Neo-Assyrian Empire

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The Neo-Assyrian Empire of Mesopotamia formed around 940 BC and ended around 600 BC. In a span of about 350 years the Assyrians made a bid for supremacy among the known civilizations of the world.

By the eighth century BC, Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser III had built a vast empire spanning across Egypt, Anatolia, Africa, and Mesopotamia.

The Neo-Assyrian Kings

Two distinct dynasties are known to have ruled the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The early kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire were direct descendents of the Assyrian monarchs of the Middle Kingdom. King Sargon II was followed by a line of illustrious kings. The last of the great kings of the Neo-Assyrian Empire was King Ashurbanipal who ascended the throne in 668 BC.

Scholars vary on the exact dates of reign of the Neo-Assyrian kings. The following is a widely acknowledged Neo-Assyrian kings list.

King Ashur-Dan II Adad-Nirari II Tukulti-Ninurta II Ashur-nasir-pal II Shalmaneser III Shamshi-Adad V Adad-Nirari III Shalmaneser IV Ashur-Dan III Ashur-Nirari V Tiglath-Pileser III Shalmaneser V Sargon II Sennacherib Esarhaddon Ashurbanipal Ashur-Etil-Ilani Sin-Shar-Ishkun Ashur-Uballit II

Reign 934 BC – 912 BC 911 BC – 891 BC 890 BC – 884 BC 883 BC – 859 BC 858 BC – 824 BC 823 BC – 811 BC 810 BC – 783 BC 782 BC – 773 BC 772 BC – 755 BC 754 BC – 745 BC 744 BC – 727 BC 726 BC – 722 BC 721 BC – 705 BC 704 BC – 681 BC 680 BC – 669 BC 668 BC – 631 BC 630 BC – 623 BC 622 BC – 612 BC 611 BC – 609 BC

Neo-Assyrian Culture
The Neo-Assyrian kings were great patrons of art and literature. King Ashurbanipal’s collection of ancient Mesopotamian literature in Nineveh includes the best preserved versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Atra-Hasis. Cuneiform writing was still in vogue and though the elite scribes used Akkadian, Aramaic was the preferred language of the masses. The superior architecture of the Neo-Assyrians is evident in cities such as Damascus, Tyre, Sidon, Thebes, Hattusha, and Babylon.

Fall of the Assyrian Empire

The death of King Ashurbanipal in 631 BC heralded the disintegration of the Assyrian Empire. Babylon had been a weak link in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. While Ashurbanipal had successfully quelled Shamash-Shum-Ukin’s rebellion in Babylon, his son Ashur-Etil-Ilani was ousted by General Sin-Shumu-Lishir who was in turn replaced by Sin-Shar-Ishkun. Chaldean dominance in Babylon resulted in a rebellion of the vassal states that rallied under Nabopolassar. By 625 BC, most of Babylonia was embroiled in civil war.

Besides internal rivalry, Assyria also faced the combined offensive of Nabopolassar and the Median King Cyaxares. By 612 BC, Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, had fallen and King Sin-Shar-Ishkun had been killed. Greatly weakened, Assyria could offer token resistance with support from the Egyptians, and in 605 BC Assyria had ceased to exist as an independent nation. By about 800 BC, Aramaic had started to replace Akkadian as the local language of Assyria. By 605 BC very few people knew Akkadian.