“The city and its houses, from its foundations to its walls, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire. The wall and outer wall, temple-tower of brick and earth, temples and gods, and many as there were, I razed and dumped into the Arahtu-Canal. Through […]
Episode 18 – The Three Pillars
In the west, Phoenician mastery of the Mediterranean was challenged by widespread Greek colonization. Rome’s first kings established the boundaries and institutions of the early state. In the Near East, Sennacherib was confronted with the return of a Chaldean usurper to the Babylonian throne. Series […]
Episode 17 – The Fall of Israel
“Then the King of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the King of Assyria took Samaria.” – II Kings 18:4 Toward the end of the eighth century […]
Episode 16 – The Assyrian
“And Pul, the King of Assyria, came against the land.” – II Kings, 15:19 In 745 BC, Tiglath-pileser III reformed the administrative and military structure of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and led the armies of Assur in a virtually-unbroken string of regional conquests. Series References and […]
So Here’s What’s Up
I wasn’t planning to take another extended break so soon, but, well, “man plans, god laughs” and all that. First off, my wife and I have (surprisingly) just managed to purchase our very first house, and are devoting a fair amount of time to TCB-ing […]
Episode 15 – Holding Action
During the first half of the eighth century BC, Egypt, Babylonia and Assyria all struggled against the forces of entropy and decline. In the absence of the Aramean threat, Israel and Judah resumed their perpetual struggle. Urartu expanded its regional influence at the expense of […]
Episode 14 – In the Midst of the Seas
“I received the tribute of the kings of the seacoast – namely, the lands of the peoples of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, Mahallatu, Maizu, Kaizu, Amurru and the city of Arvad, which is in the midst of the seas – silver, gold, tin, bronze, a bronze […]
Episode 13 – Civil War
“My brother Ashur-danin-apli, in the time of Shalmaneser, his father, acted wickedly, bringing about sedition, rebellion, and wicked plotting, caused the land to rise in revolt, prepared for war, brought the people of Assyria, north and south, to his side, and made bold speeches, brought […]