Ashurbanipal: The Mighty Lion of Assyria

today's video is sponsored by short form  you don't have time to read every book   ever written and that's where short form comes in   you guys can get a five day trial to their  times saving book guides more on them in a bit we talked a lot about the ancient empires that  were centered thousands of years ago in that   cradle of civilization known as mesopotamia  we've talked about the acadians the babylonians   the persians and today we're going to take a  look at the assyrians specifically we're going   to examine the life of ashubanapol arguably the  greatest king of assyria he held dominion over the   neo-assyrian empire which in his time was the most  far-reaching empire in history while its capital   nuneva was probably the largest richest and most  magnificent city in the ancient world ashabanapal   is best remembered for his royal library which  had amassed a gigantic collection unlike any   before it thanks to the king's zealous hoarding  of texts but make no mistake ashabanapol was a   ruthless and bloodthirsty warmonger one the  likes of whom the world had seldom seen up   to that point he transformed his mighty assyrian  army into a war machine that mercilessly stomped   his enemies into submission the egyptians  the babylonians the alamites the simerians   the arabs they all faced the wrath of ashabanapal  born circa 685 bc bashabana paul was the son of   esherhaden king of the neo-syrian empire and  one of his royal wives perhaps ashara hamad the   only one whose name we know ashabanapol was part  of the sargoni dynasty of assyria which ended   up being the empire's last dynasty before its  complete collapse but also represented assyria   at the height of its power between approximately  2000 bc and 500 bc mesopotamia was dominated by   two cultures the assyrians and the babylonians  who ostensibly took turns in being the regional   hegemon ashurbanipal's great-grandfather sargon  ii founded the sargani dynasty by usurping throne   from his predecessor in 722 bc and ushering in one  final golden age for assyria he was succeeded by   senate cherub in 705 bc who grew his empire's  power even further and unleashed utter destruction   on his kingdom's arch-enemy babylon leaving the  city in ruins following a brutal siege and sacking   however his biggest contribution was moving  his empire's capital to the city of nineveh   and undertaking massive construction projects to  transform it into the envy of the ancient world   after him came ashabanapal's father esha haddan in  681 bc even though he was sent a cherub's son he   distanced himself from his father both in texts  and in he considered that it would be better to   appease the babylonians rather than rule them  through fear and violence so one of his most   ambitious projects was to rebuild what sennacherib  had destroyed eshe haddon restored all of   babylon's important buildings and structures and  even took part in religious ceremonies honoring   the babylonian gods such as marduk that being said  echehaden wasn't completely peaceful and although   he showed a lot of favor to babylon that did  not extend to other vassal states such as saigon   and iratu which tried to rebel before being once  again dominated by the assyrian army eshehaden   also attacked new lands most notable of all being  egypt which he conquered in 671 bc the assyrian   drove out the reigning pharaoh and became the  first mesopotamian ruler to give himself the title   king of egypt esha haddan had a large family and  ashurbanipal was probably his fourth eldest son   nobody expected him to ascend to the throne which  is why he most likely trained as a scribe or a   priest when he was young however escher hadn't  had been a sickly man throughout his life and   so were many of his children his eldest son and  crown prince died unexpectedly around 672 bc   so esta haddon was left with a task of deciding  which offspring would become the new ruler he   decided that there should be two kings the king of  assyria and the king of babylon although the two   were technically equal everybody knew that  the king of assyria was the true ruler who   governed the whole empire for whatever reason  ershaden dismissed his third son as a candidate   scholars speculate that this was because the boy  was already in poor health so it was assumed that   he wouldn't live very long that left the king  with his second and fourth oldest sons shamash again we don't know what reasoning esha  hadn't had but he named ashabanapal as his   true successor while the older brother was  given the lesser title of king of babylon   afterwards he had all of his vassals recognize  ashabanapol as his legitimate heir by issuing   a decree called the loyalty treaty of nakia  zakutu named after ashabanapal's grandmother   this came in handy because esha haddon did not  have a lot of time left even though the king was   already in poor health he marched to fight  the egyptians in 669 bc who were rebelling   against a syrian rule he died on the way but the  steps that he took previously ensured that the   transition of power went smoothly and each  son accepted his new role at least for now in 668 bc ashabanapal became the ruler  of the neo-assyrian empire the largest   and most powerful empire that the world had ever  seen up to that point his priority was to finish   what his father had started and bring egypt back  under his dominion the conquest of egypt was not   an easy one eschaton's first attempt had been  repelled and even when he had been successful in   sacking thieves in 671 bc he was unable to capture  the pharaoh tahako or tahara who fled to kush   now tahako was back and with reinforcements and  after occupying memphis he forced all the local   officials to recognize him as pharaoh of egypt  again therefore in 667 bc ashurbanipal marched   on egypt to crush the rebellion once and for  all fortunately for us ashurbanipal was an   incredibly thorough record keeper archaeologists  have recovered numerous tablet cylinders reliefs   and other artifacts that were commissioned in  his time and detail his exploits all of his   successes at least he wasn't as diligent when  it came to preserving his failures for posterity   anyway one of these artifacts is known as the  rasam cylinder and it gives a long first-hand   account of most of his military campaigns so  we might as well find out how it happened from   the king of assyria himself he said in my first  campaign i marched against tahaka king of egypt   and ethiopia whom eshardon king of assyria the  father who begot me had defeated and whose land   he brought under his sway this same tahaka forgot  the might of ashur ishtar and the other great gods   my lords and put his trust upon his own power he  turned against the kings and regrets whom my own   father had appointed in egypt he entered and took  residence in memphis the city which my own father   had conquered and incorporated into a syrian  territory at these deeds my heart became enraged   my soul cried out i raised my hands in prayer to  assure and the assyrian ishtar i busted my mighty   forces which assured ishtar had placed in my hands  against egypt and ethiopia i directed the march   in the course of my march 22 kings of the seacoast  of the midst of the sea and of the mainland   servants subject to me brought their rich presence  before me and kissed by feet those kings together   with their forces on their ships by sea on the  dry land with my armies i caused to take path   and road tarko king of egypt and ethiopia heard of  the advance of my army in memphis and mustered his   fighting men against me offering armed resistance  in battle with the help of the great gods my lords   who advance at my side i defeated his army  in a battle on the open plain tahako heard of   the defeat of his armies while in memphis the  terrible splendor of asur and ishtar overcame   him and he went mad the glory of my majesty  with which the gods of heaven and earth have   crowned me overpowered him he forsook memphis  and fled to save his life to thebes that city   i seized i had my troops enter and occupy  it ashabanapal could be pretty cruel even   by ancient standards as evidenced by the fate of  the cities that plotted against him and the people   of sais pinetti snoo and the rest of the cities  as many as had joined wisdom in plotting evil   they struck down with the sword both great and  small not a man among them escaped their corpses   they hung on stakes they stripped off their  skins and covered the city walls with them as   for toharco he fled once again and died in 664 bc  ashabanapal then installed naco the first as the   new ruler under his vassalage and went home hoping  that that would be the end of it but it wasn't   the end because tahago had appointed a successor  named tantamani or tanwittamani and he also tried   to retake egypt prompting a second campaign from  the assyrians that very same year ashabanapal was   once again successful and this time his actions  were more drastic and definitive ending the sack   of thebes in 663 bc a momentous event that is  even mentioned several times in the bible he   effectively ended the nubian line of pharaohs and  returned to nineveh rich in plundering including   silver gold precious stones and all the wealth  of the palace rich cloth precious linen great   horses supervising men and women two obelisks  of splendid electrum weighing 2 500 talents   now we'll continue with today's story in just a  moment but first a word from a brand new sponsor   short form if you like my channels then you  probably like learning stuff a lot of you   guys like to expose yourself to new ideas or new  information by reading which is great but the last   two decades have seen an exponential rise in the  amount of content that's available for consumption   from youtube content like this very video you're  watching right now to articles podcasts and   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syria ashby nepal had a lot of ambitious  construction plans especially in the capital of   nineveh during his time some scholars believe that  nunavut became the largest city in the world with   a population of approximately a hundred and twenty  thousand people his grandfather senate chariot had   built a massive opulent palace in the capital  which became known as the palace without rival   due to its grandeur not to be outdone  ashabanapal constructed his own palace but   also new temples to the gods as well as city  walls and gates which were adorned with reliefs   that even to this day constitute some of the most  detailed and well-preserved examples of assyrian   art many of the reliefs show ashabanapol engaged  in lion hunting which was not only considered the   sport of kings but also a symbol of a ruler's  ability to protect his people from assyria's   enemies but the walls and the temples all paled in  comparison with the king's most ambitious project   the royal library of ashabanapol this may  have been the first great library in the   world older than the more famous library of  alexandria ashabanapol possessed a thirst for   knowledge almost like an obsession the  same way other kings would crave jewels   gold and other treasures all the cities in his  empire were ordered to bring him copies of the   most important texts and tributes and he sometimes  even conquered new settlements just to get his   hands on their libraries his reasoning was thus i  ashibanapol king of the universe on whom the gods   have bestowed intelligence i have placed these  tablets for the future in the library of nineveh   for my life and for the well-being of my soul  to sustain the foundations of my royal name   soon after ashabanapal's death the library was  destroyed in a fire but this turned out to be   a real boon for archaeology most of the text was  written on clay tablets and they didn't burn in   the fire they were actually hardened and then  got buried in the rubble they were rediscovered   during the mid 19th century and since then over  30 000 tablets and fragments have been recovered   becoming one of the greatest troves of information  about the ancient world construction projects and   scholarly pursuits aside ashabanapol was still a  warmonger at heart and he remained involved in one   military conflict or another for most of his reign  again going by the rat and cylinder after his two   campaigns in egypt ashabanapal fought some of the  other smaller kingdoms that either tried to rebel   or provided aid to his enemies this included tar  and award to phoenician states and the neo-hittite   kingdoms called tabal and hilaku he then sent aid  to king gaijis of lydia in his fight against the   sumerians and then invaded the land of the manians  however the biggest conflict at this time was his   war with the elamites elam was a civilization that  settled north of the persian gulf next to sumer   occupying the western part of modern-day iran it  remains to this day a preeminent yet mysterious   culture of the ancient world preeminent because it  was around for over 2 600 years mysterious because   almost everything we know about them comes from  second-hand sources like the acadian sumerians   babylonians egyptians and of course the assyrians  the alabite language seems to have developed in   isolation from its neighbors and has yet to be  fully deciphered one thing we do know is that   entered into direct conflict with assyria in the  late 8th century bc during the reign of sargon ii   he was ashubanappal's great-grandfather the two  sides continued to fight during the reigns of   senecarab and eshehaden but ashabanapal decided  that he would end the war once and for all by   annihilating the elamite civilization this was a  drawn-out affair that occurred over two different   campaigns but once again we can let ashubanapul  himself tell us what happened like a terrible   hurricane i overwhelmed alarm in its entirety  i cut off the head of tumen the king countless   of their warriors i slew with their corpses i  filled the plane about souza their blood i let   run down the ally it's water i died red like wool  although victorious ash banapal had to end his   first campaign against alam in a hurry because he  received word that alliance of medes simerians and   persians took advantage of his departure and  launched a surprise attack on nineveh therefore   bashabanapo returned to his capital and with the  help of his allies the scythians he managed to   repel the invaders in alarm he installed a new  king before leaving but it didn't take long for   the elamites to rebel against him therefore in  647 bc ashbanipal marched on alam again this time   he enacted widespread destruction including  raising the capital of susan to the ground   sousa the great holy city abode of their gods  seat of their mysteries i conquered i entered its   palace as i opened their treasuries where silver  and gold goods and wealth were amassed i destroyed   the ziggurat of susa i smashed its shining copper  horns i reduced the temples of elum to nought   their gods and goddesses i scattered to the wind  the tombs of their ancient and recent kings i   devastated i exposed to the sun and i carried  away their bones towards the land of ashore i   devastated the provinces of alarm and on their  lands i sowed salt anyone of royal alamite blood   was made a slave most of the population was  relocated and the cities and fields were left   empty ashabanapal thought that if he turned alarm  into a wasteland it would no longer be a threat   however because fate can have a cruel sense of  humor the exact opposite happened the persians   took over that territory and slowly began  rebuilding it while also gaining an important   foothold in the region just a few decades after  alarm's destruction assyria would fall as well   that's still in the future though for now  ashabanapal had another problem to contend   with one that many regarded as inevitable his  brother shammush to nobody's surprise he was never   happy that his father named his younger brother as  heir to his empire while he received the inferior   mostly ceremonial title king of babylon for 16  years he bided his time until he decided to strike   in 652 bc the civil war erupted although it  seems that shemashum okin's goal was to achieve   independence for babylon and become its true king  rather than an attempt to usurp the throne of the   whole empire according to some inscriptions he  had been plotting against his brother for years   and had conspired with alum against ash banapal  they weren't the only ones either as once the war   started shamash kin found plenty of other allies  willing to fight on its side to gain independence   for their kingdoms this included the arameans the  chaldeans and the kingdoms of gutien and muru even   so it seems like the strength of this coalition  was no match for assyria although as they say   history is written by the pictures and in this  case we only have ashurbanipal's inscriptions to   use as a source unsurprisingly he is presented as  being nigh indestructible thanks to the protection   of asur and ishtar i trod them underfoot to  their farthest border the yoke of a sewer which   they had cast off i placed upon them revenues  dues and first fruits for the gods of assyria i   imposed upon them my royal tribute and tax yearly  without ceasing i laid upon them it seems that   most rebellion kingdoms got off pretty easy  especially since ashbaner paul had a reputation   of being exceedingly cruel to his enemies however  that was not also the case for babylon the   assyrian king mounted a siege on the city that  lasted over two years driving the population   into starvation with one inscription mentioning  that the babylonians had to resort to cannibalism   by eating the flesh of their sons and daughters to  stay alive when the city finally fell in 648 b.c   mckinnon committed suicide by fire as for the  rest of the sinners as ashabadopoul called them   this was their fate as for those men and their  vulgar males who uttered vulgarity against assure   my god and plotted evil against me i slit their  mouths and brought them low the rest of the people   alive by the colossae between which had cut down  sena cherub the father of the father who begot me   at that time i cut down those people there as an  offering to his shade their dismembered bodies   i fed to the dogs swine wolves and eagles to  the birds of heaven and the fish of the deep ashabanapal's final military campaign that we know  of took place in the arabian peninsula against the   various kingdoms that were situated there he first  took up the sword against a king named uwait who   is known only from this inscription he was a  former vassal who allied himself with shamish   shimokin during the failed rebellion according  to the rasam cylinder ash banapal defeated ouit   in battle but he did not kill him as he had a more  humiliating punishment in mind for him instead he   placed the former king in a kennel alongside dogs  and jackals so he would guard one of the gates   into nineveh afterwards ashabanapal fought amaladi  king of the kuderites after the latter invaded a   kingdom that was under assyrian protection again  ash banipal was triumphant and he stuck his enemy   in a dog kennel his final foes were two brothers  imu and rba who were the sons of a king who also   rebelled alongside the babylonians they too were  defeated and taken prisoner and it seems that abia   died of thirst on his way to nineveh while  amu was flayed alive in the assyrian capital   ashbanipal also conquered the cities of ushu  and akka massacring its people and capturing its   treasures for refusing to pay tribute to him now  we arrive at the mysterious end of his reign which   is full of guesswork and debatable ideas due to a  lack of sources sometime around 630 bc ashabanapal   fell ill and traveled to the city of haran in  modern-day turkey at that point he disappears from   the historical record so he was either deposed or  most likely he died there of some unknown illness   his son asha atollani became the new king of the  neo-assyrian empire but he lacked the strong will   ruthlessness and determination of his father  and all of assyria's vassals knew this and many   revolts occurred in the years that followed the  syrians the medes the babylonians emerged as the   greatest threat to assyria as they banded together  to bring down the once mighty war machine that had   subjugated them all the external strife might also  have been compounded by a civil war between asha   attiliani and his brother sin shah ishkun who  may have wanted the assyrian throne for himself   we know that the first sibling only ruled for  a few years before being succeeded by sinsha   ishkan but we have no idea if asha ettalani died  or was usurped his brother had a longer reign of   approximately 15 years but it mainly consisted  of sinsha ishkan desperately trying to hold on   to his crumbling empire ultimately he failed  and the once mighty capital of nineveh fell   in 612 bc thus marking the end of the neo-assyrian  empire and the start of the neo-babylonian empire so i really hope you found that video  interesting if you did please do hit   that thumbs up button below don't forget to  subscribe and as always thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

Views: 30,250

Rating: 4.9800453 out of 5

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: 0n_h-4X9v-w

Length: 21min 54sec (1314 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021