A Companion to Assyria

by Eckart Frahm

  In one of his inscriptions, Sennacherib (704–681 BCE) focuses on the events of his sixth campaign (694 BCE). He reports how he ordered a fleet to be built from scratch and how the ships and their crews were shipped down the Tigris River as far as the city of Opis, where the whole fleet was transported across the land to the Euphrates River in order to reach the Persian Gulf, where the king campaigned against Elam. The crews of these ships are of interest (T 29 [Bull 4]; Luckenbill 1924: 73 = RINAP 3/2: 82–3; Salonen 1939: 181 (col I, lines 11–16); Frahm 1997: 117; cf. Rollinger 2001: 242f., 2003: 339f., 2008a, 2008b):

  “Hittites,” plunder of my bows, I settled in Nineveh, and they built dexterously mighty ships according to the workmanship of their land. I gave orders to sailors – Tyrians, Sidonians, and Ya[m]nāya, captives of my hand, and (my troops) let them sail down with them the Tigris River to the city of Opis.

  The text not only relates the establishment of a fleet in the dockyards of Nineveh but also offers information about the working gangs and the recruitment of the sailors. The workers are generally classified as “Hittites,” i.e. Syrians west of the river Euphrates. The mariners, in contrast, are mentioned with specific references to their places of origin. They are labeled as Tyrians, Sidonians, and Yamnāya. At first glance, it seems very clear how these men were hired, since Sennacherib qualifies them as prisoners of war. Yet one may doubt whether that was really the case. The workers, as well as a considerable part of the crews of these ships, should be regarded as true specialists, and one wonders whether the Assyrian king had really been able to deport them as captives. It seems more likely that a considerable part of these people had been recruited on the “free market.” Comparable measures have been undertaken throughout time; they are, for example, well attested for Alexander the Great (Rollinger 2008c). Yet, it seems that such a procedure did not fit into the requirements of Assyrian royal ideology, in which the king had to demonstrate his ability to supervise and control the resources of the world. Sidon and Tyre were indeed under Assyrian control, but where did Sennacherib’s Yamnāya come from? We can only speculate about their origin, though the aforementioned trade centers as well as Yawan‐city come to mind. In any case, Assyria was an important market for such specialists, and this is certainly not only true for mariners and ship‐builders.

  The evidence so far adduced touches upon the question of the Yamnāyas’ activities as mercenary soldiers in the Assyrian army. Concerning the Neo‐Babylonian period, we have the famous example of Antimenidas, the brother of Alcaeus. But what about earlier times? Quite recently, it has been demonstrated convincingly that we indeed have to reckon with Aegean mercenaries in the Assyrian army (Luraghi 2006). The Aegean world as an area at the fringes of an empire fits, from a comparative perspective, very well into what we know about recruitment areas for mercenaries throughout world history. Going abroad was a response to structural poverty, not an elite phenomenon. Though there is no direct evidence for Aegean mercenaries in Assyrian texts, as we have already seen, there are some important archaeological findings pointing in this direction. A horse frontlet from the sanctuary of Samos with an Aramaic inscription referring to king Hazael of Damascus (second half of the ninth century BCE) and two blinkers from the sanctuary of Apollo at Eretria in Euboea with the same inscription can, with a high degree of probability, be interpreted as dedications made by mercenaries who may have come into possession of these items after the sack of Damascus in 732 BCE. Other blinkers and frontlets from Samos and Miletus, as well as Assyrian horse‐trappings, may point in the same direction (Luraghi 2006: 38–41). The most relevant piece in this respect is a Phoenician silver bowl from a chamber tomb near the Cypriot city of Amathus (Markoe 1985: 172–4, 248f. plates). The piece dates from around 700 BCE and shows, among other things, an army attacking the walls of a Near Eastern city from two sides. While the soldiers on the left are modeled according to Assyrian style, those on the right are four Greek hoplites in close formation. This is not only the earliest depiction of a hoplite phalanx, but also displays Aegean soldiers as part of an Assyrian army (Luraghi 2006, 26f.). All of this refers to a “proto‐history” of Greek mercenary soldiers in the Eastern Mediterranean that may already have started in the ninth century BCE. In the middle of the seventh century BCE, this institution seems to have developed substantially due to King Psammetich’s concerted efforts to recruit Greek and Carian mercenaries. In Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon, more than 2000 Carians are attested, and the Persians seem to have adopted similar recruitment strategies after the conquest of Egypt in 525 BCE, at the latest (Rollinger 2008c).

  There is some disagreement concerning the extent to which Greek weaponry was influenced by Assyrian archetypes (Luraghi 2006: 28: positive; Raaflaub 2010: negative). In any case, it is clear that Aegean mercenaries, besides traders, pirates, and (probably) wandering priests (Huber 2005), played a major role in intercultural contacts between the east and the west. Though there is still heavy debate regarding how dependent socio‐political institutions like the Greek polis are on Near Eastern predecessors (Raaflaub 2004, 2011), important elements of treaty‐making and accompanying rituals have clearly been adapted from the Assyrian model (Rollinger 2004). This is not only true for petty kings in the Levant and in Anatolia (cf. RINAP 4: 2, I 43–6; 3, II 1’–3’; 35, rev. 5’; see also Lanfranchi 2005, 2011), but also for the inhabitants of the Aegean. The entire Orientalizing Revolution was triggered by these contacts, and the impact of ancient Near Eastern literary models on Homer and Hesiod was substantial (Rollinger 1996, 2012; West 1997; Burkert 2004; Patzek 2011). All of this would not have been possible without the manifold intercultural contacts and the stimulating and powerful influence the Assyrian empire had on its westernmost neighbors (Rollinger 2011b; on the routes of contact see most recently Wiesehöfer 2011).

  Abbreviations

  CAD

  = Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, Chicago Oriental Institute 1956–2010.

  ND

  = Sigla of the texts from Nimrud.

  RINAP 3/2

  = Grayson and Novotny 2014.

  RINAP 4

  = Leichty 2011.

  SAA 2

  = Parpola and Watanabe 1988.

  SAA 7

  = Fales and Postgate 1992.

  SAA 11

  = Fales and Postgate 1995.

  SAA 16

  = Luukko and Van Buylaere 2002.

  SAA 19

  = Luukko 2012.

  References

  Bagg, A.M. 2007. Die Orts‐ und Gewässernamen der neuassyrischen Zeit. Teil 1: Die Levante, RGTC 7/1, Wiesbaden: Reichert.

  Borger, R. 1956. Die Inschriften Asarhaddons Königs von Assyrien, AfO Beiheft 9, Graz: Selbstverlag des Herausgebers.

  Burkert, W. 2004. Babylon – Memphis – Persepolis: Eastern Contacts of Greek Culture, Cambridge, MA.: Harvard.

  Dietrich, M. 2000. “Zypern und die Ägäis nach den Texten aus Ugarit,” in: S. Rogge (ed.), Zypern – Insel im Brennpunkt der Kulturen, Schriften des Instituts für Interdisziplinäre Studien, Münster: Waxmann, 63–89.

  Dietrich, M. 2007. “Ugarit und seine Beziehungen zu Zypern und zur ägäischen Inselwelt,” in: T.R. Kämmerer (ed.), Studien zu Ritual und Sozialgeschichte im Alten Orient. Tartuer Symposien 1998–2004, Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft Band 374, Berlin/New York: De Gruyter, 55–91.

  Fales, F.M. 1992. Lettere dalla corte assira, Venice: Marsilio Editori.

  Fales, F.M. and Postgate, J.N. 1992. Imperial Administrative Records, Part I: Palace and Temple Administration, State Archives of Assyria 7, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.

  Fales, F.M. and Postgate, J.N. 1995. Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration, State Archives of Assyria 11, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.

  Frahm, E. 1997. Einleitung in die Sanherib‐Inschriften, AfO Beiheft 26, Vienna: Institut für Orientalistik.

  Fuchs, A. 1994. Die Inschriften Sargons II. aus Khorsabad, G�
�ttingen: Cuvillier.

  Fuchs, A. 2010. “Gyges, Assurbanipal und Dugdammē/Lygdamis: Absurde Kontakte zwischen Anatolien und Ninive,” in: Rollinger, Gufler, Lang, and Madreiter 2010, 409–27.

  González de Canales, F., Serrano, L., and Llompart, J. 2006. “The Pre‐colonial Phoenician Emporium of Huelva ca 900–770 BC,” BaBesch 81, 13–29.

  Grayson, A.K. and Novotny, J. 2014. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC), Part 2, Royal Inscriptions of the Neo‐Assyrian Period 3/2, Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

  Haider, P.W. 1996. “Griechen im Vorderen Orient und in Ägypten bis ca. 590 v. Chr.,” in: Ulf 1996a, 59–115.

  Haider, P.W. 2008. “Existierte ein “Groß‐Ionien” um 1360 v. Chr.? Zu neuen Fremdvölkerlisten im „Millionenjahrhaus” Amenophis’ III. in Theben‐West,” in: Mauritsch, Petermandl, Rollinger, and Ulf 2008, 667–81.

  Hall, J. 1997. Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Hall, J. 2002. Hellenicity between Ethnicity and Culture, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

  Huber, I. 2005. Rituale der Seuchen‐ und Schadensabwehr im Vorderen Orient in Griechenland. Formen kollektiver Krisenbewältigung in der Antike, Oriens et Occidens 10, Stuttgart: Steiner.

  Kuhrt, A. 2002. “‘Greeks’ and ‘Greece’ in Mesopotamian and Persian Perspectives: A Lecture Delivered at New College, Oxford, on 7th May, 2001,” J. L. Myres Memorial Lectures 21, Oxford: Leopard’s Head.

  Lanfranchi, G.B. 1999. “The Ideological and Political Impact of the Neo‐Assyrian Imperial Expansion on the Greek World in the 8th and 7th Centuries BC,” in: R. Whiting (ed.), The Heirs of Assyria: Proceedings of the Opening Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project Held in Tvärminne, Finland October 7–11, 1998, Melammu Symposia I, Helsinki: The Neo‐Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 7–34.

  Lanfranchi, G.B. 2005. “The Luwian‐Phoenician Bilingual of Çineköy and the Annexation of Cilicia to the Assyrian Empire,” in: R. Rollinger (ed.), Von Sumer bis Homer. Festschrift für Manfred Schretter zum 60. Geburtstag am 25. Februar 2004, AOAT 325, Münster: Ugarit‐Verlag, 481–96.

  Lanfranchi, G.B. 2011. “The Expansion of the Neo‐Assyrian Empire and its Peripheries: Miltary, Political and Ideological Resistance,” in: Ulf and Rollinger 2011, 225–39.

  Lang, M. and Rollinger, R. 2010. “Im Herzen der Meere und in der Mitte des Meeres. Das Buch Ezechiel und die in assyrischer Zeit fassbaren Vorstellungen von den Grenzen der Welt,” in: Rollinger, Gufler, Lang, and Madreiter 2010, 207–64.

  Leichty, E. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC), Royal Inscriptions of the Neo‐Assyrian Period 4, Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns.

  Lipiński, E. 1991. “The Cypriot vassals of Esarhaddon,” in: M. Cogan and I. Eph‘al (eds.), Ah, Assyria…. Studies in Assyrian History and Ancient Near Eastern Historiography Presented to Hayim Tadmor, Scripta Hierosolymitana 33, Jerusalem: Magnes, 58–64.

  Luckenbill, D.D. 1924. The Annals of Senacherib, Oriental Institute Publications 2, Chicago: Oriental Institute.

  Luraghi, N. 2006. “Traders, Pirates, Warriors: The Proto‐History of Greek Mercenary Soldiers in the Eastern Mediterranean,” Phoenix 60, 1/2, 21–47.

  Luukko, M. 2012. The Correspondence of Tiglath‐pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud, State Archives of Assyria 16, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.

  Luukko, M. and van Buylaere, G. 2002. The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon, State Archives of Assyria 16, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.

  Malkin, I. (ed.) 2001. Ancient Perceptions of Greek Identity, Cambridge, MA: Harvard.

  Markoe, G. 1985. Phoenician Bronze and Silver Bowls from Cyprus and the Mediterranean, Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Matthäus, H., Oettinger, N., and Schröder, S. (eds.) 2011. Der Orient und die Anfänge Europas. Kulturelle Beziehungen von der Späten Bronzezeit bis zur Frühen Eisenzeit, Philippika: Marburger altertumskundliche Abhandlungen 42, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

  Mauritsch, P., Petermandl, W., Rollinger, R., and Ulf, Ch. (eds.) 2008. Antike Lebenswelten. Festschrift für Ingomar Weiler zum 70. Geburtstag, Philippika: Marburger altertumskundliche Abhandlungen 25, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

  McInerney, J. 2001. “Ethnos and Ethnicity in Early Greece,” in: Malkin 2001, 51–74.

  Morgan, C. 1991. “Ethnicity and Early Greek States: Historical and Material Perspectives,” Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 37, 131–63.

  Morgan, C. 2001. “Ethne, Ethnicity, and Early Greek States,” in: Malkin 2001, 75–112.

  Na’aman, N. 2004. “Re’si‐ṣuri and Yauna in a Neo‐Assyrian Letter (ND 2737),” N.A.B.U. 2004, no. 68, 69–70.

  Nijboer, A.J. and van der Plicht, J. 2006. “An Interpretation of the Radiocarbon Determinations of the Oldest Indigenous‐Phoenician Stratum thus far, Excavated at Huelva, Tartessos (South‐west Spain),” BaBesch 81, 31–6.

  Parker, B.J. 2000. “The Earliest Known Reference to the Ionians in the Cuneiform Sources,” Ancient History Bulletin 14, 69–77.

  Parpola, S. and Watanabe, K. 1988. Neo‐Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths, State Archives of Assyria 2, Helsinki: Helsinki University Press.

  Patzek, B. 2011. “Altorientalische “Textvorlagen” für die Ilias?,” in: Ulf and Rollinger 2011, 391–407.

  Raaflaub, K.A. 2004. “Zwischen Ost und West: Phönizische Einflüsse auf die griechische Polisbildung?,” in: Rollinger and Ulf 2004, 271–89.

  Raaflaub, K.A. 2010. “Proto‐Phalanx und Polis: der frühgriechische Massenkampf im interkulturellen Zusammenhang des östlichen Mittelmeerraumes,” in: T. Brüggemann, B. Meissner, C. Mileta, A. Pabst, and O. Schmitt (eds.), Studia Hellenistica et Historiographica. Festschrift für Andreas Mehl, Gutenberg: Computus Druck Satz & Verlag, 357–72.

  Raaflaub, K.A. 2011. “Das frühe politische Denken der Griechen im interkulturellen Zusammenhang des Mittelmeerraumes,” in: Matthäus, Oettinger, and Schröder 2011, 240–66.

  Radner, K. 2004. “Assyrische Handelspolitik: Die Symbiose mit unabhängigen Handelszentren und ihre Kontrolle durch Assyrien,” in: R. Rollinger and Ch. Ulf (eds.), Commerce and Monetary Systems in the Ancient World: Means of Transmission and Cultural Interaction, Melammu Symposia V, Oriens et Occidens 6, Stuttgart: Steiner, 152–69.

  Rehm E. and Braun‐Holzinger, E.‐A. 2005. Orientalische Importe in Griechenland im frühen 1. Jahrtausend v. Chr., AOAT 328, Münster: Ugarit‐Verlag.

  Rollinger, R. 1996. “Altorientalische Motivik in der frühgriechischen Literatur am Beispiel der homerischen Epen. Elemente des Kampfes in der Ilias und in der altorientalischen Literatur (nebst Überlegungen zur Präsenz altorientalischer Wanderpriester im früharchaischen Griechenland),” in: Ulf 1996a, 156–210.

  Rollinger, R. 1997. “Zur Bezeichnung von ‘Griechen’ in Keilschrifttexten,” Revue d’Assyriologie 91, 167–72.

  Rollinger, R. 2001. “The Ancient Greeks and the Impact of the Ancient Near East: Textual Evidence and Historical Perspective,” in: R. M. Whiting (ed.), Mythology and Mythologies: Methodological Approaches to Intercultural Influences. Proceedings of the Second Annual Symposium of the Assyrian and Babylonian Intellectual Heritage Project Held in Paris, October 4–7, 1999, Melammu Symposia 2, Helsinki: The Neo‐Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 233–64.

  Rollinger, R. 2003. “Homer, Anatolien und die Levante: Die Frage der Beziehungen zu den östlichen Nachbarkulturen im Spiegel der schriftlichen Quellen,” in: Ch. Ulf (ed.), Der neue Streit um Troia. Eine Bilanz, Munich: Beck, 330–48 (2nd edn 2004).

  Rollinger, R. 2004. “Die Verschriftlichung von Normen: Einflüsse und Elemente orientalischer Kulturtechnik in den homerischen Epen, dargestellt am Beispiel des Vertragswesens,” in: Rollinger and Ulf 2004, 369–425.

  Rollinger, R. 2006a. “The Eastern Mediterranean and Beyond: The Relations between the Worlds of the ‘Greek’ and ‘non‐Greek’ Civilizations,” in: K. Kinzl (ed.), A Companion to the Classical Greek World,
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 197–226.

  Rollinger, R. 2006b. “‘Griechen’ und ‘Perser’ im 5. und 4. Jahrhundert v. Chr. im Blickwinkel orientalischer Quellen, oder: Das Mittelmeer als Brücke zwischen Ost und West,” in: B. Burtscher‐Bechter, P.W. Haider, B. Mertz‐Baumgartner, and R. Rollinger (eds.), Grenzen und Entgrenzungen: Der mediterrane Raum, Saarbrücker Beiträge zur vergleichenden Literatur‐ und Kulturwissenschaft, Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 125–53.

  Rollinger, R. 2007. “Zu Herkunft und Hintergrund der in altorientalischen Texten genannten ‘Griechen,’” in: R. Rollinger, A. Luther, and J. Wiesehöfer (eds.), Getrennte Welten? Kommunikation, Transkulturalität und Wahrnehmung zwischen Ägäis und Vorderasien im Altertum, Oikumene 2, Heidelberg: Verlag Antike, 259–330.

  Rollinger, R. 2008a. “Überlegungen zur Frage der Lokalisation von Jawan in neuassyrischer Zeit,” State Archives of Assyria Bulletin 16, 63–90

  Rollinger, R. 2008b. “Das altorientalische Weltbild und der ferne Westen in neuassyrischer Zeit,” in: Mauritsch, Petermandl, Rollinger, and Ulf 2008, 683–95.

  Rollinger, R. 2008c. “Dareios, Sanherib, Nebukadnezar und Alexander der Große: die Organisation großköniglicher Projekte, deren Infrastruktur sowie der Einsatz fremder Arbeitskräfte,” Iranistik. Deutschsprachige Zeitschrift für iranistische Studien 2006–7 9 & 10, 147–69.

  Rollinger, R. 2011a. “Der Blick aus dem Osten: ‘Griechen’ in vorderasiatischen Quellen des 8. und 7. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. – eine Zusammenschau,” in: Matthäus, Oettinger, and Schröder 2011, 267–82.

  Rollinger, R. 2011b. “Homer und der ‘Orient,’” in: Ulf and Rollinger, 2011, 31–43.

  Rollinger, R. 2012. “Altorientalische Einflüsse auf die homerischen Epen,” in: A. Ringakos and B. Zimmermann (eds.), Homer‐Handbuch, Stuttgart: Metzler.