Renowned as possessing the most ruthless and efficient military organization of all the ancient Mesopotamian empires, the Assyrians dominated the region for over 600 years before being conquered by the Medes and Babylonians. The Assyrian state grew up c.1300 bc around Nineveh, Nimrud, and Ashur. Tiglath-pileser I led 28 campaigns against the Aramaean tribes to establish his supremacy by 1076 bc. His troops pursued harsh methods against their enemies: the destruction of villages and crops and the massacre of the population. Once they had submitted, subjects of the Assyrians paid tribute to support the war-machine. The 9th century saw expansion under Ashur-nasi-apli II and Shalmeneser III, which gave them a Mediterranean coastline from the Gulf of Alexandretta (southern Turkey) as far south as Gaza. In the second half of the 8th century, Tiglath-Pileser III pushed his frontiers south to the Persian Gulf and north into the heart of Anatolia, defeating the Hurrians and the Hittites. In 701 bc, Sennacherib defeated an Egyptian army at Eltekeh (near modern Haifa) although he failed to take Jerusalem. Eshardon and Ashurbanipal were still pressing south-west in conquest of Egypt in the mid-7th century. At Ashurbanipal's death in 627 bc the Assyrian empire was at its greatest extent, yet a few years later the Medes and Babylonians took Ashur (614 bc) and finally conquered Nineveh (612 bc).
The Assyrian army changed over the centuries. Originally it was a seasonal militia, raised after the crops had been sown and led by the king, but as the empire expanded it became necessary to maintain a more permanent force and to place elements of it under the command of generals. Also, there were substantial enemies to overcome. At the battle of Qarqar (853 bc) the ruler of Damascus fielded an allied army (including Israelites) of 4, 000 chariots and over 60, 000 infantry, with which he defeated the Assyrians. It was not until a century later under Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 bc) that reforms brought about the kind of forces more suitable for such an extensive empire. A census department kept records of the available manpower for rural projects, allowing greater specialization and the ability to keep the army in the field for longer. Specialization within the military itself led to the employment of foreign mercenaries, large numbers of enemy prisoners, and select troops such as the charioteers, in well-co-ordinated forces led by professional generals. Already, in the 10th century bc, the numbers of such forces reached 100, 000, of which a fifth were archers. The Assyrians kept records of their losses, although these were played down in propagandizing memorials of victories, and also of those enemy troops killed and captured. Prisoners were especially important as they could be re-employed in the Assyrians' own forces and used for further aggressive campaigns.
There was a defined structure of unit sizes and a system of command rising from 10, 50, 100, 200, to 1, 000 men. There was also a division into different troop types. The most senior were the charioteers, who provided the mobile arm for most of Assyrian history. Ninth-century bas-reliefs show heavy vehicles drawn by four-horse teams, although developments in technology enabled the development of a lighter and handier chariot. This used a metal undercarriage with better carpentry techniques to produce a flexible and manoeuvrable fighting platform. Crews were originally a driver and warrior, but by the 7th century, four fighting men, including two shield bearers, made the chariot team a mobile squad of soldiers. Their virtue was that they were capable of extremely rapid strategic movement (on one occasion a 160 mile (100 km) march is recorded in two days), and in battle provided a shock force and mobile missile platforms.
In the 7th century, cavalry became a more significant part of the mobile arm. Armoured riders could be either lancers or archers, and bas-reliefs (such as may be seen in the British Museum) show them operating in pairs. The rider sat far back, and in early representations, the archer is stationary, while his companion holds his horse. Whether the Assyrians ever achieved the kind of horse-archer known from the steppes, where man and horse seemed as one, is uncertain; but it is known that archery played an important part in Assyrian battle tactics.
The infantry operated in the same way as the cavalry, pairs of archers and a spearman, who also carried a large pavise-style shield, seem to have formed the bulk of the main battle line. In the many representations of siege warfare, these troops are shown with ankle-length armour and tall, wicker shields, which curve over at the top. Whether such equipment was equally in use in the field army is uncertain, since it seems rather unwieldy. The bas-reliefs show more lightly equipped soldiers with waist-length armour and protuberant, almost conical, round shields. Slingers also seem to have played a large role as missile troops, and they are also shown in ‘field’ and ‘siege’ equipment. The body armour was of lamellar construction (small rectangular pieces of metal sown together in rows). Apart from some lightly equipped archers, every soldier wore a helmet, initially conical and pointed, later with a curved crest.
What made the Assyrian military machine most formidable was its expertise at siege warfare. Representations of sieges feature strongly on the bas-reliefs, for example the siege of Lachish in Judah, as part of Sennacherib's campaign of 701 bc. They show teams of engineers engaged in a variety of siege techniques. Undermining is prominent, depicted as men picking away at the bottom of walls, but at least one picture seems to show a man tunnelling. Another technique was the construction of a huge ramp. This was used as the base for a large ram moved up under the protection of a wooden shed, or for siege towers designed to overtop the defenders' walls. These machines were covered in leather and had their own water supplies as a defence against fire.
Bibliography
- Hackett, Gen. Sir John (ed.), Warfare in the Ancient World (London, 1989)
— Matthew Bennett
