Western Civilization

territories and waged their own private military cam-

paigns. Moreover, subject peoples, such as the Babylo-

nians, greatly resented Assyrian rule and rebelled

against it. Soon after Ashurbanipal’s reign, the Assyrian

Empire began to disintegrate rapidly. The capital city of

Nineveh fell to a coalition of Chaldeans and Medes in

612 B.C.E., and in 605B.C.E. the rest of the empire was

finally divided between the coalition powers.

Organization of the Empire

At its height, the Assyrian Empire was ruled by kings

whose power was considered absolute. Under their lead-

ership, the empire became well organized. By eliminat-

ing governorships held by nobles on a hereditary basis

and instituting a new hierarchy of local officials directly

responsible to the king, the Assyrian kings gained

greater control over the resources of the empire. The

Assyrians also developed an efficient system of commu-

nication to administer their empire more effectively. A

network of posting stages was established throughout

the empire that used relays of horses (mules or donkeys

in mountainous terrain) to carry messages. The system

was so effective that a provincial governor anywhere in

the empire (except Egypt) could send a query and

receive an answer from the king within a week.

The Assyrian Military Machine

The ability of the Assyrians to conquer and maintain

an empire was due to a combination of factors. Over

many years of practice, the Assyrians developed effec-

tive military leaders and fighters. They were able to

enlist and deploy troops numbering in the hundreds of

thousands, although most campaigns were not con-

ducted on such a large scale. In 845B.C.E., an Assyrian

army of 120,000 men crossed the Euphrates on a cam-

paign. Size alone was not decisive, however.

The Assyrian army was extremely well organized

and disciplined. It had a standing army of infantry as

its core, accompanied by cavalry and horse-drawn war

chariots that were used as mobile platforms for shoot-

ing arrows. Moreover, the Assyrians had the advantage

of having the first large armies equipped with iron

weapons. The Hittites had been the first to develop

iron metallurgy, but iron was used extensively only af-

ter new methods for hardening it came into common

use after 1000B.C.E.

Assyrian Warriors.The Assyrians had a highly efficient and well-organized

military machine, capable of fighting under a variety of conditions. Shown at

left on a stone relief from the palace of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh are

Assyrian archers at work during the siege of Lachish in Judah. At the right are

Assyrian warriors in a chariot from an eighth-centuryB.C.E. stele.(Left: British

Museum, London//Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY; Right: Archaeological Museum, Aleppo//Alfredo Dagli Orti/The

Art Archive at Art Resource, NY)

The Assyrian Empire 37

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