ASSUR-BANI-PAL creates a son"), the grand monarque of Assyria, was the prototype of the Greek Sardanap alus, and appears probably in the corrupted form of Asnapper in Ezra iv. Io. He had been publicly nominated king of Assyria (on the 12th of Iyyar) by his father Esar-haddon, some time before the latter's death, Babylonia being assigned to his twin-brother Samas-sum-yukin, in the hope of gratifying the national feeling of the Babylonians.
After Esar-haddon's death in 668 B.C. the first task of Assur bani-pal was to finish the Egyptian campaign. Tirhakah, who had reoccupied Egypt, fled to Ethiopia, and the Assyrian army spent 40 days in ascending the Nile from Memphis to Thebes. Soon afterwards Necho, the satrap of Sais, and two others were de tected intriguing with Tirhakah ; Necho and one of his compan ions were sent in chains to Nineveh, but were there pardoned and restored to their principalities. Tirhakah died 667 B.c., and his successor, Tandaman (Tanuat-Amon), entered Upper Egypt, where a general revolt against Assyria took place, headed by Thebes. Memphis was taken by assault and the Assyrian troops driven out of the country. Tyre seems to have revolted at the same time. Assur-bani-pal, however, lost no time in pouring fresh forces into the revolted province. Once more the Assyrian army made its way up the Nile, Thebes was plundered, its temples were destroyed, and two obelisks were carried to Nineveh as trophies (see Nahum iii. 8) . Meanwhile, the siege of insular Tyre was closely pressed, its water-supply was cut off, and it was com pelled to surrender.
Assur-bani-pal was now at the height of his power. The land of the Manna (Minni), south-east of Ararat, had been wasted, its capital captured by the Assyrians, and its king reduced to vassalage. A war with Teumman of Elam had resulted in the overthrow of the Elamite army; the head of Teumman was sent to Nineveh, and another king, Umman-igas, was appointed by the Assyrians. The kings of Cilicia and the Tabal offered their daughters to the harem of Assur-bani-pal ; embassies came from Ararat, and even Gyges of Lydia dispatched envoys to "the great king" in the hope of obtaining help against the Cimmerians. Sud denly the mighty empire began to totter. The Lydian king, find ing that Nineveh was helpless to assist him, turned instead to Egypt and furnished the mercenaries with whose help Psam metichus drove the Assyrians out of the country and suppressed his brother satraps. Egypt was thus lost to Assyria forever (66o B.c.). In Babylonia, moreover, discontent was arising, and finally Samas-sum-yukin put himself at the head of the national party and declared war upon his brother. Elamite aid was readily forth coming, especially when stimulated by bribes, and the Arab tribes joined in the revolt. The resources of the Assyrian empire were strained to their utmost. But as a result in some measure of the internecine troubles of Elam, the Babylonian army and its allies were defeated and driven into Babylon, Sippara, Borsippa and Cutha. One by one the cities fell, and Babylon finally was starved into surrender (648 B.c.) after Samas-sum-yukin had burned him self in his palace to -avoid falling into the conqueror's hands.
It was now the turn of the Arabs, some of whom had been in Babylon during the siege, while others had occupied themselves in plundering Edom, Moab and the Northern Arabia was traversed by the Assyrian forces, the Nabataeans were almost exterminated, and the desert tribes terrorized into order. Elam was alone left to be dealt with, and the last resources of the empire were therefore expended in preventing it from ever being again a thorn in the Assyrian side.
But the effort had exhausted Assyria. Drained of men and resources, it was no longer able to make head against the Cim merian and Scythian hordes who now poured over western Asia. The Cimmerian Dugdamme (Lygdamis in Strabo i. 3, 16), whom Assur-bani-pal called "a limb of Satan," after having sacked Sardis, had been slain in Cilicia, but other Scythian invaders came to take his place. When Assur-bani-pal died in 626 (?) B.c., his empire was already in decay, and within a few years the end came. (See SARDANAPALUS.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-George Smith, History of Assurbanipal (1871) ; Bibliography.-George Smith, History of Assurbanipal (1871) ; S. A. Smith, Die Keilschrifttexte Asurbanipals (1887-1889) ; P. Jensen in E. Schrader's Keilinschri f tliche Bibliothek, ii. (1889) ; J. A. Knudt zon, Assyrische Gebete an den Sonnengott (1893) ; C. Lehmanm, Schamashschumukin (1892) ; Delitztch, "Asurbanipal and assyrische Kultur seiner Zeit" in Der Alte Orient (Leipzig, 1909) ; M. Streck, Asurbanipal and die letzen assvrischen Konige (1916), an analysis of inscriptions; chapters in R. W. Roger's History of Babylonia and Assyria (1915) ; and H. R. H. Hall, History of the Near East (1924)• (A. H. S.) ASSUS (mod. BEHRAM), an ancient Greek city of the Troad, on the Adramyttian gulf. The situation is magnificent. The natural cleavage of the trachyte into joint planes had already scarped out shelves which it was comparatively easy for human labour to shape; and so, high up this cone of trachyte, the Greek town of Assus was built, tier above tier, the summit of the crag being crowned with a Doric temple of Athena. The view from the summit is very beautiful and of great historical interest. In front is Lesbos, one of whose towns, Methymna, is said to have sent forth the founders of Assus, as early, perhaps, as r 000 or 90o B.c. The whole south coast-line of the Troad is seen, and in the south east the ancient territory of Pergamum, from whose masters the possession of Assus passed to Rome by the bequest of Attalus III. (133 B.c.) . The great heights of Ida rise in the east. Northward, the Tuzla is seen winding through a rich valley. This valley was traversed by the road which St. Paul must have followed when he came overland from Alexandria Troas to Assus, leaving his fellow travellers to proceed by sea. The north-west gateway, to which this road led, is flanked by two massive towers, of Hellenic work. On the shore below, the ancient mole can be traced by large blocks under the clear water. Assus affords the only harbour on the 5om. of coast between Cape Lectum and the east end of the Adramyttian gulf ; hence it must always have been the chief shipping-place for the exports of the southern Troad. The great natural strength of the site protected it against petty assailants, but, like other towns in that region, it has known many masters Lydians, Persians, the kings of Pergamum, Romans and Ottoman Turks. From the Persian wars to about 350 B.C. Assus enjoyed at least partial independence. It was about B.C. that Aris totle spent three years at Assus with Hermeas, an ex-slave who had succeeded his former master Eubulus as despot of Assus and Atarneus. Under its Turkish name of Behram, Assus is still the commercial port of the southern Troad, being the place to which loads of valonia are conveyed by camels from all parts of the country. Explorations were conducted at Assus in 1881-83 by Mr. J. T. Clarke for the Archaeological Institute of America.
See J. T. Clarke, Assos, 2 vo1s. 1882 and 1898 (Papers of Arch. Inst. of America, i. ii.) ; and authorities under TROAD.