Assyria<br>&nbsp;

In the 14th century BC the people who lived in northern Mesopotamia were seceded from Babylonia and created their own independent empire, under the God Assur, from whom they took their name (Assyrian people and Assyria). The history of Assyria is an endless series of wars and conquests. As they were forced to fight with enemies north and south, they became cruel warriors, honored for their ferocity. The soldiers were rewarded according to the cut heads they presented after each battle, all the captured were usually killed and there were scribes in the field to record the score of each one. There were innovators in the manufacture of weapons and the first to use siege machines and horses as cavalry and not to drag chariots. Assyria managed to crush its enemies and occupy the cities of Elam, Sumeria, Akkad and Babylonia, imposing a cruel inhumane yoke across the Middle East.
The subordinate cities paid taxes and in the slightest effort of independence the reaction was overwhelming; many cities were burned down and all their inhabitants were slaughtered. To prevent rebellions, they moved populations from one place to another and they mixed people from different nationalities in order lose their national consciousness.


The head of the state was officially God Assur; all acts and laws were made in his name. The monarch was the leader of the army, he ruled with the aid of priests. Society was military and patriarchal, men could have concubines, the king had a harem with hundreds of girls who spent most of their time in their champers; married women had to wear a veil and not show their face to other men.

The administration was made by commanders appointed by the monarch who were charged with collecting taxes, doing works in their area and keeping an army constantly ready for war. This system was later adopted by the Persians and the Romans. Their criminal system consisted of 5 specific penalties, depending on the size of the crime: whipping, tongue or nose cutting, castration, impalement, decapitation. On the earthenware plates that survived, kings and princes, with complacency and excitement, narrated how they boiled, whipped to death, cut into pieces, young and old prisoners in public as an entertainment for the people.

In the 7th century BC, Assyria had evolved into the greatest empire the world had ever known until then, following unceasing wars and campaigns. Eventually the Assyrian Empire was defeated by the Medes in -612, later passed into the domination of Babylon and Persian until it was conquered by Alexander the Great who changed its name to Syria. After that, it became a Roman province.

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