The Old Assyrian and Middle Assyrian Kingdoms (ca. 1800-1047 в.с.)
 

The Assyrian kingdom developed in the north of Mesopotamia at the beginning of the second millennium B.C. Due to their superior methods of warfare, the Assyrians were feared by neighboring peoples.
 

The city of Ashur was a hub of  Mesopotamian trade with Syria,  Anatolia, and Iran. Its rulers laid claims to an empire as early as the time of 2 Shamshi-Adad I and briefly assumed independence (Old Assyrian Kingdom, ca. 1800-1375 в.с.) before coming under the sovereignty of the Hurrites of Mitanni. Assyria became an independent state under the "great kings" of the Middle Assyrian Kingdom (1375-1047 в.с).

In the middle of the 14th century B.C.. Ashur-uballit I (1365-1330 B.C.) broke from Mitanni and forged close ties with Egypt and Babylon. Adadnirari I (ca.1305-1275 B.C) extended the kingdom at Babylonia's expense and was known by the title "King of All."



2 Clay tablet bearing the signature of the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I, 1813-1781 B.C.


Assyria's transformation into an expansive military power  with a well-trained 3 army began in the 13th century under rulers  Shahnaneserl (1274-1245 в.с.) and Tukulti-Ninurta I (ca. 1294-1208 B.C.). Tukulti-Ninurta I immortalized his deeds in his Tiikulti-Ninurta Epic, which then became the model for the personal  aggrandizement of Assyrian rulers. According to the Assyrian religion, the state god Ashur had destined his people, over whose welfare the 4 genies watched, for world dominance.

The Assyrians subjugated their neighbors in a series of devastating military 1 campaigns, often conducted with great brutality.

The inhabitants of the conquered territories were 5 deported in the tens of thousands into other parts of the Assyrian Empire, where they were used as forced labor. Revolts of the subjugated regions were considered a crime against the "divine world order" and were crushed with cruel punitive expeditions.



5 Prisoners of war being carried away into slavery in the Assyrian empire,
women and children riding on a wagon drawn by oxen; stone relief, seventh с. в.с.



1 Assyrian fighter kills his enemy, ninth century B.C.
3 Assyrian spear-carrier, eighth c. B.C.
4 Winged genie, ninth century B.C.


Tiglath-pileser I (ca. 1115— 1077 B.C.) extended the empire into northern Syria and Asia Minor. After occupying the Phoenician trading cities, he levied tribute on them. Alongside these military conquests he also promoted scientific research, particularly with regard to zoology, and oversaw the compilation of a great library and encouraged cultural developments. After his death, the expansion of the Middle Assyrian Kingdom came to an end. Pressure from the Aramaean tribes seeking to break into the fertile lands of Mesopotamia, and a revived Babylonian kingdom, ushered in a period of Assyrian decline. The ancient capital of Ashur was later abandoned in favour of  Nineveh, a new capital on the banks of the upper River Tigris.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire (883-612в.с.)



Map of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and its expansions.

 

During the period of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (883-612 B.C.), the military power of the Assyrians expanded through Palestine and Israel, and into Egypt.
 

Assyria experienced a renewed period of expansion under King Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.). Annual military campaigns were waged in order to break the resistance of neighboring kingdoms, and the conquests were followed by brutal mass executions.
Succeeding Ashurnasirpal, Queen Sammu-ramat, also known as Semiramis, conducted the empire's affairs very successfully. She 6rst acted as regent for her son, Adadnirari III (810-783 B.C.), and then continued to exert a significant influence over the throne even after he came of age. A succession of weak kings, rebellious provincial governors, and the growing power of Urartu threatened the empire. These dangers were averted after Tiglath-pileser III seized power in 745 B.C. and set about refashioning the Kingdom and overseeing renewed military success. He advanced into Gaza in the west, conquered Babylon in the south, and triumphed over the ruler of Urartu. In addition to reviving Assyrian military fortunes, Tiglath-pileser proved a capable administrator, strengthening the empire by reordering the provinces and standardizing laws. His economic planning involved the forced relocation of the empire's subjects.

His successor, Shalmaneser V, went on to conquer Samaria in -22 в.с and subjugated Israel, as it had ceased to pay 6 tribute.
 

6 Emissaries from King Jehu of Israel bringtributes, ninth century B.C.

7 Sargon II (721-705 B.C.) with a high dignitary, perhaps Crown Prince Sennacherib

In 721 B.C. a new dynasty was founded by 7, 9 Sargon II.
His son Sennacherib (704-681 B.C.) destroyed Babylon in 689 and had his capital. 8 Nineveh, magnificently enlarged by an army of forced laborers. Both Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal sought to conquer Egypt, but were unable to maintain control due to the great distances involved, as well as domestic intrigues originating with their own relatives. In 646 the Elamites were conclusively defeated and, together with the last small Hittite states, absorbed by the new Assyrian Empire during the seventh century B.C.

Ashurbanipal was a great art collector, and in Nineveh he built the largest cuneiform library of antiquity, holding copies of almost all the significant works of the ancient Near East. The empire declined under his successors, until finally—weakened by Scythians' attacks —it fell to the conquests of the Medes and the Babylonians.



8 The palace and temple area of Sargon II at Khorsabad (Dur Sharrukin), Iraq, artist's reconstruction
9 The king's palace at Nineveh, artist's reconstruction

An Assyrian winged bull, or lamassu, from Sargon's palace at Dur-Sharrukin.

The Ancient Kingdom of Babylon
 

The city of Babylon in the heart of Mesopotamia rose to become the new dominant power in the region during the second millennium B.C.
 

The Neo-Babylonian Kingdom of the Chaldeans  625-539 B.C.
 

The greed for power and the luxury of the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom served as the Old Testament model for the depths of iniquity.




Neo-Babylonia empire 540 b.c.
 

The Chaldeans, one of the Semitic tribes of Aramaeans, moved into southern Mesopotamia in about 850 B.C. and rose up against Babylon's Assyrian rulers. Eventually they prevailed. Nabopolassar (625-605 B.C.) founded the Neo-Babylonian Kingdom and defeated the Assyrians in 612 b.c. by capturing and destroying Nineveh on the east bank of the Tigris.

Nabopolassar's son Nebuchadressar, known in the Bible as 2 Nebuchadnezzar II (605-562 b.c), dedicated himself primarily to 3 constructing imposing buildings. In the temple district of Babylon, he had a 5 processional passage and the Ishtar Gate built and decorated with colored relief tiles.

The passage led to a massive central 4 ziggurat, which may have inspired the 6 "Tower of Babel."

His palace's 9 hanging gardens became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Babylon was also a world center for the sciences, above all of astronomy, astrology, and the mantic arts.

2 Seal with the name and title of Nebuchadressar II, 604-562 B.C.
3 Reconstruction sketch of Babylon under Nebuchadressar II
4 Model of the ziggurat of Babylon built under Nebuchadressar II

5 Festive procession in Babylon; still from the film The Fall of Babylon, 1916

Martin John, The Fall of Babylon, 1831

9 Reconstruction sketch of the hanging gardens of Babylon, 18th century a.d.

Militarily, Nebuchadressar II directed his activities against Egypt and then Palestine. In 597 B.C. he plundered 7 Jerusalem for the first time when it refused to make tribute payments, and in 587 he then destroyed the city.

Its inhabitants were led into 8 "Babylonian captivity" and employed as forced labor. Of the Phoenician city-states, only Tyre was able to withstand conquest by Nebuchadressar.

His successors were weakened by family feuds, and eventually the usurper Nabonidus managed to reconsolidate the empire and repulse the invading Medes in 553 B.C. In 550 he installed his son Belshazzar (also known as Nidintabel and Nebuchadressar III) as regent in Babylon and withdrew to the Oasis of Teima. When he returned in 539 it was already too late; the Persians under Cyrus II had annihilated the armies of Belshazzar and entered Babylon.

Nebuchadrezzar II

Nebuchadrezzar II, (born c. 630—died c. 561 bc), the second and greatest king of the Chaldean dynasty of Babylonia (reigned c. 605–c. 561 bc). He was known for his military might, the splendour of his capital, Babylon, and his important part in Jewish history.
Nebuchadrezzar II was the oldest son and successor of Nabopolassar, founder of the Chaldean empire. He is known from cuneiform inscriptions, the Bible and later Jewish sources, and classical authors. His name, from the Akkadian Nabu-kudurri-uṣur, means “O Nabu, watch over my heir.”
While his father disclaimed royal descent, Nebuchadrezzar claimed the third-millennium Akkadian ruler Naram-Sin as ancestor. The year of his birth is uncertain, but it is not likely to have been before 630 bc, for according to tradition Nebuchadrezzar began his military career as a young man, appearing as a military administrator by 610. He is first mentioned by his father as working as a labourer in the restoration of the temple of Marduk, the chief god of the city of Babylon and the national god of Babylonia.

In 607/606, as crown prince, Nebuchadrezzar commanded an army with his father in the mountains north of Assyria, subsequently leading independent operations after Nabopolassar’s return to Babylon. After a Babylonian reverse at the hands of Egypt in 606/605, he served as commander in chief in his father’s place and by brilliant generalship shattered the Egyptian army at Carchemish and Hamath, thereby securing control of all Syria. After his father’s death on Aug. 16, 605, Nebuchadrezzar returned to Babylon and ascended the throne within three weeks. This rapid consolidation of his accession and the fact that he could return to Syria shortly afterward reflected his strong grip on the empire.
On expeditions in Syria and Palestine from June to December of 604, Nebuchadrezzar received the submission of local states, including Judah, and captured the city of Ashkelon. With Greek mercenaries in his armies, further campaigns to extend Babylonian control in Palestine followed in the three succeeding years. On the last occasion (601/600), Nebuchadrezzar clashed with an Egyptian army, with heavy losses; this reverse was followed by the defection of certain vassal states, Judah among them. This brought an intermission in the series of annual campaigns in 600/599, while Nebuchadrezzar remained in Babylonia repairing his losses of chariots. Measures to regain control were resumed at the end of 599/598 (December to March). Nebuchadrezzar’s strategic planning appeared in his attack on the Arab tribes of northwestern Arabia, in preparation for the occupation of Judah. He attacked Judah a year later and captured Jerusalem on March 16, 597, deporting King Jehoiachin to Babylon. After a further brief Syrian campaign in 596/595, Nebuchadrezzar had to act in eastern Babylonia to repel a threatened invasion, probably from Elam (modern southwestern Iran). Tensions in Babylonia were revealed by a rebellion late in 595/594 involving elements of the army, but he was able to put this down decisively enough to undertake two further campaigns in Syria during 594.

Nebuchadrezzar’s further military activities are known not from extant chronicles but from other sources, particularly the Bible, which records another attack on Jerusalem and a siege of Tyre (lasting 13 years, according to the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus) and hints at an invasion of Egypt. The siege of Jerusalem ended in its capture in 587/586 and in the deportation of prominent citizens, with a further deportation in 582. In this respect he followed the methods of his Assyrian predecessors.
Much influenced by the Assyrian imperial tradition, Nebuchadrezzar consciously pursued a policy of expansion, claiming the grant of universal kingship by Marduk and praying to have “no opponent from horizon to sky.” From cuneiform fragments he is known to have attempted the invasion of Egypt, the culmination of his expansionist policy, in 568/567.
In addition to being a brilliant tactician and strategist, Nebuchadrezzar was also prominent in international diplomacy, as shown in his sending an ambassador (probably Nabonidus, a successor) to mediate between the Medes and Lydians in Asia Minor. He died about 561 and was succeeded by his son Awil-Marduk (Evil-Merodach of 2 Kings).

Nebuchadrezzar’s main activity, other than as military commander, was the rebuilding of Babylon. He completed and extended fortifications begun by his father, built a great moat and a new outer defense wall, paved the ceremonial Processional Way with limestone, rebuilt and embellished the principal temples, and cut canals. This he did not only for his own glorification but also in honour of the gods. He claimed to be “the one who set in the mouth of the people reverence for the great gods” and disparaged predecessors who had built palaces elsewhere than at Babylon and had only journeyed there for the New Year Feast.
Little is known of his family life beyond the tradition that he married a Median princess, whose yearning for her native terrain he sought to ease by creating gardens simulating hills. A structure representing these hanging gardens cannot be positively identified in either the cuneiform texts or the archaeological remains.
Despite the fateful part he played in Judah’s history, Nebuchadrezzar is seen in Jewish tradition in a predominantly favourable light. It was claimed that he gave orders for the protection of Jeremiah, who regarded him as God’s appointed instrument whom it was impiety to disobey, and the prophet Ezekiel expressed a similar view at the attack on Tyre. A corresponding attitude to Nebuchadrezzar, as God’s instrument against wrongdoers, occurs in the Apocrypha in 1 Esdras and, as protector to be prayed for, in Baruch. In Daniel (Old Testament) and in Bel and the Dragon (Apocrypha), Nebuchadrezzar appears as a man, initially deceived by bad advisers, who welcomes the situation in which truth is triumphant and God is vindicated.
There is no independent support for the tradition in Daniel of Nebuchadrezzar’s seven years’ madness, and the story probably arose from a fanciful later interpretation of texts concerned with events under Nabonidus, who showed apparent eccentricity in deserting Babylon for a decade to live in Arabia.
In modern times Nebuchadrezzar has been treated as the type of godless conqueror; Napoleon was compared to him. The story of Nebuchadrezzar is the basis of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Nabucco, while his supposed madness is the theme of William Blake’s picture “Nebuchadnezzar.”

Henry W.F. Saggs

Encyclopædia Britannica