Neo-Assyrian Empire
▶ Explore on the mapThe Neo-Assyrian empire dominated the Near East from the tenth to the seventh century BCE and was the most formidable military power the region had yet seen. Its kings, Ashurnasirpal II, Tiglath-pileser III, Sargon II, Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal, built a machine of conquest: provincial governors replaced vassal kings, a standing army equipped with iron weapons, siege towers and cavalry was maintained, and deportations moved whole populations to break resistance and supply labour. The palace at Nimrud and the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh held sculptured slabs of hunting, war and tribute that still define the image of Assyria. Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh collected thousands of clay tablets, preserving the Epic of Gilgamesh and the flood story. The capital moved from Ashur to Nimrud, Dur-Sharrukin and finally Nineveh, then the largest city in the world. In 612 BCE a coalition of Babylonians and Medes took Nineveh, and in 609 BCE the last king was defeated, ending the empire. Its deportations shaped the identity of the peoples it moved, among them the Israelites of the northern kingdom. The annals carved on prisms and palace walls list each campaign, each city taken and each tribute paid, and they remain the main source for the period.