Ashur-uballit II

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Ashur-uballit II
Ruling crown prince of Assyria
Ruler of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
Reign612–609 BC
PredecessorSîn-šar-iškun
Bornc. 645 BC[n 1]
Diedc. 608–606 BC[2] (aged c. 40)
AkkadianAššur-uballiṭ
DynastySargonid dynasty
FatherSîn-šar-iškun[3] (?)

Aššur-uballiṭ II, also spelled Assur-uballit II and Ashuruballit II[4] (Neo-Assyrian Akkadian: 𒀸𒋩𒌑𒋾𒆷, romanized: Aššur-uballiṭ,[5][6] meaning "Ashur has kept alive"),[6] was the final ruler of Assyria, ruling from his predecessor Sîn-šar-iškun's death at the Fall of Nineveh in 612 BC to his own defeat at Harran in 609 BC.[7] He was possibly the son of Sîn-šar-iškun and likely the same person as a crown prince mentioned in inscriptions at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 626 and 623 BC.

Over the course of Sîn-šar-iškun's reign, the Neo-Assyrian Empire had been irreversibly weakened. A revolt in 626–620 BC had seen the loss of the empire's southern provinces to the newly formed Neo-Babylonian Empire and war against its king Nabopolassar and the Medes proved disastrous for Assyria; leading to sacks and destructions of the important cities of Assur and Nineveh in 614 BC and 612 BC respectively.

After the loss of these cities and the death of Sîn-šar-iškun, Aššur-uballiṭ II rallied what remained of the Assyrian army at Harran where, bolstered by an alliance with Egypt, he ruled for three years. His identification as "king of Assyria" comes from Babylonian sources. Contemporary Assyrian inscriptions suggest that the Assyrians saw Aššur-uballiṭ as their legitimate ruler, but continued to refer to him as "crown prince" seeing as he could not undergo the traditional Assyrian coronation ceremony at Assur and thus hadn't formally been bestowed with the kingship by the Assyrian chief deity, Ashur. His rule at Harran came to an end when the city was seized by Medo-Babylonian forces in 610 BC. Aššur-uballiṭ's attempt at retaking it in 609 BC was repulsed whereafter he is no longer mentioned in contemporary chronicles, signalling the end of the ancient Assyrian monarchy.

  1. ^ Reade 1998, p. 264.
  2. ^ Rowton 1951, p. 128.
  3. ^ Radner 2013.
  4. ^ Kia 2016, p. 214.
  5. ^ Bertin 1891, p. 42.
  6. ^ a b Radner 2019, p. 136.
  7. ^ Radner 2019, p. 141.


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