13. The Assyrians - Empire of Iron

June 14, 2021

AI Summary

5 min read

In the year 401 BC, a Greek mercenary named Xenophon and his army of 10,000 men were fleeing across the deserts of what is now northern Iraq. Their employer, a Persian prince, had been killed in battle, and they were stranded deep in enemy territory. As they hurried north along the River Tigris, they stumbled upon something that stopped them in their tracks: the enormous, crumbling ruins of a city, completely deserted, its walls 100 feet high and 11 kilometers in circuit. A day later, they found another ruin, even larger. No one they asked could tell them who had built these vast metropolises. Some said the Medes; others whispered that the gods had brought down fire to destroy them. Today we know those cities were Nimrud and Nineveh, the capitals of the Assyrian Empire. When Xenophon saw them, they had already been abandoned for more than 200 years—the Parthenon in Athens had not yet been built, but Nineveh was already an ancient ghost. How did a civilization that built such wonders vanish so completely that even its name was forgotten?

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What you'll learn

1 Fall of Civilizations Podcast: The Assyrians - Empire of Iron
2 Timestamped Outline
3 (01:00) **Xenophon's Discovery** - Greek mercenary Xenophon and his 10,000 men flee through Mesopotamia after a failed Persian campaign, stumbling upon the enormous crumbling ruins of ancient cities.
4 (09:39) **Setting the Stage: Mesopotamia and the Assyrian Inheritance** - The episode returns to the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia, where the Assyrians built their empire from the ashes of the Bronze Age.
5 (17:04) **The Rise of Ashur** - The city of Ashur grows from a humble trading post into a wealthy religious center, giving birth to the god Ashur and the Assyrian people.
6 (26:32) **The Bronze Age Collapse and Assyrian Survival** - Assyria endures the catastrophic Bronze Age collapse (1200-1150 BC) by withdrawing to its heartland, emerging as one of only two surviving great societies alongside Egypt.
7 (33:26) **Tiglath-Pileser I: The First Expansion** - King Tiglath-Pileser I (1114-1076 BC) conquers 42 lands, reaches the Mediterranean Sea, and establishes Assyria as the region's dominant power.

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Show Notes

In the lowlands of Northern Iraq, a series of enormous cities lies crumbling in ruins...In this episode, find out about one of the most remarkable ancient civilizations: the society known today as the neo-Assyrian Empire. Discover how the Assyrians built their empire out of the ashes of the Bronze Age, and built an empire of iron that lasted for centuries. Explore the extraordinary flourishing of art and technology that they fostered. And finally, discover what happened to cause their final, devastating collapse.