The End Is Always Near

Assyrian Empire were made up of the stout and comparatively loyal native Assyrians from the heartland of the territory. By the end of the empire, its armies comprised fewer and fewer Assyrians and more and more mercenaries and subject peoples who had been conscripted from places the Assyrians had conquered.

The Assyrians made sure that those who might consider revolting understood the stakes involved. Some of the grisly scenes found during archaeological excavations had been intended to intimidate the very people who might be seeing them while waiting to meet with the king. Imagine being the governor of any such troublesome city, and you’re summoned to see the ruler. Arriving, you might come upon a scene carved in stone (and perhaps painted in color) showing what happened to a city and its prominent citizens that had thumbed its nose at Assyria

would ascend the throne in his place—and that’s when there wasn’t a coup. Civil wars happened a lot throughout Assyria’s history, and a significant number of its kings were killed by their own children. Dynastic struggles probably did more damage to the Assyrian state than any of its enemies, and they opened

the reason Alexander the Great’s invasion of Persia three centuries later seemed easier than perhaps anyone thought it would be was because the region had already been broken to the yoke of empire after centuries of wars with Assyria

Xenophon wrote the Anabasis