[Music] the kings of Assyria made very little attempt to be loved or even to be liked by their subjects previous games like the kings of war or like king Hammurabi of Babylon those have been relatively friendly to their subjects but the neo-assyrian rulers rejected this approach completely the Assyrian Kings have modeled their ruling style more on Sargon of Akkad they really preferred to be feared in the centuries since the existence of the Assyrian Empire it has become almost synonymous with violence its other achievements are usually forgotten mostly what we remember is its military machine and there's a good reason for that because although the Assyrians had many other achievements in addition to their military victories warfare dominated the public face of the Assyrian Empire the Assyrians themselves emphasized how warlike they were the triumphs of the army and the triumphs of the King were depicted everywhere in Palace artwork inscriptions and letters [Music] this panel shows us a banquet of King Ashurbanipal in this panel the king is celebrating the defeat of the Elamites another panel next to this one shows a depiction of how Ashurbanipal humiliated the elamite king by making him serve food to the victorious Assyrian court in this panel the king is feasting at the banquet the king is reclining and he is looking at his queen who is seated on a throne on the table next to them is a sword a quiver and a bow and these objects are meant to symbolize military prowess around them we see attendants playing music and if you look closely to the left we see the head of a defeated King hanging on the branch of a tree this is clearly meant to openly display the Assyrian Kings ruthless pursuit of power and Empire [Music] the relentless push by the kings of Assyria to expand the boundaries of their empire with the assurance by diviners that the aggression had the approval of the gods was rewarded by very large amounts of wealth that poured into the Assyrian heartland both in the form of booty and of tribute the army grew even larger as new recruits were brought in from conquered territories there were people who rebelled against the Assyrian conquests but they were treated with unprecedented brutality from inscriptions we know that the Kings boasted of the horrific and gruesome ways in which they had tortured and killed their enemies these Kings were not the Shepherd's of their populations as earlier Kings had described themselves Hammurabi had spoken about protecting widows and orphans for example but the Assyrian Kings never talked about that kind of thing instead they boasted about inspiring terror and they were certainly successful at that [Music] conquests by Assyria execution of regional leaders and deportation of the population was the fate of many kingdoms one of these kingdoms was a small western land known to the Assyrians as beat hungry it was so small that the Assyrians didn't even really think about it it appeared in Assyrian sources in a list of conquered territories but without any further comments clearly this place was not very important to the Assyrians the writers of the Bible called this small territory Israel and they despised the Assyrians for how Israel was treated their writings and their hostile views of the Assyrians lasted much longer than the Assyrian Empire itself since the beginning of kingship in early dynastic times in Mesopotamia rulers had portrayed themselves as chosen and protected by the gods a king did not just order his troops into battle from the comfort of his palace he led his forces into the field the Assyrian Kings continued this tradition and further exaggerated it each King depicted himself as fighting on the front lines in every campaign his chariot leading his soldiers into battle Kings are shown always unprotected by armor or helmets in battle and this was completely intentional they wanted to project the image of invincibility and being immune to dangers that could kill any ordinary man but in reality no King would have subjected himself to this kind of risk the imagery you see on your screen right here is purely propaganda although the Kings were certainly present in battle the kings probably watched from a safe distance [Music] the Assyrian army made use of the latest military technology they built on Mesopotamian military expertise which had been accumulating for thousands of years the soldiers were expert bowmen the bow was also the weapon of choice of the King bowmen could fight on foot on horseback or riding a chariot for hand-to-hand combat a soldier might use a dagger a short sword or a mace and Spears were also commonly used against more distant targets long swords had not yet been invented because the type of iron which the Assyrian blacksmiths forged was too brittle to make a useful longsword they would break in combat helmets and shields protected the soldiers and over time chariots got higher and more maneuverable as you see in this relief on your screen Assyrians portrayed the use of siege engines they struck the city wall with battering rams scaling city walls with ladders and fired arrows from siege towers and they also were known to dig tunnels underneath city walls one very effective strategy used by the Assyrians if a city they were trying to conquer it was next to a river was to build a dam and let the water accumulate and then take down the dam and let the water destroy the city walls this technology and these types of strategies made the Assyrian army successful in battle lands within the Empire might rebel but like Israel they were ultimately always put down [Music]