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Some Greek texts describe the fall of Nineveh in terms which mirror Assurbanipal’s conflict with his brother Šamaš-šumu-ukin of Babylon and his death in his palace.
Assurbanipal’s royal inscription, Luckenbill no. 794:
The Assyrian gods cast Šamaš-šumu-ukin my hostile brother who had rebelled against me into the burning flames and destroyed him.
Diodorus Siculus 2.26.9, 2.27.1-2:
Now he (= Sardanapalus) had an oracle handed down from his ancestors that none should capture Nineveh by force of arms unless the river first became an enemy to the city. Imagining that this could never happen, he clung to his hopes, purposing to withstand the siege and to wait for the levies which were to be sent by his subjects … but in the third year (of the siege), a succession of heavy downpours swelled the Euphrates, flooded part of the city, and cast down the wall to a length of 20 stades. Thereupon the king realised that the oracle had been fulfilled, and that the river had manifestly declared war upon the city. Despairing of his fate, but resolved not to fall into the hands of his enemies, he prepared a gigantic pyre in the royal precincts, heaped up all his gold and silver and his kingly raiment as well upon it, shut up his concubines and eunuchs in the chamber ha had made in the midst of the pyre, and burnt himself and the palace together with all of them. The rebels, hearing of the end of Sardanapalus, burst into the city where the wall was down and captured it, then arrayed Abaces in the royal robe, saluted him king, and invested him with supreme authority.
Tale of Two Brothers (Aramaic text in Demotic script) col. 20.7-11 (= 21.7-11):
(The sister of the two brothers to Šamaš-šumu-ukin:) “If you will not listen to my words, and if you will not pay attention to my speech, go from the house of Bel, away from the house of Marduk. Let there be built for you a house of [ … ] construct a house of [ … ]. Throw down tar and pitch and sweet smelling/Arabian perfumes. Bring in your sons and daughters and your doctors who have made you arrogant. When you see how they have wasted away/how (low) they have sunk on you (= to your detriment), let be burned with fire/let fire burn your fat with (that of) your sons and daughters and your doctors who have made you arrogant.”
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 12.38:
But Ctesias says that the king (= Sardanapalus) got into a war, and after collecting a large army was defeated by Arbaces and died by setting fire to himself in the palace; he heaped up a pyre four hundred feet high, on which he placed a hundred and fifty gold couches and an equal number of tables, these also of gold. On the pyre he constructed a chamber of wood one hundred feet long, in which he spread the couches and lay down; and not only he, but his queen was with him, and the concubines were on the other couches. As for his three sons and two daughters, when he saw that things were going badly, he had sent them previously to Nineveh and its ruler there, giving them three thousand talents in gold; he then roofed the chamber with huge, thick beams, and piled all round many thick timbers so that there should be no exit. In it he placed ten million talents of gold, one hundred million of silver, and garments, purple cloths, and robes of every description. He then gave orders to light the pyre, and it burned for fifteen days. The people beheld the smoke with astonishment and thought he was offering sacrifices; only the eunuchs knew the facts. And so Sardanapalus, after he had enjoyed pleasure in strange ways, died as nobly as he could.
Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 12.38
Diodorus Siculus 2.26.9
Diodorus Siculus 2.27.1-2
Royal Inscriptions, Assurbanipal (Luckenbill no. 794)
Tale of Two Brothers (Aramaic text in Demotic script) col. 20.7-11
Tale of Two Brothers (Aramaic text in Demotic script) col. 21.7-11
Bibliography
| Gadd 1923, 29-30 | Gadd, Cyril J. The Fall of Nineveh. London: Harrison and Sons Ltd 1923. |
| MacGinnis 1988, 39 | MacGinnis, J. D. A. “Ctesias and the Fall of Nineveh.” Illinois Classical Studies 13 (1988) 37-42. |
| Steiner and Nims 1985, 75-76 | Steiner, Richard C. and Charles F. Nims. “Ashurbanipal and Shamash-shum-ukin. A Tale of Two Brothers from the Aramaic Text in Demotic Script.” Revue Biblique 92 (1985) 60-81. |
Amar Annus
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