The Ancient Near
East:
Peoples & Empires
The Assyrians & Neo-Babylonans
QUIZ
• STUDY!
• Bonus- Name four of the Hebrew patriarchs & what their most
important contribution was
• Took control following the fall of the
Hittites and the weakening of Egypt
• Semitic-speaking people with iron
weapons
• Tiglith-pileser I (c. 1115-1077 B.C.)
• Tiglith-pileser III (744-727 B.C.)
• Ashurbanipal (669-626 B.C.)
• In Assyria, the kings power was
absolute & came from their chief
god Ashur
• Assyrian Kings organized their empire
more effectively by reducing the
number of royal officials
• Based the Official -> King relationship
on loyalty
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Ancient Assyrians:
The Empire Builders
(1114 – 600 BCE)
The Assyrian
Military Machine
• "I built a pillar over against his city gate,
and I flayed all the chief men who had
revolted, and I covered the pillar with
their skins; some I walled up within the
pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on
stakes, and others I bound to stakes
round the about the pillar; many within
the border of my own land I flayed, and I
spread their skins upon the walls; and I
cut off the limbs of the officers, of the
royal officers who had rebelled.“ –
Ashurbanipal II
The Assyrian Military Machine
What made them so successful?
Iron weapons & armor
Diverse military tactics - Siege & Guerilla Warfare
Brutal treatment of Captives
Use of Terror
Ruthless Leaders
Assyrian
Society & Culture
• Assyria literally means
‘Land of Ashur’
• Assyrian Religion:
Thought that the world
would end if conquest of
other peoples ended
• Not afraid to mix with
other people –
assimilation with other
people was commonplace
• Agriculturally based, very
rural, few urban centers
• Art focused on glorifying
the king, hunting and war
Bell work 9/30
• When thinking about our governments leaders, do you think it
is better to be feared or loved? Explain.
• “Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved
than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that
one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite
them in one person, is much safer to be ______________
than ______________” – Nicocolo Machiavelli Renaissance
Author
The Neo-Babylonians –
the Chaldean Empire
• Capital City – Babylon
• Nebuchadnezzar (605-562)
• Builds Ishtar Gate &
Babylon's hanging gardens
• Nabonidus(555-539)
• Causes internal friction by
switching the cities chief
god from Marduk to the
moon god Sin
• When the Persian
conqueror Cyrus invaded,
the Babylonians welcomed
him as a liberator
Opposing Viewpoints Reading