DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5625#0095
76
Survey of the Ancient World
128. Internal
decay; eco-
nomic and
agricultural
decline
129. Assaults
from without:
the Chal-
deans from
the desert;
Indo-
European
peoples
from the
mountains
130. Fall of
Assyria;
destruction
of Nineveh
(606 B.C.)
Like many another later ruler, however, the Assyrian em-
perors made a profound mistake in their method of governing
their empire. The industries were destroyed and the farms
left idle to supply men for a great standing army. Even so
the Empire had grown so large that the army was unable to
defend it. As reports of foreign invasions and new revolts
came in, the harassed ruler at Nineveh forced the subjects of
his foreign vassal kingdoms to enter the army. With an army
made up to a dangerous extent of such foreigners, with the
commerce of the country also in the hands of foreigners, with
no industries, and with fields lying idle,—■ under these conditions
the Assyrian nation fast lost its inner strength.
In addition to such weakness within, there were the most
threatening dangers from without. These came, as of old,
from both sides of the Fertile Crescent. Especially dangerous'
was a desert tribe called the " Kaldi," whom we know as the
Chaldeans. They had been for centuries creeping slowly around
the head of the Persian Gulf and settling along its shores
at the foot of the eastern mountains. On the other hand, in
the northern mountains the advancing hordes of Indo-European
peoples were in full view (see Section 15), led by the tribes
of the Medes and Persians (§ 147). The Chaldeans mastered
Babylonia, and then, in combination with the Median hosts from
the northeastern mountains, they assailed the walls of Nineveh.
Weakened by a generation of decline within, and struggling
vainly against this combined assault from without, the mighty
city of the Assyrian emperors fell (606 B.C.). In the voice
of the Hebrew prophet Nahum (ii, 8, 13, and iii entire), we
hear an echo of the exulting shout which resounded from the
Caspian to the Nile as the nations discovered that the terrible
scourge of the East had at last been laid low. Its fall was
forever, and when two centuries later Xenophon and his
ten thousand Greeks marched past the place (§ 399), the
Assyrian nation was. but a vague tradition, and Nineveh, its
great city, was a vast heap of rubbish as it is to-day (see Ancient
Survey of the Ancient World
128. Internal
decay; eco-
nomic and
agricultural
decline
129. Assaults
from without:
the Chal-
deans from
the desert;
Indo-
European
peoples
from the
mountains
130. Fall of
Assyria;
destruction
of Nineveh
(606 B.C.)
Like many another later ruler, however, the Assyrian em-
perors made a profound mistake in their method of governing
their empire. The industries were destroyed and the farms
left idle to supply men for a great standing army. Even so
the Empire had grown so large that the army was unable to
defend it. As reports of foreign invasions and new revolts
came in, the harassed ruler at Nineveh forced the subjects of
his foreign vassal kingdoms to enter the army. With an army
made up to a dangerous extent of such foreigners, with the
commerce of the country also in the hands of foreigners, with
no industries, and with fields lying idle,—■ under these conditions
the Assyrian nation fast lost its inner strength.
In addition to such weakness within, there were the most
threatening dangers from without. These came, as of old,
from both sides of the Fertile Crescent. Especially dangerous'
was a desert tribe called the " Kaldi," whom we know as the
Chaldeans. They had been for centuries creeping slowly around
the head of the Persian Gulf and settling along its shores
at the foot of the eastern mountains. On the other hand, in
the northern mountains the advancing hordes of Indo-European
peoples were in full view (see Section 15), led by the tribes
of the Medes and Persians (§ 147). The Chaldeans mastered
Babylonia, and then, in combination with the Median hosts from
the northeastern mountains, they assailed the walls of Nineveh.
Weakened by a generation of decline within, and struggling
vainly against this combined assault from without, the mighty
city of the Assyrian emperors fell (606 B.C.). In the voice
of the Hebrew prophet Nahum (ii, 8, 13, and iii entire), we
hear an echo of the exulting shout which resounded from the
Caspian to the Nile as the nations discovered that the terrible
scourge of the East had at last been laid low. Its fall was
forever, and when two centuries later Xenophon and his
ten thousand Greeks marched past the place (§ 399), the
Assyrian nation was. but a vague tradition, and Nineveh, its
great city, was a vast heap of rubbish as it is to-day (see Ancient