Sacred History and Empire in Assyria

Assyrian historiography was a narrative of military campaigns justified as defensive reaction against aggressive enemies and treacherous vassals. This narrative shaped the writing of sacred history in the Bible which again had a strong impact on Western reception of Assyria. However, the annals are only one among many diligently-chosen strategies intended to build an empire. Much has been written about the causes of the collapse of the Assyrian empire. I would like to take the opportunity to lay out the strategies that made it possible for it to survive for several hundred years. According to the nature of the territory, whether in the imperial core, the provinces or the periphery, the Assyrians deployed a variety of strategies to bind these regions to the center. These included administrative centralizing measures, building programs, and an entire textual and iconic apparatus. Whether in the regular deliveries to the Ashur temple, the oath taken by the weapon of Ashur, or the image of the king in the company of the gods carved into rock or stele at the far points conquered by the kings, religion permeated political action and imagined the empire coterminous with the cosmos controlled by the Assyrian national god Ashur.