Abstract:

In the ancient world the states were in a continuous interaction. Though the states sometimes went into commercial and cultural relationships with the others, they mostly tried to set up dominance over them. Most effective instrument of this dominance was the army. Assyrians, who had built up a strong army even when they were living in a small site, became a big empire by extending their territorial sovereignty thanks to the army. This took a long time for the Assyrians to come to that level during which their armies developed into the biggest and strongest of their time in military supplies, military order, military strategy, communications and military equipments. The first regular corps and organization emerged at the beginning of the Middle Assyrian Period. The permanent army came up with Tiglath-pileser III. The state of Assyria grew to be an empire as such under the Sargonids and reigned over a large land. In this period, The Assyrian army included not only the local people but also the peoples under the Assyrian rule. The Assyrians developed a system, dividing the army into the units of ten soldiers. Especially from the reliefs and inscriptions, we also learn that they established the units of arrows, swords, daggers, spears and catapults. With the techniques and tools of efficient siege, they achieved successful results in the siege of cities and castles. This study is intended to examine the Assyrian Army from all its aspects.

Keywords: