>ñIn the 9th and 8th centuries BC, the Assyrians ruled an empire stretching from the eastern Mediterranean to Iran.ñ
After 1200 BC, Mesopotamia was occupied by nomads seeking new lands to settle. On the banks of the Tigris River, the minor kingdom of Assyria formed a powerful army to resist this intrusion. Having consolidated their own position, the Assyrians launched a campaign to conquer new lands. From 900 BC onward, the Babylonians and the kingdoms of the Phoenicians and the Aramaeans all submitted to Assyrian power following bloody battles, deportations, massacres, and pillage. The Assyrian Empire soon extended across the whole Middle East. The greatest Assyrian warriors - Assurnazirpal II (ruled 883-859 BC) and his son Salmanasar III (858-824 BC), Tiglath-Pileser III (750-720 BC), Sargon II (d.705 BC), and Assurbanipal (668-627 BC) - proclaimed themselves uncontested masters of a world empire.
Each Assyrian king sought to build vast palaces and new cities that would out-do his predecessors. As the royal residence, home of the gods, and centre of government, the king's palace had to symbolize his power to his subjects. The king's deeds were magnified in large painted bas-reliefs in the reception halls and courts. Victory scenes illustrated the strength of the king's armies, and processions of vanquished peoples who came to pay homage to their new sovereign showed the almighty power of the conquering king.
~Divine protection~
The Assyrian kings believed that it was to the gods that they owed their glory. Divine support was therefore placed above all else. To guarantee the gods' protection, palaces and temples were built using the noblest materials. The rulers also set statues of mythical creatures at the entrances to the palace to counter any magic by their presence. Eventually, however, even the gods of the Assyrian pantheon were unable to save an empire exhausted after all its conquests. The Medes and Babylonians destroyed the Assyrian Empire in 612 BC. Not even Assur, the great national god whose winged disk floated above the royal throne, could save the empire. x
