ASSYRIANS

After 800 B.C. the Semitic-speaking Assyrians from northern Mesopotamia embarked on a policy of expansion. Having learned from the Hittites, the Assyrians were the first to outfit armies entirely with iron weapons. To besiege cities, they devised new military equipment - moveable towers and battering rams. For 500 years they terrorized the region, earning a lasting reputation as one of the most warlike people in history.

Assyrian Bull

The Assyrians terrorized their enemies by deliberately employing cruelty and violence. They also employed terror in ruling their subject peoples - ruthlessly suppressing rebellions and deporting rebellious populations from their homelands. Assyrian rulers even boasted of their brutal treatment of the peoples they conquered.

Despite their brutality, Assyrian rulers encouraged a well-ordered society with their capital at Nineveh. They were the first rulers

View of Nineveh

to develop extensive laws regulating life within the royal household. Riches from trade and war loot paid for the splendid palaces in well-planned cities. The women of the palace, though, were confined in secluded quarters and had to be veiled when they appeared in public.

Other contributions -

Winged Assyrian bull (palace of Sargon of Assyria)

1. Government. The Assyrians a) divided their empire into provinces, each administered by a governor responsible to the all-powerful king, and b) built military roads to move troops quickly to any part of the empire.

2. The Library. At Nineveh, King Assurbanipal founded one of the first libraries. He ordered his scribes to collect cuneiform tablets from all over the Fertile Crescent. Those tablets have given modern scholars a wealth of information about the ancient Middle East.

In 612 B.C., shortly after Assurbanipal's death, neighboring people joined forces to crush the once-dreaded Assyrian armies. King Nebuchadnezzar revived the power of Babylon and created a new Babylonian Empire.