Ancient Near East: A Captivating Guide to Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East, Including Regions Such as Mesopotamia, Ancient Iran, Egypt, Anatolia, and the Levant by Captivating History

Author:Captivating History [History, Captivating]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Culture, Government, and Military of the Assyrian Empire

The Assyrian government was a monarchy, and the king was considered to be divinely appointed. The king would rule autonomously, although he wasn’t alone in running the affairs of the kingdom. The king had court officials, chief ministers, and servants, who all helped take care of the court. The royal officials mostly belonged to the Assyrian aristocracy. However, some officials had different origins; some were slaves who were granted their freedom, and others had humble backgrounds. Servants were practically the arteries of the court, as they were in charge of everyday chores in the royal palace and ensured everything ran smoothly. Palace officials would control and oversee the servants to make sure everything was in proper order and matching protocols. One of the highest-ranking officials was the royal cupbearer. The cupbearer would share insight into the matters of the kingdom with the king and would certainly have his confidence. Important chief ministers included the chief of the army and the chancellor. There was also a large administrative staff that participated in internal and foreign affairs. The title of the king was hereditary, so the crown prince was proclaimed during the king’s life and would be trained to become a king as to be ready when his turn came. The crown prince would learn about war, diplomacy, and politics, including both internal and foreign affairs.

The Assyrian army was based on the early standards of Mesopotamian warfare, referring to the concept of the imperialistic army that Sargon created in the Akkadian Empire. The strength of the Assyrian Empire was solely based on its army’s power. Even though Assyrians looked up to the model of Akkadian military forces, the Assyrians made some warfare innovations. The Assyrian army was the first army in the world to take advantage of weapons and armor made of iron. During the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, aristocratic soldiers were usually armed better and had chariots for more efficient warfare. However, when iron was used later on in the Iron Age, the Assyrians could efficiently arm common soldiers, as the production of iron armor, weapons, and chariots were cheap since they had accessibility to iron ore. As a result, there were more soldiers in the cavalry and infantry units. The Assyrian army also started to equip its soldiers with more horses, which made chariots moderately redundant, as horse riders were more efficient in combat. Each commander had a permanent army garrison stationed across strategic points in the empire, usually close to the vassal kingdoms to keep the vassals in check. Soldiers voluntarily served the army, and they would be trained in camps before being sent off to campaigns. Common soldiers could be awarded higher ranks based on their service, training, and war contributions.

The Assyrians used the Akkadian language in everyday life, so the early Assyrian language represents a dialect of Akkadian. Sumerian was also used during the Old Assyrian Empire, which lasted between 2025 BCE and 1378 BCE. However, Sumerian was only used by priests for liturgic and religious purposes.

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