Below is the fifth in a series of articles from Mark McLaughlin showcasing the 16 civilizations in Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East. You can find the first four articles in the series here.

I,  Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria, the one longed for and destined by his great divinity, who, at the issuing of his order and the giving of his solemn decree, cut off the head of Te’umman, king of Elam, after defeating him in battle, and whose great command my hand conquered Umman-Igash, Tanmarit, Pa’e and Umman-Altash, who ruled of Elam after Te’umman. I yoked them to my sedan chair, my royal conveyance. I established decent order in all the lands without exception.

 from a stele raised by Ashurbanipal (686-628 BC)  to commemorate one of his many victories

Assyria was the pre-eminent, most feared and most hated civilization in the ancient Middle East. Comparable to both Rome and Nazi Germany in not only their martial prowess but also their ruthlessness, the Assyrians were masters of warfare and experts in terror. Their advanced siege weapons and engineering techniques meant no city could resist them – at least not for long. Assyria rose, paused during the 12^th century BC apocalypse, then rose again to conquer almost the entire Middle East, from Egypt to the Levant and most of Mesopotamia. Much like Rome and Nazi Germany, however, Assyria was finally brought down by a massive coalition that attacked it from  all points of the compass at once.

In the game, Assyria has the choice of its original Homeland of Assur (from which they took their name) or Ninevah (the capital city of their later and greater empire). Assyria’s siege engineers and professional standing army are represented by its advantages in Competition. Assyria was notorious for taking entire populations captive and scattering them about their empire as slaves and laborers, and therefore MUST take captives rather than loot if possible (if it has disks available to represent them).

To find out more about Assyria  check out:  https://www.ancient.eu/assyria/

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Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East: Meet the Sumerians

Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East: Meet the Egyptians

Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East: Meet the Elamites

Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East: Meet the Indus Valley Civilizations (or “Dravidians, Harappans, and Mauryans, oh my!”)