Chap 4 Summary

 Forces of upheavel and rises of early empires (1-Pack Camels 2- Iron

3- New Ships)
 Neo-Assyrian Empire:
 Relied on harsh punishments, large-scale deportations, and
systematic intimidation
 Techniques for imperial rule became the standart model for many
ancient and modern Empire
 Nineveh: Capital city
 Officers rose by merit, not birth
 Disciplined and well-trained armies
 Perfect combination of cavalry and infontry
 Excellent siege(kuşatma) worriors, using siege towers
 Huge armies of 120k soldiers
 Tiglath Pileser 3 reorganised the empire:
 Abolished old system of hereditory provincial governors with
annual appointments
 Took away the rights of the nobility to own and inherit land or other
wealth
 Empire divided into 2 parts:
 The core: the Land of Ashur;
 Between Zogras Mountains and Euphrates River
 King’s appointees governed lands
 Responsible for supplying food fort he temple of Ashur, labor and
officials
 The Land under the Yoke of Ashur
 Ethnic groups under Assyrian control but not Assyrians.
 Local rulers held power as vassals of Assyria
 Had to supply huge amounts of tribute in form of gold and silver.
 Tiglat pileser 3 reform’s brought more lands into empire and harsh
administration force arose.
 As army grew, non-Assyrians become a part of army.
  Phoenicians: Providing ship and sailors
 Medes: Serving as King’s bodyguards
 Judah’s charioteers: fighthing against rebels
 For agriculture and public Works:
 Recruited workers from conquered peoples
 Relocation for supporting work projects
 Relocation undermined local resistance efforts
 Assyrian propaganda supported and justified expansion, exploration
and pervasive inequality
 3 types of propaganda:
 Annals: Assyrian literary form
 Elaborate architectural complexes for state ceremonial displays of
power
 Texts composed to glorify the king and empire
 Social hierarchy
 King: top on the system, sole agent of god Ashur
 Military elites: Rewarding and becoming noble dass if the control
lands and peasants
 Peasants: Small families and lived on small plots of lands,
 “Enslave bc of debt”- hadrights to marry a free one
 Slave acquired in conquest- had no right
 Some of them relocated for working
 Women in Assyria more restricted, they had no control over their
lives, inheritance passed through male line, all “respectable”
women had to veil, prostitutes beaten for veiling. Queens under
the same norms but they had more comfortable life.
 The Persian Empire:
 Persians are a part of nomadic people that come to Iranian plateau.
 Successor(varis) state to Neo-Assyrians
 Persuasion rather than violence
 Cyrus(kurucu) the Great united Persian tribes and founded empire
 No urban tradition; borrowed ideology and institutions from
(Elamites, Babylonions, Assyrians)
 Cyrus liberated his subjects; freed Babylonions and Hebrews
(returning Jerusalem and building tample)

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  Greeks saw Cyrus as a model
 Dorius(imporatorluğa rengini veren) succeed Cyrus and put the
empire solid footing: (2)
 Helding conquered territories by 70 different ethnic groups
 Local administrators lead to multicultural and multilingual empire.
 Persians believed that, all in the empire are equal.
 They used local languages, but “Aromaic” become the lingua fronca
of empire.
 Established a system of provinces or satrapies each ruled by a
satrap
 Promoted trade throughout the empire:
 Built roads
 Standardized currency, including coinage
 Standardized weights and measure
 Religion: Zoroastrionism
 Language: Aromic, Capital: Persepolis: Important administrative
hub and persian architectural style.
 Ahura Mazda: Supreme god.
 They drew religious ideas from their pastoral and tribal roots. It is
similar to vedic texts of Indus Valley
 Avesta: A compilation(derleme) of holy works transmitted orally by
priests. Avesta has much in common linguistically with Vedic texts.
 Persians believed that universe is dualistic:
 Ahura mazda is god
 Ahirom was deceitful(namussuz) and wicked(ahlaksız)
 These two forces were in cosmic struggle.
 Zoroastrianism is not fatalistic; rather threated humans as
indepented actors capable of choosing between god and evil.
Human choises had consequences-rewards or punishments
afterlife.
 Human fate / afterlife belief / don’t burry the dead body.
 Persian kings enjoyed absolute authority. Kings have to follow
Zoro. And rule morally. They have to be just rulers, fair and
distinguish wrong from right. Also, they have to display physical
superiority.

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  1-Ruling class of priest, nobles and warriors
 2-Administrative and commercial class of scribes, bureaucrats and
merchants
 3-Artisans( Esnaf)
 4-Peasants
 Nobles and merchants close the king.
 Kings have to marry with a woman from the noble families
 Darius tried to diminish power of nobles through reforms
 Royal gifts solidified(pekiştirmek) the relations bw kings and nobles
 Imperial identity: 1-Architectural (persepolis) style 2-Canals and
qarats(in order to connect periphery and center) 3-Way stations 4-
royal road (both of them for trade)
 Persian propaganda showed gladly obedient people constrated
with Assyrian propaganda.
 Imperial Fringes: developed their own political and cultural
systems
 Persia and Greeks:
 On the fringe of the persian kingdom rose the Greeks. Greeks
joined with other Mediterronean peoples to revolt. Athenians
defeated(bozguna uğratmak) Persians and Morathan.
 Phoenicions:
 “Purple people” traded purple dye. They were innovaters of
shipbuilding and seaforing.
 Their trading colonies on the southern and western rim of
mediteranean was a major parts.
 Assyrians allowed authonomy to their business activities. They
worked as imperial vassals of Assyrians.
 Competitions between Greeks and Phoenicions led to innovations
and the transfer of culture.
 Phoenicians led to innovations, developed alphabet and writing,
which revolutionized communication. Alphabet led to communicate
directly with one another, reduced the need for Professional
scribes.
 The Israelites and Judah:
 Emerged as a hybrit society on the edge of Egypt.

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  Their origins unknown, established around 1000-960 bce.
 Kingdom centered at Jerulsalem under King David.
 They shored Mesopotamian flood story.
 Hebrew law princibles similar to Hammurapi’s Code.
 Movement out of Egypt under Moses.
 Solomon established a central temple organisation. Temple in
Jerulsalem became most important shrine in region.
 One god
 They established strict social and moral codes.
 Central to formation of monotheism