Fall of Assyria

Ronak Patel

Near Eastern Studies R1B

Response Paper; Age of Empires (Ch. 2-3)

Francis Joannes’ book Age of Empires begins by describing the political history of Assyria and then continues by describing how leaders controlled the vast territory they acquired. A common trend is the seemingly nonstop warfare that was dominated this era in the Near East. There has been a clear shift in power from economic and ideological power to military power. Joannes claims that “The fact that Assyrian expansion ran out of steam was also the sign of an internal crisis that was brewing, for the fruits of conquest had been badly shared out in Assyria itself, to the almost exclusive profit of the king (34). I believe the fall of the Assyrian empire was not caused by the Assyrian kings’ dominant claim over the fruits of expansion, but because of the system set up.

Joannes also mentions that provincial governors had the right to distribute the levies they collected between the central government, their local defense, and their own use (69). Giving governors the power to decide how much money they would distribute to each of these interests is a direct conflict of interest to central powers. More than likely the governors kept more money for their own personal use, and for their own local armies, curbing the potential dominant state of central power. Also, Joannes mentions that “members of the royal family and high court dignitaries formed their own households around them, managing their own possessions on the one hand, but also having a finger in supplying the state” (69). This seems like an oligopoly amongst the royals that could hinder the advancement of central power. If these individual royal had sufficient power, they could hinder any possible structural changes to the economic or political system that may have been better for the state in general, but detrimental to the royals themselves.

Combine both of these instances with the continuous warfare that plagued the Assyrian empire, and there is bound to be trouble.