Pax Assyria Here Or how to maintain an empire in a sensitive, tactful
War has never been like dish. Normally, brings out the worst of human beings. But if there was a town that has made the war his modus vivendi, it was the Assyrian. Not only have the most powerful army of the moment, the most advanced, but they perfected the "art" to submit your opponent. And take away the desire to revolt.
Terror, that is the word. They learned to use all sorts of atrocities to be feared enough to avoid any hint that way of rebellion or resistance.
¿Sería muy aventurado decir que “inventaron” la guerra psicológica? Si bien es cierto que en aquellos tiempos (hablamos de un imperio que, intermitentemente y con altibajos, pervivió desde el S. XVII a.C. al VII a.C.) la guerra era brutal, Asiria la llevó a un nuevo nivel. Implacables en el combate, y después.
Asiria llegó a ser uno de los mayores imperios de la Antigüedad, abarcando en su época de máxima extensión desde Egipto a Irak. Es cierto que el Imperio Paleoasirio no fue nada del otro mundo, pero tanto el Medio como el Nuevo Imperio dejaron una profunda huella en la región. Fue claramente de menos a más.
were fully aware, or so it seems, of one thing: the core of Assyria was a trifle, and was not very well placed (and is that even haunted the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, is not same lower Mesopotamia that the upper course of both rivers, where it was Assur, a less fertile and more mountainous), there was a region particularly rich and densely populated. Or what is the same, he had to find what they needed out. And that went through war. A lot. And being so few, the war was not worth the old-fashioned.
If it was intended to dominate a vast territory and to exploit it profitably, it should be tame, tame ... O tame force. The main tool for achieving this was the very fame that carried the Assyrian army. And by that I mean exemplary punishment, indiscriminate killings, mutilation mass deportations ... Among the people of that time, the knowledge that could bring some opposition was so great consequence indeed to re-think even the resist. Because let's face it, an army with iron weapons and chariots, something that almost no one had, it was simply devastating. And if the loss is compounded by the punishment, then what to say, I do not compensate.
But of course, that reputation was fully deserved. That is, not out of nowhere, a rumor. Is the pulse beat, and cared to remember, from time to time, who had not lost the tone. However, the worst atrocities were done with the people rebel, no both to those people under the first time.
At this level, did not lack imagination. If they could, gender gore would have invented them. And if we start that the best thing that could happen was the rebel died in the rebellion itself (if he did not succeed, of course), one may be imagining the string of atrocities that were made "to lead by example. Thus, in the best case, the prisoner was beheaded, skinned, maimed and burned alive, but not always in that order. Other punishments passed by impalement, eye removal, amputation ... And on those occasions it was required, the function ended the ruin of the locality or region, reducing to ashes the towns and laying waste to crops. A gruesome spectacle whose sole purpose was to terrorize.
For example, it was the fate of Yahu-Bidi, placed as governor of Hamath (today, Hama) by the Assyrians and, eventually, self-proclaimed king of that city. Sargon II said that this was not and:
- Yahu-Bidi was alive despllejado
- Hamath to ashes
- The "hamaditas" deported to Samaria.
And he was so wide
By Briangotts at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons At other times, as in campaigns of conquest and plunder that were more opposition than expected, tended to smooth the way from then on massacring the population and leaving a group of survivors, mutilated or marked properly, should give a good account of what happened between neighboring towns. And, as mentioned, is not that Assyria was an inexhaustible source of human resources, or that otherwise could not afford to lose many men in battle, as though a great army (it is said that around one hundred thousand men when the mobilization was general) have little chance of replacement.
However, as used by the Assyrian empire to keep the peace on its borders was another kind of terror: the deportation. Threatening to start an entire population from their roots and not only move, but scattered throughout the empire was to be bleak.
With the mass deportations was achieved, however, another task: to destroy nationalism. Diluted to a restless population between the multiculturalism of empire, a melting pot, canceling its individualism, making possible the acceptance of the Assyrian Empire and group identity.
But not only live the Assyrian atrocities. Massacring people is that is simple, it was a task requiring time and infrastructure, and not always reported something useful for them. I guess the man has a limit of "terrorizing." What a waste of life, would think. And is that a captive could be much more useful if it was destined to slavery or be forcibly enlisted into the army. So instead of wasting a life, labor managed to a very small price and / or cannon fodder (or should we say, better, flesh spear?). It is clear that, as history has shown us, the armies never forced cam were effective regardless of the number, do you, Dario? People are not willing to fight if forced to, if you have no motivation other than "or die in combat or you kill us." But hey, Assyrians they used to make mass, a mass of men with which the enemy is wearing a little (it seems not, and Hollywood has not only taken into account, but killing tires, and much; you try to pick up a sword or a spear and a shield at the time, of pure iron, and take a couple of cuts or speared into the air, you'll see how laughter and that, without armor, of course).
the end, as always, the Assyrian Empire had its decline. A warlike people so often do not make many friends, and continuing pressure on its borders ended turning against him. If we add yet another resurrection of Babylon and the expansion of the Medes in the east, his fate was sealed. And the same mercy they showed to his enemies was taken into account with them. Now Nineveh was razed to ashes.
Over the centuries, many other peoples, had contact with him or not, applied similar techniques of psychological domination. For example, the Greeks and mentioned some of these actions, and made similar attitudes spokespeople to the Persian kings and their satraps carried out. Later in the time we touch shown by Roman civilizations, who are not shaking pulse crucified when whole populations if that served to calm down a bit. And even applied similar penalties in their own ranks (article which I have yet to write for about a year, but one thing leads to another and we all know). Even cultures that have had no contact with Assyrians are also renowned for his cruelty comes into my head the Aztec people and their flowery wars, battles that had the sole purpose of capturing prisoners to sacrifice to their gods, but that step would send a clear message to his subjects and their neighbors.
And in today's conflicts, what to say ... Wherever you go Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions by the triumphal arch similar cases continue to occur. Well, it seems that in almost four millennia have not evolved much.
