British Museum shines light on Assyrian 'king of the world' [once described as the 'psychotic bookworm']

 

Mark Brown

 

Before the mighty empires of Egypt, Greece and Rome came Assyria and a leader who, a new exhibition at the British Museum will argue, is the “greatest king you’ve never heard of”.

The museum has announced details of the first major exhibition devoted to Ashurbanipal, a ruthless, bookish seventh-century BC despot who ruled a vast empire from his capital, Nineveh, in ancient Iraq.

“He is not forgotten for us, we know him very well, but for the general public no one has heard of Ashurbanipal,” said the exhibition’s curator, Gareth Brereton. “Very few people have heard of the Assyrian empire, Egypt gets all the press and everyone has heard of Greece and Rome but there is this whopping great place called Assyria that’s not taught in schools. People today don’t know it.”

Brereton said the Assyrian empire was the world’s first true empire and served as a template for others that followed. The exhibition will tell the story of the empire through the lens of Ashurbanipal who, with some justification, claimed to be “king of the world, king of Assyria”.

Brereton said the empire generally had a negative press as a place of luxury, extravagance and debauchery until discoveries were made in the 19th century by the British archaeologist Austen Henry Layard, revealing what a truly “magnificent, innovative and interesting empire” it was.

Ashurbanipal was a complex often misrepresented figure. He could be seen as a “psychopathic bookworm”, said Brereton. “He was a complicated character, quite unlike any Assyrian king who came before him. He was a mighty king who controlled a terrifying war machine, but he never led his troops into battle.”