About 3,000 years ago, a people that few people remember today marched through the Middle East with a crushing gait. This army leveled cities to the ground, tortured survivors and spread fear throughout the world. We are talking about Assyria - the first country to make military power the basis of its policies and the first country to terrorize its enemies through psychological warfare.
1. Eternal War
Assyrian army: eternal war
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Every Assyrian man, from the poorest to the richest, was required to serve in the army. It was the first country to make military service compulsory for every male citizen, no matter who he was. All men lived according to the "3 years" principle. In the first year, they built roads, bridges and buildings to build the empire's power. In the second year, they went to war. And only in the third year were they allowed to live with their families. As a result, Assyria had one of the most powerful armies in the world. Moreover, they were well trained and in constant battles … and there were many of them.
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2. Psychological terror
Assyrian army: psychological terror
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The Assyrians created tablets on which they painted and described the process of torturing their enemies so that the next city would know what would happen to its defenders. These tablets showed the process of skinning living people, gouging out their eyes and planting them on stakes. After one of the Assyrian kings, Ashurnatsirapal II, a number of similar tablets remained, on which his atrocities during the capture of cities were described: “I flayed all the defenders of the city and hung it on the walls … I burned all the children … a tower was built from the heads of the inhabitants in front of the city . By the time the Assyrian army approached the walls of another city, its inhabitants already knew what awaited them.
3. A chance to surrender
Assyrian army: a chance to surrender
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Before the battle began, people were often given the chance to surrender. An envoy went to the city wall, who promised the defenders of the city (who were already shaking in fear, because they knew what awaited them) that if they surrender and pay tribute to Assyria, they will be allowed to live: “Humble yourself and come out to me! Then each of you will eat your own grapes and fig fruits and drink water from your own pool. And those who do not come out will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine. Many countries surrendered and paid tribute to Assyria, whose troops moved on.
4. Siege weapons
Assyrian army: siege weapons
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At that time, there were practically no siege weapons. At best, the army could hope to break through the city gates, trying to knock them out with a log, often while archers fired at them from the walls. The Assyrians, however, invented some of the first siege weapons in the world. For example, they invented a ram, a device that seemed impossible to stop at the time. It was a complex structure on wheels, inside which was a huge log with an iron tip in the form of a ram's head, which swayed on chains, allowing it to break through enemy walls. The people inside the structure, who were swinging the log, were protected by wooden planks covered with raw animal skins, in which the lighted arrows of the city's defenders stuck and rotted.
5. Complete destruction of cities
Assyrian army: complete destruction of cities
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Sometimes, the Assyrian army did not stop at killing their enemies. When the Assyrian king Sinacherib invaded Babylon, he wiped it off the face of the earth. All that was left behind him was a boastful statement: “The city and its houses, from base to roof, I plundered, destroyed and burned with fire … in the middle of the city I dug canals and flooded it with water. In place of Babylon, only a swamp remains."
6. Torture survivors
Assyrian army: torture survivors
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According to the surviving records, one Assyrian king spared some of the people of the captured cities: "the nobility and the elders of the city came to me to save their lives … they fell at my feet and asked for mercy, asking me to do anything with them, just not kill." Most often, these survivors were used to intimidate others, and in a rather cruel way - their noses and ears were cut off. And one of the kings, Esarhaddon, forced the nobility of the city he had captured to wear "necklaces" with the severed heads of their rulers.
7. Life of slaves
Assyrian army: slave life
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Assyrian wall paintings have preserved images of slaves chained to large stones, which they were forced to drag like mules. These stones were used to create palaces and other architectural wonders for the kings, and the slaves who dragged them to the construction site could not even rest (the overseers walked behind them, beating anyone who "skimmed"). Women who were taken into slavery were often treated even worse. Often they were stripped naked in order to humiliate and make them feel defenseless.
8. Resettlement policy
Assyrian army: resettlement policy
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Assyria had a policy of constant resettlement of people - entire families were driven out of their homes and resettled throughout the country. This was one of the reasons that made Assyria so powerful. Craftsmen from the conquered countries were moved to the heart of the empire, where they were sent to build palaces, temples and miracles. Often they were allowed to bring their families with them. Dangerous enemies who fought against Assyria were sometimes given a chance to atone for their guilt. If the king was merciful, then he sent them to restore the destroyed conquered country.
9. Code of Laws
Assyrian army: brutal code of laws
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Many crimes in Assyria were punishable by self-harm or death. If someone kissed another person's wife, his lower lip was cut off with an ax. If a man was "caught" with another man, then he was turned into a eunuch. Adultery was punishable by death. Men had the right to kill wives who were caught in adultery. The murderers were handed over to the victim's family, who was free to do with them as she pleased.
10. Post-traumatic stress
Assyrian army: post-traumatic stress
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Life in Assyria was terrifying not only for the potential victims of the Assyrians, but also for themselves. The soldiers of the Assyrian army showed symptoms of what modern psychologists call post-traumatic stress. They heard and saw the ghosts of people who died in battle, and also talked to them. Scientists believe that the warriors experienced terror and guilt for killing and torturing innocent people.