“Out of this land came Asshur and built Nineveh, Rehobothir, Kalah and Resen between Nineveh and between Kalah; this is a great city"(Gen. 10:11,12)

Assyria is one of the greatest states of the ancient world, which went down in history thanks to its outstanding military campaigns and conquests, cultural achievements, art and cruelty, knowledge and strength. As with all the great powers of antiquity, Assyria can be looked at with different eyes. It was Assyria that possessed the first professional, disciplined army of the ancient world, a victorious army that made neighboring peoples tremble in fear, an army that sowed horror and fear. But it was in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal that an unusually large and valuable collection of clay tablets was preserved, which became the most valuable source for studying the science, culture, religion, art and life of those distant times.

Where is Assyria

Assyria, at the time of its highest development, owned vast territories both between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the vast eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. To the east, the possessions of the Assyrians extended almost to the Caspian Sea. Today, on the territory of the former Assyrian kingdom there are such modern countries as Iraq, Iran, part of Turkey, part of Saudi Arabia.

History of Assyria

The greatness of Assyria, however, like all great powers, did not manifest itself in history immediately, it was preceded by a long period of formation and emergence of Assyrian statehood. This power was formed from nomadic Bedouin shepherds who once lived in the Arabian desert. Although the desert is there now, and earlier there was a very pleasant steppe, but the climate has changed, droughts have come and many Bedouin shepherds, as a result of this reason, chose to move to the fertile lands in the Tigris River valley, where they founded the city of Ashur, which became the beginning of the creation of a mighty Assyrian state. The location of Assur was chosen very well - it was at the crossroads of trade routes, other developed states of the ancient world were located in the neighborhood: Sumer, Akkad, which intensively traded (but not only, sometimes fought) with each other. In a word, very soon Ashur turned into a developed trade and cultural center, where merchants played the leading role.

At first, Ashur, the heart of the Assyrian state, like the Assyrians themselves, did not even have political independence: at first it was under the control of Akkad, then it came under the control of the Babylonian king, famous for his code of laws, then under the rule of Mitania. Ashur remained under the rule of Mitania for a whole 100 years, although, of course, he also had his own autonomy, Ashur was headed by a ruler, who was a kind of vassal of the Mitanian king. But in the 14th century BC e. Mitania fell into decay and Ashur (and with it the Assyrian people) gained true political independence. From this moment begins a glorious period in the history of the Assyrian kingdom.

Under King Tiglapalasar III, who ruled from 745 to 727 BC. e. Ashur, or Assyria is turning into a real superpower of antiquity, active militant expansion has been chosen as a foreign policy, constant victorious wars with neighbors are being waged, bringing an influx of gold, slaves, new lands and related benefits to the country. And now the warriors of the militant Assyrian king are marching through the streets of ancient Babylon: the Babylonian kingdom, which once itself ruled the Assyrians and arrogantly considers itself their “elder brothers” (reminds nothing?) is defeated by its former subjects.

The Assyrians owe their brilliant victories to the very important military reform that King Tiglapalasar carried out - it was he who created the first professional army in history. After all, before, as it was, the army was made up mainly of tillers, who replaced the plow with a sword for the period of the war. Now it was staffed by professional soldiers who did not have their own land plots, all the expenses for their maintenance were paid by the state. And instead of plowing the land in peacetime, they improved their military skills all the time. Also, the use of metal weapons, which actively came into use at that time, played a big role in the victory of the Assyrian troops.

The Assyrian king Sargon II, who ruled from 721 to 705 BC. e. strengthened the conquests of his predecessor, finally conquering the Urartian kingdom, which was the last strong opponent of the rapidly gaining strength of Assyria. True, Sargon, without knowing it, was helped by those who attacked the northern borders of Urartu. Sargon, being a smart and prudent strategist, simply could not help but take advantage of such a great opportunity to finally finish off his already weakened opponent.

Fall of Assyria

Assyria grew rapidly, new and new occupied lands brought into the country a constant stream of gold, slaves, Assyrian kings built luxurious cities, so the new capital of the Assyrian kingdom, the city of Nineveh, was built. But on the other hand, the aggressive policy of the Assyrians bred the hatred of the captured, conquered peoples. Here and there rebellions and uprisings broke out, many of them were drowned in blood, for example, the son of Sargon Sineherib, after suppressing the uprising in Babylon, brutally cracked down on the rebels, ordered the remaining population to be deported, and Babylon itself was razed to the ground, flooded with the waters of the Euphrates. And only under the son of Sineherib, king Assarhaddon, this great city was rebuilt.

The cruelty of the Assyrians towards the conquered peoples was also reflected in the Bible, in the Old Testament Assyria is mentioned more than once, for example, in the story of the prophet Jonah, God tells him to go preach in Nineveh, which he really did not want to do, as a result he ended up in the womb of a large fish, and after a miraculous salvation, he still went to Nineveh to preach repentance. But the Assyrians did not appease the sermons of the biblical prophets, and already around 713 BC. e. The prophet Nahum prophesied about the death of the sinful Assyrian kingdom.

Well, his prophecy came true. All the surrounding countries united against Assyria: Babylon, Media, Arab Bedouins, and even the Scythians. The combined forces defeated the Assyrians in 614 BC. That is, they besieged and destroyed the heart of Assyria - the city of Ashur, and two years later a similar fate befell the capital of Nineveh. At the same time, the legendary Babylon returned to its former power. In 605 B.C. e. the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in the battle of Carchemish finally defeated the Assyrians.

Culture of Assyria

Despite the fact that the Assyrian state left an unkind mark in ancient history, nevertheless, during its heyday, it had many cultural achievements, which cannot be ignored.

In Assyria, writing actively developed and flourished, libraries were created, the largest of them, the library of King Ashurbanipal, consisted of 25 thousand clay tablets. According to the grandiose plan of the king, the library, which served part-time as a state archive, was supposed to become not much, not a little, but a repository of all the knowledge ever accumulated by mankind. What is there just not there: the legendary Sumerian epic and Gilgamesh, and the works of the ancient Chaldean priests (and in fact scientists) on astronomy and mathematics, and the oldest treatises on medicine giving us the most interesting information about the history of medicine in antiquity, and countless religious hymns, and pragmatic business records, and scrupulous legal documents. A whole specially trained team of scribes worked at the library, whose task was to copy all the significant works of Sumer, Akkad, Babylonia.

The architecture of Assyria also received significant development, Assyrian architects achieved considerable skill in the construction of palaces and temples. Some of the decorations in Assyrian palaces are excellent examples of Assyrian art.

Art of Assyria

The famous Assyrian bas-reliefs, which were once the interior decorations of the palaces of the Assyrian kings and have survived to this day, give us a unique opportunity to touch the Assyrian art.

In general, the art of ancient Assyria is full of pathos, strength, valor, it glorifies the courage and victory of the conquerors. On the bas-reliefs, images of winged bulls with human faces are often found; they symbolize the Assyrian kings - arrogant, cruel, powerful, formidable. That is what they were in reality.

Assyrian art subsequently had a great influence on the formation of art.

Religion of Assyria

The religion of the ancient Assyrian state was largely borrowed from Babylon, and many Assyrians worshiped the same pagan gods as the Babylonians, but with one significant difference - the true Assyrian god Ashur was revered as the supreme god, who was considered the head even of the god Marduk, the supreme god of the Babylonian pantheon. In general, the gods of Assyria, as well as Babylon, are somewhat similar to the gods of ancient Greece, they are powerful, immortal, but at the same time they have weaknesses and shortcomings of mere mortals: they can be envious or adulterous with earthly beauties (as Zeus liked to do).

Different groups of people, depending on their occupation, could have a different patron god, to whom they gave the most honors. There was a strong belief in various magical ceremonies, as well as magical amulets, superstitions. Part of the Assyrians preserved the remnants of even more ancient pagan beliefs of those times when their ancestors were still nomadic shepherds.

Assyria - masters of war, video

And in conclusion, we suggest you watch an interesting documentary about Assyria on the Culture channel.