A Short History of Assyria and the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Did you know that the destruction of the Assyrian Empire preserved some of the most important ancient texts in the world? Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia. My name is Kelly and today's video will take you through the rise of Assyria and the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the prominent rulers and the fall of their empire. Don't forget the easiest way to support us is by giving this video a thumbs up, subscribing to our channel and hitting that bell icon for notifications so you don't miss out on any new uploads. World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization and you can find us on Patreon, a brilliant site where you can support our work and receive exclusive benefits in return. Your support helps us create videos twice a week, so make sure to check it out via the pop-up in the top corner of the screen or via the Patreon link down below. Assyria has a long history, beginning in northern Mesopotamia and then expanding during the Neo-Assyrian Empire from Mesopotamia through Asia Minor and down through Egypt. The empire began in the city of Ashur and went through many different stages of expansion and sacking by a number of kingdoms, including the Mithtani, the Babylonians and the Hittites. Stick around while we take you through the rise and fall, and rise and fall again of the Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian Empire. Well it only makes sense to start at the beginning, and for the Assyrians that is in the third millennium BCE, when the city of Ashur first emerged. However, the ruins that you can see if you visit the site today date to 1900 BCE, which is now considered the date the city was founded. After the first king, Tudiya, the following kings were known as kings who live in tents, which suggests a pastoral community, not an urban one. Despite this though, the city of Ashur was already an important centre for commerce and in circa 1900, the king Eresham I built a temple to the god Ashur at the site. An important trade colony for Ashur was Karum Qanesh, or the port of Qanesh, in Anatolia. Merchants from Ashur travelled to Qanesh, they would set up their business, and after putting a trusted employee in charge, then they would return to Ashur and supervise business dealings from there. From the trade with Qamur Qanesh came a lot of wealth, which meant that the people of Ashur had the stability and security to expand their city, and in doing this, they laid the foundation for their empire. The Assyrians got a lot of their raw materials from Anatolia, which made it an important trade relationship, and with the iron from Anatolia, the Assyrians were able to perfect the craft of ironworking. The fact that the Assyrian military had iron weapons would prove to be a major advantage during their later campaigns and conquests while expanding their empire. During the old kingdom of Assyria, there were the powerful civilizations of the Hurrians and the Hatti in Anatolia, holding dominance, while Ashur, to the north of Mesopotamia, remained in their shadow. There were also the Amorites, who were steadily expanding and increasing their territory and resources. It was under the Assyrian king Shamashi-Adad I between 1812 and 1791 BCE that the Amorites were driven out of the region and the borders of Assyria were secured. By circa 1700 BCE, the Hatti were invaded by the Hittites and assimilated into their kingdom. While all this was going on, there was another city that was slowly gaining power and becoming a bit of a concern, and that city was Babylon. Under Hammurabi between 1792 and 1750, Babylon conquered Assyria and made it their vassal state. Not only that, but at this time, the trade between Ashur and Qarun Qanesh came to an end, and so Babylon became the dominant kingdom in the region and took control of Assyrian trade. I guess it's lucky for the Assyrians that after the death of Hammurabi in 1750 BCE, the Babylonian empire completely fell apart, and Assyria had the chance to reassert its dominance in the region around their city of Ashur. Unfortunately, the kings of Assyria during this time didn't seem up to the task, and their region fell into a period of civil war and instability until the Assyrian king Adasi. Adasi was able to secure the region, and his successor continued the policies he introduced. But for whatever reason, whether they were unwilling or unable, his successors did not work to expand their kingdom. And now onto the Middle Empire, which begins in the 15th century, with the Hurrians from Mitanni sacking Ashur and making Assyria a vassal state. The Mitanni grew from eastern Anatolia, and by the 14th century, they also held power in Mesopotamia. Mitanni's power was broken by invasions by the Hittites, who replaced Mitanni rulers with their own. During this time, the Assyrian king Ariba Adad I was able to gain influence in the Mitanni court, which was now mostly Hittite. The Assyrians saw an opportunity for expansion, and started to push the boundaries of their region outward from Ashur and into the regions previously held by the Mitanni. The Hittites didn't just let this expansion happen though, and fought back against the Assyrians, and were able to keep them at bay until the Assyrian king Asher Ubalit I defeated what was left of the Mitanni forces under the Hittite commanders. He was able to take pretty substantial portions of the region, and was succeeded by two kings who didn't lose the regions, but also didn't expand any further. That was until Adad-Nurari I, who ruled between 1307 and 1275 BCE. He's the first Assyrian king that we know anything about with certainty because he left inscriptions of his achievements, and it was under his rule that the Assyrian empire drove out the Hittites, and the standard Assyrian policy of deporting large portions of the population began. Adad-Nurari I thought that removing the occupants of the land he had conquered and replacing them with Assyrians was a good way to prevent any future rebellion or uprising, but anyone deported was never in bonds, and not everyone was displaced. Deportees were chosen based on their talents and placed elsewhere in the empire where they could make the most of their skills, and families weren't ever separated. It was when people resisted the presence and policies of the Assyrians that they were killed or sold into slavery, but overall the populations were absorbed into the Assyrian empire and thought of as Assyrians. Under Adad-Nurari I's son, Shalmaneser I, the destruction of the Mitanni was completed, and he also continued his father's policies and relocations of large chunks of the population. Shalmaneser I's son, Tukulti-Ninurta I, continued these policies as well, but took it even further, especially with his desire to preserve knowledge and cultures of the people he conquered. He took more care in deporting people where they could be utilised, with scribes and scholars being relocated to urban centres where they could help with written works. In circa 1254 BCE, Tukulti-Ninurta I defeated the Hittites at the Battle of Nerea, which pretty much ended Hittite power in the region and initiated their period of decline. In response to Babylon making incursions into Assyria, he sacked Babylon, desecrated and sacked their temples, and took both the king and some of their people to Ashur as slaves. Since Babylon and Assyria shared many of the same deities, his sons and court officials rebelled against him, claiming that his sack of Babylonian temples was an offence to their shared gods. He was assassinated, probably by one of his sons, Ashur-Nadin-Apli, who then took the throne. After the murder of Tukulti-Ninurta I, Assyria neither expanded nor declined, and while the Near East and beyond fell into a so-called Dark Age, with civilisations completely collapsing following the Bronze Age Collapse in circa 1200 BCE, Ashur and the Assyrian Empire remained intact. When Tiglath-Pileser I ascended the throne in circa 1115 BCE, he revitalised the economy and the military through his campaigns, which then added more resources and skilled populations to the Assyrian Empire. Under Tiglath-Pileser I, the arts and literacy flourished, and his preservation of cuneiform tablets would become the model for Ashurbanipal's famous library at Nineveh later on. After Tiglath-Pileser I died, his son Ashur-Atal-Akur ruled for two years and was succeeded by his brother, Ashur-Bel-Khala, who ruled successfully in the beginning, until a usurper challenged him and initiated a civil war. The rebellion was crushed, and the participants were executed, but during the turmoil, Assyria lost the region of Ibn Nari, which is modern-day Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. This was a bummer for Assyria, because this region was important to the empire due to their established seaports, all of which were now held by the Aramaeans. The Assyrians were not only dealing with incursions from the Aramaeans, but the Amorites and the Mari were trying to free themselves from the empire's grasp. The empire shrank under the following kings, and although they maintained their city of Ashur, they weren't able to take back Ibn Nari or drive the Amorites and Aramaeans from their borders. The Neo-Assyrian Empire, also known as the Late Empire, is the period of the greatest expansion of the empire, and it's where their reputation has come from for ruthlessness and cruelty. Under the reign of King Adad-Nurari II between circa 912 and 891 BCE, he was able to recapture the lands lost during the Middle Empire, including the important region of Ibn Nari, and their borders were secured as their expansions continued. Adad-Nurari II conquered Babylon, but he learnt from his predecessors, and instead of plundering the city, he entered into a peace treaty with the king by marrying each other's daughters. This meant that Babylon became a powerful ally, rather than a problem to be dealt with. The expansion continued under Adad-Nurari II's successors, with Tukulti-Nunurta II, who was king between 891 and 884 BCE, expanding the empire towards Anatolia, and Ashur-Nazapal II between 884 and 859 BCE, consolidating Assyrian rule in the Levant through Canaan. The method that afforded them so many victories was siege warfare, which was started with a brutal attack on the city. They would light fires under wooden gates, mobile ladders were used to cross moats, and ramps were used to breach high sections of wall, and all of these actions were covered with archers who made up the core of the Assyrian infantry. After the initial assault, they would bring in their four-wheeled wooden towers with turrets on top and one or two battering rams at the base, and either break down the walls, or if the walls held, lay siege to the city until it surrendered. It wasn't all about the expansion and conquering, but also about other advancements, with the notable one being in the field of medicine. The Assyrians built on the foundation of Sumerian medical knowledge, with King Ashur-Nazapal II formulating the first systematic lists of plants and animals in the empire, who even brought his scribes with him on campaign to record new findings. Plus, there was the establishment of schools, but these were reserved only for the sons of the wealthy and the elite, since girls weren't allowed to go to school, and women weren't able to hold any position of authority. The rights of women, who were once almost equal in the early history of Mesopotamia, steadily declined with the rise of Assyrian monotheism. The Assyrians worshipped their god Ashur only at the temple in the city, but as they went on campaign, their god Ashur went with them, so this meant that they had to come up with a new way of worshipping and imagining their god. The vision resulted in Ashur as the supreme deity, and as the Assyrians conquered peoples, they absorbed the gods and religious practices of these peoples into their worship of Ashur. The Neo-Assyrian empire continued to grow as it became more cohesive with the spread of the worship of Ashur and the assimilation of conquered people. The region expanded up the coast of the Mediterranean, where they received tribute from the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon, and defeated the Armenian kingdom of Urartu under Shalmaneser III. The expansion of the empire ceased after Shalmaneser III with his successor, Shamshi-Adad V, fighting with his brother for control and inciting civil war, which was eventually put down. The next king, Adad-Nurari III, was too young to assume the throne, so his mother, Shemiramat, who was also known as Semiramis, who later became a mythical goddess-queen, held the throne and organised successful campaigns until her son came to age. She handed her son a strong empire at the end of the 9th century BCE, but his successors were happy to just chill out and ride the wave of the earlier king's success, and the empire ceased to develop until the 8th century under Tiglath-Pileser III between 745 and 727 BCE. Tiglath-Pileser III reorganised the government and the military, and these reforms allowed him to reassert control of the Assyrian empire over his conquered regions, including the kingdom of Urartu, which had risen again and started to cause trouble. It was under Tiglath-Pileser III that the Assyrian military was at its most effective. Tiglath-Pileser III was followed by Shalmaneser V between 727 and 722, and then Sargon II between 722 and 705. Sargon II's rule was challenged by the Assyrian nobles, who claimed that he had illegally seized the throne. But their problems didn't seem to worry Sargon, who brought the Neo-Assyrian empire to its greatest heights, completely conquering Urartu in 714 BCE, sacking the city and bringing its vast wealth back to Assyria. He was succeeded by Sennacherib, who was king between 705 and 681 BCE, who campaigned widely and ruthlessly. Sennacherib's annals, inscribed on what is known as the Taylor Prism, describe Sennacherib's military exploits in his sacking of Jerusalem, where he claims that he captured 46 cities and overwhelmed the people of Jerusalem after trapping them in their city. Sennacherib grew the wealth of the empire with his military victories and moved the Assyrian capital from Ashur to Nineveh, where he improved the city and planted all sorts of orchards and gardens. Sennacherib failed to learn from history though and decided to capture and sack Babylon and once again his desecration of sacred temples led to his assassination by his sons. His son Esarhaddon claimed the throne and ruled between 681 and 669 BCE. The first thing he did was rebuild Babylon and under his reign the Assyrian empire flourished, especially with his success in something Sennacherib tried and failed to do. Esarhaddon's campaigns were successful and allowed for stability in the empire so that advancements could be made in areas like medicine, mathematics, astronomy, literacy, architecture and the arts. Esarhaddon died in the midst of preparing a campaign against the Nubians and he was succeeded by the last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal. Ashurbanipal ruled between 668 and 627 BCE and was the most literate of the Assyrian kings. This isn't surprising since he is best known in the modern day for the huge library he collected at Nineveh. Although he was a patron for arts and culture he was just as ruthless as the previous rulers in securing his empire. He defeated the Elamites and expanded his regions further east and with his belief that it was important to preserve the past he sent envoys to all of the lands under his control and had them either copy or bring back books from the various towns and cities to Nineveh for his royal library. Ashurbanipal died in 627 BCE after ruling effectively for 42 years but in that time the regions dominated by the Assyrian empire became too large which made it difficult to defend the borders and also meant the regions were overtaxed. His successors couldn't hold all of the territories and regions broke away with the vassal states revolting against the Assyrian dominance. In 612 Nineveh was sacked and burned by a group of Babylonians, Medes, Persians and Scythians among others which destroyed the palace and the library. The Assyrians were so despised that their cities were also thoroughly destroyed that within two generations no one knew where they had once been and they lay covered in sand for the next two thousand years. After the fall of Assyria Babylon assumed supremacy in the region from 605 until its fall to the Persians in 549 BCE under Cyrus the Great who founded the Achaemenid empire. Cyrus learned from history and did not repeat the mistakes of the Assyrians. He instituted a more humane form of government creating an even larger empire and more stable one. Herodotus the Greek historian referred to the entirety of Mesopotamia as Assyria and Herodotus's works were well known to early scholars who therefore knew of Assyria's existence. When serious excavations began of the fallen Assyrian cities in the 19th century thousands of clay tablets were discovered. The fires that destroyed Nineveh and other cities baked the clay cuneiform tablets of Assyrian works and the broken walls covered them until they were discovered by modern day archaeologists. At first no one could decipher them but the Aramaic language turned out to be key. Akkadian was the initial language of the Assyrians until Tiglath-Pileser III introduced Aramaic and with the survival of Aramaic written language it was used to decipher first Akkadian and then Sumerian. Once the texts could be read they were found to contain myths that inspired some of the most famous stories from the bible. Details on early agriculture, architecture, beer brewing and warfare which previously were credited to later cultures. The discovery of Ashurbanipal's library and those at other cities revolutionized our understanding of the ancient near east and the development of culture, the arts and religion of neighboring civilizations as well. Did you know about Ashurbanipal's library? What do you imagine we'd think about the ancient middle east if archaeologists hadn't discovered it? Let us know what you think in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel so you don't miss out on any of our new videos. This video was brought to you by World History Encyclopedia. For more great articles and interactive content head to our website via the link below. 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