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6. Assyrian world domination: pathfinder empire
Karen Radner
Print Publication Year: 2015 Published Online: Mar 2015
ISBN: 9780198715900 eISBN: 9780191784163
Item type: chapter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198715900.003.0006
‘Assyrian world domination: pathfinder empire’ considers the key aspects of governance
and ideology that contributed to the Assyrian Empire’s control over its holdings for three
centuries. Warfare is prominently reviewed in sources such as the Assyrian palace art,
royal inscriptions, and the Bible. The ideology of absolute kingship, the innovative longdistance relay postal service, and the empire-wide resettlement programme provided
powerful tools for the empire’s cohesion, and provided the basis and templates for successor
states including the Persian and Roman Empires. The royal library that the Assyrian kings
assembled and maintained since the 14th century bc has contributed much to our knowledge
of Assyria’s cultural history.
4. Assyrians abroad
Karen Radner
Print Publication Year: 2015 Published Online: Mar 2015
ISBN: 9780198715900 eISBN: 9780191784163
Item type: chapter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198715900.003.0004
‘Assyrians abroad’ captures snapshots of Assyrian lives far away from the city of Aššur and
Assyrian heartland through a range of primary sources from different periods. Accounts
of Assyrian traders at the trading colony of Kaneš, c.1900 bc, are seen through letters
excavated in the Assyrian quarter. Diplomatic relations between Assyrian ruler Aššuruballit I and Pharaoh Akhenaten in c.1340 bc are described through the ‘Amarna Letters’
found among the state correspondence of the pharaohs of the later 18th Dynasty of Egypt.
Details of the 1082 bc famine; Aššur-re#uwa, the Assyrian ambassador for client state
Kumme in c.710 bc; and the sibling rivalry between Aššurbanipal, king of Assyria, and
Šamaš-šumu-ukin, king of Babylon, are also described.
3. Assyrians at home
Karen Radner
Print Publication Year: 2015 Published Online: Mar 2015
ISBN: 9780198715900 eISBN: 9780191784163
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date: 05 May 2017
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198715900.003.0003
Item type: chapter
‘Assyrians at home’ describes the great variety of living conditions and human experiences
in the Assyrian Empire in the 7th century, the period when the source material is most
numerous and diverse. First, it considers the life of King Esarhaddon and the continuing
violence that attended his assumption of the title, before describing the frustrations of
Šumaya and his cousin Urdu-Gula—scholars and trained exorcists—who did not share the
privileged positions of Royal Scribe or Master Scholar that were bestowed on their relatives.
The lives of Šulmu-šarri, a wealthy landowner from Dur-Katlimmu, and Duri-Aššur, a
wine merchant of Aššur, and their families are also considered as illustrations of life in 7thcentury Assyria.
1. ‘At my signal unleash hell’: the Western Way of War?
Harry Sidebottom
Print Publication Year: 2004 Published Online: Sep 2013
ISBN: 9780192804709 eISBN: 9780191776045
Item type: chapter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780192804709.003.0001
Popular culture depicts the Romans fighting the ‘Western Way of War’ where the aim
is an open, decisive battle, which is won with courage and discipline. The other side are
portrayed as fighting a ‘skulking’ kind of war using ambush and a lack of discipline. This
seems to make sense, but in fact the ‘Western Way of War’ and its opposite are cultural
constructions. Where did this notion come from? Why was it constructed? Why is it
continually being maintained? What was an ‘Eastern’ style of war? Art reflects thinking,
and also shapes it. Many of the ideas around the ‘Western Way of War’ and its opposites
come into focus if we look at visual images of conflict.
4. Atzmaut and Nakba 1947–67
Martin Bunton
Print Publication Year: 2013 Published Online: Sep 2013
ISBN: 9780199603930 eISBN: 9780191778179
Item type: chapter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780199603930.003.0004
New boundaries were mapped out for the splintered territory in 1947. As the situation
developed into civil war, onlookers began to worry. ‘Atzmaut and Nakba 1947–67’ looks
at the United Nations' efforts to implement its plan and the events that followed. Following
the withdrawal of British forces in May 1948, a regional war broke out between the new
state of Israel and its Arab neighbours. By the time the armistice agreements were signed in
1949, the independent state of Israel was established within boundaries that comprised 78
percent of mandate Palestine. For the next two decades, the state of Israel focused attention
on economic consolidation, the absorption of another wave of immigrants, and defence
against belligerent neighbours.
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date: 05 May 2017
3. Aztec expansion through conquest and trade
Davíd Carrasco
Print Publication Year: 2011 Published Online: Sep 2013
ISBN: 9780195379389 eISBN: 9780199365708
Item type: chapter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780195379389.003.0003
‘Aztec expansion through conquest and trade’ examines the Codex Mendoza. The Codex
Mendoza is a rare example of Spanish and Aztec cooperation, and tells the story of the
Aztec people. Framing the opening page of the document is a series of time signs, denoting
the Aztec calendar cycle. The empire's impressive agriculture is shown by depictions of
chinampa floating gardens. The ruling tlatoani distinguished themselves through battle.
Their royal families shared a lineage with Quetzalcoatl, and lived in a world of political
intrigue and assassinations. The expansion, care, and ritual life of the Great Temple were
their main priorities. The trade network kept goods and information flowing through the
empire.
2. Aztec foundations: Aztlan, cities, peoples
Davíd Carrasco
Print Publication Year: 2011 Published Online: Sep 2013
ISBN: 9780195379389 eISBN: 9780199365708
Item type: chapter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780195379389.003.0002
‘Aztec foundations: Aztlan, cities, peoples’ explores Aztec foundation myths. A number of
different groups migrated to the Aztec basin. Their stories were akin to an epic odyssey: a
hazardous pilgrimage from an ancient homeland to dominance of a sacred land. The Azteca
people changed their name to the Mexica as they left Aztlan, and their journey to the site of
Tenochtitlan was fraught with danger. They built Tenochtitlan to cement their cultural and
political legitimacy. Tenochtitlan was not the first city to be built on that site, which led to
many debates about the origins of the Mesoamerican people.
9. Babylonia in later ages: (6th century bc to 2nd century ad)
Trevor Bryce
Print Publication Year: 2016 Published Online: Sep 2016
ISBN: 9780198726470 eISBN: 9780191793288
Item type: chapter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198726470.003.0010
‘Babylon in later ages’ begins with Babylonia under Persian rule when Cyrus invaded
in 539. He honoured, preserved, and maintained Babylon’s and Babylonia’s timehonoured traditions, cults, gods, and religious customs and sought to remove every trace
of Nabonidus’s reign. Babylonia remained under Persian control until the year 330 when
the final remnants of the Persian empire fell to Alexander the Great, who died in Babylon
in 323. Then came the Seleucid empire under Seleukos, followed by control under the
Parthians. Despite numerous changes in rule, the traditional elements of Babylonian
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religious life and some of the traditional elements of Babylonian intellectual life survived
well into the first century ad.
2. Babylonian society through the perspective of Hammurabi’s Laws
Trevor Bryce
Print Publication Year: 2016 Published Online: Sep 2016
ISBN: 9780198726470 eISBN: 9780191793288
Item type: chapter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780198726470.003.0003
An imposing stone stele (pillar) discovered during excavations of the ancient city of Susa
in ad 1901–2 depicts Shamash, god of justice, and the Babylonian king, Hammurabi. It is
also inscribed with a series of laws that largely define Hammurabi’s role as the shepherd of
his people, and the protector of the weak and vulnerable among his subjects. ‘Babylonian
society through the perspective of Hammurabi’s Laws’ outlines the nature and content of
these laws and describes the information they provide about social hierarchy in Babylonia.
In practice, Hammurabi’s Laws were not prescriptive rulings, but a set of guidelines—
embodying important principles of justice—for the good governance of society.
6. Barbarism
Gillian Clark
Print Publication Year: 2011 Published Online: Sep 2013
ISBN: 9780199546206 eISBN: 9780191777295
Item type: chapter
Publisher: Oxford University Press
DOI: 10.1093/actrade/9780199546206.003.0006
‘Barbarism’ examines the late antique understanding of barbarism. Is barbarism about
society, art, behaviour, or fashion? Who were the Barbarians, and where did they come
from? The Romans perceived the Barbarians as wild beasts. Should we accept this view?
Modern historians point out that the Barbarians did not leave verbal or written records and
Roman historians made no effort to understand their culture. Description of the battle at
Adrianople (378) — was Roman defeat at the hands of the Huns a definitive sign of waning
power? In 410 Rome is sacked — how traumatic an event was this for the empire and its
citizens, and was it detrimental to the reputation of Christianity?
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date: 05 May 2017