Assyria

[Julius Ratus]

I have been doing a short paper on the Assyrians for my Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt class, and have found the Assyrians to be a very interesting culture. They had the first professional army to my knollege and dominated the Ancient Near East for several centuries. One thing I was wondering, did the Romans have any knollege of the Assyrians? Surely they had no contact because the Neo-Assyrian empire fell during the Regal period of Rome, but did they have any knollege of the Assyrians as historical figures. I know Herodotus wrote about them, ut his account was mostly innaccurate, attributing most of Assyria's accomplishments to Semiramis, who probobly reigned for no more than a few years.

 

Anyway, I will shut up now and let any discussion that form proceed.

[Pantagathus]

It

[DecimusCaesar]

The Greeks certainly knew of them. Xenophon for instance says that he could not locate the city of Nineveh which had been laid waste to by the Babylonians and Scythians at the Fall of the Assyrian Empire.

 

Can't find anything about Romans but Pantagathus is right that there would have been some books about them in the Library of Alexandria. I don't think I have come across any referance to them in any Roman Text, though I might have come across them, but have forgotten about it since.

They are an intruiging Civilisation and if the murals they have left behind are true, then they were certainly bloodthirsty.

[Rameses the Great]

I have seen some of their carvings in pictures, they seem to be unique. It looks like they borrowed from the Sumerians and Babylonians heavily during their rise to power.

 

All I know is out of all the Middle East nations that arose it appears that the Assyrians seemed the most militaristic and wanting for war. They seem to always come into conflict with Hittites and Egyptians so that is another possibility. The only thing wrong about trying to study them is that they did not keep much of their written documents in tact. Most chronicles in terms of anything written appear to come from Egyptian and Greek sources.

Edited September 28, 2006 by Rameses the Great

[Uros]

They Know about Assyria, Erodotus(?) tell the story of Semiramis queen of Assirya and Persians and greeks surely remember the necessary because Assyrian civilization was not forgot.

Then, how much "Really" romans knew is a great truble try to know

[Julius Ratus]

The problem with Herodotus, is that he lumps all of the achievements of the earlier Assyrian monarchs together, and attributes them to a woman who ruled for probobly more than five years until her son was old enough to rule.

 

All in all, I enjoyed writing the paper on them and think that they were a fascinating culture. The main book I read was Ancient Iraq by a Frenchman, Georges Roux. A very good read for any who are interested in the Ancient Near East. Also, the report gave me an excuse to buy the Osprey book, The Ancient Assyrians, iluustrated by the magnificent Angus McBride. I think that the illustrations in this one are some of his best.