Esarhaddon, at the instigation of his mother, had reorganized the line of succession at the death of his queen, Ashur-hamat, in 672.

He used the submission of Median chieftains to draft the "Vassal Treaty".

The chieftains swore that if Esarhaddon died while his sons were still minors, they and their children would guarantee the succession of Ashurbanipal as king of Assyria and Shamash-shum-ukin as king of Babylon even though Ashurbanipal was the younger of the two.

Before this, his elder brother Sin-iddin-apli was Esarhaddon's heir but he died in the same year.

A monumental stela set up two years later in a northwestern province portrays Esarhaddon in high relief upon its face and each of the sons on a side.

These portraits, the earliest dated for Ashurbanipal and his brother, show both with a facial beard which implies maturity.

Esarhaddon has made peace with the Babylonians and Elamites but has had to contend with court intrigues at Nineveh that lead to the execution of several nobles.

The king sets out for Egypt in person in 669 BCE, but suddenly dies in autumn of the same year, in Harran.