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I am Ashurbanipal: King of the World, King of Assyria
In 668 BCE Ashurbanipal inherited the largest empire in the world, stretching from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the mountains of western Iran. He ruled from his massive capital at Nineveh, in present-day Iraq, where temples and palaces adorned with brilliantly carved sculptures dominated the citadel mound, and an elaborate system of canals brought water to his pleasure gardens and game parks. Ashurbanipal, proud of his scholarship, assembled the greatest library in existence during his reign. Guided by this knowledge, he defined the course of the empire and asserted his claim to be "King of the World".
Beautifully illustrated, this book will feature images of objects excavated from all corners of the empire and will highlight the British Museum’s unrivalled collection of Assyrian reliefs, which bring to life the tumultuous story of Ashurbanipal’s reign: his conquest of Egypt, the crushing defeat of his rebellious brother, and his ruthless campaign against the Elamite rulers of southwest Iran.
Published to accompany a once-in-a-generation exhibition at the British Museum, I am Ashurbanipal gives a fascinating account of the Assyrian Empire told through the story of its last great ruler, and will highlight the importance of preserving Iraq’s rich cultural heritage for future generations.
Beautifully illustrated, this book will feature images of objects excavated from all corners of the empire and will highlight the British Museum’s unrivalled collection of Assyrian reliefs, which bring to life the tumultuous story of Ashurbanipal’s reign: his conquest of Egypt, the crushing defeat of his rebellious brother, and his ruthless campaign against the Elamite rulers of southwest Iran.
Published to accompany a once-in-a-generation exhibition at the British Museum, I am Ashurbanipal gives a fascinating account of the Assyrian Empire told through the story of its last great ruler, and will highlight the importance of preserving Iraq’s rich cultural heritage for future generations.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published November 13, 2018
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About the author
Gareth Brereton
1 bookGareth Brereton is an archeologist and the curator responsible for the British Museum’s Ancient Mesopotamia collection. Brereton is also a Council Member and Trustee for the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI).
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 24, 2018
The book on the exhibition of British Museum. Good articles about Assyrian history, art and historical environment including their neighbours. A bit more information about the previous period of Assyrian history other than the period of Ashurbanipal on whose period the exhibition is focused would be helpful to cover all Assyrian history.
December 7, 2024
I am Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria, is full of gorgeous illustrations from the BP exhibition at the British Museum (November 2018 through February 2019). It’s also brimming with juicy details about King Nashurbanipal, the Assyrian empire, and surrounding states: Elam, Urartu, Cyprus, the Medes, and the Levant (which includes “Egyptianized Canaanites and their dissident, disaffected, and dispossessed counterparts in the hill country known as Habiru or Hebrews”).
Ashurbanipal is considered one of the most effective kings of the Assyrian empire. Under his rule, the empire stretched from what is now Iraq to Egypt, from Armenia to Cyprus, and included parts of Arabia to the south and Turkey to the north.
Ashurbanipal’s grandmother, Naqia, intrigued me. She orchestrated her son Esarhaddon’s rise to the throne, and when he died enroute to Egypt, she quickly moved to establish “her favorite grandson Ashurbanipal” as king. She had her own considerable income and royal seal, and presumably considerable political influence. Naqia issued a joint edict with Ashurbanipal urging loyal subjects to report any rumors of insurrection—and then mysteriously disappeared from all public record.
The highlight of the book are carved reliefs from the walls of Ashurbanipal’s palace, which illustrated his conquest of Egypt, the crushing defeat of his rebellious brother in Babylon, and his ruthless campaign against the Elamite rulers of southwest Iran. Some reliefs also showed the king’s famous lion hunts. The details in these carvings are exquisite; horse’s muscles flex as they gallop across the battlefield, lions roar and leap at the king’s chariot during the hunt.
The battle scenes employ different tiers to tell a complete narrative. In the Battle of Til-Tuba against Elam, for example, the enemy king Tuemann is thrown from his carriage when its axle breaks, flees on foot, is cornered, and then beheaded. The action then tracks in the opposite direction as a soldier takes the head to show Ashurbanipal. (The head is later displayed in Ashurbanipal’s pleasure garden according to a different panel.)
These wall carvings “presented Assyria as a great military force led by a mighty king. Such visual propaganda would have reached a much wider audience than was possible using written sources, since literacy was limited to an elite minority. The information conveyed through these pictorial representations worked as a universal language that was clear enough to be understood even by Assyria’s enemies.”
Another section of the book explored the politico-theological mindset of the Assyrian kings:
“The king’s power was absolute, having been invested in him by the divine will of Ashur, the supreme deity of Assyria. The mortal representative of the gods, the king was duty-bound to create order throughout his realm by expanding the land of Ashur. This divine command included the practical task of enlarging Assyria through military conquest.”
“Indeed, the task of enlarging the land of Ashur was seen as a creative process; a means of organizing the world that was also of great benefit to the periphery, for it too would then profit from the glory of the empire.”
“Violence was often deemed necessary to maintain [dominance], to protect the empire from anyone who sought to disrupt or diminish it, and to exact revenge on those who had slighted the king by cutting ties with Assyria, aiding and abetting enemies of the state, or forsaking [their] sworn oaths.”
The profit was one-sided. Client states conquered by Assyria were forced to pay tribute and much of its population was deported.
“Prisoners of war were conscripted into the army, made to populate newly established urban centers, and resettled in underdeveloped provinces where they could work the land and stimulate economic development.”
The most valuable deportees (“elites, specialized craftsmen, and expert scholars”), were brought to the cities of the Assyrian heartland. Many Bablylonian scholars transcribed tablets for Ashurbanipal’s library, producing “perfect copies of texts, written out in immaculate and beautifully balanced signs on the choicest clay.” These deported scholars were “put in shackles” after completing their tasks. In addition to records of taxes and other administrative information, the library texts consisted of oracles and divination reports Ashubanipal used to inform his decision making.
The book dedicates several chapters to Ashurbanipal’s capital city, Nineveh, including detailed information on his elaborate palace, library, and life at court. The horrendous fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE is also covered in detail.
When the armies of the Medes and Babylonians attacked Assyria in 613 BCE, many of the deportees populating the Assyrian countryside probably fled. Then Nineveh fell in 612. “Both the disappearance of the state administration and the evaporation of manpower must have made it impossible to maintain the colossal infrastructure of the Assyrian canal system.” Crops would have failed, leaving further out-migration. In the end only impoverished squatters remained.
I am Ashurbanipal provides a glimpse of an empire that lasted over 1400 years and was the largest and most powerful empire the world had ever known.
Ashurbanipal is considered one of the most effective kings of the Assyrian empire. Under his rule, the empire stretched from what is now Iraq to Egypt, from Armenia to Cyprus, and included parts of Arabia to the south and Turkey to the north.
Ashurbanipal’s grandmother, Naqia, intrigued me. She orchestrated her son Esarhaddon’s rise to the throne, and when he died enroute to Egypt, she quickly moved to establish “her favorite grandson Ashurbanipal” as king. She had her own considerable income and royal seal, and presumably considerable political influence. Naqia issued a joint edict with Ashurbanipal urging loyal subjects to report any rumors of insurrection—and then mysteriously disappeared from all public record.
The highlight of the book are carved reliefs from the walls of Ashurbanipal’s palace, which illustrated his conquest of Egypt, the crushing defeat of his rebellious brother in Babylon, and his ruthless campaign against the Elamite rulers of southwest Iran. Some reliefs also showed the king’s famous lion hunts. The details in these carvings are exquisite; horse’s muscles flex as they gallop across the battlefield, lions roar and leap at the king’s chariot during the hunt.
The battle scenes employ different tiers to tell a complete narrative. In the Battle of Til-Tuba against Elam, for example, the enemy king Tuemann is thrown from his carriage when its axle breaks, flees on foot, is cornered, and then beheaded. The action then tracks in the opposite direction as a soldier takes the head to show Ashurbanipal. (The head is later displayed in Ashurbanipal’s pleasure garden according to a different panel.)
These wall carvings “presented Assyria as a great military force led by a mighty king. Such visual propaganda would have reached a much wider audience than was possible using written sources, since literacy was limited to an elite minority. The information conveyed through these pictorial representations worked as a universal language that was clear enough to be understood even by Assyria’s enemies.”
Another section of the book explored the politico-theological mindset of the Assyrian kings:
“The king’s power was absolute, having been invested in him by the divine will of Ashur, the supreme deity of Assyria. The mortal representative of the gods, the king was duty-bound to create order throughout his realm by expanding the land of Ashur. This divine command included the practical task of enlarging Assyria through military conquest.”
“Indeed, the task of enlarging the land of Ashur was seen as a creative process; a means of organizing the world that was also of great benefit to the periphery, for it too would then profit from the glory of the empire.”
“Violence was often deemed necessary to maintain [dominance], to protect the empire from anyone who sought to disrupt or diminish it, and to exact revenge on those who had slighted the king by cutting ties with Assyria, aiding and abetting enemies of the state, or forsaking [their] sworn oaths.”
The profit was one-sided. Client states conquered by Assyria were forced to pay tribute and much of its population was deported.
“Prisoners of war were conscripted into the army, made to populate newly established urban centers, and resettled in underdeveloped provinces where they could work the land and stimulate economic development.”
The most valuable deportees (“elites, specialized craftsmen, and expert scholars”), were brought to the cities of the Assyrian heartland. Many Bablylonian scholars transcribed tablets for Ashurbanipal’s library, producing “perfect copies of texts, written out in immaculate and beautifully balanced signs on the choicest clay.” These deported scholars were “put in shackles” after completing their tasks. In addition to records of taxes and other administrative information, the library texts consisted of oracles and divination reports Ashubanipal used to inform his decision making.
The book dedicates several chapters to Ashurbanipal’s capital city, Nineveh, including detailed information on his elaborate palace, library, and life at court. The horrendous fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE is also covered in detail.
When the armies of the Medes and Babylonians attacked Assyria in 613 BCE, many of the deportees populating the Assyrian countryside probably fled. Then Nineveh fell in 612. “Both the disappearance of the state administration and the evaporation of manpower must have made it impossible to maintain the colossal infrastructure of the Assyrian canal system.” Crops would have failed, leaving further out-migration. In the end only impoverished squatters remained.
I am Ashurbanipal provides a glimpse of an empire that lasted over 1400 years and was the largest and most powerful empire the world had ever known.
August 16, 2025
This is a magnificent and lavishly illustrated book which accompanied the 2019 British Museum exhibition on Ashurbanipal’s life. The book contain a number of well written articles on the rise and fall of Assyria, and the reign of Ashurbanipal, one of the last Assyrian kings. Many of the stunning items exhibited in London as shown in the book, their context being discussed in the essays. This book is a valuable companion to the exhibition (which I attended and throughly enjoyed). It’s is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Assyria, and provides an authoritative introduction to Assyria and Ashurbanipal to anyone who has not yet encountered the man who described himself as The King of the World, and The King of the Universe (and I suspect he would think it but fitting that such a handsome book was published about his life).
August 15, 2025
The companion book to the exhibit in 2019 (which I was lucky enough to see), filled with information about the items shown as well as Assyrian history and a look at the influence it had in the 19th and 20th centuries when so much of it was rediscovered. A very interesting set of articles/chapters.
July 19, 2022
Easy read, lots of beautiful pictures and a great accompaniment when at the British Museum. It is a standalone book, but obviously printed to accompany the exhibition.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews