Battle of Nineveh ( 612 BC ) The Battle of Nineveh is conventionally dated between 613 to 611 BCE , with 612 BCE being the most supported date . An allied army composed of Medes and Persians , rebelling Chaldeans and Babylonians , together with Scythians and Cimmerians besieged it and sacked it , leading to the destruction of the Neo - Assyrian Empire over the next 6 years as the dominant state in the Ancient Near East , as well as the destruction of what was at that time the greatest city in the world , covering 750 hectacres . After this battle the archeological record shows that the capital of the once mighty Assyrian Empire was extensively de - urbanized and depopulated . Babylon became the imperial center of Mesopotamia for the first time in over a thousand years leading to the Neo - Babylonian empire , claiming imperial continuity as a new dynasty . Background . The Neo - Assyrian Empire which arose in the 10th century BCE , succeeding the Middle Assyrian Empire ( 1366 - 1074 BCE ) , is generally regarded to have reached its peak in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE , and was the largest empire the world had yet seen . By the reign of Ashurbanipal it controlled or held in vassalage most of the nations and city - states from the Caucasus Mountains ( modern Armenia , Georgia and Azerbaijan ) in the north to Egypt , Arabia and Nubia in the south , and central Iran / Persia in the east to Cyprus and the Hellenic and Phoenician Mediterranean coasts of Anatolia and the Levant in the west . However , after the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BCE the once mighty empire of Assyria was becoming increasingly volatile , with Assyria proper erupting into a series of internal civil wars . This led many of the subject states , many of which had their own political dynasties , to become restive , where as neighbouring states and groups , such as the Medes , Persians , Babylonians , Chaldea ns , Scythians , Cimmerians and Arameans became increasingly hostile under the Assyrian hegemony . Assyrian had , by the accounts of its own records , been brutal even by the standards of the time , and thus had accumulated many hitherto impotent enemies . It had been weakened by a three front struggle to maintain power in Egypt , a costly but victorious war against the Elamites , and put down rebellions amongst their southern Mesopotamian Babylonian kinsmen , even though the core of the empire had been largely at peace . The Assyrian monarchs wrote constantly of internal danger , and fear of palace intrigue , and feared a rebellion . Upon the death of Ashurbanipal , a series of bitter and bloody wars of succession occurred , weakening the empire – the Neo - Assyrian domination over the Middle East , Asia Minor , Caucasus and East Mediterranean gradually began to fade from 625 BC onwards . An alliance grew up of external states , such as the Chaldeans who took advantage of the upheavals in Assyria to take control of much of Babylonia with the aid of the Babylonians themselves . They were building Babylonia into a power that is termed Neo - Babylonian . The goal was the overthrow of the Assyrian dynasty , the taking of the capital , Nineveh and the transferral of the seat of Mesopotamian power to Babylon . Nineveh was not only a political capital , but home to one of the great libraries of Akkadian tablets and a recipient of tribute from across the near east . ( See Library of Ashurbanipal ) . Sources of the Fall and Battle . The Assyrian chronicles break off in 639 BCE after the destruction of Susa , the capital of Elam , and the subjugation of a rebellious Babylon ruled by Ashurbanipal ' s own brother Shamash - shum - ukin . Business records are missing after 631 BCE . The primary sources are written afterwards by a victorious Neo - Babylonian from the reign of Nabopolassar . The primary chronicle is numbered 21901 translated by CJ Gadd in 1923 and found in the British Museum , by the Median tradition set down by Herodotus much later , a Hebrew tradition attributed to Nahum , and by reference in Egyptian chronicles , all were hostile to Assyria . There are also legends that have grown up the centuries afterwards , among peoples who descend from one of the involved nationalities , including the still Mesopotamian Eastern Aramaic speaking and Christian Assyrians of northern Iraq , southeast Turkey , northwest Iran and northeast Syria . The Mede ' s tradition focuses on the war between the Medean Kingdom , and the reign of Cyaxares , who was initially defeated by the Assyrians , but rebuilt his army and attacked Nineveh in conjunction with other peoples . According to the stele of Nabû - naʾid ( Nabonidus ) the last king of Babylon , who was himself ironically from Assyria , the siege of Nineveh was not led by the Babylonians , but by another people , who could have been either Scythians or Medes . The best recounting of the actual battle is taken from the excerpts of Persica written by Ctesias , preserved in Diodorus Siculus and Photius , whose account may have been embroidered with accounts of other battles . Account of the Battle . According to the Babylonian Chronicles , by which we date the battle , there was a bitter 12 year struggle between Babylon and Assyria , as well as civil wars in Assyria itself . They describe that in the tenth year of Nabopolassar ( 616 BCE ) the Babylonians defeated the Assyrian army and marched up the river sacking Mane , Sahiri and Bali - hu . The conflict renewed the next year , with the Assyrians mustering their army and throwing the Babylonians back to Takritain . Nabopolassar stationed his army in the fortress of Takritain , and the two armies did battle there the next year . The Assyrians were beaten and retreated to Assyria . The Babylonians then allied with the Medes , Persians , Cimmerians and Scythians . The Median army took Tarbisu , near Nineveh and encamped nearby , and then attacked the city of Nineveh , with the Babylonian text recounting how in 612 BC their allies destroyed Nineveh ' s temples and sacked the city , and their army did not reach the city until after the plundering had been done . The Assyrian King Sin - shar - ishkun was killed in the siege . In 612 the Bablyonians mustered the army again and joined with Cyaxares encamping against Nineveh again . They laid siege to the city for three months and in August , finally broke the defenses , and plundered the city , burning it behind , declaring that the king in Nineveh bowed down in vassalage . Ashur - uballit II had been made King of Assyria , however he refused to submit and successfully fought his way out of Nineveh , founding a final capital at Harran . According to the tradition laid out in Didorus , the Tigris river was flooded , entering into the city , while his account is often suspect , this aspect has been given attention . The allied armies entered the area of the outer wall and there fought to enter the palace . Temples were sacked and finally the palace was burned , though this did not destroy the city , and may have aided the preservation of clay texts . According to the account in Nahum , one of the Old Testament prophets , the battle went on for months , and fighting was in each house and street . Evidence points to a date of 660 - 630 BCE for Nahum ' s text , making his predictions in chapter 2 especially prescient for what happened in 613 - 605 . Nahum also predicts that the city will not be rebuilt ; archaeological work shows that it was left a place of desolation and ruin for centuries . There would be several more campaigns against Assyria by the Neo - Bablyonians and their allies , including one against an allied Egyptian - Assyrian army . Thus while the Battle of Nineveh was a turning point in the war , Ashur - uballit II would fight on for several more years . His ultimate fate is not known or recorded , he may have been killed with the fall of Harran in 609 BC , or in a failed attempt to recapture it the following year , at Carchemish in 605 BC , where the last major Assyrian resistance appears to have ended , or simply disappeared into obscurity .