12 Rise and Fall of the Assyrian Empire

Rise and Fall of the Assyrian Empire..

Populations had been growing in the Middle East. In the 700s BCE, Assyria's trade had expanded, and trade and the spoils of war had brought to Assyria more wealth than any other state. Its cities had become large metropolitan centers.

The Assyrians were as religious as their neighbors, believing like others that disasters were caused by displeasing the gods. Assyrian women were veiled – except for prostitutes, slave-women and unmarried priestesses, whom the law forbade to wear veils in public. Abortion was considered immoral and a crime against the state. A woman who willfully caused a miscarriage was impaled on a stake and left unburied. "Unnatural" sexual acts were forbidden and severely punished.

In 745 BCE , a military coup in Assyria brought to power a general who made himself king and called himself Tiglath-Pileser III. Meanwhile, Jeroboam II of Israel had died, and son and successor, Zechariah, ruled Israel for only six months before he was assassinated. Then Israel weakened itself with civil war, and this weakness made expanding southward more attractive for Tiglath-Pileser III. He decided to expand the realm of Assyria's god, Assur, and to win for himself more wealth. He created a new, permanent army, largely of well-trained and disciplined mercenaries – an army unmatched in West Asia and North Africa. Tiglath-Pileser's army had iron weapons, siege machines that could break down city walls, and they had archers on horseback who could move fast in hilly terrain.

Tiglath-Pileser defeated tribes that had been menacing the Assyrians and others. Waging total war, he extended Assyrian rule across Syria, expelling the Urartians and conquering Syria's Aramaean city-states, including King Ahab's old ally, Damascus. He destroyed cities, robbed and often deported whole populations, resettling them elsewhere in order to disunite them and put an end to their consciousness as a nation.

The Assyrians Overrun Israel

In 733, Tiglath-Pileser's army conquered Gilead and Galilee. Bending to the realities of power, Israel recognized Assyria's domination and paid Assyria tribute. Assyria replaced the king of Israel with someone of their choosing: Hoshea. Then Hoshea rebelled against paying tribute. Hoshea sent messengers to Egypt, hoping to win an alliance with Egypt. The worried kings of Tyre andSidon also sought an alliance with Egypt. But before Hoshea could create any meaningful alliance, Assyria attacked.

Some Israelites fled before the invaders. For three years the Assyrians besieged Israel's capital, Samaria. In 721, under a new king, Sargon II, Assyria conquered Samaria. Then Assyria conquered the whole of Israel. As they had done with other nations they had conquered they deported and dispersed large numbers of people. The Assyrians took 27,000 Israelis away as slaves, and Israel as a nation vanished.

Meanwhile, according to the archeologist Finkelstein, a "torrent of refugees" moving south into Judah expanded Judah's population. Judah was now to be overrun by the Assyrians and to become an Assyrian vassal. It was then, according to Finkelstein that "Judah emerges as a full blown bureaucratic state."^note4

The Assyrians Overrun Judah and Egypt

According to the Old Testament, another Hebrew prophet who addressed the issue of Assyrian aggression was Isaiah – a nobleman from Jerusalem. Isaiah joined the prophet Hosea in opposing alliances. He saw wisdom in pacifism rather than relying on arms. He believed that what mattered above all else was devotion to their god Yahweh (Jehovah). Like Hosea, Isaiah saw the Assyrians, as the agents of Yahweh.

But the king of the Assyrians, Sargon II's son, Sennacherib, pushed his army beyond Israel and into Judah. The Assyrians laid waste to Judah's countryside and gathered before the walls of Jerusalem. They threatened to destroy Jerusalem unless the city paid a ransom. The city paid, and Jerusalem was spared.

According to Isaiah, the Assyrians as agents of Yahweh had suddenly come to an end. Isaiah quoted Yahweh as saying "I will save Jerusalem for my own sake and for my servant David's sake" (Isaiah 37:35). According to the Second Book of Kings, 19:36, Yahweh intervened against the Assyrians, sending an angel during the night into their camp and slaying 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in their sleep

The impact of such a loss would have reversed Assyrian gains, but no description of events in Assyrian writings compatible with such an event has been found. And rather than suffering a reversal, the Assyrians were able to continue their rule over Judah. Sennacherib's great Assyrian army continued its victorious march southward. The Assyrians occupied Egypt in 676, introducing iron to the region, and a few years later they sacked the city of Thebes. A weakened Egypt, meanwhile, had been invaded byNubia. A Nubian had become pharaoh. The Assyrians defeated the Nubian pharaoh, and the Nubians withdrew to their homeland.
By 640 BCE, Assyria had also extended its rule south along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf, and they had extended their empire northeast into mountainous territory and south into Arabia. Assyria had created a great empire: all of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Cyprus, Syria and west of Kanesh in Asia Minor. They believed that they were enjoying the blessings of their great god, Assur. In the lands that the Assyrians conquered they established the same kind of peace that Hammurabi had created in Mesopotamia. The Assyrians built roads, which helped West Asia become more integrated economically and helped trade and industry flourish.

The Assyrians Overrun Israel

In 733, Tiglath-Pileser's army conquered Gilead and Galilee. Bending to the realities of power, Israel recognized Assyria's domination and paid Assyria tribute. Assyria replaced the king of Israel with someone of their choosing: Hoshea. Then Hoshea rebelled against paying tribute. Hoshea sent messengers to Egypt, hoping to win an alliance with Egypt. The worried kings of Tyre andSidon also sought an alliance with Egypt. But before Hoshea could create any meaningful alliance, Assyria attacked.
Some Israelites fled before the invaders. For three years the Assyrians besieged Israel's capital, Samaria. In 721, under a new king, Sargon II, Assyria conquered Samaria. Then Assyria conquered the whole of Israel. As they had done with other nations they had conquered they deported and dispersed large numbers of people. The Assyrians took 27,000 Israelis away as slaves, and Israel as a nation vanished.
Meanwhile, according to the archeologist Finkelstein, a "torrent of refugees" moving south into Judah expanded Judah's population. Judah was now to be overrun by the Assyrians and to become an Assyrian vassal. It was then, according to Finkelstein that "Judah emerges as a full blown bureaucratic state."^note4

The Assyrians Overrun Judah and Egypt

According to the Old Testament, another Hebrew prophet who addressed the issue of Assyrian aggression was Isaiah – a nobleman from Jerusalem. Isaiah joined the prophet Hosea in opposing alliances. He saw wisdom in pacifism rather than relying on arms. He believed that what mattered above all else was devotion to their god Yahweh (Jehovah). Like Hosea, Isaiah saw the Assyrians, as the agents of Yahweh.
But the king of the Assyrians, Sargon II's son, Sennacherib, pushed his army beyond Israel and into Judah. The Assyrians laid waste to Judah's countryside and gathered before the walls of Jerusalem. They threatened to destroy Jerusalem unless the city paid a ransom. The city paid, and Jerusalem was spared.
According to Isaiah, the Assyrians as agents of Yahweh had suddenly come to an end. Isaiah quoted Yahweh as saying "I will save Jerusalem for my own sake and for my servant David's sake" (Isaiah 37:35). According to the Second Book of Kings, 19:36, Yahweh intervened against the Assyrians, sending an angel during the night into their camp and slaying 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in their sleep

The impact of such a loss would have reversed Assyrian gains, but no description of events in Assyrian writings compatible with such an event has been found. And rather than suffering a reversal, the Assyrians were able to continue their rule over Judah. Sennacherib's great Assyrian army continued its victorious march southward. The Assyrians occupied Egypt in 676, introducing iron to the region, and a few years later they sacked the city of Thebes. A weakened Egypt, meanwhile, had been invaded byNubia. A Nubian had become pharaoh. The Assyrians defeated the Nubian pharaoh, and the Nubians withdrew to their homeland.
By 640 BCE, Assyria had also extended its rule south along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf, and they had extended their empire northeast into mountainous territory and south into Arabia. Assyria had created a great empire: all of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Cyprus, Syria and west of Kanesh in Asia Minor. They believed that they were enjoying the blessings of their great god, Assur. In the lands that the Assyrians conquered they established the same kind of peace that Hammurabi had created in Mesopotamia. The Assyrians built roads, which helped West Asia become more integrated economically and helped trade and industry flourish.

Assyria's Demise and Judah's Independence lost again

Assyria's great empire lasted no longer than would the empires that began in the late nineteenth century – about seventy-five years. The world was too chaotic for anything like an empire that lasted a thousand years.

Assyria weakened itself economically by continuous wars to maintain its empire, including defending against invasions by an Indo-European tribal people, the Cimmerians, who came upon the Assyrians from the northeast. And the Assyrians spent themselves expanding into Egypt and in quelling the rebellions of Egyptian princes.

The Cimmerian menace increased, and more rebellions occurred within the empire. And Assyria was burdened by the expense of maintaining its army. Soldiers had to be paid. Massive numbers of horses had to be cared for and fed. Siege engines had to be moved against rebellious cities.
Egypt was able to break away from Assyrian rule. The Assyrians were then weakened by conflicts over succession, by coups and civil war. During these conflicts, cities in Canaan broke away from Assyrian control and Phoenicia began ignoring Assyrian directives. Other petty kingdoms joined the rebellion against Assyria, and in 623 the well-led Chaldean army drove north from around Sumer and expelled the Assyrians from Babylon.
With the independence of Egypt and Babylon, and a weakened Assyria, the new king of Judah, Josiah – the grandson of Manasseh – declared Judah independent. The hereditary Yahweh priesthood, which had suffered a loss of status during Assyrian domination, seized independence as an opportunity to advance its cause. With the support of Josiah and the zeal of the newly liberated, they moved against the religious influences that had gained ascent during Assyria's domination. They moved against what the Old Testament describes as abominations. The practices of rival worship were forbidden: witchcraft, sorcery, using omens, worshiping images of gods in wood or stone, orgiastic fertility festivals, human sacrifices and temple rituals involving prostitution and homosexuality. Homosexuality was labeled an abomination. The "priests of the high places" competing with Yahweh worship were slaughtered. (2 Kings 23)

The Medes and Chaldeans Expand

Between Mesopotamia and the Caspian Sea, tribes of an Indo-European people called Medes had become united under a single king. A later king of the Medes, Cyaxares, reorganized his army and attempted to expand westward against the Assyrians. He allied his army with the Chaldeans, who were now in control of Babylon and Sumer. The Medes and Chaldeans attacked, and together they defeated the Assyrians, overrunning Assyria's capital, Nineveh, in 612. Nineveh's walls were broken by the siege engines that Assyria had introduced centuries before. A community that had existed for more than two thousand years was obliterated. Those who escaped from Nineveh took refuge in Haran, and they fought on, but they were defeated in 609. Such a terrible revenge was taken on the Assyrians that two hundred years later the area was still sparsely populated.

The Medes conquered as far as the Halys River in Asia Minor. The Chaldeans conquered as far as Cilicia and the Taurus Mountains. Meanwhile, with the demise of Assyria, a revitalized Egypt felt free to move into Palestine. And when King Josiah heard that an Egyptian army was coming, he went south with an army to do battle against them, believing that Yahweh would protect him. Instead, he was promptly killed.

The Chaldeans Overrun Judah

The Hebrews continued to suffer the misfortune of living on a bridge of land between imperial powers. The Chaldeans, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, saw Egypt as a rival to be reckoned with. Their army went against the Egyptians in Syria. They drove the Egyptians back to Egypt, and while doing so they conquered Judah. In 587, eleven years later, the people of Jerusalem rebelled against Chaldean rule, and the Chaldeans responded by burning Jerusalem and tearing down its walls. Only remnants of the temple that Solomon built remained, never to be rebuilt. The Chaldeans rounded up about forty thousand from Judah as captives, including political leaders and high priests, and took them to their capital, Babylon, while some people from Judah fled into Egypt or into Arabia, and some went north into Chaldean controlled Mesopotamia.

The Hebrews who fled from Judah and went to Mesopotamia were allowed to settle where they wished and to take up whatever occupation they chose. These Hebrews found in Mesopotamia a prosperity that the priests of Yahweh had claimed that Yahweh would provide them in Judah. Some of these Hebrews became farmers. Some prospered as merchants, rent collectors, contractors or bankers. Some among them adopted local names, converted to the worship of local gods and were content to remain in Mesopotamia permanently.

Assyrian Empire under Tiglath-Pileser

The Assyrian Empire was once a mighty power. The empire thrived for a few hundred years, before declining around 1200 B.C.E.. Starting in the year 745 B.C.E., the Assyrian Empire began to revive behind the leadership of Tiglath-Pileser.

Tiglath-Pileser began by marching his army into Babylon in 745. He then attacked all the tribes around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, including the Chaldeans, Arabs, and Arameans. In the year 744, Tiglath-Pileser attacked the Persians and conquered many of their tribes. After doing so, he returned to Assyria with 50000 prisoners, as well as a large number of horses, oxen, sheep, and other animals. In the year 743, Tiglath-Pileser conquered the army of Sardari and captured 73,000 soldiers. He then proceeded to enter the Syrian city of Arpad, where all the kings of Upper Syria paid him tribute because of his power.

In the year 735, Tiglath-Pileser marched his army into Ararat and conquered it. Also during that year, Syria and Israel formed an alliance and attacked Judah. Ahaz, the king of Judah, sent messengers to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, carrying tribute and asking Tiglath-Pileser for his help against Syria and Israel. Tiglath-Pileser accepted his offer and in the year 734, he marched his army into Syria and found the army of Rezon, a Syrian king, waiting for him. Tiglath-Pileser completely annihilated this army and laid siege to Damascus. He left part of his army at Damascus to continue the siege, and set out with the rest to attack Israel. He plundered Israel and the Israelite king, Pekah, took refuge in Samaria. He also conquered the Ammonites and the Moabites, and placed them under tribute. Tiglath-Pileser then marched toward Gaza. When the king of Gaza, Hanun, heard this, he fled to Egypt. Tiglath-Pileser occupied Gaza, but eventually allowed Hanun to return, and placed him under tribute. Also in the year 734, he conquered many of the Arab tribes under Queen Samsi’s rule.

In the year 732, the siege of Damascus was completed. Damascus now was in Assyrian hands. After Damascus fell, Tiglath-Pileser invaded Babylon again. In the year 730, Assyria was the undisputed power in the Middle East