Documentary and articles on Neo-Assyrian army

[Kitsunegari]

Pretty cool 3 part documentary, not the most in depth, and he mixes up the campaigns against Elam of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal but nice visuals and music:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Assyrian soldier in combat with Kushite tribesman during campaign in Egypt, 7th century BC

The Neo-Assyrian Empire was arguably the world's first superpower, straddling the Middle East at its height in the 7th century. In addition to a strong, well organized central government, the Assyrians were highly innovative in their approach to warfare. Beginning with Tiglath-Pilaser III, the Assyrians began to build a military whose capabilities would arguably not be matched until Roman times. The army used forward bases, an efficient command structure, and an impressive logistics system to launch campaigns against rebellious vassals and external threats many thousands of miles apart, and often at the same time. Manpower was replenished by resettling conquered populations. The Assyrians were also broke new ground in developing a combined arms approach: while in the past cavalry had been rather neglected in the Middle East civilizations except for the chariot age, but the Assyrians made a strong cavalry arm a priority, launching campaigns against their Indo-Iranian neighbors to the north and the east to capture horses. Assyrian cavalry included lancers who wore helmets and lamellar cuirasses as well as horse archers. Infantry types were numerous and included large contingents of missile troops, archers and slingers. As the documentary indicates, the Assyrians developed a strong tradition of siegecraft, although it was still costly, which meant that only the most strategically important cities would be assaulted. Assyrian siege works are still visible today at Lachish, Israel.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

About Assyrian logistics:http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/...z/gabr000a.htm

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Changes in the composition of military forces also added to the logistics burden. The development of the chariot, for example, required Egyptian forces to maintain repair depots and special mobile repair battalions to ensure that the machines remained functional on the march. The Assyrian invention of large cavalry squadrons brought into existence a special branch of the logistics train to ensure that the army could secure, breed, train, and deploy large numbers of horses to support these new forces. This special logistics branch, the musarkisus, was able to obtain and process 3,000 horses a month for the Assyrian army. It was not until the time of Napoleon that Western armies could once again equal this logistical feat. The integration of chariots with cavalry also forced the Assyrian army to become the first to learn how to sustain two types of transport. Advances in siegecraft required that armies transport siege towers and engines within their baggage trains, and artillery, introduced under the Greeks and brought to perfection under the Romans, added yet another requirement to transport catapults and shot. The need to manufacture, issue, and repair new iron weapons in unprecedented numbers required yet more innovations in logistics. In the Assyrian army the production and storage of weapons became a central feature of the army's logistical structure. A single weapons room in Sargon II's palace at Dur-Sharrukin contained 200 tons of iron weapons, and similar weapons warehouses were scattered throughout the empire. Of all the achievements of the ancient armies, those in the area of logistics often remain the most unappreciated by modern military planners.

http://www.gilgameshgames.org/assyrianmilitary.html Assyrian innovations in military equipment and mobiity (he specifically mentions standardized equipments and boots).

The "strategic mobility" of the Assyrian army, or their ability to project their military force over a given area, was 375,000 square miles. After Rome fell, no army exceeded this area until the American Civil War, when the use of railroads made troop movements easier.

The Assyrians were also noted for their use of psychological warfare, with calculated acts of extreme cruelty to keep subjugated populations down, inscription of Ashurnasirpal:

“I built a wall before the great gates of the city; I flayed the chiefs of the revolt and with their skins I covered this wall. Some were immured alive in the masonry, others were crucified or impaled along the wall. I had some of them flayed in my presence and had the wall hung with their skins. I arranged their heads like crowns and their transfixed bodies in the form of garlands.”

Captives being impaled:

Captives being blinded, those already blinded are hooked through their noses and led away!

[Dr. Oza]

Indubitably sexy.

[Roboute Guilliman]

^ awesome pics

[The Despondent Mind]

Me likes Assyrians .

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Me likes Assyrians .

Yeah, not like those free loading Babylonians.

[TukultiNinurta]

Great pics. Thanks.

Some more Assyrians:

[Kitsunegari]

TukultiNinurta

Great name! All hail Ashur, father of the gods!

[Kitsunegari]

Nebuchadnezzar is really overlooked as one of the great commanders and rulers of the classical world, just that his successors were so inept :/

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Nebuchadnezzar is really overlooked as one of the great commanders and rulers of the classical world, just that his successors were so inept :/

Babylon was not really known as a great military power other than Hammurabi, also the
Neo-Babylonians were sharing power with the Medes, Egyptians and Lydians, and they were also relying on Median units to back them up.

Nebuchadnezzar was probably living on his father's legacy and never conquered Egypt, his greatest achievement in the military was at Carchemish and probably nothing else. Cyaxeres probably had a greater reputation because aside from fighting Assyria he also fought Scythians and Lydians unlike Nebuchadnezzar.

[Kitsunegari]

I believe he led most of the Babylonian campaigns against Assyria (and then Egypt) while he was crown prince, Carchemish was his great victory. But you are certainly right that Cyaxares was probably the most capable commander of that time due to his victories against the Scythians and Assyrians, and without Median assistance the Babylonians probably wouldn't have pushed the Assyrians back to Harran where Nebuchadnezzar finished the job and checked the Egyptians. Herodotus also credits Cyaxares with great innovations in military organization and cavalry tactics.

[Dr. Oza]

They had clone armies before it was cool.

[Kitsunegari]

Always nice to enjoy a meal with the queen in the shade while being attended to by servants.... with the severed heads of your enemies displayed in the background!

[Emperor Of Seleucid]

I think Persia and the Diadochi surpassed Assyria in army size

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

I think Persia and the Diadochi surpassed Assyria in army size

The maximum Assyrian army size was about 200,000 while the maximum Persian army size was like 300,000; the Diadochi only had up to 120,000 men total with the Seleucids under Seleucus Nicator, in 280 BC ;and 80,000 in Egypt under Ptolemy IV, 217 BC.

[Emperor Of Seleucid]

The maximum Assyrian army size was about 200,000 while the maximum Persian army size was like 300,000; the Diadochi only had up to 120,000 men total with the Seleucids under Seleucus Nicator, in 280 BC ;and 80,000 in Egypt under Ptolemy IV, 217 BC.

diadochi had much more during the diodochi wars.

Antigonus had 120,000
Seleucus had 40,000
Lysimachus had 40,000
Cassander had 40,000
Ptolemy had 40,000

total:280,000 and maybe even more later
Persians could probably have the capabilities to make an army of 500,000 easily during Daruis's reign with its population of 44 million.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

diadochi had much more during the diodochi wars.

Antigonus had 120,000
Seleucus had 40,000
Lysimachus had 40,000
Cassander had 40,000
Ptolemy had 40,000

total:280,000 and maybe even more later
Persians could probably have the capabilities to make an army of 500,000 easily during Daruis's reign with its population of 44 million.

I just mean that the Diadochi did not surpass more than 120,000 in one kingdom. Antigonus and Selucus both had 120,000 each by the end of their reigns, while Ptolemy IV made an army of 80,000.

[Emperor Of Seleucid]

I just mean that the Diadochi did not surpass more than 120,000 in one kingdom. Antigonus and Selucus both had 120,000 each by the end of their reigns, while Ptolemy IV made an army of 80,000.

I meant the diadochi as a whole. Same Kingdom, just a civil war

[Thorn777]

nice beards