Ashurbanipal's military prowess was unquestionable, as his Assyrian Empire conquered lands from Egypt to Mesopotamia, but the mighty king crowed the loudest about his great royal library, the world's biggest in the seventh century B.C.
From inscriptions on palace walls and incisions in cuneiform tablets, he was styled “Great King, the Mighty King, King of Assyria, King of Sumer and Akkad, the King of the World.” Those titles might seem exaggerated today, but for his time, they just might have been warranted. For almost 40 years, Ashurbanipal reigned over the Assyrian Empire and ruled over the largest kingdom of its time—and perhaps the greatest up to the seventh century B.C.
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A Neo-Assyrian cuneiform fragment of the Flood or Gilgamesh Tablet from the seventh century B.C.BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE
When trying to discuss Ashurbanipal’s greatness as a world leader, understanding what his contemporaries, the Assyrians, meant by “world” is vital. Their world was Mesopotamia, but Assyria’s holdings extended farther than that—from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, and from Egypt to the mountains of southeastern Turkey. The Assyrians were certainly aware that beyond lay other lands, peoples, tribes, and cities, but they referred to what was outside their realms as “empty lands:” territories of no interest, occupied by uncivilized people with nothing of value to offer.
The times of the late Assyrian Empire were tumultuous, violent, and even brutal. Ashurbanipal needed to exercise every talent, military and diplomatic, to hold that empire together, safe from those unknown hordes from the so-called empty lands.
Ashurbanipal was born sometime around 685 B.C., to King Esarhaddon and one of his three wives. When Ashurbanipal was 12 or 13, Esarhaddon began preparing for his succession. The eldest son died before reaching maturity. To avoid squabbling and palace intrigue, the king named both Ashurbanipal and his older half brother, Shamash-shum-ukin, as crown princes. He assigned Shamash-shum-ukin to rule the city of Babylon, which was under Assyrian control. Ashurbanipal stayed in the capital.
Esharhaddon, the father of Ashurbanipal, is portrayed on a relief with the Queen Mother, Naqi'a-Zakutu.BRIDGEMAN/ACI
Crown prince Ashurbanipal was trained in military affairs, diplomacy, and administration. He was also tutored in history, literature, archery, hunting, and horsemanship. He mastered the teachings of the priests and scribes and learned to read Sumerian and Akkadian. Possibly by the intervention of the queen mother, his grandmother Naqi’a-Zakutu, he was given heavy responsibilities dealing with nobles and the royal court, controlled governmental appointments and supervised building projects within the Assyrian homeland, and even ran the imperial intelligence service.
His mastery of these responsibilities, his demonstrated statesmanship, and his detailed reports to his father led Esarhaddon to leave Ashurbanipal in charge of affairs when he left on a military expedition to Egypt. It was his last. Esarhaddon died in 669 B.C. at Harran. The relationships Ashurbanipal had forged with nobles and the military smoothed the transition of power to him after his father’s demise.
VICTORY FEAST
A wall fragment carved in low relief shows Ashurbanipal and the enthroned queen in an arbor celebrating the defeat of Elam.DEA/G. NIMATALLAH/GETTY IMAGES
Brawn and brains
Ashurbanipal continued the fights of his father, and like many of his predecessors, he launched his own military campaigns to consolidate his position as king. Where he stood out was in the significance and scope of his military victories. He chalked up successful conquests: against Thebes, capital of Upper Egypt in 664 B.C., and against the Iranian kingdom of Elam at the Battle of Til-Tuba in 653 B.C. He put down a revolt by his brother Shamash-shum-ukin in Babylon in 648 B.C. and sacked the city of Susa in 647 B.C.
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Ashurbanipal carries a ritual basket of earth in a stone stela from Babylon, circa 668-655 B.C.THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCE
Ashurbanipal claimed in inscriptions that he was the most exceptional Assyrian king. Unlike most ancient leaders, his claim to greatness was not based solely on military prowess. While his victories are certainly featured—lands conquered and enemies subdued—Ashurbanipal boasted the most of his intellectual gifts: “I, Ashurbanipal, learned the wisdom of Nabu [the god of writing], laid hold of scribal practices of all the experts, as many as there are.”
Inscriptions refer to his ability to interpret ancient texts, solve complex mathematical problems, and debate theological questions with his court’s most renowned sages and soothsayers. In one text Ashurbanipal styles himself as a disciple of Adapa, the first of the seven Mesopotamian sages, endowed with intelligence by Ea, god of wisdom. The legendary Adapa lived before the ancient flood that, according to Babylonian myth, had devastated the cities of Mesopotamia.
Despite Adapa’s omniscience, he never acquired divine status because he refused to accept the bread and water of eternal life offered to him by Anu the sky god. Because of his refusal, Adapa and all humanity remained mortal. Linking himself to Adapa, a figure central to Assyrian founding myths, Ashurbanipal aligned himself with Assyria’s revered ancestors and emphasized his skills at deciphering ancient Sumerian tablets.
ASSYRIA'S MOST LEARNED KING
Ashurbanipal is in his chariot driven by a charioteer and accompanied by various servants in a relief from the King's Palace in Nineveh.BRIDGEMAN/ACIAshurbanipal was proud of his ability to read and write, and portrayed himself bearing both weapons and a stylus. Inscription L, found in Nineveh, proudly showcases his intellectual abilities:
I learnt the lore of the wise sage Adapa, the hidden secret of all scribal art. I can recognize celestial and terrestrial omens (and) discuss (them) in the assembly of the scholars. I can deliberate upon (the series) “(If) the liver is a mirror (image) of heaven” with able experts in oil divination. I can solve complicated multiplications and divisions which do not have an (obvious) solution. I have studied elaborate composition(s) in obscure Sumerian (and) Akkadian which are difficult to get right. I have inspected cuneiform sign(s) on stones from before the flood.
Borrowed books
Ever keen to present himself as an intellectual, Ashurbanipal set out to create what became his most important legacy: the great royal library at Nineveh. There he gathered the records of Mesopotamian knowledge, from literary texts to medicine, magic, and divination.
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A Neo-Assyrian circular tablet showing the constellations, from between the tenth to seventh centuries B.C., was foun...Read MoreRMN-GRAND PALAIS
The process of building up the Assyrian library was long and complex. The king ordered his officials to seize the holdings of all the libraries of Assyria and Babylon. In this way, he acquired the private library of Nabu-zuqup-kenu, former scribe of Sargon II and Sennacherib, which included a large collection of divination texts based on astronomical and meteorological observations.
It was more difficult to raid the Babylonian libraries than the Assyrian ones since the collections in Babylon were closely guarded by scribes and priests in the temples. When the relationship between Ashurbanipal and his brother Shamash-shum-ukin, crown prince of Babylon, was amicable, Ashurbanipal asked Babylonian sages for copies of the most important texts in their keeping. However, after the Babylonian revolt of 652 B.C., Ashurbanipal’s policy became much more aggressive, and he simply confiscated documents at will. There is evidence that in 647 B.C., when the Babylonian revolt had already been put down, 1,469 cuneiform tablets were added to the Nineveh library, brought directly from Babylon.
SIBLING RIVALRY
Ashurbanipal’s older half-brother ruled Babylon as a vassal state of Assyria. Not even the city’s mighty walls could protect it during the Babylonian revolt, which Assyria put down in 648 B.C.SERGEY MAYOROV/GETTY IMAGES
Ashurbanipal devoted much time and attention to creating his library. Sometimes he supervised the copying process in person, even suggesting modifications according to his taste. This policy ran counter to scribal practice; texts were thought to contain ancient knowledge imparted by the gods or sages from former times, so temple scribes were scrupulous about not making changes. Ashurbanipal’s choice to break that rule shows that he considered himself worthy of a place among the elevated group of the seven sages.
FUTURE IN THE STARS
This clay model of a sheep's liver used by Babylonian seers is from the second millennium B.C.ERICH LESSING/ALBUMLike his father, Ashurbanipal consulted experts who claimed to see the future. King Esarhaddon had hired Babylonian seers. Surviving texts note that Ashurbanipal regularly called on fortune-tellers. In their divination (which resembles the practice of astrology today rather than astronomy), they looked to the night skies and used celestial observation. Their texts described the sky, along with a mythological explanation of the stars and planets and of possibly ominous related phenomena. Ashurbanipal also fostered another method of augury called “extispicy,” which analyzed the viscera of freshly slaughtered sheep. Anomalies in the entrails would be used to predict the future, and detailed manuals were consulted to interpret the results. The king would also call on tablets from his massive library to interpret omens from the gods.
King's palace
Another of Ashurbanipal’s greatest legacies was the construction of what is now known as the North Palace of Nineveh, erected between 646 and 644 B.C. The momentous building project was made possible largely thanks to the loot and material resources captured in Assyria’s decisive victories over Elam and Babylon. The North Palace stood raised on a large terrace around 20 feet high, next to the temple of Ishtar, a goddess whom Ashurbanipal asked to protect his new residence. Hundreds of laborers and conscripts, including many prisoners of war, were put to work on the palace under the orders of the king.
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WAR RECORDS
Found in the king’s library, the Rassam Cylinder from 643 B.C. contains records of Ashurbanipal’s nine military campaigns.BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON
Like the vast majority of Assyrian buildings, the North Palace was built of mud brick, so little remains of the original structure. Fortunately, though, the buildings were decorated with stone bas-reliefs, many of which have survived. Their artistry and the depth of their detail yield valuable insights into the life and personality of the Assyrian king.
Ashurbanipal sought magical protection for his lavish palace to keep evil spirits at bay; the practice was nothing new. His grandfather Sennacherib and great grandfather Sargon II had entrusted the work of protection to the lamassu, colossal bulls and winged lions with human heads. But Ashurbanipal dispensed with these impressive creatures, turning instead to representations of the Sebetti, powerful protective spirits from Mesopotamian mythology, to guard his throne room.
ASSYRIA'S GREAT CAPITAL
Ashurbanipal’s grandfather Sennacherib turned Nineveh, depicted above as it may have appeared in the seventh century B.C., into a grand city filled with gardens, temples, and palaces.3D GRAPHIC BY KAIS JACOB
Many of the reliefs in the throne room depicted battle scenes, commemorating Ashurbanipal’s great military victories, including the campaigns against Babylon, Elam, Egypt, and the Arab tribes. Although Ashurbanipal rarely accompanied his soldiers onto the battlefield, he created a powerful iconography through these elaborate reliefs that would preserve a legacy as a great military leader.
In the palace’s private rooms, which few had access to, the king chose a slightly different emphasis for the reliefs. In these spaces the military-themed reliefs are mixed with scenes that depict the king celebrating his triumphs. One panel shows Ashurbanipal performing a ritual libation using the severed head of the Elamite king Teumman, whom he defeated at the Battle of Til-Tuba (the defeated king’s head was also paraded through the streets of Nineveh). These images of military victories and triumphal celebrations seem contrived to send visitors a clear message of the price paid by those who dared to resist Assyrian power.
ROYAL PRIDE
A panel from Ashurbanipal's north palace in Nineveh shows a lion.BRITISH MUSEUM/SCALA, FLORENCEThis stone relief depicts with astonishing realism the death throes of a male lion that has been mortally wounded by Ashurbanipal during a ritual lion hunt. It belongs to a series of stone panels showing hunting scenes that decorated the hallways in Ashurbanipal’s North Palace in Nineveh. Such hunts were sacred to Assyrian kings as they symbolized the king’s ability to protect his people. As early as the ninth century B.C., a royal inscription records Ashurnasirpal II boasting of his hunting prowess: “The gods Ninurta and [Nergal, who love my priesthood, gave to me the wild beasts and commanded me to hunt]. 300 lions ... six strong [wild] virile [bulls] with horns ... and the winged birds of the sky.”
Perhaps the most famous pieces of art from the North Palace are the reliefs of a lion hunt, the sport of kings in ancient Assyria. Rendered in a striking, lifelike manner, Ashurbanipal and his retinue kill multiple lions, whose painful deaths are shown in gruesome detail.
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King’s lament
Ashurbanipal assumed the throne when he was only 16 and ruled for 38 years. He presided over many campaigns from the Nile to the Persian Gulf. Most often he stayed in Nineveh, keeping watch over the empire’s administrative machinery and dealing with palace intrigues, while his generals conducted his wars.
BATTLE OF TIL-TUBA
Panels from the North Palace depict Ashurbanipal’s victory against the Elamites at the Ulai River (in present-day Iran) in 653 B.C.BRITISH MUSUEM/SCALA, FLORENCE
As Ashurbanipal ages, his writings change. On the last tablet known to be authored by him, he does not sound like the confident conqueror:
"I did well unto god and man, to dead and living. Why have sickness ... and misery ... befallen me? I cannot do away with the strife in my country and the dissensions in my family. Disturbing scandals oppress me always. Misery of mind and of flesh bow me down; with cries of woe I bring my days to an end. On the day of the city-god, the day of the festival, I am wretched; death is seizing hold of me, and bears me down."
Historians don’t know what maladies afflicted him as he aged. Some hypothesize that lingering effects from a hunting wound caught up with him or perhaps an illness left him vulnerable at age 54.
PROTECTORS OF THE PALACE
The Sebetti Panel from the north palace in Nineveh, circa 645-640 B.C., is shown with the color projected on the figures for a 2018-2019 exhibition at the British Museum.ALAMY/ACIThree bearded figures on a relief once stood watch over an entrance to the throne room of Ashurbanipal’s North Palace. Painted in colorful hues, they were more than just mere decoration. Researchers have identified them as representations of the Sebetti, a group of minor warrior deities from the Mesopotamian pantheon. Each wields an ax in the right hand and a dagger in the left (analysis of the relief shows that they originally were armed with bows rather than these handheld weapons). These three protective spirits were probably complemented by another relief (which has not been recovered) featuring four more figures, as the Sebetti were depicted in groups of seven and associated with the Pleiades, a closely grouped cluster of seven stars in the constellation Taurus. Another common depiction of the Sebetti was an emblem of seven dots. Worship of these spirits dated back centuries before Ashurbanipal’s rule, as evidenced in inscriptions and temples built by earlier kings Sennacherib (reigned 705–681 B.C.) and Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883-859 B.C.).
The aging king clearly saw the signs that his empire, his life’s work, was beginning to crumble. Perhaps Ashurbanipal foresaw that southern Babylon, Palestine, Phoenicia, and Media would be the first in his empire to go, and that short-lived rulers would fail to stem the tide of rebellion and departure.
How he died is unknown; even the year is uncertain. In Lord Byron’s play Sardanapalus (Greek for Ashurbanipal), the king sets his palace afire and perishes in the flames. That story is most likely legend since that is how Ashurbanipal’s brother Shamash-shum-ukin died when Ashurbanipal’s troops took over Babylon.
Barely a decade after his death, the Assyrians would find themselves hemmed in their Mesopotamian homeland. Not long after, the great city of Nineveh itself would fall and be laid to waste. Two hundred years later, Xenophon would march his mercenary army where Nineveh once stood, but absolutely no trace of Ashurbanipal’s capital remained for his soldiers to trample underfoot.