Editing Babylonia (section)

====Babylonian revolt====
[[File:Babylonian prisoners under Assyrian guard, reign of Ashurbanipal 668-630 BCE, Nineveh, ME 124788.jpg|thumb|upright=2|Babylonian prisoners under the surveillance of an Assyrian guard, reign of Ashurbanipal 668–630 BC, Nineveh, [[British Museum]] ME 124788]]
Despite being an Assyrian himself, Shamash-shum-ukin, after decades subject to his brother [[Ashurbanipal]], declared that the city of Babylon (and not the Assyrian city of [[Nineveh]]) should be the seat of the immense empire. He raised a major revolt against his brother, Ashurbanipal. He led a powerful coalition of peoples also resentful of Assyrian subjugation and rule, including Elam, the [[Persian people|Persians]], [[Medes]], the Babylonians, Chaldeans and Suteans of southern Mesopotamia, the Arameans of the Levant and southwest Mesopotamia, the [[Arabs]] and [[Dilmun]]ites of the Arabian Peninsula and the Canaanites-Phoenicians. After a bitter struggle Babylon was sacked and its allies vanquished, Shamash-shum-ukim being killed in the process. Elam was destroyed once and for all, and the Babylonians, Persians, Chaldeans, Arabs, Medes, Elamites, Arameans, Suteans and Canaanites were violently subjugated, with Assyrian troops exacting savage revenge on the rebelling peoples. An Assyrian governor named [[Kandalanu]] was placed on the throne to rule on behalf of the Assyrian king.<ref name="Georges Roux - Ancient Iraq"/> Upon Ashurbanipal's death in 627 BC, his son [[Ashur-etil-ilani]] (627–623 BC) became ruler of Babylon and Assyria.

However, Assyria soon descended into a series of brutal internal civil wars which were to cause its downfall. Ashur-etil-ilani was deposed by one of his own generals, named [[Sin-shumu-lishir]] in 623 BC, who also set himself up as king in Babylon. After only one year on the throne amidst continual civil war, [[Sinsharishkun]] (622–612 BC) ousted him as ruler of Assyria and Babylonia in 622 BC. However, he too was beset by constant unremitting civil war in the Assyrian heartland. Babylonia took advantage of this and rebelled under [[Nabopolassar]], a previously unknown ''malka'' (chieftain) of the Chaldeans, who had settled in southeastern Mesopotamia by c. 850 BC.

It was during the reign of Sin-shar-ishkun that Assyria's vast empire began to unravel, and many of its former subject peoples ceased to pay tribute, most significantly for the Assyrians; the Babylonians, Chaldeans, [[Medes]], [[Persian people|Persians]], [[Scythians]], Arameans and [[Cimmerians]].