General Notes

# Occupation: King of Assyria 0669 BC/0626
# Note: Ashurbanipal, or Assurbanipal, (reigned 668 - 627 BCE, was the last great king of ancient Ass yria.   He assembled at Ninevah "the first systematically collected library." A library, in O ppenheim's view, apparently, was distinct from an archive: earlier repositories of document s had accumulated passively, in the course of administrative routine. Tablet s from the libra ry of Ninevah preserve the most complete source for the Sumerian/Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh . Other sets of tablets offer what is essentially a Sumerian dictionary. There are arcane as tronomical/astrological texts. By far the largest group of tablets (almost all of which are i n the British Museum, London) however, are 'omen' texts that taught the scribes how to recogn ize the significance of portents.   Ashurbanipal's reign was marked by incessant warfare. H e began by making war on his brother, who had been installed as king in Babylon; Ashurbanipa l conquered. Oppenheim notes the curious break in all documentation during the final decade o f his rule.   Oppenheim's dates for Ashurbanipal (as given here) are drawn from references i n the inscription of the mother of Nabonidus.