Assyria The First Empire of Evil

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, and his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold, and the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, when the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron. Today, let's talk about the world's first empire. At its peak, Assyria's rule stretched from the Caspian Sea and from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. It was a trailblazer in many ways, creating the first professional army, postal service, road system, and military engineering innovations. The administrative systems and governing methods developed by the Assyrians influenced nearly every major empire that followed, from the Achaemenids to the Ottomans. The Assyrians were a Semitic people whose ancestors originally lived on the Arabian Peninsula. Back then, it wasn't the vast desert we know today, but a savanna. However, in the second half of the third millennium BC, the climate began to change, and Arabia gradually turned into an arid landscape. This led to mass migrations of Semitic tribes to the north. Some settled in the Sinai Peninsula, Palestine, and the Levant, while others moved into Mesopotamia. This latter group, known as the Akkadians, mixed with the Sumerians, adopting much of their knowledge and culture. The first settlements of the future Assyrians emerged along the middle course of the Tigris River, including Nineveh, Erbil, and Ashur. For a long time, these cities were vassals of the more advanced states of southern Mesopotamia. They were part of Sargon the Great's kingdom, Hammurabi's empire, and many other dominant Mesopotamian states. The lands of the Proto-Assyrians lay directly along the trade route connecting lower Mesopotamia to Anatolia. As a result, Ashur and other cities naturally developed as trading settlements. However, Ashur quickly grew beyond being just a stopover between Babylon and Anatolia, transforming into a major commercial hub. Merchants from Ashur established several trading colonies and outposts in Anatolia, the largest of which was Karum Qanesh. Assyrian traders transported lapis lazuli, elamite tin, and Babylonian copper westward, while bringing timber for construction, woolen textiles, silver, and gold eastward. The wealth generated from this trade fueled Ashur's growth, and by the 19th century BC, the city had gained independence from Babylonia. It's worth noting that Ashur was more than just the name of a city. It was also the name of the supreme god worshipped by its inhabitants. Ashur was a warlike deity associated with battle, military glory, and justice. In ancient Mesopotamia, it was common for each city to have its own patron god. For example, the Babylonians worshipped Marduk, the people of Ur revered Enlil, and in Uruk, the chief deity was Anu. However, for the Proto-Assyrians, Ashur was not only their divine protector, but also the spirit of the very rock upon which their city was built. The name of the god and the name of the city were written the same way, symbolizing an inseparable connection. The city wasn't simply named after the god. Ashur was the embodiment of the god. Little is known about Ashur's political structure during this period, but one thing is clear. It was not yet a kingdom. Instead, its citizens considered their true king to be the god Ashur himself. The city's ruler acted only as his representative on earth. This governor's position was hereditary, but not absolute. His authority was restricted by two key institutions, a council of the city's elders and a special official known as the Limu. The Limu was elected for a one-year term and served as both the head of the city council and the chief financial officer. Any major decision made by the governor required the approval of the council and funding had to be secured through the Limu. This period of limited royal power came to an end between the 18th and 17th centuries BC. Around this time, peace and stability in Anatolia began to collapse, leading to internal wars. Trade declined and Assyrian colonies such as Karamkhanesh were destroyed. As a result, Ashur lost its status as a major trade center and once again fell under Babylonian control. In the 16th century BC, the region of Ashur once again became a battleground. For several decades, Babylonians and Hittites clashed in fierce conflicts, culminating in the capture and looting of Babylon in 1531 BC. Soon after, Kassite tribes migrated from the Iranian plateau into Mesopotamia and seized control of Babylonia. However, the fall of Babylon did not bring independence to the Assyrians. Around the same time, Hurrian tribes from the Armenian highlands migrated into what is now Syria, establishing several states, the most powerful of which was Mitanni. For nearly two centuries, Ashur remained a vassal of Mitanni. Though the city was nominally independent, its fortifications were demolished at Mitanni's command, leaving it defenseless. Additionally, representatives from Mitanni sat on Ashur's city council, ensuring that no major decisions were made without their approval. Little is known about this period, but it is clear that the Assyrians adopted significant military and technological innovations from Mitanni, including the light war chariot, the composite bow, and lamellar armor. In the 15th and 14th centuries BC, Ashur regained its independence. The ruler Ashur-bel-Nesheshu took advantage of internal strife within Mitanni to rebuild the city's walls. At the time, this act was nearly equivalent to a declaration of war, but Mitanni, preoccupied with internal conflicts, did not respond. Later, Ashur-uballit expelled Mitanni envoys from the city, declared himself king, and sought support from Mitanni's enemies, the Egyptians. This resurgence of the Assyrian state was met with hostility in Babylon. In a letter to Pharaoh Akhenaten, the Babylonian king Berna-Buryash II referred to the Assyrians as his vassals and demanded that the pharaoh refuse to recognize their sovereignty or engage with them diplomatically, an appeal that ultimately went unanswered. With the attainment of independence, Assyria's state ideology underwent a transformation. No longer did the Assyrians see themselves merely as a city-state, they now viewed their realm as a territorial state. It was no longer just the city of Ashur, it was Assyria, or Mad-Ashur, meaning the land of Ashur. King Adad-Nirari I began to call himself king of the world, rather than simply the king of Assyria. Assyrian royal titles increasingly reflected military achievements, with the key title Murapesh-Mitsri, meaning the one who expands the borders, becoming central. The Assyrians believed that the god Ashur was the source of the highest cosmic order, and that their state, the land of Ashur, was the embodiment of divine law, surrounded by chaos. From their perspective, expanding Assyrian rule over conquered lands was an unquestionable good, and any resistance to it was met with confusion and regarded as blasphemy. Assyrian religion also evolved. The role of Ashur continued to grow. He was no longer just the city's patron deity, but now the supreme god above all others. If Ashur was the god of gods, then, according to Assyrian logic, the king of Assyria was destined to be the king of earthly kings, ruling over all peoples. The Assyrian kings saw territorial expansion as their divine mission, a fulfillment of the god Ashur's will, and so their military campaigns remained relentless. This expansion played a major role in the downfall of Mitanni. The first devastating blow was dealt by Adad-Nirari I, who annexed part of Mitanni's territory and forced its king, Shatuara I, to acknowledge himself as a vassal of the Assyrian ruler, or, as the Assyrians put it, to bear the yoke of Ashur. Shortly thereafter, the Hittites destroyed Mitanni's capital, Washukanni, and the new Assyrian king, Shalmaneser I, annexed what remained of the once-powerful Mitanni state. The next major expansion of Assyria's borders came during the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I. In the south, he conquered Babylonia, and in the north, he dealt a crushing blow to the Hittites. Assyria could have become a full-fledged empire at this point, but those ambitions were cut short when Tukulti-Ninurta was assassinated in a palace coup. His death triggered a period of internal strife and power struggles within the Around the same time, the late Bronze Age collapse swept across the Near East, bringing once-thriving trade states and mighty empires to decline, or even complete disappearance. Assyria managed to survive this turbulent era, though its territory shrank to a small core along the Middle Tigris. By the end of the 10th century BC, the Assyrians, led by King Ashurdan II and his successors, resumed their military campaigns. Initially, these campaigns were defensive and preemptive, as Assyria faced repeated raids from Aramean tribes to the east, the Nairi from the Armenian highlands, and the Medes from the Iranian plateau. But before long, these expeditions shifted into aggressive expansionist warfare. A key factor in Assyria's military success was a series of technical innovations. They were the first in the Near East to develop cavalry as a distinct military unit. Early Assyrian cavalry mainly consisted of mounted archers, though later they introduced heavy shock cavalry, early precursors of the Parthian cataphracts. Another major breakthrough was in military engineering. The Assyrians began using battering rams to break through city gates and walls. Since most fortifications at the time were built from sun-dried brick, even simple rams were highly effective. They were also the first to deploy siege towers with archers and to dig tunnels beneath walls. While earlier armies typically relied on long sieges to starve defenders into surrender, the Assyrians mastered the art of direct assaults, even against the most well-fortified cities. Another key innovation introduced by the Assyrians was the creation of postal system, which allowed them to establish territorial administrations across conquered lands. Before this, the inability to maintain control over distant regions meant that subjugated territories were typically left to pay tribute, often while keeping their local rulers in place. The Assyrian kings changed this approach by stationing garrisons and appointing governors in conquered cities, officials who were closely monitored through regular reports delivered via the postal service. To enable the rapid movement of troops and ensure uninterrupted postal communication, the Assyrians were among the first in history to build an extensive network of paved roads. All these innovations, military logistics, large-scale infrastructure projects, and a growing bureaucratic system required immense resources. This posed a challenge, as the Assyrians lacked a formal tax system. The solution they found was to make warfare continuous. Thus began the practice of conducting annual military campaigns, focused not only on expanding the empire's borders, but also on extracting as much wealth as possible from the conquered territories. These campaigns reached their peak during the reign of King Ashurnasirpal II. His conquests were marked by extraordinary brutality, even by the standards of the time. Here is how Ashurnasirpal II described one of his victories. I took the city and slew many warriors. I seized all that could be taken. I cut off the heads of the fighters and raised before the city a tower of skulls and bodies, a tower of the living I built, the young men I impaled upon stakes around the city, and the maidens I cast into the flames. Thus did I make known the might of my hand and the terror of my sword. When Ashurnasirpal II's army captured a city, horrific death was the norm. Prisoners were beheaded or dismembered, their skin flayed, impaled on stakes, crucified, buried alive, drowned, or burned. This policy of terror and intimidation proved highly effective, at least in the short term. Many kingdoms submitted to the Assyrians without resistance, too fearful to even attempt a fight. Here, for example, is how Shalmaneser III described one of his bloodless victories. The panic-stricken terror and fear which my lord Ashur sent upon them seized the dwellers of the city when, with my host, I came before their walls. The king of the city grasped my feet and submitted to me. I accepted him and granted him life. The heavy yoke of my dominion I placed upon him for all eternity. His own sons, his kin, and his household I took as hostages to ensure his obedience forevermore. But in the long run, the policy of terror backfired. While it inspired fear, it also bred deep and lasting hatred. Nearly every neighboring people came to not only dread the Assyrians, but loathe them with intensity. Even though Ashurnasirpal II's successors were not as cruel, the reputation of the Assyrians as ruthless executioners and tormentors stuck and could not be undone. The goal of terror had been to crush any will to resist, but over time it produced the opposite effect. As soon as internal strife erupted in Assyria itself, multiple peoples rose up in rebellion. In the north, those who had suffered from Assyrian raids united to form a new state, Urartu. In the west, two powerful confederations of Aramean tribes emerged. Rebellions frequently broke out in Babylon against Assyrian rule. Ultimately, the policy of endless warfare led to Assyria's decline. The plundered lands and devastated settlements, stripped of resources and populations, stopped generating wealth. Trade collapsed. Provincial governors began slipping out of central control and started intervening in power struggles within the capital. Constant warfare and civil unrest pushed the empire into economic ruin, and one by one, the conquered territories fell away. By the end of the 9th century BC, King Shamshiyadad V ruled little more than the capital city and a small patch of land around it. Assyria was saved from total collapse by King Tiglath-Pileser III, who came to power in 745 BC through a military coup. Once on the throne, he implemented sweeping military reforms that significantly strengthened the army. Previously, the Assyrian military had consisted mostly of a militia of free citizens, each responsible for supplying their own weapons and armor. Under Tiglath-Pileser III, however, Assyria formed its first professional army. He began recruiting impoverished peasants into military service and equipping them at the state's expense. He introduced regular training, strict discipline, and reorganized the army into specialized units, chariots, cavalry, light and heavy infantry, and engineering corps. To fund this army and ensure the stability of the state, Tiglath-Pileser carried out tax and administrative reforms. First, he imposed new taxes and labor obligations on farmers and craftsmen. Second, to prevent provincial governors from becoming independent rulers, he reduced the size of provinces while increasing their number, and crucially, began appointing eunuchs as governors. Since eunuchs could not have children, they posed no dynastic threat to the central authority. With a reformed army and a more centralized, stable state, Tiglath-Pileser III launched a new wave of conquests. But this time, Assyria's treatment of conquered lands took a new turn. To completely break the spirit of resistance among subjugated peoples, the Assyrians introduced a policy known in their language as nassahu, or uprooting. After conquering a region, they would deport nearly the entire population to another part of the empire. In their place, they would resettle captives from other lands. The idea behind this policy was to sever the connection between a people and their homeland, erase their national identity, and assimilate them into the Assyrian world. Interestingly, it was this policy that led to the Aramaeization of the Near East. Originally, Aramaean tribes lived in compact groups in what is now Syria, but after the mass deportations initiated by the Assyrians, Aramaeans were scattered across various regions of the empire. Over time, their language, not Assyrian, became the lingua franca of the Near East. Even in the Assyrians' own heartland, Aramaic grew increasingly common. At a certain point, the Assyrians began keeping records not only in Akkadian, but also in Aramaic. In relief carvings, scribes are often depicted working in pairs, one writing in Akkadian on a clay tablet, the other in Aramaic on papyrus. The Nassahu policy, along with Tiglath-Pileser III's reforms, proved extraordinarily effective. In 745 BC, Tiglath-Pileser aided Babylonian king Nabanasur in his struggle against Chaldean tribes and the kingdom of Elam. As a result, Nabanasur became his vassal, and Tiglath-Pileser adopted the prestigious title King of Sumer and Akkad. He then led a campaign eastward and subdued the Median tribes living on the Iranian plateau. Having tested his reformed army in real combat, Tiglath-Pileser set his sights on the most powerful state in the region, Urartu, ruled at the time by King Sarduri II. Urartu had formed a military alliance with several Syro-Hurrian states and Aramaean tribes. Together, they posed a formidable challenge and were expected to be a true test of Assyria's renewed military strength. In 743 BC, the decisive Battle of Arpad took place, where the Assyrians faced off against the forces of Urartu and its allies. The Assyrian victory was so overwhelming and conclusive that many states in Syria and the Levant immediately submitted to Ashur's rule without resistance and paid tribute. In 735 BC, Assyria delivered a decisive blow to Urartu. Tiglath-Pileser led his army all the way to Tushpa, the enemy capital, located on the shores of Lake Van. The Assyrians managed to breach the city's outer defenses and destroyed the lower part of the city, but the citadel, perched atop a sheer rock face, remained impregnable. Although the kingdom of Urartu technically survived, the campaign triggered a period of internal crisis. For many years afterward, Urartu was no longer capable of challenging Assyria's dominance. In 732 BC, Tiglath-Pileser launched another campaign into the Near East. He conquered Damascus, while the Phoenician city-states acknowledged Assyrian supremacy and paid massive tributes to avoid destruction. For example, Tyre paid four and a half tons of gold. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah were also turned into client states. Tiglath-Pileser's campaign reached the very border of Egypt, ending with the capture of Ashkelon, the capital of the Philistines. The following year, Tiglath-Pileser returned to Babylonia, where he once again defeated the Chaldeans, taking 154,000 prisoners in the process. In 729 BC, he united Assyria and Babylonia by crowning himself king of Babylon. In just 15 years, Assyria had brought the entire Near East under its control, from Lake Van to Egypt, and from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. This marked the birth of what became known as the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The successors of Tiglath-Pileser, Shalmaneser V, Sargon II, Sennacherib, and Esarhaddon continued his expansionist policy. Assyria reached its greatest territorial extent at the beginning of the 7th century BC. Egypt, Elam, and Cyprus were conquered. Rebellious Phoenician cities were subdued, Urartu was pushed far to the north, and in the west the Assyrians seized vast territories in Anatolia. In 689 BC, during the suppression of yet another Babylonian uprising, Sennacherib utterly destroyed Babylon, leaving not a single stone standing. He deported the population, relocated the city's divine statues to Nineveh, and flooded the site with the waters of the Euphrates. However, the city was later rebuilt by his successor, Esarhaddon. Under Esarhaddon, the empire reached the peak of its power. The authority of the Assyrian kings knew no bounds. All the peoples of the Near East had bowed before them. It was hard to imagine that within just a century, not a trace of mighty Assyria would remain, but that's exactly what happened. In 672 BC, Esarhaddon named his son Ashurbanipal as his successor. All the Assyrian nobility swore loyalty to him, but in Babylonia, the local elites refused to take an oath of allegiance to Ashurbanipal. The situation nearly escalated into rebellion. To prevent instability, Esarhaddon decided to split the empire in two, leaving the throne of Assyria to Ashurbanipal and the throne of Babylonia to another son, Shamash-Shum-Ukin. This decision was well received in Babylonia, as Shamash-Shum-Ukin's mother was Babylonian. In Assyria, however, the plan was met with skepticism. A clay tablet survives to this day, containing a message from the court priest and astrologer, Adad-Shumu-Usur, addressed to Esarhaddon. Thou hast clothed one of thy sons in the royal garments, and bestowed upon him the kingship of the land of Ashur. Thy eldest son thou hast appointed to reign over Babylon. But, O my king, what thou hast done with the young kings is not good for the land of Ashur. Let wisdom guide thy hand, lest strife and discord fall upon the throne. The words of Adad-Shumu-Usur turned out to be prophetic. In 669 BC, Esarhaddon died and power passed to his sons. Although Shamash-Shum-Ukin was formally crowned king of Babylon, real authority remained in the hands of Ashurbanipal. A strong Assyrian garrison still remained in Babylon, loyal not to Shamash-Shum-Ukin but to Nineveh. Ashurbanipal also continued to offer sacrifices to the Babylonian gods, a sacred duty traditionally reserved for the king of Babylon himself. For a time, peace held between the brothers, and during that period, the Assyrian empire, at least on the surface, appeared stronger than ever. The old enemy, Urartu, had effectively become a client state, serving as a buffer on the empire's northern frontier against the aggressive Cimmerian tribes. In the west, the Lydian kingdom became an Assyrian vassal. To the south, in 653 BC, the Assyrians crushed Elam. The severed head of the Elamite king Tumen was hung in the royal garden of Ashurbanipal's palace in Nineveh. But Shamash-Shum-Ukin longed for Babylon's full independence and secretly began forming an anti-Assyrian alliance. His coalition included Chaldean principalities, the Elamites, Persians, Medes, Arabs, Egyptians, and even the Lydians. Interestingly, Assyrian counterintelligence uncovered his plot in time. Clay tablets discovered in Ashurbanipal's royal archive contain reports detailing suspicious diplomatic activity by Shamash-Shum-Ukin. Yet, despite these warnings, the reports were ignored. In the spring of 652 BC, Shamash-Shum-Ukin launched his rebellion, but the coalition of revolting powers failed to present a united front. Egypt provided no support at all. Lydia, under attack from the Cimmerians at the time, quickly withdrew from the conflict. The remaining allies acted without coordination or strategy. Using the classic divide-and-conquer approach, the Assyrians defeated the rebel forces one by one. By the autumn of 648 BC, they had captured Babylon. Rather than be taken alive, Shamash-Shum-Ukin committed suicide, along with his wife and closest supporters. The Assyrians unleashed terrible vengeance on the city and its people. Rebels had their tongues ripped out and limbs hacked off. Their mutilated bodies were left to be devoured by dogs and pigs. After crushing Babylon, the Assyrians moved swiftly to suppress the Chaldeans, destroy the Elamite state once and for all, and punish the Arabs. Ashurbanipal celebrated his stunning victory with a brutal display of power. As he entered the temple in triumph, his chariot was drawn not by horses, but by five defeated kings. Behind him walked the closest allies of Shamash-Shum-Ukin, each wearing around their necks the severed heads of rebellious princes. Assyria had reached the height of its power. It seemed that no force on earth could stand against it. But in reality, Assyria was bleeding out from within. The constant uprisings had drained its strength. The Medes never returned to Assyrian control. Egypt soon broke away, and Lydia also refused to recognize Ashurbanipal's authority. He no longer had the strength to reconquer these increasingly independent border states. Soon after, a new threat emerged. The Scythians, following in the wake of the Cimmerians, began appearing along Assyria's borders. In the 630s BC, under the leadership of they invaded Assyrian territory. Weakened by endless wars and rebellions, Assyria was in no condition to resist. The Scythians swept across the western parts of the empire like a tidal wave, rolling westward beyond the Euphrates. This sudden catastrophe broke the back of the Assyrian state and plunged it into chaos and internal strife. Ashurbanipal lost the trust of the military elite and was removed from power, left only with the Babylonian throne. But in 627 BC, Ashurbanipal died, triggering a civil war between his sons and his generals. The rapid collapse of the Assyrian empire had begun. One by one, Assyrian provinces declared independence. Elam broke away. In Babylon, a Chaldean prince named Nabopolassar seized power, declared independence from Assyria, and launched a war of liberation. By 619 BC, he had succeeded in fully freeing Babylonia from Assyrian control. Meanwhile, Egypt re-entered the scene, occupying Canaan, the Levant, and Syria, regions that had remained leaderless after the Scythian invasion. The Assyrians lacked the strength to confront the rising power of Babylon. In a desperate move, King Sin-Sharish-Kun formed an anti-Babylonian coalition that included Assyria, Urartu, Mani, and Egypt. But it was too late. Nabopolassar defeated the alliance's combined forces. Around the same time, the Median king Ciaxares invaded Assyria from another direction. Both armies raced to the city of Ashur. The Medes arrived first, stormed the city, and burned it to the ground. On the flaming ruins of Ashur, Ciaxares and Nabopolassar sealed their alliance. In 612 BC, they laid siege to the Assyrian capital, Nineveh. After three months, the city fell. King Sin-Sharish-Kun was killed during the final assault. The remnants of the Assyrian army, supported by Egypt, regrouped in the city of Haran. The last king of Assyria, Ashur-Ubalat II, tried to rally what was left of the empire, but his efforts failed. In 610 BC, the Medes captured Haran, and the following year, Nabopolassar crushed the last Assyrian-Egyptian forces in the region. And with that, the story of the Assyrian empire, the first empire in history, came to an end.