Assyria in the Ancient World

Date: c. 2300-612 b.c.e.

Locale: Northern Iraq

Assyria in the Ancient World

The earliest mention of Assyria is found in third millennium b.c.e. texts from Mesopotamia. Apparently Assyria consisted of a number of autonomous city-states, including Ashur (Assur), Nineveh, and Arbela (Arbīl). Assyria was probably under control of the Akkadian and Third Ur Dynasties (c. 2300-2000 b.c.e.) and regained its independence at the outset of the second millennium b.c.e. At this point, the city of Ashur established a trade colony at Kanish in east-central Anatolia that lasted for more than a century (c. 1900-1750 b.c.e.). Near the end of this period, the Assyrian city-states endured an intrusion from the Amorites, a west Semitic people from Syria who established a number of dynasties in the region. The most notable of the kings was Shamshi-Adad I (r. c. 1814-1782 b.c.e.), who was able to carve out a large state in the Assyrian heartland. Soon thereafter, the Assyrian city-states lapsed into obscurity and later were under control of the Mitanni Empire (1600-1350 b.c.e.).

Assyria became an independent unified state during the reign of Ashur-uballit I (r. c. 1363-1330 b.c.e.), who established Assyria as one of the major powers of the Near East. During the next 150 years, Assyria dominated its southern neighbor, Babylonia, expanded into the territory of its western neighbor, Mitanni, and was on an equal basis with Egypt and the Hittites, the two greatest powers in the region. However, after the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I (r. c. 1244-1208 b.c.e.), Assyria lapsed into obscurity, partly because of the pressure from Aramean tribes to the west. By the time of Tiglath-pileser I (r. c. 1115-1077 b.c.e.), Assyria began to reestablish its power base. This king fought campaigns in the north and west, where he came into contact with Aramean tribes that were controlling outgoing trade routes. However, the Assyrians had overextended themselves and were weakened until the reign of Ashur-Dan (r. c. 934-912 b.c.e.) and Adad-nirari II (r. c. 911-891 b.c.e.), both of whom campaigned extensively against the Arameans, pushing the tribes farther west.

The establishment of Assyrian imperial power took place under Ashurnasirpal II (r. c. 883-859 b.c.e.), who established Calah (Nimrud) as his new capital and launched major campaigns in virtually every direction. He successfully subdued the Aramean and Phoenician states to the west. His successor, Shalmaneser III (r. 858-824 b.c.e.), met a powerful western coalition (which included Ahab of Israel) in 853 b.c.e., but the action was indecisive. However, internal rebellion weakened his reign, and Assyria once again became unstable.

Tiglath-pileser III (r. 745-727 b.c.e.) laid the foundations for Assyria’s massive empire of the eighth and seventh centuries b.c.e. He most likely came to the throne as a usurper when Assyria was in danger of being conquered by the kingdom of Urartu (in modern Armenia). This Assyrian king was able to drive Urartu from formerly Assyrian-held territories and even invaded Urartu itself. Tiglath-pileser also invaded Syro-Palestine and defeated and made vassals of many of the Aramean, neo-Hittite, and Phoenician cities, such as Damascus, Tyre, and Byblos. In a later campaign (734 b.c.e.), he conquered Phoenicia and Philistia, creating a trading center to link Assyria to Egypt. He laid siege to and conquered the city of Damascus in 732 b.c.e., thus ending the Aramean state centered there.

Another usurper, Sargon II (r. 721-705 b.c.e.), seized the throne of Assyria when his predecessor, Shalmaneser V, was killed in a palace revolution. Vassal states in Syro-Palestine rebelled against Assyria because of its internal problems. Sargon quickly met and defeated a coalition that included the cities of Damascus, Hamath (Hamāh), Samaria, and Arpad at Karkar (Qarqar) in 720 b.c.e. He subsequently marched through Palestine and claimed to have defeated an Egyptian army near the Egyptian border. In the wake of this campaign, Sargon deposed numerous rulers and deported much of the local population from this area. He also successfully completed the siege of the Israelite capital of Samaria, which had been started by Shalmaneser, and campaigned in eastern Turkey against Midas of Phrygia and against Urartu (located in Armenia), successfully weakening both of these states and creating a peaceful frontier.

Like his predecessors, Sargon II continued to have problems with Assyria’s southern neighbor, Babylon. In 721 b.c.e., Merodachbaladan, a Chaldean, seized the Babylonian throne during the succession problem in Assyria and held it until Sargon deposed him in 710 b.c.e. Sargon died in battle in 705 b.c.e. while campaigning in the north. Because the death of the king in battle was considered an evil omen, Sargon’s successor Sennacherib (r. 705-681 b.c.e.) had to endure a major revolt throughout the empire.

Sennacherib invaded Syro-Palestine in 701 b.c.e., claiming to have caged Hezekiah, the king of Judah, in Jerusalem like a bird. However, the Assyrians may have been diverted from capturing Jerusalem by an Egyptian/Ethiopian army led by Tirhakah to the south. Sennacherib demanded harsh terms from Judah. All fortified cities and outlying areas (including some cities in Philistia and Phoenicia) were seized, Hezekiah’s treasury was emptied, and some of his daughters were sent as concubines to Nineveh, Sennacherib’s capital.

Even more serious was Sennacherib’s Babylonian dilemma. Assyria’s neighbor to the south had been its tributary for the last fifty years. Merodachbaladan, the Chaldean chieftain of Babylon, also rebelled against Assyria at Sennacherib’s accession; however, the revolt culminated in Babylon’s utter destruction by the Assyrians in 689 b.c.e. The next two Assyrian kings, Esarhaddon (r. 680-669 b.c.e.) and Ashurbanipal (r. 668-627 b.c.e.), succeeded in conquering Egypt but were able to keep hold of it for only about fifteen years (c. 673-658 b.c.e.). It appeared that Assyria was at the height of its empire, but a massive civil war (652-648 b.c.e.) crippled the state, and collapse was swift. Assyria was attacked and destroyed by a coalition of Medes and Chaldeans (616-612 b.c.e.), resulting in the destruction of every major Assyrian city, including Nineveh. Assyria never again became a major power.

Socioeconomic structure

The core of Assyrian society was the tribe and family, and the goal of the Assyrian man was the protection and propagation of both. Class structure was associated with wealth, power, and social standing. The king was at the top and under him were various classes of nobles, lesser officials, skilled laborers, and unskilled laborers, including freemen and slaves (both debt slaves and prisoners of war).

The basis for the Assyrian economy was agriculture, animal husbandry, and trade. Because Assyria was at the crossroads of trade routes from Central Asia to Anatolia, the inhabitants were heavily involved with foreign trade, especially because so many resources had to be imported into their own territory.

Although all land in theory belonged to the king, the representative of the god Ashur on earth, in practice, the state had direct control over only a small amount of territory. The remainder of land was controlled by wealthy families, temple institutions, and private individuals. Often, private individuals were given use of state-controlled land in return for performing either civil or military service. As time went on, many of these individuals paid a fee in order to be exempt from this service. The economic organization of the Assyrian state existed to enrich the Assyrian heartland, and little emphasis was placed on the economic productivity of outlying conquered territories as long as they continued to contribute their annual tribute. However, because of the large number of service exemptions being granted, the heartland became a nonproductive entity, and greater demands were made on outlying territories for supplies and manpower. The Assyrians gradually destroyed the economies of these areas in order to support an artificial economy in central Assyria.

Law

The highest legal power in Assyria was the god Ashur, who delegated authority to the king, the chief justice of the land. Most legal disputes, however, were settled at lower levels. Though an important legal document known as the Middle Assyrian Laws has survived, it was not strictly a code but rather a literary text. In the few records of legal disputes in Assyria, these laws are never cited, but the lawyers did cite Assyrian custom and precedent. Many legal texts have survived. These were mostly transactions between two or more parties that included the names of witnesses, the name of the scribe who recorded the transaction, and the date when it took place. Researchers have found four types of transactions: sales (usually the transfer of property), contracts (loans and promissory notes), receipts, and court records. Court records were apparently rare, as most cases were settled by private agreement. Murder, however, was a special legal case because it involved a blood feud, or vendetta.

Religion

Like many religions of the ancient Near East, the Assyrian religion was polytheistic. The Assyrians had inherited the polytheistic traditions of early Mesopotamia but appeared to have a smaller corpus of deities. The king of the gods was Ashur, who ruled and controlled the land of Assyria and had supreme power over other deities. Other deities, such as Ishtar (goddess of love and war), Ninurta (warfare and hunting), Shamash (Sun), Adad (storm), and Sin (Moon), had individual cults centered on a temple complex, a temple tower (ziggurat), priests, and a large supporting staff. The cults involved the performance of regular and seasonal rituals and the presentation of offerings. The Assyrian pantheon also contained minor deities, demons, and angelic messengers who played a more important role in the life of the individual. The king was considered the chief priest of the religious cults and therefore was normally present at ceremonies, especially the celebration of the New Year, during which the king’s right to rule for another year was reaffirmed by Ashur.

Legacy

The Assyrian Empire was the largest in world history up to that time, and later empires (Persia, Macedonia, and Rome) strove to emulate the Assyrians. Furthermore, the Assyrians, like their Babylonian counterparts to the south, took an active role in preserving Mesopotamian civilization by the creation of massive libraries (such as the libraries of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh) that housed many traditional and canonical texts, some of which had been composed two thousand years earlier.

Bibliography

Driver, G. R., and J. Miles. The Assyrian Laws. 1935. Reprint. Darmstadt, Germany: Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1975.

Grayson, A. K. The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia: The Assyrian Periods. Vols. 1-2. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987-1990.

Larsen, M. T. The Old Assyrian City-State and Its Colonies. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1976.

Oates, D. Studies in the Ancient History of Northern Iraq. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Saggs, H. W. F. Everyday Life in Babylonia and Assyria. New York: Dorset, 1987.

Saggs, H. W. F. The Might That Was Assyria. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984.

Van Driel, G. The Cult of Assur. Assen, Netherlands: Van Gorcum, 1969.