Episode 7. Swords and Silver: The Assyrian Empire’s Legacy of Trade and Warfare

Ever wondered how the Neo-Assyrian Empire, infamous for its cruelty, managed to foster regional stability and boost trade? Join us as we trace the footsteps of formidable Assyrian kings, from Shamshi-Adad  and Adad-nirari II, right through to Ashurbanipal. This episode offers an insightful tour of their reigns, revealing the strategic alliances, the advent of metal money, and the subjugation of prosperous cities that crafted an empire whose imprints are still discernible today.

We then shift gears to examine the rise of the Assyrian Empire and the evolution of one of the most powerful armies of the ancient world. We promise to unveil the ingenious strategies employed by King Tiglath-Pileser III that made silver the primary currency of the realm. Marvel at how this ancient society managed to exact tribute from its neighboring kingdoms, while also juggling food shortages and mandatory military service. And if you thought Ashurbanipal was just a typical Assyrian king, think again.  He was also a scholar who led military conquests but more importantly his role in stabilizing the region will leave you astounded.

Lastly, we put the spotlight on the crucial role of trade and communication during the Assyrian Empire. Discover how envoys and efficient communication networks helped maintain control over vassal states, and how trade avenues were safeguarded through embargoes and military personnel. This exploration of the Assyrian Empire, culminating in its fall in 612 BCE, will leave you with a deeper understanding of this influential period in history, and the significant contributions the Assyrians made to the Mesopotamian region. So, buckle up and let's traverse the annals of history together!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

By the time we get to around 911 BCE, we start to get into the heyday of the Assyrians. This would be called by historians as the Neo-Assyrian Empire. If someone ever references the Assyrians when discussing the Bible or in some other general conversation, they are probably in fact referring to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The first king of this era would have been Adonari II. His reign was essentially fixated on conquering and deporting aramans that were causing some relatively minor disturbances. He was also able to subdue the Hittites and the Hurrians to the north. The Hurrians were people that lived in northern Mesopotamia Not a lot is known about them and they spoke a language called the Hurrian language, which was a language isolate, meaning it wasn't an Indo-European or even Semitic language. However, they did write in a Cadian cuneiform. This is probably due to the fact that they were once conquered by Narum Sin, who was prior to Sargon the Great. To give you an idea, so we're talking 2500 BCE. These people were relatively independent and no one is really sure where they came from, but it is believed that they may have come from the Caucasus to the north. So I just kind of wanted to give you a little bit of a background about them. It's really hard to really give a lot of information because not a lot is really known about them, but either way, they were quickly conquered by the Assyrians and a large number of prisoners were deported to provide a workforce for the Assyrian trade and agriculture sectors. Remember what I said prior, that when the Assyrians would capture a city state or capture people in battle, often they would use deportation as a form of punishment and they would send them off to different portions or parts of the Assyrian Empire. And since they were deported and they weren't home, they also used this as a means to crush any resistance to the empire itself. And this ended up being very effective and was often duplicated ever since by other people. You will see the Neo-Babylonians use this in particular. In all honesty, I don't have to go very far to see where this was used, because this type of procedure was also used in the United States and they would capture certain indigenous peoples of certain regions, they would be deported to other parts, often out west, to basically break their spirits. And now the land was vacant and it would be given to white European Americans and they would use the land as they saw fit. However, I did get off in a little bit of a tangent on there and I apologize.

Speaker 1: 3:08

So getting back to Assyria, as I've mentioned over and over and over, the Assyrians are viewed and known for their cruelty, but what often gets lost is the fact that the Assyrians were great at creating cosmopolitan cities after they were conquered. The one thing that conquerors do after they had conquered lands is often bring periods of stability to the region, since the Neo-Assyrian Empire was such a dominant force for centuries. The stability that they brought to the region helped fuel trade in local economies, and I had briefly mentioned this prior in the first couple episodes that one of the things that happens when you conquer lands is you end up standardizing certain weights and measurements and other kind of standardized business practices, and often these standardizations help fuel trade. It makes things more efficient. So the thing is with Assyria is people think about how cruel they were, but they also don't understand. There's kind of the other side of the coin where, when they did capture lands, they were able to stabilize the region and make trade a lot more efficient.

Speaker 1: 4:23

And it wasn't long after the Assyrians were able to subdue the Hittites and the Hurrians to the north that Assyria looked to the south at Babylon. But instead of attacking Babylon, adi and Nareed II thought it best to form an alliance. This alliance was further solidified by the fact that each king agreed for his daughter to be married to the other. Now I'm not 100% sure why the Assyrians didn't attack Babylon, but it probably had to do with the fact that Assyria had great respect for Babylon and generally probably didn't enjoy going to war with them. It was also during his reign that he was able to secure Phoenician and Aramaean trade routes, which linked Anatolia and Egypt together, thus bringing in more taxes and tribute to the empire. At the time. I'll get into it in another podcast. The Phoenicians were really considered the great merchants of the Levant, and bringing them under control meant increasing your taxes and tribute, which basically meant you were going to increase the wealth to the empire.

Speaker 1: 5:35

And speaking of wealth, I think it's a good opportunity to discuss the metal money that was used at the time. Essentially, there were three types of monies that were commonly used. These would have been copper, bronze and silver. It has been suggested that copper and bronze were what was called low range money. However, there really isn't a lot of evidence to support that, so it appears to me that this is kind of more along the lines of speculation at this point. Also, it makes a lot of sense that bronze and copper would be a form of money because they still had practical uses, unlike silver, which, if you remember from my previous episodes, the idea of silver becoming a commonly used medium exchange is kind of an interesting concept, because silver doesn't have a lot of practical uses, unlike grains or copper, for example, by the time Asher Nazarpaul II came to the throne, he would continue his pressure in the Levant, as he had a successful campaign to essentially conquer the Phoenician-Canadite cities, which were extremely wealthy merchants and I use Canadaite so you can kind of get an idea where it is, because the Phoenicians would have ultimately derived from the Canadite cities to give you an idea of where they came from.

Speaker 1: 7:08

Asher Nazarpaul II also subdued Tyre, but he was unsuccessful in thoroughly conquering it. Tyre was an island city state that had trade routes with Cyprus and the Aegean in general, so Tyre was a very wealthy city state. He wasn't able to thoroughly conquer Tyre, but Asher Nazarpaul was able to extract tribute from the people of Tyre. But, more importantly, this was a great resource for raw materials for his armies and his engineering programs that he had established. He was also able to secure iron for weapons, cedar for construction and even gold and silver for payment of his troops. Asher Nazarpaul II wrote I resettled them in their abandoned towns and houses. I imposed more tribute and tax on them than ever before Horses, mules, oxen, sheep, wine and labor.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Also, as a side note to history, in November 2014, isil, which is the Islamic state of Iraq, and Ilavant. They had gluted archaeological sites in modern-day Iraq, which included the palace of Asher Nazarpaul II. They took the items from there, the artifacts, and sold them on the black market in order to help fund their operation. The executive director of the Iraq Heritage Foundation, which is based in London, stated that tablets were the most common artifact, being sold in Europe and America for hundreds of millions of dollars. And if you want to know why the Assyrians had so many valuable artifacts, it was because of their strong army.

Speaker 1: 9:06

This powerful army allowed Asher Nazarpaul to flex his muscles and institute extreme barbarism. In fact, a inscription had been discovered which describes the king's tactics to deal with the revolt. Their men, young and old, I took prisoner Of some, I cut off their feet in hands Of others. I cut off their ears, nose and lips. Of young man's ears. I made a no-heap Of old man's heads. I made a minaret. I exposed their heads as a trophy in front of the city. The male, children and female children I burned in flames. The city I destroyed consumed good fire. Now that inscription is the inscription that people would expect when they think of the Assyrians.

Speaker 1: 10:01

However, ashur Nasser Paul II was more than just a military leader. He also built cities, of which one was called Kar Ashur, nar Arapali. It's referred to as the Quay of Ashur Nasser Paul. Now this was found in the middle region of the Euphrates. Following a military campaign, the city was built on the left bank of the river, together with another city named Naberte Ashur, which meant the crossing of the god of Ashur on the other bank. These cities were presumably Assyrian colonies that served as Quay towns on the frontier, securing the Euphrates crossing to inland Syria. Now. Ashur Nasser Paul II died in 859 BCE, and he was succeeded by his son, shal Manasser II, who ruled for about 35 years.

Speaker 1: 11:07

During his reign, the king of Israel was forced to accept Assyrian domination, and the Phoenician city-states were also brought under direct Assyrian control. Assyria was by far the most powerful empire in the known world at the time, however, assyria would be hit with some internal problems when the king's own son rebelled and nearly caused a civil war. Now, as you can imagine, the conquered lands and far off, distant places would have taken note and figured it would be a great time to rebel and recapture some independence. Babylon was probably the first, but others soon followed. But before Assyria could act, things got even worse when Assyria was hit by a plague.

Speaker 1: 12:01

But eventually everything kind of re-stabilized and Assyria was able to regain control of the region, and it was by this time that silver was also gaining more and more traction as the preferred currency, as silver was worth more than other metals and trade. To give you a good idea as to how much things cost at the time, a text was recovered from Nineveh that showed the price to cultivate a field was set accordingly to the different metals and, according to the text, it basically showed that copper was inferior to silver at the time. However, copper was the most often used currency in the 8th century BCE, but silver had supplanted it in the mid 7th century BCE as the most common currency. But it's important to note that copper was still in use, however, during the reign of Adod Niri III, the king of Assyria from 811 to 783 BCE. He received 3,000 pounds of bronze as tribute from Damascus. So it's quite possible that one of the reasons why silver was more valuable was because bronze and dust copper were basically flooding the market. So when you flood the market with a particular metal, that means that it's going to depreciate in value. So that could be a contributing factor to silver being worth more, just because it's your supply and demand aspect of it.

Speaker 1: 13:43

But either way, the fact is is the Assyrian army was so strong at this time that it was able to extract so much tribute from other kingdoms in the region itself, and this powerful army was quite large. In fact, it was during the Neo-Assyrian Empire that if you were a citizen of Assyria, you were required to serve in the army for a fixed period of time. This ultimately meant that the Assyrians could quickly mobilize an army during any crisis that appeared. Furthermore, the Assyrian army was drilled to use formation and tactics that were far superior to the states in the Near East. In addition, the kings were expected to lead from the front of the army, not the rear. Of course, this could mean that the king could be killed, but the fact is, a Assyrian king had to show strength and courage when leading in battle, so leading from the front would have been the best way to show courage to troops and the ordinary citizens.

Speaker 1: 14:49

However, it wasn't all roses. The fact is many, if not most, of the reservists were farmers, so this could be a macro-level problem if the farmers weren't back home planting and harvesting their crops. Food shortages could lead to famine if they are taken too many farmers and were called to service, or if they called up the farmers at the wrong time. So to fix this, king Teglath Poulaster III was one of the first Assyrian leaders to organize a full-time, professional army which could campaign year-round, unlike other armies in the region which would typically campaign during campaigning season because they were often farmers and had to go back home and plant or harvest their crops. Under his reign, the Assyrian army was completely reorganized as a professional fighting force, which gave it an even greater advantage on the battlefield.

Speaker 1: 15:56

I would say one of their greatest strengths if strength is the right word to use was they employed psychological warfare by installing enormous amounts of fear of many in the region. In fact, I would say that this is probably their lasting trait, as they were probably most known for their extreme cruelty and brutality, particularly to those that did not submit immediately and decided to fight back. They used this brutality to signal to the others in the region that this could be you if we show up to your door and you do not submit or send proper tribute. Other kings would have learned what happened to the previous people. So this would absolutely motivate certain cities to submit relatively quickly, without a fight.

Speaker 1: 16:48

You may or may not be aware, but the defeated were frequently executed in public executions, which would be memorialized in certain reliefs, as they would go into great detail, on the walls of the imperial palaces. These reliefs contained nearly every single punishment the Assyrian army carried out. They frequently impaled their victims on large stakes. They cut off limbs, cut off heads, gouged out the eyes and then left the victim to roam around so others can see what happens if you do not submit. They enjoyed flaying the rebels' leaders. The flaying process was quite brutal. It would start from the buttocks or the thigh or the lower leg and they would cut the skin in strips and have it pulled it off the victim. While the person is living, the victim's skin would be hung in a visible place as a reminder to the rest of the citizens. Do not cross us. Women and children were sometimes burned alive. The cruelty was also having a downside effect on the Assyrian soldiers, because they also kind of suffered. Apparently, the soldiers were seeing and hearing ghosts of the enemies that they killed. These were probably symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. Ptsd is commonly referred to, and it's quite possible that this might have been the first recorded instance of PTSD ever.

Speaker 1: 18:22

Now it's not like the Assyrians would just show up to the doorstep and just start killing people left and right. They would often offer the city an opportunity to surrender. Now, if the surrender was accepted, the city and its inhabitants would be spared. If they didn't accept the surrender, those inside could expect absolutely no mercy. On top of that, they routinely used mass deportation, as I said previously, in addition to slavery. So what would happen is a captured city might be completely destroyed and all its survivors could have been marched off into another region or city, and eventually they would be absorbed into the Assyrian society.

Speaker 1: 19:10

What is interesting is the people of the city of Asshur, like the city limits, the city proper, were traditionally exempt from military service. However, they would have to make up for this lack of military services by offering their services to the king for other endeavors. Furthermore, the citizens of Asshur were also exempt from taxation and other trading fees that people outside the city of Asshur were expected to be responsible for. Also, if you might recall, the city of Asshur typically had a high percentage of its citizens that were engaged in trade. Now, with regards to trade, I think it's important to kind of take a step back and discuss how money was being used at the time.

Speaker 1: 20:03

It was during the reign of King Tiglath Pulaser III that wages were mostly paid in silver. However, copper was still an accepted medium of exchange as well, and we might know this because we see documents that give prices of certain grains in copper. We also see contracts for labor to cultivate fields in this time period as well. A particular contract indicated that the person was to cultivate a field, but the contract was written in advance, during the month of December, which would have been somewhat unusual, because that's usually when they are planting seeds and not harvesting. So the person is contracting for his services six months or later from the current time that it was written, for current income. In addition, this text was a bit unusual in that the hired worker had already received his wages. So the possibility means that he was potentially up against the wall and needed income in a temporary. So that means he would have been pledging his labor into the future, during an important time of year when the harvest would be kicking off. So it appears that even though the workers were getting paid now, the contract probably would have been in favor of the farmer or the business owner that was writing the contract.

Speaker 1: 21:34

It was also noted that certain asyriologists believe that the debtor's obligation to provide his services during the most important harvest time could have replaced provisions of interest. In other words, if I borrow money from you now, you would expect interest in return, but in this case the interest could have been replaced when labor. So therefore the labor has been an important, if not more important, tool for the farmer than interest, and it's quite possible. The reason why that is is because labor prices probably spiked during important times of the year. So you can replace that expenditure with labor by providing money now instead of collecting interest in the interim.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Under Tiglac plaster the third, the economy was humming along and booming, for that matter. But before he came to power, things were in a bit of turmoil politically and economically, and what happened was. He was a general who actually staged a coup and took control of the throne. What really separates him, though, was his sweeping changes to government and society in general. The army was changed, as I said prior, from a seasonal force to a standing, professional army, which enabled the Syria to carry on with campaigns throughout the year. Other armies just couldn't do that. In fact, a Syria couldn't even do that just prior to him, because of the changes he had made.

Speaker 1: 23:18

You know, and prior to Tiglac plaster the third, the armies that they went to war with, or should say, the cities that they tried to siege, they knew this. They knew that if they just held out long enough, when winter comes, the army will turn around and just head home. So, just if you can just withstand the siege for a few months, you're fine, but when he changed it to the more professional standing army, this changed things dramatically, because the city states knew that they could be under siege for years at a time, if need be. Now, this new standing army allowed Tiglac plaster the third to send out campaigns to retake lands that had broke free during their recent civil war when he came to the throne, and this would have included places like Babylon and the Medes and the Persians, along with the Hittites, so basically everybody that was surrounding him took it as an opportunity to break free. But now he has the new strong standing army and this would allow him to open up a new phase of Assyrian territorial expansion.

Speaker 1: 24:33

When he conquered kingdoms in modern Syria and Palestine and reorganized them into Assyrian provinces, this area would have been controlled by the Phoenicians and included Tyre and Sidon. Therefore, the Assyrians would have controlled all the custom houses in and around Tyre and Sidon. In addition, the Assyrians controlled all the timber that was flowing in and out of Mount Lebanon and they placed tax inspectors in all the trading ports in the region of Tyre and Sidon. A letter was recovered in the region that discussed a time when the people of Sidon had chased out an Assyrian tax inspector. Of course, the king wasn't happy and he returned to the city with his troops. The people of Sidon were wise enough to submit and avoided serious damage, as they knew better than to test him. The letter shows that custom houses controlled by the Assyrians existed not only in the annexed cities of the northern Phoenician city-states, but also in Mount Lebanon, as well as in Sidon. Another noteworthy detail revealed in a letter recovered in the region was the Assyrians had ordered the local people not to sell timber of Lebanon to the Egyptians and the Philistines, and this would have been an early example of economic warfare through an embargo. This embargo was eventually removed later by Sargon II. Assyria had gained control of the region, and part of this control was they had the right to confiscate the cargo of any Tyrean ship that sank along the Philistine coast or within the Assyrian territory. So if a ship sank, all that cargo belonged to them. Now I had just brought up Sargon II and I want to kind of go back to him.

Speaker 1: 26:35

In 712 BCE, sargon II had conquered Kharkimesh and brought home a huge amount of silver. Prior to this campaign, copper, bronze and silver were used as money in Assyria, as I had just mentioned, and it's because of that campaign that silver essentially replaced copper as the main currency in the region. Kharkimesh had so much silver that the measurement would have been a mean of Kharkimesh. Now everything more or less hummed along, with battles here and there, with smaller gains throughout the region, including land from Elam. Sargon II had plundered so much silver in his campaigns that he essentially increased the silver supply so much that silver was equal to that of bronze. Now what I find interesting is this silver that was basically flooding the market would have been completely opposite to Gresham's law. Now, gresham's law is basically a principle that states bad money will drive out good money, but in this particular case it was the opposite it was good money driving out the bad money. The fact is, sargon II's campaigns were so successful that he ultimately flooded the market with silver, and silver was ultimately devalued because of inflation.

Speaker 1: 28:03

Now, by this time, silver had three weight standards. There was the Kingsmina, a Mina of Kharkimesh, which I had just mentioned, and the Merchantsmina. The Kingsmina most likely referred to the Royal Treasury, the Merchantsmina would have applied to overland trade, and the Mina of Kharkimesh would refer to the tribute and plunder that was taken from the Levant. Copper, on the other hand, had just one standard of measurement the Mina of the mountain. Now, in case you're wondering, gold wasn't really used as a medium of exchange like silver or copper or bronze. Gold were sometimes paid in gold, but ultimately it wasn't the standard metal that would have been used for exchanges. However, there still was weight standards for gold. Gold was sometimes used for tribute back to the King the Mina of Babylon and the Mina of Agate were the standard measurements of gold.

Speaker 1: 29:12

This would have been applied specifically for goldsmiths that were working the metallurgy in the Neo-Assirian Empire. Also, silver was often refined by either washing it or burning it. Copper was also refined by washing it as well. The issue is, once it's washed more or refined, it naturally would diminish the quality and quantity of the metal. Also, a person would be appointed to oversee the weighing of the silver, to ensure that the silver was being weighed properly. For the King, as you can imagine, that disposition would have been of high importance and therefore he would be responsible for the process of weighing the metals.

Speaker 1: 29:59

Now, ultimately, the silver would have to be transported in the form of ingots or blocks. What is interesting is no ingots of bronze or copper have actually been found from the Neo-Assirian Empire, so it sounds like ingots were made specifically for silver during this time and once they were transported, they would be broken down when they reached their final destination. Also, as I've mentioned in this episode and the previous episodes, mesopotamia did not have natural reserves of metals, so silver, copper, bronze, gold or whatever metal it is, would have had originated from outside of the region. So ultimately, the metals would have been gained by either military action, which would have resulted in plunder or tribute, or they could have been acquired through diplomatic missions, which most likely would have resulted in tribute, meaning you act nice to us and we won't come attack you, and when we attack you we forcefully take your metals. So you can just send us a gift now and we'll make sure that doesn't happen. That reminds me of parking outside the Yankee Stadium and some guy says hey, I'll watch your car if you give me $20 and make sure no one smashes your window. Of course, going watching a New York Yankees baseball game is a lot different than being attacked by the Assyrian Empire. So I apologize, it's a bad analogy, but either way. Lastly, another means for metals to get acquired would have been through trade. The trade aspect is what probably separates the Neo Assyrian Empire from the previous periods, because in this particular period plunder would have been a lot more prevalent than setting up trade colonies and importing the silver back. But either way, once the metals entered Assyria they would have been distributed throughout the empire, and Assyriologists have noted that often silver would have been one of the first mentions in any kind of letters between kings and their sons or diplomats. So that tells me that silver was a very high priority for the kings and the royals.

Speaker 1: 32:32

It is also during the reign of Sargon II that the Assyrian Kairu on the western frontier, where the Philistines had controlled land, had a minor revolt, but it was put down and the Assyrian dominance was reestablished in 720 BCE. This Kairu, which was located in Gaza, was very important because of the location. It allowed the Egyptians and the Assyrians to essentially regain contact with each other and therefore the embargo that was placed in the previous generation was essentially lifted. And looking at this region, it appears to me that the Assyrians were generally lenient towards the Philistines and definitions in general, and they allowed the kingdoms of Gaza Ashrod, ashkenon and Ekron to survive as vassals. So they didn't necessarily overtake the land, but they wanted people that they can control from there. They wanted puppets in place and maybe it was because of the sheer distance, it wasn't really necessarily in their backyard, so that could have been an aspect, but either way, it appears to me that they treated these people a little bit differently than, say, the Hittites to the north or the Elomites to the east.

Speaker 1: 34:06

In 705 BCE, sargon II had died in battle and he was succeeded by his son, sinakarib. Probably some people had believed that Sinakarib had invented some sort of coinage around this time, but that doesn't really make a lot of sense and there's no evidence to back that up, because in a lot of city we won't get coinage until we get into Elidion. A few hundred years later. However, the Assyrians were still using the weight of silver as their currency or exchange, just like the Babylonians had done prior, as it were. The three weight standards of silver payments that were still in place were the King's Mina and now the Mina of Kharkimi and the Merchant's Mina. Assyriologists have been trying to work out the weights, but it doesn't appear to be very conclusive yet, but either way, trade in this region was primarily done with silver and even go to a much lesser extent. Sinakarib had installed his son and heir, ashur Nadine Shumi, as the King of Babylon. However, he was assassinated by a group of Elamites and an Elamite king was placed on the throne of Babylon. As you can imagine, the Assyrians weren't too happy about this, and this ended up causing a long running war between Babylon and Assyria.

Speaker 1: 35:37

During the siege of Babylon in 690 BCE, the city had been surrounded for months. According to the text from the siege, it was noted that there was mass famine, hunger, starvation and really hard times within the land itself. As a result, inflation had taken control of the city and one shackle of silver was worth two liters of barley. There was no entry or exit into the city in all four directions. In addition, as you can imagine, the number of deaths were so great that the bodies of the corpses began to fill the squares of Babylon because there was no one to bury them. Honestly, when I think about this, I get this mental image of cities in Europe that were struck by the Bubonic plague, and how bodies would be filling up the streets and no one would be there to bury them. By 689 BCE, there was a bit of chaos, as there was a dispute over who would succeed. The Elamite King.

Speaker 1: 36:45

Sinakrib took this as an opportunity to attack and destroy Babylon while it was weak. The problem was, sinakrib may have taken it a bit too far, because he had destroyed many of the temples and images of their gods, except for that of Marduk, which he had taken back to Assyria, and he had put Marduk on trial in front of their god of Asshur. This trial ultimately resulted in Marduk being found guilty of many grave offenses. Not only did the people of Babylon have this deep-seated hatred towards Sinakrib, he actually horrified the people of Assyria, who looked towards Babylon with great admiration. As such, sinakrib was murdered by his two eldest sons, who said they had to kill him as punishment for destroying the temple and stealing Marduk Before the sacking of Babylon.

Speaker 1: 37:50

I think it's good to give a backstory about what happened before the whole incident with Marduk took place. Originally, what happened was after Sinakrib's eldest son was murdered by the Elamites. The second eldest son, arda Melissa, I hope I'm pronouncing it right. I'm probably butchering it, but he was considered originally the heir presumptive to the Assyrian throne, but for one reason or another, he was basically replaced by the younger son, esur-ahadan. No one knows specifically why, but Sinakrib thought that Ardu-Musaloo was probably not the right person to take over the throne. Obviously, the second eldest son was not happy with this decision and he and another brother had murdered Sinakrib in 681 BCE. Now it's quite possible that the sons had used the destruction of Babylon as cover for killing the father, when in reality, it's quite possible that they killed the father because they wanted the power and they were being skipped over by their youngest brother.

Speaker 1: 39:17

So, ultimately, esur-ahadan's rise to power was very rocky at best when it first started out, and he ended up having a six-week-long civil war with his two other brothers to ultimately control the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Now, this war with his brothers would deeply scar Esur-Ahadan and he would be plagued with paranoia and mistrust for his officials, governors and male family members, basically for the rest of his life. As a result of this paranoia, esur-ahadan developed a highly secure fortification located outside of the major population centers of the cities. Also, perhaps resulting from his mistrust for his male relatives, esur-ahadan's female relatives, such as his mother and his daughter, were given much greater responsibility and political power during his reign, more so than women had been allowed in previous periods of the Assyrian Empire. Ultimately, esur-ahadan's probably most famous for his conquest of Egypt in 671 BCE, which made his empire the largest the world had ever seen up to that point, and for his reconstruction of Babylon, which had been destroyed, obviously by his father. He had also built new Cairo cities near Sidon in the Levant, and these new ports were built and occupied by deportees who were transferred from the defeated lands in other parts of the kingdom down to the Levant.

Speaker 1: 41:04

Esur-ahadan did not restrict Tyre from its seafaring trade to more distant countries in the Mediterranean. This was probably due to the fact that the Assyrians had actually signed a treaty with the king of Tyre, baal, because, in the end, what Assyria was looking for from the people of Tyre was a potential ally or, at the very least, someone that would remain neutral with regards to the Egypt and Assyrian war. So, ultimately, what happened was the Assyrians basically permitted Tyre maritime trade everywhere, as well as Tyre's timber cutting business in Mount Lemmonon. However, as I mentioned previously, during the reign of Tiglath Blaster III, assyria placed its own custom houses, either in open areas, such as Mount Lemmonon, or in cities belonging to the still independent Vassal Kingdom, such as in Gaza. Assyria earned a tax from these custom duties and, of course, they also received tribute from these vassals and, as I also mentioned, they confiscated cargoes of the shipwrecks. In the end, the Assyrians allowed the people of Tyre, who were a Phoenician city-state, to trade safely in all the cities and territories under the Assyrian control, as long as they paid their taxes and tribute, of course.

Speaker 1: 42:27

At some point, assyrian's health deteriorated quite rapidly and no one was quite sure what it was, but he would spend days upon days locked up in his room, barely eating or drinking Without knowing it at the time. It was quite possible that this could have been one of the earliest recorded cases of severe depression, and apparently it only worsened once his wife had died. And documents during the time really pointed the fact that he always appeared to be very sad for some reason, but they couldn't quite figure it out. This led him to have physical ailments such as vomiting, constant fevers, dizziness, painful ear aches, diarrhea it sounds like you name it. He pretty much was displaying it at one point or another, and therefore the king was always feeling as though death was coming at any point. And it didn't help matters when he developed this really large skin rash that covered most of his body and even including his face. And since he was the king, he would obviously bring in the best physicians around the region, but no one could figure out what was wrong with him. They were completely perplexed. They just could not figure out what the disease was or the nature of it, and obviously they couldn't find a cure.

Speaker 1: 43:56

And also, let's not forget that this is the ancient civilizations that we're talking about here. So illness or sickness could have been viewed as a punishment from God and therefore they would have did everything they could to hide the king from the people, because that the people saw that the king was consistently sick and covered from these large skin rashes, then this could have caused the people to revolt, and especially the people at the edge of the empire that were vassals or were under direct control of the king. And to make matters worse, the king wanted to have a smooth succession because when he took the throne he essentially was thrown right into a civil war. But the problem was his sons were still miners at the time. So this could have been a very serious problem if he were to die and they were to come to the throne when they weren't technically ready.

Speaker 1: 44:53

And let's not forget, his grandfather, sargon II, had acquired a throne by usurping the previous rulers. So it's quite possible that if he were to die at a young age, or at least relatively young, and his kids aren't ready for the throne, then one of the other lines that were the king before Sargon II had overthrown. Because Sargon II was a usurper. Who knows at this point if the descendants would come looking for their kingdom back? It's quite possible. So this is something that Sargon had to think about. So to alleviate this, he wanted to make sure that his oldest son would be in line to take the throne if he were to die. However, his oldest son had died within just a few years of being appointed the heir presumptive. Now this could have been a serious problem, and what Esar Haddan had tried to do is try to alleviate this by taking his two other sons and appointing them crowned princes. So the oldest one was selected as the heir to Babylon, while the youngest one was selected to the heir of Assyria, the youngest one being Ashurbanipal, the older one being Shema Shum-Ukin, who was selected to be the heir to Babylon. Now you might be asking yourself that doesn't really make a lot of sense, because why would the youngest one be named the heir to Assyria and the oldest one to be named heir of Babylon? Well, it is possible that the heir to Assyria was named that because his mother was Assyrian, and the heir to Babylon was named that because the mother was a Babylonian. No one really knows for sure, but that's what people think may be the reason behind this. But either way, this decision, while it seemed like a great idea, ended up being a total disaster in the long run.

Speaker 1: 46:54

Shortly after Esar Haddan had died, he had left the Assyrian throne to Ashurbanipal. He was rather unique in antiquity. The reason was because he never thought he would be named to the throne because he was the youngest child, so he had actually spent most of his life training for the temple. As such, his studies taught him how to read and write, which meant he was one of the very few kings who actually had the ability to read and write. That was not a kingly thing. Kings weren't supposed to be able to read and write. They're supposed to lead armies in battle and win great wars and expand the empire, not read and write religious texts. That was not something kings were able to do back then. Because he was not groomed to be the king, this is an asset that he would bring to the table. As such. He was literate in Akkadian and Sumerian scripts.

Speaker 1: 47:47

The oldest surviving royal library in the world belongs to Ashurbanipal. What he did is he went around and systematically collected and organized a library, which was located in Innova, and it is undoubtedly Ashurbanipal's most outstanding achievements. The British Museum archaeologists unearthed more than 30,000 clay tablets and their fragments at the Assyrian capital, innova. Many of the documents that were collected in the library were pre-scientific works which were in attempt by the ancients to explain events in the world, but possibly the most important work that was discovered was the Epic of Gilgamesh, because Ashurbanipal had made sure that his scribes were able to copy the original works. But in the end Ashurbanipal was still an Assyrian king and he ruled as such. He was able to march troops all the way down into Egypt, all the way as far as Thebes, and captured numerous Egyptian cities, but controlling Egypt was nearly impossible. Once they had thought they had things under control, a rebellion would occur and they would have to march all the way back to Egypt, and this would kind of happen over and over again and in the end Assyria was never really able to integrate Egypt into their empire.

Speaker 1: 49:10

In addition, assyria kept having to deal with Elam, as they were always kind of a thorn on their side In a weird kind of way. From a modern point of view, I almost view Elam Assyria as kind of the ancient version of the Austro-Hungarian view regarding the Serbs prior to World War. I you know, they were always that little snake that was biting them in the heel. So eventually the Austro-Hungarians decided to do something about it, and the same thing would be happening in ancient Assyria. Eventually they would do something about the Elamite problem that they kept on having.

Speaker 1: 49:49

In addition, he kept on having problems with his older brother, shema Shum Okin, who, remember, was named the King of Babylon by their father, and his brother was not willing to accept authority over him by his younger brother. Ashurbananpaal, being the younger brother, had way successful campaigns against the Medes and he had fought off several rebellions from the Egyptians, so he was very capable as a military leader. But deep down he also feared his older brother would attack from Babylon. His fear turned out to be justified, as his older brother did in fact raise an army to topple the leadership of Assyria. This revolt by the Babylonians was quite large, as it included the Elamites. Arabs and the Caldeans ganged up to fight the Assyrians. In addition, the Egyptians took this as an opportunity to declare independence from Assyria, but they did not choose a side, so they remained neutral. This war between the brothers lasted for approximately four years and caused massive disruptions throughout the region. It finally ended in 648 BCE when the Assyrian troops apparently surrounded the Babylonian palace where Shema Shum Okin had, let fire to the palace and burned himself up as an act of suicide, and, as you can imagine, ashurbananpaal's first reaction after his brother's suicide was to make sure he took care of all the people who took his brother's side. So there was going to be hell to pay for you choosing the wrong side. Ashurbananpaal invaded the Arabian Peninsula and killed the Arab kings. The Caldean tribes were defeated and taken back under Assyrian control. Elam was attacked and its capital, sousa, was sacked. Elam would never be a thorn in the sides of Assyria again, and by 640 BCE, ashurbananpaal was the king of the largest empire in the known world at the time. Eventually, the region has stabilized Now.

Speaker 1: 51:59

Since Assyria had conquered so many lands, trade in and itself became easier and more important to the Assyrians and, like I said previous, the one thing that is good about the conquest is that standardized weights of measurements and thus makes it much easier and much more efficient to trade. Since Assyria was a vast empire, by this time trade would have been flowing throughout the region, of which included items such as tin, lead, textiles, certain metals and stones, as well as other commodities such as barley and other grains. But in the end, it was the trade with Anatolia that was, and continues to be, the most important trade route, because it was able to bring in the raw materials that they needed to perfect their craft of iron working. These iron weapons of the Assyrian military proved to be the decisive advantage in a lot of military campaigns. Their food staples still included cereals, such as breads and beer, but also barley, as it was still in high demand for food consumption. Barley was still traded as a local currency in some respects, even though silver was pretty much their planting it as the medium of exchange, but barley would still have been used as a medium exchange up until this point. Their livestock was used for milk, oxen was used to plow the fields and the government continued to build and improve irrigation systems to alleviate the farmers lack of reliable water sources. In fact, they had built a 30 mile long canal that was able to bring water into Nineveh, since Assyria was at a point where it was really stable and it was extremely large. They were able to expand the cave route networks, which was a continuation and improvement on the same one that was implemented over a thousand years ago, but it was a new and improved version of it, and I guess I could say that with a little asterisk next to it, because by this time the Assyrians were the dominant power in the region.

Speaker 1: 54:00

So it was exclusively Assyrian residents that would have been trading in these settlements under full political, military and commercial control of the Assyrian king, without the intervention of local palaces or traders. Remember, prior, when they would do a deal or they would have some kind of trading in a particular city, they would have to kick back certain taxes and tribute to the local warlord or king or whoever was in control of the region at the time. But by now there was no local warlord or king or anybody else. It was completely controlled by the Assyrians and or an Assyrian governor who was appointed by the king in the region. So, without any local taxes being paid to the other local king, trade could have been done a lot more efficiently and cheaply. But the one thing that did remain the same was the Assyrians still had exclusive rights to the trading posts. Remember, in the past the Assyrians only had the exclusive rights to the trading posts, but they still would have been kicking up tribute or taxes to the local warlord. So ultimately, the new cave route systems were either installed in existing cities or they were renamed and turned into provinces of vassal states, or even an entire new city would have been built strictly for trade purposes. So if you are reading a paper or a book that has a city starting with the letters KAR, then this would most likely mean that it was a trading center that was created by the Assyrians. Each king that took control of Assyria would have expanded its trading routes and centers, including the centers in Egypt, once the Assyrians had established dominance in that region. The Assyrians also expanded trade routes all the way up to China.

Speaker 1: 55:46

When I think of the Roman Empire, one of the first things I think of is their impressive road system that they had built. But the Romans were not the first empire to build impressive and extensive roads. The Assyrians constructed a highway crisscross in the empire called the King's Road. It was an engineering marvel at the time that really stood the test of time, as it was used years later by Alexander the Great's army and beyond. This road included regional and local spurs that were equipped at regular intervals with relay stations and resting places, which helped facilitate the transport of people and, more importantly, goods. But it also helped expedite communication, as letters would have been sent to various vassals and business contacts throughout the network of roads. All Assyrian governors had to maintain road stations in strategic positions within their province as served as stages and often intersections of the imperial communications network.

Speaker 1: 56:48

It relied upon mounted messengers who exclusively use mules as their transport vehicle, and these mules were always paired up into two, and the reason for this was it would reduce the chance of a rider ever being left stranded if one of the animals got sick or something happened to it. So by having two mules, always when you're taking off, if one goes down, you have the other one to basically carry you forward. The offspring of a mule is from the horse, which was the mother, and a donkey, who was the father, and mules matured five years later than both parent animals did, but they did have a longer working life, which could have been up to 20 years. In addition, the mules required extensive training to make them fit for this job of transporting people and information back and forth through the empire, and they are relatively infertile. So it would have taken a lot of an initial investment in order to produce the mules that could have been used for transport.

Speaker 1: 57:59

And to give you the idea of how much it would have cost to raise and train these mules, a debt note was discovered from approximately 670 BCE, and what the note indicated was that there would be a return of a mule to the army commander who was responsible for it, and it would have guaranteed that the penalty upon payment would have been 30 minutes of silver. So, in other words, you return our mule to us or you owe us 30 minutes of silver, and to give you an idea of how expensive that was, a slave at the time would have cost less than one minute in silver. So to give you an idea how the system worked, a letter would have been passed on in a relay system to a courier with a fresh pair of mules, as I said, and then, after reaching a post station, they would have moved on without delay by taking another set of fresh mules. This would obviously allow the transport to happen much more efficiently, because you're not running mules that are tired now. This would have seemed like an obvious course of action, considering that this is like the pony express. The fact is is this was a new management technique that was perfected by the neo-assyrian, so this hadn't been done before. As such a letter could have been transported at an unprecedented amount of speed.

Speaker 1: 59:28

In antiquity, whenever a communication speed was not considered vital, a message could actually be transported via envoy, which would have meant the whole group would have traveled together at a much slower clip. This could have been obviously more important to do it this way, because in certain circumstances a decision would have to be made instantly, so a letter wouldn't be able to be sent and then sent back, and then sent back. So you send an envoy people, and a decision can be made relatively quickly, even though the letter would have been traveling obviously less lower. But in the grand scheme of things, without an efficient communication network, the Empire really would have had a difficult time functioning and it probably doesn't maintain its grip on its vassal states without this information getting quickly from one side the Empire to the next. Prior to the innovation of the telegraph, having a communication network would separate those in power, whether it's the Kings and Mesopotamia or the banks and the Italian city-states, versus those who are not in power or we're not making a profit, as in the case of the Medici when they developed their extremely efficient communication network between the Italian city-states and even London.

Speaker 1: 1:00:49

But with regards to actually trading goods, not moving letters, the men that were employed to go on long-distance trade missions would have been expected to find their own way to the destination and back, while guarding the merchandise and the money with their lives. As such, their pay scales were much higher than those in most of the Assyrian Empire. Their contracts would have been ranging from anywhere between seven to twelve months in length, and they would be paid dependent upon the level of responsibility and experience in the long-distance trade. From a modern perspective, we tend to think of trade as just simple, straightforward process. We're so accustomed to a trade taking place where a package or goods are sent from one destination to the next and we can just safely assume that the goods will reach their final destination without having to worry about their safety or the good safety, and those days travel was not safe at all. Every trader would really put themselves in danger, and that's the reason most likely that long-distance traders would have made twice the wages of, say, harvesting work. In other words, they were getting the ancient equivalent of hazard pay. Also, when looking at trade from a modern perspective, I kind of mentioned it prior briefly with regards to embargoes, the Assyrians really were able to put economic pressure on enemies or people that weren't willing to play ball by placing restrictions or embargoes to hurt their local economies, and this was particularly true when it comes to importing metals like copper and iron or cedar for shipbuilding. In addition, the Assyrians use military personnel at Kauru stations to protect trade, and by the end of the neo Assyrian Empire so many Kauru stations were set up to protect trade around the Arabian Peninsula that essentially it was plotted with trading centers.

Speaker 1: 1:03:11

And before I really get into the fall of the Assyrian Empire, I think it would be interesting to take a look at a trading company that was formed before the Assyrian collapse. An individual named Durya Sur and three partners had organized a trading company that ventured into the northern regions of the Assyrian Empire. Their company had operated from approximately 651 to 614 BCE, so in other words it was really operational right up into the mead had conquered Assyria under Syaxires. The way the business worked is it had operated with Daru Ashir staying in the city of Ashur while his business partners did the traveling to establish business relationships in the frontiers of the Empire. The business itself was established using their own funds, but they also invited outside investment into the company. It appears that much of the investment would have been from small investors contributing small sums to the business, and when I say small sums, it could have been as small as a fraction of a shekel of silver. The business was successful enough that they would have received repeat investors for new trading missions that would have been conducted typically three times per year. The trade would have included a small group of leading donkeys upstream along the Tigris with merchandise from Ashur that included locally made garments along with silver and other supplies. Once the caravan reached their destination, all the goods, including the donkeys, would have been sold off. In certain instances they would have purchased wine in northern regions that could grow grapes consistently and the wine itself would have been filled in animal skin, mostly from sheep's and goats. But since the donkeys were sold, the traders would have typically used boats to sail down the river to get back to ashur. So this business proved to be very lucrative as they were able to stay in business for decades.

Speaker 1: 1:05:29

One thing that probably didn't make clear when I was discussing the old Assyrian Empire, which was from 2000 to 1800 BCE, was it was based on the power of the private professional merchant family. But by the neo Assyrian period this had kind of shifted from the private family merchant to the state merchant, along with the private family merchant business. But the biggest difference between the neo Assyrian period and the oldest period was the fact that in the neo Assyrian period their military might was so much stronger and dominant that by now they wouldn't have to worry about paying tribute to the local warlord. They would have the backing of their king that would basically collect the taxes, so they wouldn't have to pay taxes twice. They'd have to pay taxes to the king, but not the king and the local warlord, or or a king, in whatever city they're operating out of. That wasn't in ashur, and when I say local family merchants, in reality what I'm saying is the royal merchants.

Speaker 1: 1:06:37

These royal merchants were authorized by the king and therefore had a bit of diplomatic status by time the neo Assyrian Empire is in full swing. Their main function was to collect LK and transport tribute and provide the king with goods he needed for the empire by buying its own commodities on behalf of the king. This included the trading of slaves, metals, horses and other luxury goods. But, like I said previously, they also acted as independent traders. Most of them were wealthy and powerful individuals who most likely belong to the household of a member of the king's family or were members of elite families closely affiliated with the king. So in the end, most of your successful trading families would have had some kind of ties to royalty or other elites, so in other words, they kind of would have been born into it in a weird kind of way. Also, interestingly enough, they were also involved in the lending industry as well, because they were able to grant loans to others, and in fact they were so wealthy that they could lend money to the king and finance state projects. They had become so powerful that only the king could overrule their actions and decisions related to their jurisdiction. Any person in the empire could be a royal merchant, as long as he could satisfy the king of his loyalty and trading skills, along with the knowledge of the trade itself. It had grown so much that eventually, people outside of Assyria could become traders.

Speaker 1: 1:08:23

Phoenicians, philistines, nomadic Arabs and even some people from Anatolia were involved in trading on behalf of the king. Once the Assyrians conquered the territory, one of the first thing they did was set up a local Assyrian trading post that would enable Assyria to import and export goods from their frontier back to Assyria or Nineveh. And even in cases when they did not conquer territory completely, they would set up trading posts from their vassal states, such as they did in the Phoenician city states, and a prime example being that of the city of Tyre. However, the years of constant expansion and campaigning and using valuable resources to expand the empire really began to take the toll on the Assyrians. Apparently, there was a lot of internal conflicts due to this constant military action. Eventually, this all left Assyria short on resources and manpower to keep the standing army supplied and fed. And the further you went away from the cities of Assyria and Nineveh, the more the vassal states felt their distance could mean relative safety if they decided to revolt.

Speaker 1: 1:09:40

So when Ashurbanipal died in 627 BCE, things really began to unravel pretty quickly. Ashurbanipal was succeeded by Hisan Ashur-Itil-Ilaini, and it wasn't long before a coup was staged by one of the Assyrian generals, sin Shamu Ashir, who first took control of Babylon and named himself king there, and then he invaded Assyria, which led to him taking the crown there. But he forgot to look behind him back in Babylon, because in 625 BCE, a Chaldean named Nabopoulassar became the king of Babylon following an uprising back in Babylon. He immediately declared Babylon to be an independent state. But while the king of Assyria was trying to deal with Babylon, a usurper tried to take the throne of Assyria this just gets wild which forced the king of Assyria to send his troops back to Ashur, but the crazy thing was, these troops that were sent back to put down the revolution ended up joining in. So they ended up joining the wrong side. This meant that the king had to pull out of Babylon entirely to go back to Assyria.

Speaker 1: 1:11:02

By 620 BCE, nabopoulassar had gained complete control of Babylon. Not to be outdone, the Medes to the Northwest rebelled as well and created an independent kingdom. The reason why they would have done this is because the reason why everybody rebels when there's instability at home, everybody that's a vassal state or completely controlled by the Assyrians are going to say, hey, they're having problems at home, it's time for us to be independent again. And that's exactly what happened. The Skithians, who were a nomadic and warlike people from the Western Eurasian steppe, retook control of their own lands and declared independence. Then, in 616 BCE, nabopoulassar of Babylon made an alliance with the Median king, syraxes, and along with the Skithians and the Samarians. Before Assyria knew it, assyria was essentially surrounded by all enemies. In 613 BCE, assyria had fallen. A year later, in 612 BCE, nineveh would be sacked and the Assyrian king would be killed. This would have eventually ended the Assyrian Empire.

Speaker 1: 1:12:15

Looking back at the Assyrian Empire. It's quite interesting and I feel like it's a lot different than what people have in mind when we think of the Assyrians. Maybe it's a case of burying the lead to a certain extent. I don't want to say that totally, because the Assyrians were very brutal and they could be very cruel to the enemies when they captured them. But people probably aren't aware that they were great business people, great traders, that they allowed the Mesopotamian region to move forward and expand in science and mathematics and really save literature when the great library was built in Nineveh.

Speaker 1: 1:13:00

Now, I'm sure if I was in a city that was being sacked by the Assyrians, that my view of the Assyrians would be completely different. But I'm trying to take a look at it from a purely independent standpoint and in reality, the Assyrians offered a lot to the world. A lot of it, I just think, is just kind of unknown as such. I try to avoid getting into the really disgusting details of their conquest when they sacked the city, because it could be really hard to read, but in the grand scheme of things, this podcast is not about that. What I want to bring to you, the listener, is a perspective of how money and trade and even banking. But I didn't get into banking much in this episode, how it evolved, and I think the Assyrians were ultimately major players in moving forward the idea of trade and money Not so much banking but trade would have been one of their biggest contributions that people just are not familiar with.

Speaker 1: 1:14:07

Anyway, I want to thank you for taking your time to listen. I hope you found this to be very enjoyable and I hope you learned something new. Talk to you later. If you like what you hear and want to donate to the show, you can visit us at patreoncom slash history of money banking trade or you can visit our website at moneybankingtradecom. Also, you can help out the show a ton by leaving a five star review. Thank you very much. Talk to you soon.