The End of The Assyrian Empire
The Assyrian empire fell in 609 BC, in the years after his death. During the final decade of his rule, Assyria was quite peaceful, but the country apparently faced a serious decline. Documentation from the last years of Ashurbanipal's reign is very scarce but the latest attestations of Ashurbanipal's reign are of his year 38 (631 BC), but according to later sources he reigned for 42 years (627 BC).
Whatever may have been the case, after his death there was a power struggle. The contenders included Ashur-etil-ilani, his brother Sinsharishkun, general Sin-shumu-lishir, and the eventual new king of Babylonia, Nabopolassar. Who fought against whom is not certain; however, the internal strife weakened Assyria to such a degree that it was able to be destroyed.
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