Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire

Assyrian Army
Participant in Assyrian wars of conquest
Assyrian soldiers, from a plate in THE HISTORY OF COSTUME by Braun & Schneider (c. 1860).
Active	911 BC – 605 BC
Leaders	King of Assyria
Headquarters	Kalhu (Nimrud), Assur, Nineveh, Harran, Dur-Sharrukin (Khorsabad)
Area of operations	Mesopotamia, parts of the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt and western Persia
Strength	capable of 300,000+ men
Part of	Assyrian Empire
Opponents	Babylon, Elam, Media, Egypt, Urartu

The Neo-Assyrian Empire arises in the 10th century BC. Ashurnasirpal II is credited for utilizing sound strategy in his wars of conquest. While aiming to secure defensible frontiers, he would launch raids further inland against his opponents as a means of securing economic benefit, as he did when campaigning in the Levant. The result meant that the economic prosperity of the region would fuel the Assyrian war machine.

Ashurnasirpal II was succeeded by Shalmaneser III. Although he campaigned for 31 years of his 35-year reign, he failed to achieve or equal the conquests of his predecessor, and his death led to another period of weakness in Assyrian rule.

Assyria would later recover under Tiglath Pileser III, whose reforms once again made Assyria the most powerful force in the Near East, and transformed her into a fully fledged empire – the first of its kind. Later, under Shalmaneser V, Sargon II and Sennacherib, further Assyrian offensives occurred, although these were designed not only for conquest, but also to destroy the enemies ability to undermine Assyrian power. As such, costly battles raged taking tolls on Assyrian manpower. Esarhaddon succeeded in taking lower Egypt and his successor, Ashurbanipal, took the southern upper half of Egypt.

However, by the end of the Ashurbanipal's reign it appears that the Assyrian Empire was falling into another period of weakness, one from which she would not escape. It appears that years of costly battles followed by constant (and almost unstoppable) rebellions meant that it was a matter of time before Assyria ran out of troops. The loss of the outer regions meant that foreign troops were gone too. By 605 BC, independent political Assyrian records vanish from history and the Assyrians lost their independence forever.

Mesopotamia was the site of some of the earliest recorded battles in history. In fact, the first recorded battle was between the forces of Lagash and Umma c. 2450 BC. Like many Mesopotamian records, it contains elements of fiction. The ruler of Lagash, Eanatum, was inspired by the god Ningirsu to attack the rival kingdom of Umma; the two were involved in minor skirmishes and raids along their respective borders. Eanatum, although having triumphed, was struck in the eye by an arrow. After the battle, he proudly documented the behavior of the vultures.