Editing Cimmerians (section)

=====Exhaustion of Assyria=====
Neo-Assyrian power experienced another significant blow in 652 BC, when Esarhaddon's eldest son, [[Šamaš-šuma-ukin]], who had succeeded him as king of Babylon, rebelled against his younger brother Ashurbanipal: it took Ashurbanipal four years to fully suppress the Babylonian rebellion by 648 BC, and another year to destroy the power of [[Elam]], who had supported Šamaš-šuma-ukin,{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=71}} and, although Ashurbanipal would nevertheless be able to maintain control over Babylonia for the rest of his reign, the Neo-Assyrian Empire finally emerged from this crisis severely worn out.{{sfn|Adalı|2017|p=72}}

One of the oracular responses received by Ashurbanipal in 652 BC itself claimed that the goddess [[Inanna|Ishtar]] had promised to him that the Cimmerians would be defeated similarly to how Ashurbanipal himself had defeated the Elamites and killed their king [[Teumman]] in 653 BC.{{sfn|Ivantchik|1993a|p=101-102}}

Meanwhile, Dugdammî might have taken advantage of the civil war within the Neo-Assyrian Empire caused by Samas-suma-ukin's rebellion to attack northwestern Neo-Assyrian provinces.{{sfn|Adalı|2023|p=218}}