The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor

by Susan Wise Bauer

After Ashurbanipal died, the Assyrian empire fell apart. And Assyria’s old enemies, the Babylonians, took over Assyria’s land. The Babylonians wanted revenge! Assyria had destroyed Babylon, so now the Babylonians destroyed Nineveh, Assyria’s most beautiful city. They broke down the walls and gates, ripped the doors off Ashurbanipal’s great library, and smashed hundreds of his precious clay tablets! Fortunately, some of the books survived so that we can still read them today. Then the Babylonians settled down to rule their own empire. The Babylonian Empire wasn’t quite as big as the Assyrian Empire, because the Babylonians never took over Egypt. But it was almost as big. And for many years, the Babylonians were the most powerful people in the world. Babylon, the city flooded by Assyria, was rebuilt. The great Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (who became king around 605 BC/BCE) spent much of his reign making Babylon beautiful again.