The first strong Assyrian state was formed in the late Bronze Age in the wake of the decline of the Mitanni, a confederation of tribes living along the upper reaches of the Tigris River. In the fourteenth century B.C.E., Ashururballit led his people in an expansion westward, during which they came to control the upper arch of the Fertile Crescent for approximately a century. The Assyrians ran up against the power of Aram (situated in modern-day Syria), which blocked their access to western trade routes. Still, the early success coupled with the continued fighting against Aram made the Assyrian army strong and experienced, able to defend itself and mount major raids far to the south and west. With this powerful military, Assyria dominated the Near East by the 900s B.C.E.
Initially, the Assyrians’ main objective was to expand to the Mediterranean coast in order to control the major trade routes of ancient times. Assyrian armies finally overcame the resistance of nations led by Aram, and they captured the major city of Damascus in 732 B.C.E. Old Testament accounts tell of Assyrian attacks into Samaria and Judah, and fighting against the Egyptians. Assyria established empire status under the leadership of Sargon II (722–705 B.C.E.), who named himself after the Sumerian leader Sargon the Great, the first well-known conqueror. Sargon II’s son Sennacherib maintained the lands his father had conquered, and raided Asia Minor after 700 B.C.E. Sennacherib established control over Phoenician towns on the Mediterranean coast all the way to the Egyptian frontier. The last of the great emperors was Esarhaddon (681–668 B.C.E.), who came to the throne by murdering his father, Sennacherib. To secure his frontiers, Esarhaddon coupled diplomacy with warfare. He entered into agreements with the Medes to the east and the Cimmerians to the north, but also invaded Egypt, a nation seemingly always in rebellion against the Assyrian demands for tribute. By the end of Esarhaddon’s reign, Assyrian territory stretched from the Persian Gulf across the Fertile Crescent and halfway down the Nile in Egypt. 1 Assurbanipal was the last of the Assyrian kings. More of a scholar than a warrior, he let his generals punish the rebellious while he established a large library at Nineveh.
The Assyrian Empire came to an abrupt end in 612 B.C.E. Three hundred years of warfare, both conquests and the suppression of almost constant rebellions, had put a serious strain on Assyrian manpower. The birthrate had not kept up with the casualty rate, and the Assyrians had been obliged to use conscript troops, who proved of doubtful loyalty. Agreements with neighbors lapsed, and enemies pressed from all directions. Ultimately the Medes led a coalition that laid siege to the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh, which fell after three months, spelling the end of the empire, an end more celebrated than lamented. The biblical prophet Nahum wrote, “All who hear the news of you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?” Nahum summed it up perfectly; Assyria had built and maintained its empire by military force and terror, showing no mercy to any defeated foe, whether in conquest or rebellion.
The Assyrians were the first people to institutionalize cruelty to control the lands they acquired. Towns destroyed in battle were left in ruins as an example to other possible foes. Ashurnasipal bragged, “I caused great slaughter. I destroyed, I demolished, I burned. I took their warriors prisoner and impaled them on stakes before their cities. . . . I flayed the nobles, as many as had rebelled, and spread their skins out on the piles [of dead bodies]. . . . Many of the captives I burned in a fire. Many I took alive; from some I cut off their hands to the wrist, from others I cut off their noses, ears and fingers; I put out the eyes of many soldiers. I burnt their young men and women to death.” This boast was not just Ashurnasipal’s; every leader acted in the same fashion. It is not surprising that they had to deal with constant rebellion; they certainly inspired no loyalty from their subjects.
Despite this negative characteristic, the Assyrians contributed to society and culture. Some of the world’s oldest roads were built in the time of Sargon II. This road system allowed for freer trade and the development of a postal system. The Assyrian Empire was the first to construct aqueducts. Adopting cuneiform script from the Babylonians, the Assyrians became the world’s first serious historians. They established a number of libraries, where they recorded scientific knowledge acquired on their own and from Babylon. They also inaugurated the first widespread use of iron. Though iron was used by the Hittites, the Assyrians were the first to use the metal for weapons. As more iron-producing territory came under their control, it became the most common metal in tool production, far outperforming anything made from bronze. Their artists are regarded as masters of relief work, with realistic and emotional portrayals of kings at war and sport.
The Assyrians are best remembered, however, for their accomplishments in warfare. Using chariots (already invented), they were the first to add cavalry to their army, which often proved the decisive factor in their victories. Assyria was the first state, but certainly not the last, to build its society around the armed forces. They established what may be called the first true empire, because whereas most previous warriors cam paigned mainly for loot and tribute, the Assyrians established political control by appointing governors in conquered lands. Had they had the statesmanship skills to match their military prowess, they could not only have lasted longer as an empire, but they would also have had an even greater impact on the progress of ancient society and culture.
OLD ASSYRIAN PERIOD. (all dates B.C.E.)
c. 1900–1813
THE DYNASTY OF PUZUR-ASHUR. The Assyrians probably originated as a nomadic tribe. The city of Ashur (Qalat Sharquat) is first mentioned in the reign of Sargon of Akkad (c. 2350). Around 1950 Puzur-Ashur I built the city’s wall, and c. 1900, an Assyrian trading colony (karum) was established at Kanesh in Anatolia, where tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets have been discovered. The Assyrian king Naram-Sin (c. 1830) may be the same as a contemporaneous king Naram-Sin of Eshnunna, and the two kingdoms may have united under him. In any case, Naram-Sin expanded Assyria’s rule to the west. In 1813, an Amorite prince, Shamshi-Adad, overthrew Erishum II (c. 1814) to become king of Assyria.
1813–1741
THE DYNASTY OF SHAMSHI-ADAD. Shamshi-Adad I (1813–1781) conquered Mari and expanded Assyrian power to the west. His son, Ishme-Dagan (1780–1741), invaded Babylonia, in alliance with Elam, Eshnunna, and the Gutians but was defeated by Hammurapi the Great. After Ishme-Dagan’s death came a series of usurpations, and Assyria declined into 400 years of obscurity.
934–824
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE. Ashurdan II (934–912) built up a new Assyrian Empire. Further conquests were carried out by Adad-nirari II (911–890), Tukulti-Ninurta II (890–884), and Ashur-nasir-apli II (883–859), by which time the Assyrians again ruled from the Tigris to the Mediterranean, and from Lake Van to the borders of Babylonia. Ashur-nasir-apli was the chief architect of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, developing its centralized bureaucracy and building Kalah (Nimrud) as a capital. Its palaces and temples combined traditional Mesopotamian mud-brick architecture with monumental stone sculptures and wall-reliefs.
858–824
THE REIGN OF SHALMENESER III. Shalmeneser III began integrating conquered areas into the empire as provinces. Vassals, who could not yet be wholly subjugated, paid tribute. Shalmeneser moved west to conquer the Aramean kingdoms of Syria. Though initially stopped at the Battle of Qarqar (853) by a coalition of Hamath, Damascus, and Israel, in 842 Shalmeneser captured Damascus and received tribute from Tyre and from Israel (See 885–841). He defeated Kizzuwatna (Cilicia) and Urartu, “washing his weapons” in Lake Van. After Shalmeneser’s death, there was a civil war between two of his sons, which led to a period of Urartian domination.
824–745
URARTIAN DOMINATION OF ASSYRIA. Shamshi-Adad V (823–811) took the throne after defeating his brother, though parts of the empire were lost. He was succeeded by his minor son, Adad-nirari III (810–783). For the first four years of the child’s reign, his mother Sammuramat (Greek Semiramis) ruled as regent. Adad-nirari briefly reimposed tribute on the western states, including Israel, but increasingly Assyria retreated before Urartu. Commagene and Melitene in southern Anatolia and Carchemish in Syria came under Urartian control, and Assyria became practically a vassal of Urartu.
745–626
THE HEIGHT OF THE NEO-ASSYRIAN EMPIRE.
744–727
THE REIGN OF TIGLATH-PILESER III. The youngest son of Adad-nirari III, Tiglath-Pileser III introduced the last and greatest period of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In the years 743–738, the Urartians and their Neo-Hittite allies were defeated at the Battle of Arpad, as was a coalition of Aramean kings under the leadership of Judah. In 735, Tiglath-Pileser III defeated the Urartians again and annexed the region around Lake Urmia. He then subdued Damascus and Israel, annexing all of Damascus’s territory and the Israelite provinces of Gilead and Galilee, all of which were made into Assyrian provinces (See 752–722). In 731, a revolt broke out in Babylonia, and after crushing it, Tiglath-Pileser named himself king of Babylon.
726–705
SHALMENESER V AND SARGON II. Upon taking the throne, Shalmeneser V (726–722) was immediately faced with a new rebellion in the west. Both Tyre and Samaria, the capital of Israel, were besieged. Samaria fell late in 722 after a three-year siege (shortly before the death of Shalmeneser), but Tyre held out. When Sargon II (721–705) mounted the throne, another revolt broke out in Babylon under Merodach-Baladan II, which Sargon failed to quell initially. In 720, Sargon moved west, reconquering Hamath, Samaria, Ekron, and Gaza. King Ahaz of Judah paid tribute and Tyre finally capitulated after a five-year siege (See 768–715). In 717–716, Sargon took and annexed Carchemish and defeated the Egyptians at Raphia, the farthest west the Assyrians had yet penetrated. Urartu was again crushed in 714, and in 712 the Assyrians took Ashdod and annexed Philistia. Finally, in 709, the revolt in Babylon was suppressed, and Merodach-Baladan went into exile in Elam. Sargon built a new capital, which he named Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad).
704–681
The REIGN OF SENNACHERIB (Sin-ahhi-eriba). In 703 Merodach-Baladan II again seized power in Babylon, and though Sennacherib quickly put down the revolt, resistance continued for the next 13 years. Sennacherib campaigned to the north, taking tribute from the Medes, then west, defeating the Egyptians at the Battle of Elteqeh in 701. Next it was Judah’s turn and Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem. But when King Hezekiah paid tribute, the Assyrians broke off the siege (See 715–640). In 689, Babylon revolted again, with Elamite assistance, but was sacked and burnt to the ground. Sennacherib transformed Nineveh, on the east bank of the Tigris, into a city of unparalleled splendor, and it remained the Assyrian capital until the end of the empire. In the 7th century, the population of Mesopotamia reached a height (until modern times) of around 2 million inhabitants. Sennacherib’s eldest son had died before him, so he designated his youngest son Esarhaddon as heir. This led to a revolt by his older sons, and the king’s assassination.
680–669
THE REIGN OF ESARHADDON. With the active assistance of his mother, Naqia (Greek Nitocris), Esarhaddon put down the revolt by his brothers. He then rebuilt Babylon and made one of his sons Shamash-shum-ukin its king; he gave another son, Ashurbanipal, the title king of Assyria. While Scythian and Cimmerian tribes appeared on Assyria’s northern border, Esarhaddon was preoccupied with plans to conquer Egypt. The first Assyrian invasion of Egypt (674–673) was unsuccessful, but Esarhaddon struck with full force in 671, routed the Pharaoh Taharka, and took Memphis (See 747–656). In 669, Esarhaddon went to Egypt to prepare for an invasion of Ethiopia, but he fell sick and died.
668–627
THE REIGN OF ASHURBANIPAL. Ashurbanipal was both a great military commander and a patron of arts and letters. His palace reliefs are among the finest examples of Assyrian art, and he gathered a great library of tablets, which remains one of our main sources for knowledge of Sumero-Akkadian literature. The king boasted he could read and write the cuneiform script. Ashurbanipal attacked Egypt and, in two campaigns (667–666 and 664–663), defeated Pharaoh Taharka and his son Tenuatamun and extended Assyrian power as far south as Thebes (See 747–656). In 652, Shamash-shuma-ukin tried to overthrow his brother with Elamite help, and civil war raged until 648, when Shamash-shuma-ukin finally surrendered in Babylon. Susa was taken and sacked in 639, but the civil wars had revealed Assyria’s weakness to its enemies.
626–609
THE LAST DAYS OF ASSYRIA. The Assyrian Empire collapsed quickly. There was apparently a revolt on Ashurbanipal’s death, and his son Ashur-etil-ilani (626) ruled only a few months. The usurper, Sin-shum-lishar (626), also kept the throne only a short period. At this point, the Chaldean Nabopolassar declared himself king of Babylon. Sin-shar-ishkun (626–612), another son of Ashurbanipal, took back the throne of Assyria and stabilized the internal situation. Soon, however, Cyaxares, king of the Medes, and the Babylonian king, Nabopolassar, joined forces to attack Assyria. After a protracted struggle, Nineveh fell in 612 and was completely destroyed. An Assyrian noble, Ashur-uballit II (611–609) proclaimed himself king at Harran in Syria. The Babylonians took Harran in 610, however, and an attempt by the Assyrians, now allied to the Egyptians, to retake the city failed. Ashur-uballit died in obscurity
