On the remains of the Bronze Age collapse emerged one of the most terrifying and terrifying war machines of the pre-industrial era: the Assyrian Empire. At that time, the Near East was a place of violent conflict, and the horrors of war were commonplace. However, even by this bloody standard, the Assyrians still stood out. The creation of a great empire encompassing Iraq, Iran, Arabia, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Cyprus necessarily requires utter cruelty and ruthlessness. It was such a group of people who expelled 4 million other ethnic groups from their homeland and carried out extreme scorched earth policies that starved millions of people to death. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the Bible the Assyrians are seen as having been sent by the devil himself.
If geography is a natural destiny, the Assyrians learned to overcome both. After the Great Tribulation caused by the Sea Peoples, the Assyrians inhabited a small triangular territory between the plains of Mesopotamia and the mountains of the north. Cramped and trapped inland, they had to fight for space. The expansion of the Assyrians began in the 10th century BC, when they escalated levels of violence and invented a new Iron Age spirit of "barbaric efficiency." They used new siege weapons, brutally slaughtered prisoners of war, greedily plundered, carried out large-scale population expulsions, and forcibly collected massive tributes from the conquered. They had a complete disregard for the sanctity of ancient cities.
The war underpinned the economy, society, and civilization of the Assyrians. However, this was not a brainless pure violence, and in fact the assyrian reputation for barbarism stemmed from their painstakingly managed statecraft. The assyrian kings' public and private records proudly display their barbarism. They are often carved into magnificent palaces and monuments in the capital, and sometimes even chiseled into cliffs or hillsides. Horrific scenes of battles and sieges are painted in detail on reliefs of Assyrian palaces, with the intended effect of making the terrible power of the Assyrian kings seem more real. For example, on the walls of the Sargon Palace in Khor Sabad, in northern Iraq, there is a faithful depiction of how a renegade vassal king was skinned alive. It is not difficult to imagine what kind of psychological deterrent effect these elaborate images would have on the envoys of the coming and going countries, and the king did not need to explain the consequences of opposing him. Great marches were organized in the streets of Nineveh, and the defeated kundu and saida courtiers hung their masters' heads around their necks like horrible ornaments. This creepy procession is recorded on the walls of the Imperial Palace, and the scene will be repeated in the minds of witnesses for a long time.
This is synonymous with "shock and awe" in the ancient Near East. It was designed to cause panic among the enemy. The Assyrians used a word to describe the situation, "Melamu," which literally means that the king shines a dazzling light and shoots fear into the heart of the enemy. Assyrian kings also recorded their exploits with inscriptions, chronicles, and reliefs, and the importance of the "Melamu" was repeatedly emphasized. By giving his opponents the greatest psychological intimidation, the Assyrian kings expected to achieve conquest with the smallest actual battles.
It is a well-planned form of violence that serves as a national policy and is also an "economy of terror". Because after "shock and awe," there is wanton looting. King Ashur Nasilpa II, who ruled Assyria from 883 to 859 BC, launched a raid on a kingdom located in present-day southwestern Turkey. The loot captured are as follows: 40 chariots, all well-equipped with horses; 460 horses, 2,000 cattle, 5,000 sheep; Silver, gold, lead, copper and iron, in varying amounts, but in large quantities; High-quality linen and a variety of fine furniture, including "beds made of ivory and gold"; The sisters of the local monarchs, the daughters of the nobles, and "their rich dowries"; 15,000 were "taken captive and sent to Assyria" as slaves. Ashur Nasilpa II also levied annual tributes to sheep, grain, gold and silver. These are only taken from one of the 15 countries affected during the war that year. Sometimes, war does seem lucrative.
Despite these terrible warnings, some countries dared to rebel against what the Assyrians called the "Empire of the World," one of which was israel, the northern Jewish kingdom. In 737 BC, Israel abandoned its submissive vassal status and formed an alliance with Egypt, its greatest rival south of Assyria. Retribution inevitably came quickly: within 10 years, the Northern Kingdom of Judea ceased to exist. Its cities were destroyed, its land confiscated, and its people were all expelled to Assyria. The "Ten Tribes" of Israel became israel's "Lost Ten Tribes."
However, the loss of this country is the gain of the other country. With the collapse of the stronger kingdoms in the north, the kingdom of Judah in the south entered its own era. Under the rule of King Ahaz of Judah, Jerusalem was transformed from an insignificant mountain town into the capital of an important vassal state in the Assyrian camp. If Ahaz's successor had insisted on the same national policy and continued to please the Assyrian masters, all this might have continued. But the next king, Hezekiah, had other plans. He also made a fateful decision to openly disobey the Assyrians, stop the Nagaon and ally himself with the Egyptians. Given that the fate of the Northern Kingdom is still fresh in his mind, Hezekiah knew the consequences of the incident. So heavy walls were quickly erected around Jerusalem, in some places as thick as 6 meters, and the houses along the way were bulldozed. Hezekiah also ordered the excavation of a half-kilometer-long underground drainage that ran through the bedrock beneath the city. It was designed to divert fresh water from the Jixun Spring outside the city walls and put it into a cistern in the city. This was an extraordinary and sophisticated work of the Iron Age, as the height of the spring and the inside of the reservoir was only about 30 centimeters apart. Hezekiah had done everything he could, built walls, dug waterways, and now had to wait quietly.
There is a passage in the Book of Deuteronomy that describes in great detail the horrors that are about to come. This is certainly one of the most horrific accounts of the haze of war in history:
The tyrant deals with you like Tarzan crushing you. Distant kingdoms, strange accents, cold faces, coming from the end of Kunyu, like flying vultures, cold and ruthless to the old and weak, and exterminating the young. He will trap you in the city and besiege all your cities until the most impregnable walls collapse. The pain of sieges and sieges is so intense that you will eat your own flesh and bones... The mother would hide the newborn's placenta from her husband and children so she could enjoy it alone.
When the Assyrian king Senakiri led his army straight into the kingdom of Judah to ask for his guilt, the result was almost the same, but the battle did not take place in Jerusalem, and Sinakiri allowed Hezekiel to hide behind the city walls, as the Assyrian archives contemptuously recorded: "Like a caged bird." ”
Senakiri and his army turned south to Lakis, The second largest city in Hezekiah. Not many historical events during this period have been recorded in the archives in a pictorial manner, with the exception of the Siege of Lakis. Reliefs that have been removed from the ruins of the Palace of King Senakili can be seen in the British Museum. They show in lifelike horror details the events that took place during a certain period of time around 701 BC. The Assyrians, with their crossbows and some advanced engineering techniques, tore through the defenses of this mighty city. They built a siege ramp against the heights of the city walls. From the carving tape you can see that they have driven up the siege machine in the shape of a tank, and a huge spear protrudes from the front of the machine. The city did indeed fall, with inevitable consequences. Archaeologists found a giant grave on the right ramp containing more than 1,500 bodies of men, women and children. As the carvings show, some of them are victims who have been punctured and stripped alive. As for the survivors, the ribbon also depicts their fate: thousands were deported to assyria, where men were assigned to work as coolies and build monuments to the glory of the assyrian empire.
The story of Hezekiah's rebellion against Assyria has a follow-up. When Hezekiah died, his son Manasseh inherited his throne and reversed his father's policies. He declared himself a loyal vassal of the Assyrian king, while also paying tribute, and most importantly, he made himself useful. The Assyrians were strong, but not perverted. If you can contribute, they will allow you to live. Manasseh supplied olive oil from olive trees to the Assyrians. In fact, Manasseh turned Green into an oil refinery, where more than 100 oil presses were found, which shows the scale of olive oil exports. With this, the little king was able to keep a distance from the great Assyrian beast.
Although the Assyrian kingdom liked to present its relations with other Near Eastern states as a simple, full-fledged obedience facilitated by military brute force, it also employed softer and more subtle game strategies when it came to the control of cross-regional trade networks. The continued functioning of the Assyrian state depended on soldiers, weavers, leather smiths, farmers, blacksmiths, and other craftsmen, who needed raw materials and remuneration for their labor. Attendants and high-ranking court officials were granted private property and tax exemptions as a reward for their service and loyalty. The great kings played themselves as the great masters of both. They would boast of themselves that the spoils of war that flowed into Assyria in large quantities through conquests would be given to the people of Li to improve their lives, even the poorest. The demand for precious raw materials was also large, as it was necessary to keep up with ambitious construction plans and construct royal basilicas designed to produce the effect of reverence and obedience. Notable among these is the "Double Palace" in Nineveh, which was built in the early 7th century BC by the Assyrian king Senakili. The imposing 2.5-acre palace is lavishly decorated with fragrant wood, inlaid with silver, bronze and intricately carved ivory. The façade is decorated with a large number of colorful glazed tiles, and every inch of the building is painted with story pictures of the king's great achievements (such as the Siege of Lakis). The furniture is also made from the finest materials, as it is studded with ivory and precious metals. The smooth functioning of the Assyrian state required a constant supply of high-grade raw materials and luxury handicrafts, the scale of which could only be guaranteed through trade, not by war. It was the Assyrians' insatiable desire for raw materials that directly contributed to the rebirth of Greece and the discovery of the Western Mediterranean.
The lasting independence of the Phoenician seaport cities depended on their ability to feed the Assyrians, and the quantity of those raw materials was unimaginable, especially silver. When the Phoenicians sought new mineral resources, this burden became a catalyst for their massive overseas colonial expansion. The Phoenicians first established several settlements in Cyprus and then continued westward, creating new colonies in Malta, North Africa, Sardinia and Sicily. It was only when the Tyre reached the westernmost tip of the Mediterranean that the silver deposits were discovered in southern Spain, so abundant that visitors thought it was seeping out of the ground in a melting manner. The Tyre people, in partnership with the local Tatsyrs who controlled the mining and metallurgical industries, managed to ensure a stable silver delivery to Assyria. They refined so much ore that they left a staggering 20 million tons of slag in the Spanish wilderness.
Cadiz [the contemporary Cadiz] was founded by the Phoenicians in the late 8th century BC, just beyond the "Column of Hercules" on the Atlantic coast of southwestern Spain. Thus the Phoenicians had a port where they could transport metal ingots back to Tyre, but Cadiz was only the first of the Phoenician colonies in the Western Mediterranean. The usual route from Tyre to Cadiz was across the northern Mediterranean, first anchored in Cyprus and then towards the southern coast of present-day Turkey. The fleet then sailed to Rhodes and Malta, then Sicily and Sardinia. The last leg of the voyage departs from Ibiza and crosses the Strait of Gibraltar to Cadiz. The easiest way to return is to sail close to the coast of North Africa and then to the coasts of Egypt and the Levant. This meant that the Mediterranean sea effectively acted as a counterclockwise conveyor belt for the Tyre, handling goods at both ends of this vast area. Such a long and dangerous journey requires docking stations to allow the vessel to replenish its supplies and carry out the necessary repairs and maintenance. New Phoenician colonies sprang up like footprints on this great ocean to serve such needs. Some of these Phoenician settlements are still famous and active ports, such as Palermo (in Sicily) and Cagliari (in Sardinia).
However, it was the success of this new venture that later led to the demise of these active Tyre entrepreneurs. This classic story tells the story of the crisis caused by oversupply. At the end of the 8th century BC, the Assyrian king boasted that he had succeeded in accumulating a huge amount of silver in the palace, so that the price of copper could now be the same as the price of silver. For the Tyre people, the news was like a thunderbolt on a sunny day. When the silver mines of Nineveh and Nimrud flourished, the influence of the Tyre people was weakened. Assyrian officials were chosen to administer their political and economic affairs, and the territory of the Tyre people was gradually annexed. In the end, the Assyrians simply intervened directly and accepted Tyre completely. However, instead of killing the goose that lays golden eggs, they plucked out its feathers one by one, gradually depriving Tyre of his hard-won independence and self-esteem.
But shortly thereafter, the Empire's wheel of fortune turned. The Assyrians were increasingly invincible to a new power, emerging from ancient Mesopotamia, the Babylonians. The Assyrian Empire was devastated by internal strife and discord, and began to disintegrate in the late 7th century BC. In 612 BC, after three months of arduous siege, Nineveh finally fell into the hands of the Babylonian king Napoberasa, who had already formed alliances with several Assyrian vassal states. Ideologically, the Babylonians placed themselves strictly apart from the Assyrians by attributing their victories to the blessings of the gods rather than the mighty mighty authority of the Son of Heaven. However, this has the same effect for small kingdoms within the "attack radius". In a punitive campaign waged by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, the Imperial army marched west along the usual invasion route of its predecessors. Tyre and Jerusalem were looted, while their populations were driven to the "banks of the Babylonian River". However, after only a generation, the wheel of fate turned again, and now it was the turn of the Persians, led by Cyrus, the "supreme king". The Persians overthrew Babylon and pushed the boundaries of the new empire to the coast of Asia Minor. Since the collapse of the integrated Bronze Age world, this natural frontier has been at the forefront of culture and politics for 500 years, gradually forming and solidifying between East and West. Across this watershed, a group of people in the west are looking back at these great empires and small kingdoms of the ancient East. They are greeks.