Assurbanipal

(669-626 BC). At the beginning of the reign of Assurbanipal owned Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, Palestine and Lower Egypt, to the lands it annexed Upper Egypt and Elam. Although Tiglath-Pileser III had translated many of the Chaldean community in Anatolia and Armenia, Ashshurbanipalu again had to fight them and their ancestral lands in southern Iraq, and on the northern borders of the state. The civil war against his brother Assurbanipal, king of Babylon Shamashshumukina in 653 BC, although it was successful, yet weakened his power. The subsequent military action in Elam failed to stop increasing Medes kingdom in Iran. Nevertheless, the Pharaohs of Egypt Psamtik and his son Necho - representatives of the dynasty, set on the Egyptian throne Ashshurbanipalom after he drove the pharaoh XXV (Ethiopian) dynasty - to the end remained allies of Assyria.
Like his predecessors in the Assyrian throne, Assurbanipal was a great leader and also an educated man and philanthropist. His 43-year reign - the heyday of art and literature. In his inscriptions he is proud to announce that its 'ear was open to knowledge' and that he learned to interpret the language of the stars and understand multiplication and division. One of his plate reads: 'a delight for me was to repeat by heart the wonderful creations of the dark Sumerian and Akkadian difficult to remember'. Many researchers reckon the ancient inscriptions of the Assurbanipal among the best works of ancient literature. In Nineveh, he founded two huge library, which contained important historical evidence and religious texts, as well as the royal correspondence. These libraries included the collection of poetic, historical, scientific, religious works, and works on lexicography and grammar.