King Ashurbanipal, ruler of Assyria

- ruled from 668 to 630 BC

He succeeded his father Asarhaddon on the Assyrian throne in late 669 BC. Two years later, he decided to continue the conquest of Egypt begun by his father. At Memphis, he defeated the pharaoh Taharaka and forced him to flee to Thebes in the south of the country. Ashurbanipal himself did not take part in this expedition and directed the whole campaign from Nineveh by means of a perfectly functioning system of mounted couriers.

Nineveh flourished during his reign, and many buildings were erected there, including an important library with a vast archive of cuneiform texts containing almost all the knowledge of the time. Ashurbanipal described himself as a scholar who could solve complex mathematical problems and read both Sumerian and Akkadian texts. His greatest passion, however, was hunting, as evidenced by the text on the famous set of reliefs with which he decorated his palace, which reads. But that didn't stop him. At the command of Nergal, the god of the steppe, who had given me manly strength, I drew my iron sword and pierced him, so that he let out his soul."

In 664 B.C. Pharaoh Taharaka died, and his nephew Tanutamon became ruler at Thebes, and immediately set out north to recapture Memphis and drive the Assyrians from there. He then crushed the armies of the Assyrian vassals in the Nile Delta and took possession of Memphis. When Ashurbanipal learned of this, he personally marched into Egypt at the head of an army in 657 B.C. and forced Tanutamon to flee. After recapturing Memphis, he marched south, sacked Thebes, and returned to Nineveh with a large booty. In 653 B.C. he made a campaign against Elam, defeated its king, Teumman, on the banks of the Ulai, and then exhibited his head at Arbil and Nineveh.

Also with Babylon, Ashshubanipal waged war when, in 652 B.C., he rose against Assyrian rule with the support of the Elamites. Ashurbanipal besieged the city in 650 BC and conquered it in late 648 BC. He had the rebels executed and their dismembered bodies thrown to birds and fish in the Euphrates. He then undertook a second expedition against Elam, the allies of Babylon, defeated them, conquered and sacked Susa, desecrated and desecrated the tombs of the Elamite kings, and then had the land covered with salt so that nothing would grow on it.

During his reign, the Assyrian empire reached its greatest territorial extent. There are no sources for the end of Ashurbanipal's reign, even the date of his death is uncertain. It is believed that he died in 627 BC.

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