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[[File: Delacroix_sardanapalus_1828.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|1828 Painting “Death of Sardanapalus” By Eugene Delacroix Depicting the Fall of Nineveh]]

The stable and effective reigns of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal were followed by a short period of instability that was brought forth by court intrigues. Ashurbanipal’s successor was the little documented Ashur-etel-ilani (ruled 627-623 BC), whose short reign led to a succession crisis in the Assyrian royal house. Important members of the nobility opposed Ashur-etel-ilani and eventually usurped the king in favor of a royal eunuch named Sin-shum-lishir (the years of his reign are imprecise). <ref> Kuhrt, Amélie. <i> The Ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 BC.</i> Volume 2. (London: Routledge, 2010), p. 541</ref> The succession problems in the Assyrian royal house contributed to the decline of their empire and that of their capital city of Nineveh, but the final blow came from outside Assyria.

The Assyrian-Egyptian victory at Nineveh in 616 BC would prove to be ephemeral for King Sin-shar-ishkun (reigned ca. 627-612 BC) (referred to as “Sardanapalus” in the Greek and Roman histories), though, because the enemies of Assyria smelled blood in the water and were lining up to divide the spoils of the once mighty empire. In order to build an effective alliance, Nabopolassar next reached out to an assortment of Assyria’s enemies who were led by the Medes. The strategy for the final victory over the Assyrians and the destruction of Nineveh involved a classic pincer movement whereby the Neo-Babylonians attacked the city from the south and west while the Medes and their allies converged from the north and east. The victory for the allies was completed in 612 BC, as was the destruction of Nineveh, which is documented in the Babylonian Chronicle:

(Instead) the army of the king of Akkad, which had been stationed in the fortress, inflicted a major defeat upon Assyria. The king of Assyria and his army [turned] and went home. In the month Marchesvan the Medes went down to Arraphu and [. . .] The twelfth year: in the month Ab the Medes, after they had marched against Nineveh [. . .] hastened and they captured Tarbisu, a city in the district of Nineveh. . . From the month Sivan until the month Ab – for three [months . . .] they subjected the city to a heavy siege. [On the Nth day] of the month Ab [. . .] they inflicted a major [defeat upon a g]reat [people]. At that time Sin-sharra-ishkun, king of Assyria, [died] . . . They carried off the vast booty of the city and the temple (and)[turned] the city into a ruin heap. <ref> Grayson, pgs. 92-94</ref>

The classical authors offered a more dramatic version of Nineveh’s fall where Sin-shar-ishkun burned himself alive with all of his material possessions. <ref> Diodorus. <i> The Library of History.</i> Translated by C.H. Oldfather. (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2004), Book II, 27</ref> Nineveh’s destruction was also briefly mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible in the book of Nahum where the prophet states, “Nineveh is of old like a pool of water; yet they shall flee away, Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.” <ref> Nah. 2:6-10</ref> Once Nineveh fell, the Assyrian Empire limped on for another three years before it was finally relegated to the dust bin of history.