In the mid-650s, a few years before Egypt declared itself independent under Psammetichus I with the help of Carian and Ionian mercenaries and before Šamaš-šuma-ukīn rebelled, the Assyrian Empire had reached the apex of its territorial expansion.[1]Ashurbanipal's vast holdings stretched from the Zagros Mountains in the east to the Mediterranean Sea and Cilicia in the west. Ruling from the capital Nineveh, he managed his extensive kingdom with the aid of his trusted officials, including at least seventy-one provincial governors.[2] Moreover, the Empire had close ties with no less than thirty-nine client states,[3] including many important Phoenician port cities in the Levant, who regularly supplied building materials for building projects in the Assyrian heartland, the so-called "Aššur-Nineveh-Arbela" triangle. Although Ashurbanipal declared victory over his older brother in late 648 (after 30-V), when Šamaš-šuma-ukīn committed suicide or was killed and when the citizens of Babylon voluntarily opened the city's eight gates after a protracted siege,[4] the strength of the Assyrian Empire was waning and its reputation was in tatters. The loss of Egypt as a client a few years earlier (ca. 653) did not help. The punitive military expeditions that Ashurbanipal launched in 647–644, especially against Elam in western Iran and the Qedarite tribal leaders on the Arabian peninsula, only made matters worse, especially after the Assyrian army had destroyed the Elamite religious center Susa.[5] The well-oiled machine that was the Assyrian Empire was visibly starting to rust and, if its collapse had not yet been written on the wall, it was at least imaginable, something that would have been unfathomable only a few years earlier, before Ashurbanipal and Šamaš-šuma-ukīn went to war. Assyria's fortunes continued to decline during Ashurbanipal's final years on the throne, as well as during the reigns of his successors, Aššur-etel-ilāni, Sîn-šuma-līšir, and Sîn-šarra-iškun. Ashurbanipal's inability or failure to closely manage the transition of power, as his father Esarhaddon and grandmother Naqīʾa (Zakūtu) had carefully done, further weakened Assyria, both at home and with its contemporaries (especially in Babylonia),[6] as members of the royal family and influential officials vied for power. In 612, less than twenty years after Ashurbanipal's death, the once-grand and once-all-important Assyrian metropolis Nineveh was captured and destroyed by a Babylonian-Median alliance led by Nabopolassar and Cyaxares (Umakištar) and its final Aššur-appointed king, Sîn-šarra-iškun, was dead. Three years later, in 609, the Assyrian Empire ceased to exist when its last ruler, Aššur-uballiṭ II, fled the city of Ḫarrān before an advancing Babylonian army and was never heard from again. The Assyrian Empire was gone, but not forgotten.
Some aspects of Ashurbanipal's reign and his inscriptions have already been discussed in the introduction to Parts 1 and 2 and that information will not be repeated here. Therefore, interested readers should consult the introductions of RINAP 5/1 and RINAP 5/2 for surveys of Ashurbanipal's inscribed objects from Assyrian cities, an overview of previous editions, studies of his military campaigns and building activities in Assyria, information about the chronology of his long reign, and translations of relevant passages in king lists and Babylonian chronicles. The introduction to the present volume includes information about the texts included in Part 3 and the texts excluded from RINAP 5; a survey of the inscribed objects included in Part 3; Ashurbanipal's building Activities in Babylonia and the East Tigris Region; the end of Ashurbanipal's reign; and Assyria under the Empire's last rulers Aššur-etel-ilāni, Sîn-šuma-līšir, Sîn-šarra-iškun, and Aššur-uballiṭ II. The introduction also includes English translations of three Babylonian Chronicles, including the so-called "Fall of Nineveh Chronicle," which documents the final years of Assyria as a political entity.
[1] According to a Babylonian chronicle, the Šamaš-šuma-ukīn rebellion began on 19-X-652. For an overview of the so-called "Brothers' War," see Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 pp. 22–23; and, for a chronological outline of the revolt, see Frame, Babylonia pp. 188–190.
[2] For details about the Assyrian provinces, see Radner, RLA 11/1–2 (2006) pp. 42–68.
[3] Lauinger, Texts and Contexts pp. 289–290; and Radner, SAAS 29 pp. 313–314 (with n. 25).
[4] Babylon fell sometime after 30-V-648; BM 40577 is the last economic document from Babylon dated by Šamaš-šuma-ukīn's regnal years. Ashurbanipal's own inscriptions state that the gods threw the king of Babylon into a raging conflagration. It is uncertain from this cryptic remark whether Šamaš-šuma-ukīn took his own life or was murdered by his once-loyal supporters. For some details, see Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 p. 23 n. 146.
[5] For overviews of these campaigns, see Novotny and Jeffers, RINAP 5/1 pp. 23–26.
[6] Nabopolassar, a "son of a nobody," seized the throne of Babylon while Sîn-šuma-līšir and Sîn-šarra-iškun fought for control of Assyria after the death of Aššur-etel-ilāni. For further information, see the section Aššur-etel-ilāni and His Chief Eunuch Sîn-šuma-līšir below.
Jamie Novotny
Jamie Novotny, 'Introduction', RINAP 5: The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal, Aššur-etel-ilāni, and Sîn-šarra-iškun, The RINAP/RINAP 5 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2023 [http://oracc.org/rinap/rinap5/rinap53introduction/]