they created the largest empire the
world had ever seen
the first professional standing army in
history and were the first true masters
of siege warfare grinding the walls of
their enemies into dust and displacing
large populations at a whim the fury of
Assyria was the terror of their age the
city-state of Ashur named for the
warlike god of the same name was founded
nearly 2,000 years before the height of
the Assyrian Empire originally a
Sumerian settlement the city then became
dominated by the Akkadian Empire of
Sargon of Akkad whom the later Assyrians
viewed as their direct ancestors during
the following neo Sumerian Empire the
Syrians sporadically fell under their
influence although typically they
managed to maintain independence in the
beginning of the period known as the
Assyrian old Empire a stable line of
independent Kings allowed for Assyrian
merchants to develop lucrative trade
routes particularly with Anatolia where
they built permanent colonies that
operated for hundreds of years in Ashur
as well as with other nearby city states
such as Nineveh this newfound prosperity
led to large-scale public building
projects and relevance on the
international stage with the other major
powers of the day mari yum HOD Babylon
and the other city-states of southern
Mesopotamia one by one the ruling
dynasties of these states were replaced
by amirite warlords who had migrated
from near the plains and hill country of
south eastern syria originally described
by the Sumerians as a vile people who
ate raw meat and did not bury their dead
the hemorrhoids would one day be
regarded as the most culturally
sophisticated people of Mesopotamia
especially at Babylon sham Shia dot is
believed to have been one of these
warlords his ancestors were later
described as the kings who lived in
tents his father and then he had ruled
over the city of Mecca lot Amman the
Assyrian plain he fled to Babylon when
the king of eshnunna
conquered much of the Assyrian plain
when that King died seven years later
sham Shia dad returned and reconquered
at Gallatin and Ashur from ish noonah it
was during the reign of sham Shia Todd
that a coherent political unity was
established between the Assyrian
city-states and a strong national
identity rare for the time began to
evolve between them Shamshad conquered
territories going from fugitive to great
king of an empire not a humble man he
granted himself the title king of the
universe sham Shia Dodds kingdom of
Upper Mesopotamia would not last long
after his death being eclipsed by the
Empire of Hammurabi a Babylon in the
pages of history however his political
unification of Assyria as well as their
memory of being the heartland of a vast
empire would have a profound impact for
many centuries to come Babylon's power
declined after Hammurabi's death
although it remained the greatest power
in mesopotamia as to new people groups
the hurry ins and the cass i'ts
migrated into the region this largely
peaceful time period went up in flames
as the Hittites a people from central
Anatolia destroy the kingdom of Yom HUD
and sacked Babylon ending the amorite
dynasty of Hammurabi's descendants in a
campaign so rapid that no effective
resistance was organized this massive
power vacuum that the Hittites left
behind
was filled by the Kassite who rebuilt
Babylon and the her ian's who united the
squabbling kingdoms together to form the
Empire of Mitani which came to dominate
upper Mesopotamia and rule over Assyria
for 200 years the Mitanni were a warlike
people whom the Assyrians learned much
from in the art of warfare and the
administration of a large Empire they
succumbed to internal infighting
allowing Assyria to gain independence
without a fight Pro Assyrian and Hittite
puppet kingdoms formed during the reign
of a dad nur re the Mitanni puppet
kingdom was annexed while achieving
major military victories against foes in
nearly every direction solidifying
Assyria as one of the great states
calling himself a great king equal to
the Pharaoh of Egypt the ruler of
Babylon and the Hittite Empire the older
great powers did not acknowledge the
upstart viewing him as a rebellious
vassal state that had achieved some
temporary success during the reign of
his son shaman s ur everyone would
acknowledge a syria's ascendancy after
defeating a coalition of Mitani rebels
Hittites and nomadic desert kings he
blinded 14400 captured prisoners of war
in one eye resettling them far from
their homelands in unfamiliar
territory making them less likely to
rebel which later became a standard a
Syrian practice for dealing with
rebellious populations often utilizing
this to move skilled labor where was
needed most shaman as her son to Colton
Anita expanded the Empire to its
greatest extent yet capturing Babylon
and taken to ancient title king of Sumer
and Akkad the first native Mesopotamian
to do so in many centuries seeking to
ensure Babylon secondary status he
demolished the walls of the city and
relocated the statue of their chief god
Marduk back to Assyria to Colton inert
Oh was as gifted a military strategist
as he was ruthless after campaigning
down the Arabian coast as far as
modern-day Bahrain he defeated the
Elamites who he believed plan to take
Babylon he then engaged in a brutal act
of sacrilege after a failed Babylonian
revolt massacring much of the city's
population while looting and defiling
the city's temples while Mesopotamia was
in shock to Colton inert has spent his
time writing an epic poem about himself
as well as building a new capital city
also named after himself his sons with
the backing of the Assyrian priesthood
besieged their father at his new capital
city where the unpopular King was
murdered babylon regained its
independence while assyria focused on
consolidating its borders as the old
bronze age empires to the west
contracted or fell while being subjected
to waves of invading Marauders known as
the sea people
babylon was conquered by the Elamites
followed by week local dynasties
becoming a third-rate power only Egypt
and Assyria would survive the Bronze Age
collapse great cities lay abandoned and
international diplomacy in trade all but
disappeared over the next 100 years
while most of the Near East was in a
dark age Assyria was the only major
power able to capitalize on the
collapsing world Babylon regrouped under
a native southern Mesopotamian dynasty
once again becoming a rival for us area
as Egypt evolved into squabbling
city-states several ruled by foreign
warlords Assyria further developed his
warrior culture making military service
compulsory for all adult citizen males
and began introducing iron weapons into
the
can file during the late middle assyrian
period a serious fine-tuned war machine
was not its only accomplishment during
this time the Assyrian King Asher Bell
kala built the world's first known
public Botanical Gardens and zoo where
he collected and bred many rare animals
including primates and crocodiles many
sent by the Egyptians seeking a curry
favour with this area for the remainder
of the middle period Assyria was
typically governed by competent but not
exceptional Kings who were content to
rule over the heavily militarized
Assyrian heartland while raiding their
immediate neighbours to keep them weak
Egypt reunified and two new peoples
migrated into Mesopotamia the Chaldeans
took Babylon in the south while pastoral
army and speaking tribes dominated the
north as they became dominant there a
Syrian refugees poured into the
heartland as many had been enslaved and
had their land seized by the newcomers
in response the Syrian King assured and
the second embarked on the first
campaigns of conquest in over a hundred
years taking and resettle in land with
Assyrians while deporting Arameans
assured ants meant spoils of his
conquests on infrastructure building
well built roads allowing armies to move
much quicker to the front and aqueducts
to increase farmable land and population
after a brief civil war ad a dinner re
ii took her throne following his
father's lead ad ad nur re ii continued
conquering and building aqueducts and
roads and perhaps more importantly he
began the practice of building massive
fortified administrative centres and
supply depots were large amounts of
grain and weapons were stored near the
frontier in every province ad ad nur re
ii see early campaigns set the standard
that all self-respecting Assyrian Kings
followed maintaining as their sacred
duty to wage yearly war his grandson
assured Azir pol ii greatly expanded the
Empire and built a new magnificent
capital city named Cal who also called
Nimrod a significant development during
his reign would be the unification of
the naree people into the kingdom of
Urartu
which would be a longtime rival of
Assyria during the long reign of his son
shaman s or the third
Babylon was captured as well as much of
the urartu heartland around Lake van
following chowman aesir's death his son
defeated his brother in a four-year long
civil war as the Empire contracted he
was succeeded by his wife the only
female regent in Assyrian history Zamora
Matt reigned for five years until her
son came of age he conquered the Medes a
newly arrived people in the east after
his reign nearly forty years of internal
stagnation and instability ensued until
the reign of tiglath-pileser the third
perhaps the greatest king in Assyria's
history he not only constantly
campaigned effectively he instituted
numerous reforms instead of a few large
provinces administered by powerful
Nobles tiglath-pileser divided the
Empire up into over 80 small provinces
typically governed by a eunuch with no
descendants solely loyal to him he also
realized that despite a serious large
population they lacked the manpower to
match the Monarchs imperial ambitions to
solve this he created the first
professional national standing army in
history allowing anyone within the
Empire's borders to join now anyone
could become Assyrian as long as they
were willing to adopt the culture
worship the god asher and waged
perpetual war the ranks of the army
swelled with the adventurous and
ambitious in a new type of army that
could wage war year-round for the first
time in history siege engines and
cavalry became an integral part of the
army tiglath-pileser at the third was
followed by a century filled with
exceptional kings such as sargon ii
senator rube HR Hadden and Ashurbanipal
who expanded the Empire to its greatest
extent making it the largest empire in
history at that time a serious deserved
reputation for brutality extreme even by
the standards of the time made it many
enemies especially within its own
borders first Egypt successfully
rebelled and then an allied army of
Babylonians and Medes struck this Aryan
Heartland without warning Nineveh the
greatest city in the world at that time
went up in flames and over the next
three years
an empire seemingly at the height of its
power succumb to the vengeance of its
subjects and even though the Empire was
thoroughly too
droid the Syrians have survived to the
present day as a distinct people if you
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