“Assur-bani-pal (or Ashurbanipal, d 626? BC) King of Assyria. The son of Essar-Haddon, Assur-bani-pal ruled Assyria, while his twin brother Samus-sum-yumin ruled Babylonia. Against great odds, Assur-bani-pal maintained his supremacy over Egypt and put down a Tyrian revolt. The most powerful of Assyria’s rulers, he either subjugated or dominated the Manna, the Elamites, and the Cilicians. He also quelled a revolt by his brother in Babylonia and harassed the northern Arabians. However, Assur-bani-pal had overreached himself and exhausted the resources of his own country, to the extent that it collapsed completely not long after his death. He left behind him, however, a legacy of enormous importance for modern times: he had caused to be prepared for his royal library a large number of the most important literary works of the Near East; preserved on tablets, these were excavated in the middle of the 19th century in the ruins of Nineveh, his capital. Some characteristics of Assur-bani-pal are recognizable in the legendary Sardanapalus.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
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