tites during the 1300s b.c.e., giving Assyria a chance to assert
its independence, which it did under King Ashu-uballit I (r.
ca. 1365–ca. 1330 b.c.e.). Th ereaft er, the Assyrians embarked
on centuries of military adventures, not all successful. King
Shalmaneser I (r. ca. 1273–ca. 1244 b.c.e.) secured Assyria’s
northern frontier with wars in central Asia. King Tikulti-nin-
urta I (r. ca. 1244–ca. 1208 b.c.e.) attacked Babylonia in 1220
b.c.e., occupying the city of Babylon until 1213 b.c.e., and he
spread his conquests into the Zagros Mountains to the east
before he was assassinated by one of his sons.
Th e Assyrian Empire thereaft er fell apart, pulled itself
together, and fell apart again. As the Neo-Assyrian Empire it
reached its zenith and gained the military reputation that it
now has. Th e Neo-Assyrian society was geared toward mak-
ing war. Its people came to rely on war as a source of luxury
goods. Th eir boys were trained almost all their lives to be
warriors, and military service was not only expected of all
young men but also considered the best thing a man could do.
At the same time women were repressed. Th ey were required
to wear robes that totally covered them when they were out in
public, and their principal purpose was to bear boys for the
military. Newborn girls were oft en killed because they were
considered valueless.
Th e Neo-Assyrian military machine was a master of
propaganda. It advertised its victories, spreading accounts of
the horrors it had visited on its opponents. Before attacking
a major stronghold such as Jerusalem, it would attack sur-
rounding villages and towns, slaughtering the inhabitants as
a display of power to discourage the defenders of the strong-
hold. Typically, an Assyrian envoy would stand outside the
stronghold to ask in the Assyrian language that the defend-
ers yield to the greater might of Assyria. Th is would involve
detailing some of the horrors visited on those who resisted
Assyria. Sometimes the authorities of the stronghold would
agree to surrender, and usually the Assyrians would let the
residents live, though they would require a very heavy tribute
and force some of the men to join their army.
Oft en the authorities of the stronghold refused to surren-
der. Th en the Assyrians would speak to the defenders in their
native language, telling them of how they would suff er once
the Assyrians won the battle. Th e hope was that the common
people would rebel rather than endure the misery of an As-
syrian victory. Th ereaft er tall stakes would be driven into the
ground within view of the defenders, and captured soldiers
and civilians would be impaled on the stakes. Th is was in-
tended to demoralize the defenders. Th en prisoners would be
taken in view of the defenders and tortured in ways that As-
syrian scribes recorded in agonizing detail. Sometimes the
victims would be put in cages on carts that were pulled in
circles around a besieged city to display to as many people
as possible the torture being infl icted. Such events were re-
corded on stone walls and monuments throughout the em-
pire to frighten anyone who might wish to rebel.
By about 722 b.c.e. the Assyrian government had ad-
opted a policy of avoiding fi ghting as many of the enemy aspossible. Th e extraordinary cruelties infl icted on people were
intended to inspire ot hers to surrender rat her t han fi ght. Typ-
ically, in a city that did not surrender, the Assyrians raped
every woman or girl they found and killed the military-age
men. Boys would be made slaves. Captive populations would
be shipped to parts of the empire where the Assyrian gov-
ernment could watch them and where they were wanted as
forced labor, because the Assyrian government was depleting
its lands of workers through its relentless warfare.
Th e Assyrians established storehouses throughout their
empire, where their army could fi nd supplies when it moved.
At the core of the army was the qurbuti, the royal guard. Th is
consisted of elite troops from Assyrian nobility. Assyrian
kings oft en led their troops in battle, and the qurbuti accom-
panied them. When the king was not present, the command-
ing offi cer was the tartanu, who was to be obeyed as if he were
the king. Th e army also had cavalry, called pethallu. However,
the principal fi ghting units were the infantry and the chariot
regiments. Th e most important fi ghters in the infantry re-
mained the archers, who carried 50 arrows in their quivers.
Most of the rest of the infantry was supposed to protect the
archers. Sometimes the Assyrians fi elded an army whose in-
fantry consisted only of archers and their shield bearers. Of
greatest importance were the chariots.
Th e Assyrian chariot was a swift vehicle, with a metal
undercarriage making it tough and durable. Its spoked
wheels had metal-studded rims and blades projecting from
their hubs. Assyrian chariots moved as units and were used
to break up enemy infantry lines. With two horses pulling
each, the chariots would charge not as a line parallel to the
enemy line but as a column perpendicular to the enemy line.
One aft er another the chariots would smash into the line
and then disperse as they spread the enemy line apart, their
bladed wheels chewing through enemy infantry. Assyrian
tactics were intended to terrify an enemy, and the chariots
were truly frightful.
Th e driver of an Assyrian war chariot had to press for-
ward against the front screen of the chariot to hold himself
steady. On a light chariot the only other passenger was an ar-
cher or a lancer. On a heavy chariot the car would be rectan-
gular to hold one or two shield bearers or a warrior to defend
the rear of the chariot. Th e lancer would be armed with spears
or javelins, usually tipped with iron. Sometimes lancers were
used as infantrymen.
Eventually Assyria faced a shortage of men of any age; for
this reason, boys younger than military age and retired sol-
diers oft en were pressed into service. Th e vassal troops, rarely
happy about serving far from home in wars not of their own
making, were unreliable. Rebellions broke out on the fringes
of the empire, the Medes to the east invaded Assyria, and the
army was spread too thinly to cope with all the demands at
the same time. Th e Babylonians and Medes raced each other
to the capital of Assyria, with the Medes getting there fi rst.
Over a period of about 10 years, the surviving Assyrians were
hunted down and exterminated.war and conquest: The Middle East 11330895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1133 1133 10/10/07 2:31:12 PM