Assyria - USA History.

« villages and cities were ransacked and razed, but no attempt was made to annex their territories. In the course of time this pattern of conquest changed, and the Assyrian rulers began to make Assyria the center of a new empire by incorporating the conquered landsinto their domain, although probably not according to a conscious plan.

Toward the end of the 10th century BC, for example, Adad-nirari II annexed the Aramaean state centering on Nisibis, east of the Habur River.

His son, Tukulti-Ninurta II, annexed several Aramaean states around the city of Harran and the central Euphrates Valley,as well as the region between the Great and Little Zab rivers. VI EXTENSION OF ASSYRIAN RULE Ashurnasirpal II, the son of Tukulti-Ninurta II, ruled from 884 to 859 BC and extended Assyrian rule to the north and east.

In campaign after campaign he devastated with fierce and deliberate cruelty the lands on the borders of his empire but was prudent enough not to attack his more powerful neighbors, Urartu to the north,Babylonia to the south, and Aram to the west.

In one of his campaigns he even reached the Mediterranean Sea.

On his return he felled the cedars on the slopes of theNur Mountains (Amanos Mountains) to provide wood for the restoration of the city of Calah, which he made his capital, instead of Ashur, the old capital.

Numerousinscribed monuments of Ashurnasirpal have been unearthed in the ruins of Calah, making him one of the best-known rulers of the ancient Middle East. Shalmaneser III (reigned 859-824 BC), the son of Ashurnasirpal, conducted 32 campaigns in the 35 years of his reign.

Many of the campaigns were directed against the lands west of the Euphrates, particularly against the powerful kingdom of Aram.

Although he had some success and even received considerable tribute from the allies ofAram, including Israel, he failed to conquer Aram itself.

Two of his monuments, now in the British Museum, are particularly noteworthy: the Black Obelisk on which Jehu,king of Israel, is depicted kissing Shalmaneser’s feet, and the plaques of hammered bronze known as the Gates of Balawat. VII WORLD EMPIRE Toward the end of Shalmaneser’s rule a revolt broke out in the Assyrian court, and several years of civil war ensued.

As a result, Assyrian power underwent an eclipsefor some three-quarters of a century.

In 745 BC, however, the throne was occupied by Tiglath-pileser III, a ruler who consciously and deliberately decided to build Assyria into a world empire.

He began by reasserting the authority of the throne and reducing the power of the troublesome court nobles.

He established a permanentarmy, consisting largely of foreign contingents, and planned his campaigns with the objective of annexing enemy territory.

The peoples he conquered were deportedand resettled within the Assyrian domains in order to break their national consciousness and cohesion.

He relieved Assyria from the pressure of the Aramaean tribesthat were menacing the valley of the central Tigris, expelled the Urartians from Syria, annexed the Aramaean states of Arpad and Damascus, subjugated the cities ofPalestine, and made himself the ruler of Babylonia. Sargon II (ruled 722-705 BC), who followed Tiglath-pileser’s successor, Shalmaneser V (ruled 727-722 BC), to the throne, extended Assyrian domination in all directions, from southern Anatolia to the Persian Gulf.

At the beginning of his reign he deported the population of Israel, which Shalmaneser V had conquered shortly before hisdeath.

In the course of his 17-year reign, Sargon led campaigns against Urartu and the Medes, annexed numerous states in Syria and southern Anatolia, and defeatedthe Aramaeans in the central Tigris Valley and the Chaldeans in the lower Euphrates Valley.

In order to ensure effective control of this vast empire, extending from theborder of Egypt to the Zagros Mountains and from the Taurus Mountains to the Persian Gulf, Sargon divided it into some 70 provinces, each headed by a governor whowas responsible directly to the king.

In his capital, Calah, he created a central administrative organization and delegated some of his own power to his son Sennacherib(r.

705-681 BC).

Toward the end of his reign Sargon built a new city, Dur Sharrukin, erected his palace astride its city wall, and adorned it with impressive bas-reliefs. He established a library in Nineveh.

Trade and agriculture were encouraged throughout the empire. VIII BEGINNING DECLINE Under Sargon II the Assyrian Empire was more powerful and extensive than ever before.

The peoples were closely knit in language, religion, and culture.

On the surfacethere seemed every reason to believe that it would endure for centuries.

Sargon’s successors, however, set as their main goals the conquest of Egypt and Elam and thefinal subjugation of Babylonia.

To ensure victory over these outlying lands, they weakened their armies in the northern and northeastern frontier regions.

In thesenorthern regions, the Medes and the newly arrived migrants, the Cimmerians and the Scythians, were permitted to grow in strength. Sennacherib retained the lands conquered by his father and even threatened the Egyptian frontier.

Like Sargon, he also moved his capital, this time from Dur Sharrukinto Nineveh, where he built his palace.

He was the first Assyrian ruler to use a navy, with which in 694 BC he pursued Chaldean rebels and defeated them.

In 689 BC, when Babylonia was again seething with unrest, Sennacherib razed the entire city and, despite its traditional status as a holy city, flooded the site.

Sennacherib’s sonEsarhaddon (reigned 681-669 BC) was more favorably disposed toward Babylonia and helped to rebuild it.

His major military success consisted of crossing the frontier of Egypt and capturing Memphis, its capital.

His son Ashurbanipal (ruled 669-627 BC), continued the Egyptian campaign, penetrating as far south as Thebes.

He also sacked Sūsa (present-day Sh ūsh, Iran), the capital of the Elamites.

Apart from his fame as a conqueror, Ashurbanipal is noted for the vast library he collected in hispalace at Nineveh. IX END OF THE EMPIRE The death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC was followed by a revolt in the court, and little is known about what took place in Assyria after that date.

The Medes took the city of Ashur in 614 BC, and, aided by the Babylonians, they captured Nineveh in 612.

The Assyrian army, led by the last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II (reigned 612-609 BC), retreated to Harran, considerably to the west and north of the Assyrian capital.

This defeat marked the end of the Assyrian Empire. The power of Assyria depended, throughout its history, almost entirely on the success of its army.

The main force of the army was the infantry, both heavy and light.Both were equipped with pikes, bows, and short swords, but only the heavy infantry was protected by armor.

Cavalrymen, who rode without saddles, were similarlyequipped.

Heavy chariots were driven by three-man crews, and siege towers and battering rams were used for attacking and breaking down walls and fortifications. The king was the commander in chief of the army and usually conducted his own campaigns.

Theoretically, he was an absolute monarch.

In reality the nobles andcourtiers with whom he was surrounded, as well as the governors whom he appointed to administer the conquered lands, often made decisions for him.

Their ambitionsand intrigues were a constant menace to the life of the Assyrian ruler.

Palace revolts and revolutions were not uncommon, especially toward the end of the reign of aking, when the selection of a successor became a crucial issue.

This central weakness in the organization and administration of the Assyrian Empire was responsible tono small extent for its disintegration and collapse. See also Ashur; Babylonia; Hittites; Kassites; Mesopotamia; Nineveh; Sumer. Contributed By:Samuel Noah KramerMicrosoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.

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