The Neo-Assyrian Empire (c. 900-600)

The Assyrian Empire was the most important state of the early first millennium BCE and covered nearly the entire ancient Near East, at its greatest extent.

The main sources for first-millennium Assyria are royal annals. Narrated in the first person, their goal is to celebrate the deeds of the ruler, meaning that they are hardly objective representations of reality. With their rhetorical refinements, the described texts, at times, rank as authentic literary masterpieces and are fascinating objects of study.  By contrast, events from the later Neo- Babylonian empire are known from chronicles that use a more laconic style and possibly present a less distorted picture of reality. 

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The Assyrian Reconquest (911-823)

The Assyrian reconquest started slowly at the end of the tenth and especially the beginning of the ninth century during the reigns of Adadnirari II (911-891) and Tukulti-Ninurta II (890-884), and then gained momentum with Assurnasirpal II (883-859) and Shalmaneser III (858-823). Their goal was not so much regaining lost territories as creating a system of control over vital trade routes in order to ensure the safe movement of goods and the unimpeded progress of the Assyrian army. The resulting ambiguity of the political landscape is reflected in the titulary of local potentates, as evidenced by the statue at Tell al-Fakhariya: they could claim the Aramaic title mlk (king) but at the same time be considered shaknu (governors) dependent on Assyrian central authorities.

In 883, Assurnasirpal II seated himself on the throne and shaped the future trajectory of the state. Every year, he led his armies to the battlefield, suppressing rebellions with the utmost brutality and founding new Assyrian centers in order to reinforce the existing control system. This cruelty, probably to be attributed to the trauma caused by the Aramaean invasions, gradually became an essential component of the Assyrian style of government: the reputation of the Assyrians was such that many threatened cities or peoples preferred to submit at the mere news of their approach, deferring emancipation attempts until more favorable circumstances arose. These military campaigns were generally conducted in the west: Assurnasirpal reached the Mediterranean, extracting tribute from the Phoenician cities on his way. These campaigns, accompanied by pillage and deportations, provoked a sudden increase in the economic potential of Assyria, and soon a regular income was ensured through the payment of an annual tribute by vanquished principalities.

Assyrian power reemerged in Assurnasirpal’s construction of a new capital at Kalkhu (modern Nimrud). Starting in 879, a wall seven kilometers (about 4 miles) long was erected, enclosing thirty-six hectares (90 acres). Calculations have established that this wall alone necessitated a work force of seven thousand during three years. Assurnasirpal also built, inside the two-hectare (5-acre) citadel dominating the site, a grandiose palace and several temples. These works, not interrupted by his death in 859, were completed by his son and successor, Shalmaneser III. For the first time in Assyria, a vast metropolis had been erected in which a large part of the human and material resources of the kingdom were concentrated; this was not an isolated case for Khorsabad and then Nineveh fulfilled the same role in the late eighth and early seventh centuries. These successive Assyrian capitals functioned literally as siphons, and their disproportionate character was surely one of the factors that led to the collapse of the empire.

In the middle of the ninth century, however, Assyria was buoyed by its success. Shalmaneser III concentrated his efforts mainly on the west: northern Syria, southern Anatolia, and Cilicia. Local states in these areas were mostly governed by Aramaean and Neo-Hittite rulers who were wealthy but militarily weak and thus could not oppose the formidable war machine of the Assyrians. In 856, after several campaigns, Bit-Adini was defeated and turned into a province and its capital Til Barsip was renamed Kar-Shalmaneser. Assyria now controlled the bend of the Euphrates. Campaigns were conducted beyond that region, but with no resulting territorial gains. The confrontation with Syrian and Palestinian states culminated in the battle of Qarqar on the Orontes (853): in in the face of the Assyrian threat twelve kingdoms of the area set aside their rivalries and united under the leadership of Damascus, Hamath, and Israel. Shalmaneser claimed to have emerged victorious, but the situation was apparently far from settled, for the Assyrian armies campaigned in the region at least five more times.

Shalmaneser also showed an interest in Babylonia, which had experienced a real renaissance during the reign of Nabu-apla-iddina (888-855). The country was then freed of the nomadic tribes who ransacked it, and the cult of the local gods was reestablished in the great sanctuaries of Babylon, Borsippa, Sippar, and Uruk. The country also experienced a literary and scientific renaissance, illustrated by the composition of the magnificent Epic of Irra (Erra). When Marduk-zakir-shumi I assumed kingship in 854, he had to call upon the Assyrians to suppress a rebellion led by his brother. After having defeated the rebel in 850, Shalmaneser made his devotions in the temples of Kutha, Babylon, and Borsippa, as a sign of veneration for these holy cities. He also led a campaign against the Chaldean population in the south, who controlled important trade routes, and went back to Assyria with much booty.

Crisis (823-745)

The long reigns of these two very powerful rulers were followed by a period of trouble, which had already begun by the end of Shalmaneser’s reign. He had to face a rebellion led by one of his sons, and the situation did not stabilize until the reign of his successor, Shamshi-Adad V (823-811). Weakened by seven years of troubles, Assyria had to conclude a treaty with the Babylonian king Marduk-zakir-shumi I in which it agreed to humiliating concessions, but four years later Shamshi-Adad V took his revenge, conducting four campaigns in Babylonia (814-811).

Under his successor, Adad-nirari III (810-873), Assyria sank even further into obscurity. This is suggested by the lack of sources, but also precludes a precise assessment of the situation. The decline of royal authority is manifest, by this does not mean that a corresponding depression prevailed in all the kingdom. Governors recognized the sovereign only nominally and acted locally as real monarchs. To ensure their loyalty, the king was compelled to grant concessions of land that further weakened his position. His mother, Semiramis, wielded considerable power, a situation that gave rise to the Greek legend of Semiramis.

The most remarkable figure of the period is that of Shamshi-ilu, the supreme military commander who was de facto ruler in the western part of the kingdom. Residing at Til Barsip as in a true capital city, he conducted a campaign against Damascus and mediated various border disputes between the Neo-Hittite and Aramaean kingdoms of southeastern Anatolia and northeastern Syria. Between 782 and 745 three kings with no real authority occupied the throne, and Urartu, a newcomer on the international scene, was seriously threatening the northern border of Assyria. Six campaigns were led, mostly by Shamshi-ilu, between 781 and 774. An inscription of the Urartian king Sarduri II, commemorating a victory over the Assyrians, has survived. Finally, a series of sporadic rebellions broke out, as well as two epidemics of plague in 765 and 759, affecting most of the large cities. 

The Empire Strikes Back and Fall (744-612)

It can be argued that the real founder of the Neo-Assyrian Empire was Tiglath-pileser III. Indeed, only starting with his reign may one truly speak of an empire, and this time, in contrast with the empire of Akkad, the extent of territorial control was enormous – from Susa in Iran to Thebes in Egypt. During most of that period the throne was occupied by the Sargonid Dynasty, comprising Sargon II (721-705) and his successors Sennacherib (704-681), Esarhaddon (680-669), and Assurbanipal (669-627).

By contrast with the preceding decades, the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (744-727) was marked by a brilliant military policy: a victory over Urartu in 743 and the submission of Syrian kingdoms, concluding in the fall of Damascus in 732. This time the conquered regions were turned into Assyrian provinces, a change from the previous policy of military raids ensuring only the collection of tribute. War became a war of permanent conquest. One of the corollaries of this mutation was the policy of mass deportations: the inhabitants of the new provinces were displaced in favor of populations brought from other regions. This was surely not a novelty, but the scale on which this policy was implemented transformed the problem radically: thus, as early as 743, eighty thousand people were displaced. Tiglath-pileser also conducted a real Mediterranean policy: all Phoenician cities, with the exception of Tyre, were incorporated into a new province and forbidden to trade with Egypt. In the south, as the result of several military interventions, Tiglath-pileser assumed the throne of Babylonia in 729. His solution of a dual monarchy rather than simple reduction to the status of province had the advantage of sparing local sensibilities.

Shalmaneser V succeeded his father Tiglath-pileser III in 725 and reigned only five years. He is best known for his two-year-long siege of Samaria (modern Sabastiyah/Sebaste), which finally fell in 721 while the usurper Sargon II was seizing power in Assyria. The great event of Sargon’s reign was the fight against Urartu. It culminated with the famous “Eighth Campaign” in 714, narrated in a detailed account couched in the form of a letter addressed by the king to the god Assur in which he justifies his pillaging of the sanctuaries of Urartu. In Babylonia the Chaldean Merodach-Baladan II seized the throne left vacant by the death of Tiglath-pileser, ushering in three decades of continuous struggle between Assyrians and Chaldeans for the control of the Babylonian throne.

The Chaldeans possessed one strategic advantage; they could retreat into the southern marshes in cases of military inferiority or to the territory of the Elamites, whose support they could easily buy with their wealth. But most Babylonian cities were hostile to them, and Sargon skillfully exploited this antagonism. Merodach-Baladan, entrenched in his capital Dur-Yakin, was defeated in 707. More than one hundred thousand Aramaeans and Chaldeans were deported to Harran, Cilicia, and Samaria, and people from Commagene (Kummukhu) were moved there to replace them. For five years Babylonia was the theater of vast work of reconstruction and agricultural development. The numerous documents found in the arsenal at Nimrud (“Fort Shalmaneser”), dating from the reign of Sargon, allow a detailed reconstruction of the organization of the army, in particular the cavalry and the chariotry, the two decisive factors of Assyrian military dominance. Then Sargon decided to abandon Kalkhu to build a new capital, named Dur-Sharrukin (modern Shorsabad) in his honor. When Sargon died in battle in the Taurus region, its construction had not yet been completed.

Sennacherib, the sons and successor of Sargon, reigned for almost a quarter of a century. He had taken part in affairs of government during his father’s lifetime and is the Assyrian crown prince whose activities are the best known. His reign, however, is less well documented than those of the other three Sargonid monarchs because his correspondence seems to have been deliberately destroyed after his death. He left Dur-Sharrukin and established his capital at the ancient and prestigious city of Nineveh, where between 703 and 694 he built a huge palace called the “palace without rival.” The construction of the palace is particularly well documented, both by commemorative inscriptions and by the reliefs on the walls, some of which illustrate its construction (e.g., the transportation of huge statues of winged bulls). Those which illustrate the siege of Palestinian city of Lachish (modern Tell al-Duwayr) in 701 are famous.

Babylonia was Sennacherib’s main concern. Several solutions of the problem were put forward, none of which yielded a satisfactory result. Sennacherib, in the hope of imposing peace, installed his heir, Assur-nadin-shumi, on the Babylonian throne. In an act of treachery, the Babylonians handed the heir over to the Elamites who killed him. Sennacherib then launched a merciless war against the Elamites that is documented by the reliefs of his palace. In addition, he decided to punish the inhabitants of Babylon, which fell in the early winter of 689 after a siege of fifteen months. The city was the object of a systematic and brutal destruction that left lasting scars. The elimination of Assur-nadin-shumi also raised the problem of the succession. Arad-mullissu, the king’s eldest surviving son, was the logical choice as crown prince, but Sennacherib decided in favor of a younger brother, Esarhaddon. This choice was to have tragic consequences. Esarhaddon went into exile under obscure circumstances, and a conspiracy led by Arad-mullissu resulted in the assassination of Sennacherib. After six weeks of civil war, Esarhaddon emerged victorious, and the conspirators fled to the north.

Esarhaddon reigned only twelve years, and his poor health explains some of the idiosyncrasies of his rule. He suffered from a chronic inflammatory disease that often forced him into seclusion and had serious effects on his character. We have hundreds of letters from, among others, astrologers, exorcists, and incantation priests, in which these specialists reassure the king on his health, or instruct him on how to avoid the dire consequences of sinister omens. They afford a glimpse of life at the court, with its maze of intrigues and denunciations. Babylonia experienced a renaissance: after years of Assyrian interventions and political instability (ten kings in thirty years), order was reestablished, Babylon was restored, and a new era of prosperity began.

Between 690 and 665, relations with Elam were cordial. The Median tribes were not yet united, which reduced the threat on the Iranian border and allowed the Assyrians to concentrate their military efforts on the west. The situation in the northwest, where the Cimmerians and the Scythians were threatening Assyrian vassals in Cilicia, was resolved by means of a military campaign, followed by diplomacy. In the southwest, Sidon was reduced to a new Assyrian province after its rebel king was beheaded and its inhabitants deported. The king of Tyre was compelled to sign a treaty placing Phoenician trade under Assyrian control. But the great event of the reign was the conquest of Egypt from 679 and especially from 673 on. The Assyrians claimed to be the “liberators” of Egypt, then ruled by a dynasty of Nubian origin, the Twenty-fifth. But King Taharqa, who fled after being defeated at his capital of Memphis in 761, recaptured the city two years later. On his way to Egypt, Esarhaddon died at Harran in 669 from an attack of his disease. His succession had been meticulously planned as early as 672: an oath of loyalty (adû) to Assurbanipal, heir to the throne of Assyria, and to his twin brother, Shamash-shum-ukin, heir to the throne of Babylonia, had been imposed on the population.

The forty-year reign of Assurbanipal was by far the longest Assyrian history and may be regarded as the apex of the empire. It can be divided into three phases, even though the chronological sequence of events is not firmly established. From 669 to 653, Assyrian military forces were concentrated in Egypt. Memphis was recaptured, and Thebes sacked, in 664. Assurbanipal boasted of these victories, but it is far from certain that he personally campaigned there. Relations between Assyria and Elam had stayed cordial between 690 and 6565, but a sudden change took place in 664. The best-known episode of the ferocious war that followed is the famous “banquet scene under the vine,” which depicts Assurbanipal and his consort relaxing in a garden where, from a tree, dangles the head of the Elamite ruler Te’umman.

The Egyptian pharoah Psamtik (Psammetichus) I, taking advantage of this war, revolted in 653 and expelled the Assyrians from Egypt. The country was definitively lost to the Assyrians, who found themselves incapable of launching a counterattack. This episode marks the limits of Assyrian imperialism; it was unrealistic to incorporate into the empire such a distant and profoundly different country as Egypt. Immediately after the (temporary) conclusion of the Elamite war, the revolt of Shamash-shum-ukin broke out in Babylonia, lasting from 652 to 648. Babylon fell after a protracted war and siege of two years, but the suppression of the rebellion exhausted Assyria militarily. A certain Kandalanu was installed on the throne of Babylon by Assurbanipal, who also punished the Elamites and the Arabs who had sided with his brother. Numerous tablets were confiscated from Babylonian scholars to stock the famous library of Nineveh. The last phase of Assurbanipal’s reign is poorly known because we have no inscriptions dated after 639.

Since 626 the Babylonian Nabopolassar had gradually extended his influence over the south, and Babylon had fallen under his control. In the west, Egypt, recovering its traditional position, posed a growing challenge to Assyria, less and less capable of maintaining its authority in Syria and Palestine. But the most serious threat came from the east. In 625, Cyaxares united the Medes and the Persians under his authority. In 615, Arba՚il was threatened; as early as 614, Asshur was captured and Nineveh was the target of an attack. Nabopolassar and Cyaxares, now allied, laid siege to Nineveh in 612, and the city fell three months later. A final Assyrian attempt at recovery was organized by Assur-uballit II at Harran, but it was crushed in 610 by the Medians and the Babylonians. Now Palestine, Phoenicia, and Syria came under Egyptian influence, and Nabopolassar established his sovereignty over the entire Jazira. Assyria would never rise again from the ashes.