Who Was When

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AssyriaAššur

Middle East & Central AsiaHeartland today: Iraq

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Assyria began as a city-state around Ashur on the Tigris, grew into a trading power, and by the 7th century BCE ruled an empire from Egypt to the Persian Gulf. Babylonian and Median armies destroyed its capital, Nineveh, in 612 BCE.

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Key events

  1. – Assyrian merchants run a trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia and leave over 22,000 clay tablets
  2. Ashur-uballit I makes Assyria independent of Mitanni and writes to the pharaoh as a great kingDisputed

    Middle-chronology date, c. 1363 BCE.

  3. Tukulti-Ninurta I defeats the Kassite king Kashtiliash IV and takes BabylonDisputed

    Sources give about 1225 BCE for the conquest and differ by a few years on his reign (c. 1243–1207 BCE).

  4. Tiglath-Pileser III takes the throne and replaces seasonal conscripts with a professional army and smaller provincesDisputed

    Sources do not agree whether he became king in 745 or 744 BCE, or whether he seized the throne by force.

  5. Esarhaddon besieges and takes Memphis, the Egyptian capital, in half a day by his own account
  6. Ashurbanipal gathers tens of thousands of tablets, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, into a library at NinevehDisputed

    The World History Encyclopedia dates the founding to c. 647–646 BCE; the collection grew over Ashurbanipal's whole reign (about 668–627 BCE).

  7. Babylonian and Median armies besiege Nineveh for three months and burn it