1. Civil War in Assyria, 627-624 BC.
The Assyrian empire had, since the 8th Cent, cast a very long and un-welcomed shadow over the entire Fertile Crescent, from the Caspian Sea in the north to Egypt in the south. In 722 they had swept the northern kingdom of Israel into permanent exile, and only the stump of Judah remained of the House of Jesse. Now, the long reign of the last great king Ashurbanipal is coming to an end. But already Assyrian power was weakening. Egypt, under the Psammetichus I, had already stopped paying tribute beginning about 655 and there was nothing Asurbanipal could do about it. Babylon had already made an attempt in 652 to revolt against Assyrian suzerainty but was put down after a four-year struggle. Now, in addition to these and other nations, like Elam, and Media that were beginning to reassert their independence, Ashurbanipal's brother, who ruled as a deputy in Babylon, rebelled in 642. The Arabs took the opportunity to attack many of the vassals in the south like Moab and Edom.
In 629 BC aging Ashurbanipal brought his son Sinshar-ishkun into a co-regency with him. When Ashurbanipal died three years later, civil war broke out when Sinshar-ishkun's claim to the throne was challenged. Though Sinshar-ishkun eventually came out victorious, the civil war further weakened the power of a once super-power already in decline.
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