Assur-bani-pal’s victories were gained by his generals.  He himself never appears to have taken the field in person.  His tastes were literary, his habits luxurious.  He was by far the most munificent patron of learning Assyria ever produced; in fact, he stands alone in this respect among Assyrian kings.  The library of Nineveh was increased tenfold by his patronage and exertions; literary works were brought from Babylonia, and a large staff of scribes was kept busily employed in copying and re-editing them.  Unfortunately, the superstition of the monarch led him to collect more especially books upon omens and dreams, and astrological treatises, but other works were not overlooked, and we owe to him a large number of the syllabaries and lists of words in which the cuneiform characters and the Assyrian vocabulary are explained.

When Assur-bani-pal died the doom of the Assyrian empire had already been pronounced.  The authority of his two successors, Assur-etil-ilani-yukin and Sin-sar-iskun, or Saracos, was still acknowledged both in Syria and in Babylonia, where Kandalanu had been succeeded as viceroy by Nabopolassar.  One of the contract-tablets from the north of Babylonia is dated as late as the seventh year of Sin-sar-iskun.  But not long after this the Babylonian viceroy revolted against his sovereign, and with the help of the Scythian king, who had established himself at Ekbatana, defeated the Assyrian forces and laid siege to Nineveh.  The siege ended in the capture and destruction of the city, the death of its king, and the overthrow of his empire.  In B.C. 606 the desolator of the nations was itself laid desolate, and its site has never been inhabited again.

Nabopolassar entered upon the heritage of Assyria.  It has been supposed that he was a Chaldaean like Merodach-baladan; whether this be so or not, he was hailed by the Babylonians as a representative of their ancient kings.  The Assyrian empire had become the prey of the first-comer.  Elam had been occupied by the Persians, the Scyths, whom classical writers have confounded with the Medes, had overrun and ravaged Assyria and Mesopotamia, while Palestine and Syria had fallen to the share of Egypt.  But once established on the Babylonian throne, Nabopolassar set about the work of re-organising western Asia, and the military abilities of his son Nebuchadrezzar enabled him to carry out his purpose.  The marriage of Nebuchadrezzar to the daughter of the Scythian monarch opened the road through Mesopotamia to the Babylonian armies; the Egyptians were defeated at Carchemish in B.C. 604, and driven back to their own land.  From Gaza to the mouth of the Euphrates, western Asia again obeyed the rule of a Babylonian king.

The death of Nabopolassar recalled Nebuchadrezzar to Babylon, where he assumed the crown.  But the Egyptians still continued to intrigue in Palestine, and the Jewish princes listened to their counsels.  Twice had Nebuchadrezzar to occupy Jerusalem and carry the plotters into captivity.  In B.C. 598 Jehoiachin and a large number of the upper classes were carried into exile; in B.C. 588 Jerusalem was taken after a long siege, its temple and walls razed to the ground, and its inhabitants transported to Babylonia.  The fortress-capital could no longer shelter or tempt the Egyptian foes of the Babylonian empire.