A series of kings from 934 b. c. onward began conquering territory for Assyria. During this time, they perfected their system of warfare, using chariots and cavalry units, deporting conquered peoples, and placing local areas under the rule of Assyrian governors. In 883 b. c., Ashurnasirpal II (AH-sure-nah-ZEER-pall) established what historians call the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and under his rule (883-859 b. c.), the Assyrian armies developed a particularly effective strategy for warfare.
This innovation, or new idea, had nothing to do with the actual fighting, but concerned a matter of equal importance to armies: supplying the troops. An old saying goes “An army travels on its stomach,” meaning that men cannot fight if they have not been fed. Ashurnasirpal established local supply houses throughout the empire, where the Assyrians stored grain and other items with which to feed soldiers. This made it possible to move farther and to conquer more lands.
Ashurnasirpal was a great and ruthless leader who, in addition to his conquests and deportations of subject peoples, built many palaces and a capital city, calah (cuh-LAHK) on the ruins of an old city called Nimrud (nim-ROOD). The next kings fought a series of wars, but the Assyrians' power declined while other nations, including the Babylonians and Aramaeans, had victories at their expense. During this time, Aramaic emerged as the language of the Assyrian people, and indeed the Aramaeans began to have an increasingly dominant role in the life of the empire. Ironically, this was a result of what had seemed an ingenious plan when it originated: the relocation of conquered peoples.
Another powerful force threatening Assyria was Urartu (oo-RAR-too) to the north, but the next great Assyrian ruler, Tiglath-Pileser III (r. 745-727 b. c.), dealt with the Urartians. In another military campaign, he drove as far southwest as the Sinai
Desert, on the borders of Egypt. For a time, he tried to maintain good relations with the Babylonians, but he became suspicious of the Chaldeans' desire to rule the area, so he invaded and set himself up as king of both nations.
The Bull guardian from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II. The winged bull was often seen in Assyrian art.
The Granger Collection (New York). Reproduced by permission.
Surprisingly, given the record of conquest the Assyrians had already established, it was only under Tiglath-Pileser that they set up a standing army, or a full-time military. His successor was Sargon II (r. 721-705 b. c.), who carried on the work of conquering the world and reestablished Assyrian rule over Babylonia when the Babylonians made a bid to regain power. He also conquered Israel in 721 b. c., and repeating a familiar pattern, he carried off most of its people. This group became assimilated, or mixed, into the Assyrian Empire, and later became legendary as the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.”
Sargon built himself a new capital, Dur-Sharrukin (door-shah-ROO-kin), whose name means “Fort Sargon.” His palace there was a magnificent structure, which had on its gateway a pair of winged bulls that were characteristic of Assyrian art forms. But as in the case of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaton's capital at Akhetaton, his successor and son, Sennacherib (sin-ACK-uh-rib; r. 704—681 b. c.) later abandoned the city in favor of Nineveh. During a military campaign, Sargon was ambushed and killed, an event that deeply upset the Assyrians because it seemed like a bad sign from Ashur. Indeed, Assyria's days were numbered.
The Assyrian art of warfare had evolved further, with military roads and supply lines—including a military postal system for communications between generals—that were the envy of competing nations. Sennacherib also launched the first Assyrian navy. As was always the case, he could only maintain power through nearly constant warfare, and the threat from Babylonia became more and more severe. Still maintaining control over the other nation, he had set his son up as ruler over
Babylonia. But the Chaldeans joined forces with the Elamites and killed the son. Sennacherib, filled with rage, marched his troops into Babylon in 689 b. c., and sacked the capital city.
The Assyrians had sacked Babylon before, of course, but this time it was different. For one thing, they destroyed the city as they never had previously, even diverting (changing the course of) the Euphrates so that it flooded Babylon. In the long run, this so angered the Babylonians that it led to the rise of the Chaldean Empire under Nabopolassar sixty years later. Even in the short run, however, it proved a bad move, because the Assyrian people themselves were almost as upset over the destruction as the Babylonians. They may have been at war with Babylonia on a regular basis, but they still shared many things in common with the Babylonians, including much of their religion, and they considered the sacking of Babylon an offense to Marduk and the other gods.
Therefore Sennacherib's son, Esarhaddon (ee-sar-HAD-duhn), who ruled from 681 to 668 b. c., tried to improve relations with the Babylonians by rebuilding temples to Marduk and other parts of their capital city. He also waged war with Egypt, capturing the city of Memphis and setting up Necho as a vassal king. At this point, the Assyrian Empire reached its height in terms of the territory it controlled, all the way from the Persian Gulf in the east to the Nile Delta in the west, and from the mountains of Asia Minor to the deserts of Arabia.
But usually when something reaches its peak—whether it be an empire, a business, or even a person's career—it is most often past its prime, because that high point is usually a result of work that was put in before. After Sennacherib, the decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire was swift, though there remained one last great ruler. This was Ashurbanipal (AH-sure-bah-NEE-pal), Sennacherib's son, who ruled from 669 to 627 b. c.
Sennacherib had made Ashurbanipal ruler over Assyria and his brother Shamash-shuma-ukin (SHAH-mosh shoo-MAH oo-kin) king of Babylonia. Shamash-shuma-ukin was the older of the two, and he probably did not care for the fact that his brother had the more powerful position. In 652 b. c., he led a revolt against Assyria. Ashurbanipal managed to subdue the Babylonian revolt in 648, and according to legend, Shamash-shuma-ukin committed suicide by burning down his palace with himself and his wives in it rather than surrender to his brother.
World History
