and not simply a temporary inconvenience; in previous Babylonian uprisings the Babylonians had at times gained the upper hand temporarily. More alarming were Nabopolassar's first forays into the Assyrian heartland in 616 BCE, which involved capturing border cities and defeating local Assyrian garrisons. The Assyrian heartland had not been invaded for 500 years, and the event illustrated that the situation was dire enough for Pharaoh Psamtik to enter the conflict on Assyria's side. Psamtik was primarily interested in keeping Assyria as a buffer between his growing empire and the Babylonians and other powers in the east. In May 615 BCE, Nabopolassar assaulted Assur, the empire's southernmost remaining city. Sinsharishkun succeeded in repulsing Nabopolassar's assault and, for a time, saving the old city. It is doubtful that Nabopolassar would have achieved a lasting victory without the entrance of the
Median Empire into the conflict. Long fragmented into several tribes and often targets of Assyrian military campaigns, the Medes had been united under the leadership of
Cyaxares. In late 615 or in 614 BCE, Cyaxares and his army entered Assyria and conquered the region around
Arrapha in preparation for a campaign against Sinsharishkun. The Medes mounted attacks on both Nimrud and Nineveh and captured Assur, leading to the ancient city being brutally plundered and its inhabitants being massacred. Nabopolassar arrived at Assur after the sack and met and allied with Cyaxares. In 612 BCE, after a siege lasting two months, the Medes and Babylonians
captured Nineveh, and Sinsharishkun died defending the city. The capture of the city was followed by extensive looting and destruction, and effectively meant the end of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. After the fall of Nineveh, an Assyrian general and prince, possibly Sîn-šar-iškun's son, led the remnants of the Assyrian army and established himself at
Harran in the west. The prince chose the regnal name
Aššur-uballiṭ II With the loss of Assur, Aššur-uballiṭ could not undergo the traditional coronation ritual and as such formally ruled under the title of "crown prince", though Babylonian documents considered him the king. Aššur-uballiṭ's rule at Harran lasted until late 610 or early 609 BCE, when the city was captured by the Babylonians and the Medes. Three months later, an attempt by Aššur-uballiṭ II and the Egyptians to retake the city failed disastrously, and Aššur-uballiṭ disappears from the sources, his ultimate fate unknown. The remnants of the Assyrian army continued to fight alongside the Egyptian forces against the Babylonians until a crushing defeat at the
Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE. Though Assyrian culture endured through the subsequent
post-imperial period and beyond, Aššur-uballiṭ's final defeat at Harran marked the end of the dynasty and of Assyria as a state. == Reasons for the fall of Assyria ==