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 sarib by Lord Byron today let's talk about the world's first Empire at its peak Assyria rule stretched from the Nile to 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 AIDS 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 savannah 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 acadians mixed with 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 herbal and Asher 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 Asher and other cities naturally developed as trading settlements however Asher quickly grew

Beyond being just a stopover between Babylon and Anatolia transforming into a major commercial hub Merchants from Asher established several trading colonies and outposts in Anatolia the largest of which was karum Kesh Assyrian Traders transported lapis lazuli elmite tin and Babylonian copper Westward while bringing timber for construction Woolen textiles silver and gold Eastward the wealth generated from this trade fueled Asher's growth and by the 19th century BC the city had gained independence from Babylonia it's worth noting that Asher was more than just the name of a city it was also the name of the supreme god

worshiped by its inhabitants Asher 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 worshiped Marduk the people of UR revered enlil and in Uruk the chief deity was Anu however for the Proto Assyrians Asher 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 city were written the same way symbolizing an Inseparable connection the city

wasn't simply named after the god Asher was the embodiment of the god little is known about Asher'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 Asher 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 karum canes were destroyed as a result Asher lost its status as a major Trade Center and once again fell under Babylonian control in the 16th century BC the

region of Asher 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 casite 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 puran tribes from The Armenian Highlands migrated into what is now Syria establishing several States the most powerful of which was matani for nearly two centuries Asher remained a vassel of matani though the city was nominally independent its

fortifications were demolished at matan's command leaving it defenseless additionally representatives from matani sat on Asher'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 mitani including the light War Chariot the composite bow and lamel armor in the 15th and 14th centuries BC Asher regained its independence the ruler Asher Bel nesu took advantage of internal strife within matani to rebuild the city's walls at the time this act was nearly equivalent to a declaration of

war but matani preoccupied with internal conflicts did not respond later Asher ubalt expelled matani envoys from the city declared himself King and sought support from matan's enemies the Egyptians this Resurgence of the Assyrian state was met with hostility in Babylon in a letter to Pharaoh akatan the Babylonian King Berna bash II referred to the Assyrians as his vassals and demanded that the pharaoh refus to recognize their sovereignty or engage with them diplomatically an appeal that ultimately went unanswered with the attainment of Independence Assyria 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 Asher it was Assyria or mad aser meaning the land of Asher King adad nari I began to call himself king of the world rather than simply the king of of Assyria Assyrian Royal titles increasingly reflected military achievements with the key title mures Mitri meaning the one who expands the borders becoming Central the Assyrians believed that the god Asher was the source of the highest Cosmic order and that their state the land of Asher 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 Asher continued to grow he was no longer just the city's Patron deity but now the Supreme God above all others if Asher 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 Asher's will and so their military campaigns remained Relentless this expansion played a major role in the downfall of mitani the first devastating blow was dealt by adad nari the first who annexed part of matan's territory and forced its king shatara the first to acknowledge himself as a vassel of the Assyrian ruler or as the Assyrians put it to Bear the yoke Oak of Asher shortly thereafter the Hittites destroyed matan's capital wukan and the new Assyrian King shal manzar I annexed what remained of the once powerful mitani State the next

major expansion of Assyria borders came during the reign of tukul norta 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 tukul nura was assassinated in a palace coup his death triggered a period of internal strife and power struggles within the kingdom 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 tigers by the end of the 10th Century BC the Assyrians led by King asheran 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 Nair from The Armenian Highlands and the mes from the Iranian Plateau but before long these Expeditions shifted into aggressive expansionist Warfare a key factor in ass Syria'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 parthan cateracts another major breakthrough was in military engineering the Assyrians began using battering rams to break through City Gate and walls since most fortifications at the time were built from sundried 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 a 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 Ashura syal

II his conquests were marked by extraordinary brutality even by the standards of the time here is how Asher Nel 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

rule when Ashera Sir Paul 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 shal manzar III described one of his bloodless Victor the panic-stricken terror and fear which my Lord ashure 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 Ure his obedience forever more 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 Ashera seral secu'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 ass Syrian rule ultimately the policy of endless Warfare led to a Syria'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 shamshi adad I Ruled little more than the capital city and a small patch of land around it Assyria was saved from Total Collapse by King tiglath piler 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 piler 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 cores to fund this Army and ensure the stability of the state tiglath piler 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 Unix as Governors since Unix could not have children they posed no dynastic threat to the central Authority with a reformed Army and a more centralized stable State toath piser III launched a new wave of conquests but this time ass Syria'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 nahu 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 Ariz of the near East originally aramean tribes lived in compact groups in what is now Syria but after the mass deportations initiated by the

Assyrians arameans were scattered across various regions of the empire over time their language not Assyrian became the lingua franka 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 Acadian but also in Aramaic in relief carvings scribes are often depicted working in pairs one writing in Acadian on a clay tablet the other in Aramaic on Papyrus The nasah Who policy along with with tiglath piser III's reforms proved extraordinarily effective in 745 BC tiglath piler aided Babylonian King naban Asser in

his struggle against caldian tribes and the kingdom of ilam as a result nabon nasar became his vassel and tiglath peser adopted the prestigious title king of Sumer and akad 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 piler set his sights on the most powerful state in the region uru ruled at the time by King sardu the setui Oru had formed a military alliance with several coh herrian States and aramean tribes together they posed a formidable Challenge and were expected

to be a true test of ass Syria's renewed military strength in 743 BC the decisive battle of arpad took place where the Assyrians faced off against the forces of aratu and its allies the Assyrian victory was so overwhelming and conclusive that many states in Syria and the Levant immediately submitted to Asher's rule without resistance and paid tribute in 735 BC Assyria delivered a decisive blow to aratu tiglath peler 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 at top a sheer rock face remained impregnable although the kingdom of aratu technically survived the campaign triggered a period of internal crisis for many years afterward aratu was no longer capable of challenging ass Syria's dominance in 732 BC tath Pazer 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 Ty paid 4 and A2 tons of gold the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were also turned into client states

tiglath piser campaign reached the very border of Egypt ending with the capture of ashalon the capital of the Philistines the following year tiglath piser returned to Babylonia where he once again defeated the Cal I an 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 piser shanzer I Sargon II sarb and eaden continued his expansionist policy Assyria reached its greatest territorial extent at the beginning of the 7th Century BC Egypt ilam 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 sakb 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 Acer Haden under Esser Haden 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 Esser Haden named his son Asher banipal 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 Asher

banipal the situation nearly escalated into Rebellion to prevent instability eaden decided to split the empire in two leaving the Throne of Assyria to Asher banipal and the Throne of Babylonia to another son shamash shum ukin this decision was well received in Babylonia as shamash shuman'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 Esser Haden thou Hast clothed one of thy sons in the Royal garments and bestowed upon him the kingship of

the land of ashure thy eldest son thou Hast appointed to Reign Over Babylon but oh my king what thou Hast done with the young kings is not good for the land of ashure 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 Esser Haden died and power passed to his sons although shamash shum ukin was formerly crowned king of Babylon real Authority remained in the hands of ashur banipal a strong Assyrian Garrison still remained in Babylon loyal not to

shamash shukin 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 uru had effectively become a client State serving as a buffer on the Empire's Northern Frontier against the aggressive Samaran Ian tribes in the west the lydian kingdom became an Assyrian vassel to the south in 653 BC the Assyrians crushed ilam the severed head of the

elmite King tuman was hung in the Royal Garden of ashurbanipal's Palace in Nineveh but shamash shukin longed for babylon's full Independence and secretly began forming an anti- Assyrian Alliance his Coalition included caldian principalities the elamites Persians mes Arabs Egyptians and even the lydians interestingly Assyrian Counter Intelligence 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 sham ukan 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 samarians 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 shumin 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 calans destroy the elmite state once and for all and punish the Arabs Asher bipul 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 mes 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 cians following in the wake of the samarians began appearing appearing along Assyria borders in the 630s BC under the leadership of madus they invaded Assyrian territory weakened by endless Wars and rebellions Assyria was in no condition to resist the cians 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 Asher bipul 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 caldian prince named nabopolassar seized power declared independ end an

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 cian invasion the Assyrians lacked the strength to confront the rising power of Babylon in a desperate move King sin shishun formed an anti- Babylonian Coalition that included Assyria urartu manai and Egypt but it was too late nabopolassar defeated the alliance's combined forces around the same time the median King caerus invaded Assyria from another Direction both armies raced to

the city of Asher the mides arrived first stormed the city and burned it to the ground on the Flaming ruins of Asher kakaris and na Plasser sealed their Alliance in 612 BC they laid Siege to the Assyrian Capital Nineveh after 3 months the city fell King Sinar ishk Kun was killed during the final assault the remnants of the Assyrian army supported by Egypt regrouped in the city of Haron the last king of Assyria Asher ubot II tried to Rally what was left of the Empire but his efforts failed in 610 BC the mes captured Haron

and the following year nabopolassar crushed the last Assyrian Egyption forces in the region and with that the story of the Assyrian Empire the first Empire in history came to an end [Music]