taking Thebes "like a floodstorm". His campaigning against Egypt coincided with another attempt to stop Tyre and Arvad from rebelling without being punished for it afterwards. With the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, Aramea and Phoenicia gradually fell from Assyrian rule as Assyria was engulfed in bitter civil war which would see its downfall by 605 BC. Ironically, it would be the Assyrians former vassals, the Egyptians, who would attempt to aid the Assyrians as they moved the capital of their collapsing kingdom to Harran. The destruction of the Assyrian Empire meant that Babylon and then Persia would rule Phoenicia, Canaan and Aramea until Alexander the Great of Macedon would initiate the Hellenistic period. See also Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire Persian Empire Assyrians and Syriacs in Lebanon Notes References External links Lebanon Assyrian and Babylonian domination of Phoenicia Lebanon Under Assyrian Rule – The Phoenicians Rebel Against the Assyrians Military history of the Assyrian Empire Ancient Lebanon History of Phoenicia