HI 207 first exam Flashcards
The Neo Assyrian Empire
750-609 BC AD, military innovations (the use of calvary, the perfecting of siege engines) made the army powerful enough to make raids into distant regions.
The Assyrian Kings
conquered the Armaic and Neo Hittite states but left their kings on the thrones.
Tiglath-Pileser III
(745-722) who started to turn vassal states into provinces by replacing vassal kings with assyrian governors. Tiglath was known for mass deporting the cities they conquered and with that they would lose a lot of Assyrian culture.
Babylonia and the Assyrians
The Assyrians always had great respect for the Babylonians but when a Chaldean king usurped the throne, Tiglath-Pileser intervened and annexed Babylonia (729BC) after conducting tradtional Babylonian rituals he claimed the throne.
Ashurbanipal
(669-631) the last great king of Assyria ordered his officials to search for ancient Babylonian texts and bring them to the capital, Nineveh where they copied and stored in archives. The best known version of the Epic of Gilgamesh was found.
Saite renaissance
contacts between Egypt and Greece intensified.
The final blow for the Assyrian Empire
the combination of factors: 3 pretenders fighting one another for accession to the throne within Assyria, the outbreak of a revolt in Southern Babylonia (whose governor Nabopolassar claimed control of Babylon), and the emergene of a serious foreign threat; the Medes in the east.
614-609BC
Nabopolassar joined forces with the Meds and together overthrew Assyria. They captured and almost completely destroyed all of Assyria’s capitals.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire
(605-539) or Chaldean Empire, Nabopolassar, the founder of the new dynasty. But it was actually founded by Nebuchadnezzar; he was a great builder, he was largely responsible for the erection of the palace, the town walls, and the temple tower of Babylon.
Nebuchadnezzar
He was the one who turned Babylon into the Metropolis, over the years he conquered Syria and Palestine. He reduced the kingdom of Judah to a province. He then deported its population to Babylonia ‘the Babylonian exile 586BC’
The last Babylonian King
Nabonidus had a new enemy appear in the east ‘The persian Cyrus’ threatened Babylonia, making that town prey to the new power in that now was established in the east: Persia.
Archaemenid Empire
(550-330BC), The Persian empire evolved from the medes, around 550BC the persian Cyrus, a vassal ruler of the Median King captured the Median capital, Ecbatana, and assumed control over Media.
Cyrus the Great
The first of his conquests was Asia Minor in 547 BC. Next, he defeated Babylonia, the army of Nabonidus, at the Opris on the Tigris in 539 BC, he did not destroy Babylon and allowed worship of Marduk. Cyrus was also well loved by the Judeans. He allowed Judeans to return to Judah and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem.
Cyrus’ Final campaign
Took him to the river Jaxartes where he was killed in battle.
Cambyses
(530-522BC) his son was Cyrus’ successor, which he incorporated Egypt into his empire (525BC) and put an end to the sway of the Saite Dynasty. He died on the way back to Egypt 522BC.
Darius I
(522-486BC), came to power after a coup d’etat. He there claimed to have killed a magician who had usurped the throne that pretended to be Bardiya, Cambyses’ brother. Darius reorganized his empire, creating smaller satrapies.
Persis
Remaining the main center of their authority; it is there that Darius I and Xerses built their capital, Persepolis, alongside the capital, Susa.
Alexander the Great
For 2 centuries, the Persians ruled over the whole of ancient Near East. Around 330BC, a new power from the West made a forceful entry onto the political stage of Western Asia and Egypt: Macedonia, under the new leadership of Alexander the Great.
Kingship
Like other expressions of human civilisations had come to earth from heaven. The main functions had come to earth from heaven. The main functions of the king were those of military commander, supreme judicial authority, and high priest. When a state was made a vassal state, its king was allowed to remain in power, provided that he promised to give allegiance to the king who had defeated him, renounce foreign politics, and pay tribute.
Empire
is a state including vast foreign territories over which it has acquired supremacy-involved special problems.
A tributary empire
Is an empire that consists of subordinate states that pay tribute to the empire’s ruler. The tribute can be in the form of goods, services, or honor.
