The Story of Assyria: Necessity of Empire
The study of The Ancient Near East is an endeavor to bridge the gap between prehistory and the cultures of Ancient Greece and Rome. The focus on the infrastructure and administration in the Assyrian Empire set the stage for the Persians, Macedonians, and Romans.
We must first examine how we know about these civilizations. In Babylonia and Assyria, we find memorial tablets, prisms, cylinders, obelisks, steles, and writing upon palace walls. The writing style of the Assyrians is terse, a tablet might read, “9,000 people, 500 cattle, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire, the fury of Assur, my lord, overwhelmed them and they came and kissed my feet.”
From these sources Historians and Archeologists have been able to construct a vague history of these nations. One of the greatest undertakings in Assyrian history was by the Oriental Institue Chicago University, without whom most Assyrian history may be lost.
To understand Assyria we must first understand the Divine mission of the King, to suppress his enemies. “In strife and conflict I besieged [and] conquered the city. I felled 3,000 of their fighting men with the sword … I captured many troops alive: I cut off of some their arms [and] hands; I cut off of others their noses, ears, [and] extremities. I gouged out the eyes of many troops. I made one pile of the living [and] one of heads. I hung their heads on trees around the city.”
The Assyrian Kings took claim for all actions of their empire, conquest or construction — all accomplishments were theirs and were strictly overseen by their god Assur. Their victories are swift and graphic.
While Assyria is known for its military conquests, its greatest contribution on the world stage was its Statesmanship. The historian A.T. Olmstead describes the effect of the Assyrian Rule: “No longer was the conqueror to rule a mass of semi-independent states; he organized a provincial system which did more than we suspect to weld the peoples he controlled into a unity with international outlook. Whether we love or hate imperialism, we must recognize that the firm foundation of modern imperial organisation was laid by the Assyrians.”
The year is 1365 BC, Ashur-uballit I, son of Eriba-Adad I, is inaugurated King of Assyria. For 300 years the Assyrians have been controlled by the Mitanni, a powerful empire of Hurrians and Indo-Iranian Kings. The Mitanni were famed horsemen and charioteers. They fought with light war chariots, fast and easy to maneuver, and developed the first wheels with spokes.
The armies of Ashur-uballit I defeat the armies of King Shutturna II and Assyria regains its independence from the Kingdom of Mitanni — known to them as Hanigalbat — in 1400 B.C.
What we know of Ashur-uballit I comes from the Synchronous History, a dynastic list from Assyria and Babylon, from two letters to Amenophis IV of Egypt, and from clay tablets found in Kalat Sherkat, an extensive group of ruins in Mōṣul on the right bank of the Tigris [35° 30′ N. Lat. and 45° 15](Streck).
From excavation it has been discovered that the Assyrians introduced new technologies including a new method of casting bronze and the use of wool in garments. Much of what is known of day to day life in Assyria is from clay tablets “Some speak of cutting timber, the transport of stone, the building of a palace, the securing of horses, the tribute from the provinces; others are from astronomers and report eclipses, fortunate and unfortunate days, the progress of the stars in the heavens” (Olmstead).
Following Ashur-Uballit I the Assyrian Empire thrives and expands its control over the Near East until the 12th century BCE.
The first great expansion was during the reign of Shalmaneser I. Shalmaneser’s scribes write of him “Shalmaneser, the great king, the [mighty king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, king of all of the great peoples, the prince], the priest of Assur… Conqueror [from the sea of the land of Nairi to the Great Sea] of the setting sun, who brought into submission at my feet the Hittite-land in its Entirety…[Hadad-ezer], King of Aram (Syria) together with 12 kings of the Hittite-land [advanced against me]. For the fourth time I fought with them and I brought about their overthrow. Their chariots, their cavalry, their battle equipment, I took away from them; to [save their lives they fled.]”
It is unclear what caused the Empire to shrink, but Assyria’s prominence diminishes until the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I.
Timeline of Expansion
- 1353 BCE — 1318 BCE Reign of Ashur-Uballit I who conquers the Hittites and expands Assyria’s territory.
- 1250 BCE Shalmaneser I of Assyria conquers the Kingdom of Mitanni and defeats its allies.
- 1115 BCE — 1076 BCE Reign of Tiglath-Pileser I of Assyria who conquers Phoenicia and revitalizes the empire.
- 722 BCE Israel is conquered by Assyria.
- 701 BCE King Sennacherib of Assyria sacks the city of Lachish in Judah but fails to take the capital Jerusalem.
- 671 BCE Egypt is conquered by Assyria.
- 612 BC Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, fell to the Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians; supported by the Egyptians. An Assyrian general continued to rule for a few years from Harran.
- 608 BC Harran defeated by Cyaxares of Media and Nabopolassar of Babylonia.
‘Throughout history, governance and relative safety have most often been provided by empires, Western or Eastern. Anarchy reigned in the interregnums” (Kaplan). Empire keeps the anarchy of ethnic, tribal, and sectarian warbands to a reasonable minimum. The stability of the Assyrian Empire allowed for innovations in technology and administration and created the safety to develop to gardens and libraries.
The library at Nineveh is the height of accomplishment for the Assyrians, King Ashurbanipal (668–621BC) sent his scribes to copy tablets from across the Empire, and bring them to a central location. The excavation of the Library at Nineveh discovered 30,000 cuneiform tablets and fragments, “Alongside historical inscriptions, letters, administrative and legal texts, were found thousands of divinatory, magical, medical, literary and lexical texts” (British Museum). These tablets gave us the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Babylonian Creation Story, and make up the oldest surviving royal library.
While the Assyrian Kings took claim for all the actions of the empire, it is known that residents and administrators did much of the day to day work, and letters from these officials to the King make up much of the information known about daily life in Assyria.
Not long after the fall of the Assyrian Empire came the Achaemenid Persian Empire founded by Cyrus the Great who would be named King of Kings.
The Assyrian period was, in reality, one of the greatest turning points in the civilized history of the area, and in this fact must be sought the justification for the booty and tribute of empire–if empire needs justification. (Starr 133)
Thank you to the historians and archaeologists who have made our knowledge of these civilizations possible.
Special thanks to all those involved at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and The British Museum.
