Assyria: The rise and fall of the world’s first empire

REVIEW BY JONATHAN VALK Assyria stands out in history as the fountainhead of empire. It was perhaps the first state to subdue the bulk of its world, extending in every direction until its frontiers consisted almost entirely of sand, sea, and inaccessible mountains. Assyria brooked no rivals: for more than a century, there was none who could withstand its might. Assyrian kings developed vast new urban spaces, erected grand, monumental structures, oversaw the construction of remarkable infrastructural projects, moved hundreds of thousands of people from one end of their empire to the other, and recorded their deeds in bombastic and evocative royal inscriptions accompanied by incredibly ric