RULERS AND EMPIRES
Assyria’s name is taken from the city of Aššur, called after the deity of a rocky outcropping that gave its first inhabitants refuge. He was the central god of the Assyrians even though Aššurnasirpal moved the capital away from the city of Aššur.
Situated at one of the critical fords of the Tigris River, Aššur dominated an important east-west overland route leading into Anatolia in the eastern part of modern-day Turkey. Indeed, during the third millennium BC, Assyria developed one of the most extensive and most complicated trading networks with Aššur as the eastern terminus and the city of KültepeKaneš in Anatolia as the western one.
The city of Aššur was the southern point of the triangle that formed the Assyrians’ native heartland. The northern point was the Nineveh of Jonah’s fame, near the Iraqi city of Mosul, and on the east was the city of Arbela, under the current city of Erbil. In all, the Assyrian heartland was 4000 km
Although the region was a “natural breadbasket,” it lacked any other resources. It had no significant metal deposits, little useable stone for monumental construction, no wood, and no grassland for the breeding of horses. The heartland did occupy an essential place for the tin trade from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Tin was essential for making bronze, the dominant metal for tools and weapons until the introduction of iron.
The Assyrian Empire that the people of the Bible interacted with was the third major Assyrian power in the ancient world. Historians generally consider it to have begun with Aššurnarsirpal II (883-859 BC), although several previous kings had laid the groundwork. He conducted military campaigns almost every year, consolidating the conquered territories of his predecessors and dramatically increasing the size of his kingdom so that it stretched from eastern Iraq well into Syria and eastern Turkey. “[I am] Aššurnasirpal, strong king, king of the universe, unrivalled king, king of all the four quarters, sun(god) of all people, chosen of the gods Enlil and Ninurta.” Thus Aššurnasirpal II, the founding king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, introduced himself, lauding himself also as “fearless in battle” and “mighty flood-tide which has no opponent.”
Looking at the landscape of the Ancient Near East from 860-810 BC, it is difficult to disagree with Aššurnasirpal’s description of himself and Assyria in general. Assyria rose from a collection of small villages in the northeast of modern Iraq to the most extensive world power for nearly 300 years. Aššurnasirpal’s boast was not far from the truth—Assyria was the master of the universe. It is against this backdrop in the shadow of Assyria that much of the events in Kings and Chronicles take place. His successor, Shalmaneser III (858-824), regularly campaigned to gain tribute and booty. These excursions led to the famous Battle of Qarqar against King Ahab.
Following Shalmaneser III, Assyria began to lose its power and went inherently quiet for 80 years or so. Internal friction among its powerful bureaucrats hamstrung its rulers. They lost control of Aram in the west, got bullied by Babylon, and even Aššur rebelled against the king. Eventually, they were unable to campaign beyond their borders. It seemed after a brief surge of power that Assyria was falling apart. During this period of dormancy, Jonah, the prophet, undertook his mission to Nineveh.
The situation dramatically reversed, however, in 746 BC, when an Assyrian general named Pul led a coup against King Aššurnirari, resulting in the latter’s execution. Ascending to the throne, he took the name Tiglath-Pileser III (746-727 BC). He completely restructured the Assyrian bureaucracy, limiting its power and thus returning a great deal of power to the throne. By installing eunuchs in key governmental positions, he kept any one family from gaining too much power. Tiglath-Pileser quickly reconquered lost territories and then began aggressively campaigning beyond the Euphrates and down toward Israel and Judah, absorbing nations into his growing empire as provinces more directly under his control. For the next 150 years, Assyria swallowed up the whole of the Ancient Near East from Iran to Egypt.
Perhaps the most crucial restructuring that Tiglath-Pileser did was that of the Assyrian military, which formed the core identity of its society. Usually, standing armies were small as most powers in the ancient world drew their soldiers from the general populace in seasonal drafts. Such farmer-soldiers often had little more than rudimentary training, and campaigning was limited to times of the year when they were not needed in the fields.
Beginning with Shalmaneser III, the Assyrians began to shift away from conscripts to a more permanent standing army, using captured “specialized” soldiers to supplement their forces. Tiglath-Pileser took the next step, creating a massive infantry solely from conquered peoples, combined with professional native Assyrian cavalrymen and charioteers. Estimates range from 150,000 to 200,000 men, deployed in “field armies” of 50,000 troops, roughly equivalent to five modern American heavy divisions, or eight Soviet heavy divisions.
In addition to its vast size, the Assyrian military was remarkably innovative. It was the first Near Eastern power to develop a cavalry and arm them with bows. Archers, who formed the backbone of the Assyrian infantry, were armed with top-of-the-line bows and special quivers that made them tremendously effective. Designed to hold up to 50 arrows, many of them designed for specific uses, the quivers were also equipped with specials rod that increased their firing rate by up to 40%. In addition, archers also carried arrows wrapped with oil-soaked rags that, when ignited, turned them into the equivalent of ancient grenade launchers.
Assyrian chariots evolved from light, two-person vehicles that functioned like modern fighter jets to heavy, four-person vehicles more akin to tanks. The Old Testament writers identified these formations as “whirlwinds” that swept everything in their path (Jer. 4:13). The permanence of the troops meant they could train and wage war year-round, making them the first genuinely all-weather and all-terrain army. In any given campaign, they employed specialized both heavy and light infantry, archers, slingers, cavalry, chariots, sappers, and siege engineers. Masters of siegecraft, they were one of the most sophisticated militaries of the ancient world, rivaled only by the armies of Rome. The Assyrians could at any time and any place field a more massive army, better equipped, and better trained than anyone else.
However, the Assyrians’ greatest weapon was terror. Sieges were still costly affairs, so the Assyrians preferred to terrify opponents into submission rather than fight them. Unlike other empires, the Assyrians bragged about their cruelty. In one of his annals, Aššurnasirpal boasted of his treatment of the city of Suru in Syria: “I erected a pile (of stone) in front of his gate. I flayed as many nobles as had rebelled against me (and) draped their skins over the pile; some I erected on stakes around about the pile.”An example of this tactic is seen in Assyria’s confrontation of Hezekiah in which the Rabshakeh spoke in Hebrew to frighten Jerusalem into submission (2 Kings 18:19-35).
The Assyrian kings decorated their palaces with graphic depictions of what happened to those who dared to resist them. Any visiting dignitary would be forced to see the grisly scenes of Assyrian retribution, and the message would be crystal clear: Cross Assyria at your own peril. Although many provinces still rebelled, the sight of the approaching Assyrian army combined with the vivid depiction of Assyrian vengeance was, in many cases, enough for a city to capitulate. In some cases, the citizens of the city overthrew the rebellious leader themselves.
Administering such a vast empire was a monumental task. In general, the Assyrians preferred a hands-off approach to governing conquered territories, often leaving local rulers in charge as vassals. So long as they supplied tribute, the Assyrians were content to leave them alone. If they rebelled, then the Assyrians would depose them, often painfully, and replace them with someone ostensibly loyal. Should another rebellion occur, the Assyrians would come down with all their fury, often destroying the entire region and installing their own governor.
The demise of the northern kingdom of Israel is a perfect example. King Menahem of Israel recognized the danger and volunteered to be Tiglath-Pileser III’s vassal. Immediately after dying, however, his general Pekah assassinated Menahem’s son and seized the throne. Pekah promptly formed an alliance with Damascus against Assyria. Tiglath-Pileser easily defeated the coalition and removed Pekah from the throne, installing the theoretically pro-Assyrian Hoshea. After Tiglath-Pileser’s death, Hoshea rebelled against Shalmaneser V, who predictably did not take it well. He led a devastating campaign that his successor, Sargon II, finished with the destruction of Samaria in 722 BC. Sargon deported 27,290 Israelites, thoroughly ending the northern kingdom, and replaced them with people from other provinces.
Such mass deportation was another method of maintaining control over the empire. It was not necessarily a bad thing, as those who were deported had particular skills or talents the empire wished to employ. In many cases, deportation could be considered an honor. In addition to stocking the homeland with a growing talent pool, it also removed potential enemies from their own territories and indoctrinated them to be loyal to Assyria.
Shuffling around large people groups was complicated and required careful planning. Israel was an example. Assyria transferred the 27,290 captives to the Harhar and Kiššesim provinces in northern Iran and resettled them in and around Aššur itself. The empire then relocated those who had rebelled in Aššur to Hamath in modern Syria, whose people there Assyria then brought to the former territory of Israel.
As another way of keeping an eye on their diverse empire, the Assyrian kings developed a specialized courier system employing roads dedicated solely to that purpose. By using mules to travel to specific stages or distances, messages traveled via a relay system from point to point, essentially an ancient pony express.
Despite its power, Assyria came to a crashing end. In 640, the empire was never greater, but by 610, it was nothing more than a bad memory for most. It is unclear what all caused its sudden demise in just 30 short years. Likely a combination of renewed internal dysfunction and the resurgence of Babylon and Media brought Assyria down. Aššurbanipal, whose library produced the Gilgamesh Epic, was the last great Assyrian king, and even by the end of his reign, provinces were slipping out of his grasp. In 626, Nabopolassar (father of Nebuchadnezzar) revolted against Assyria. Ten years later with the Medes as allies, he invaded Assyria.
Assyria was helpless in this onslaught, despite its seemingly invincible army. Within a year, Nabopolassar was in the Assyrian heartland itself, and in 612, he razed the capital, Nineveh, to the ground. The last king, Aššur-urballit II, attempted to make a stand in the city of Harran in northern Assyria, but he lasted no more than a couple of years. By 610, Assyria had vanished, never to rise again.
Carey, Warfare in the Ancient.
Chrissanthos, Warfare in the Ancient World: From the Bronze Age to the Fall of Rome.
Gabriel, Great Armies of Antiquity.
Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium.
Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East.
Radner, Ancient Assyria: A very short introduction.