Guerre et paix en Assyrie: Religion et imperialisme.

• Author: Scurlock, Jo Ann
• Position: Book review

Guerre et paix en Assyrie: Religion et imperialisme. By FREDERICK MARIO FALES. Les conferences de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. Paris: LES EDITIONS DE CERF, 2010. Pp. 246, illus. [euro]20 (paper).

The book under review is an excellent introduction to the Assyrian art of warfare and stands as state-of-the-art in the field. It is also remarkable that this is not a translation but was actually composed in excellent French by a non-native speaker, a rare achievement. As with any review there are the inevitable quibbles. I have my own ideas on the meaning of kallapu (pp. 108-9), for which see my paper soon to be published in the proceedings of the Munster Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale. Also, the assignments Fales posits for chariot crew members (pp. 127-28) are little short of bizarre. Does it not stand to reason that the mar damqi or the bel narkabti "chariot owner" would be the chariot fighter? And should not the first and second "third man in the chariot" be the two supplemental persons? More importantly, there were neither auxiliaries (p. 115) nor mercenaries (p. 68) in the Assyrian army. The auxiliary system is peculiar to Rome in the ancient world and radiates out of concepts of citizenship foreign to Assyria. Romans were stingy about handing out grants of citizenship in conquered areas for the simple reason that Roman citizens paid no direct taxes or, to put it differently, Romans lived off the sweat of their empire's brow. However, they cleverly used the army as a way of assimilating warlike foreigners who would not put up with such treatment--as, for example, Germans. First you served as an auxiliary and, once you had served your thirty years, you got a diploma of citizenship. Your children could then become legionaries.

In the Assyrian system, it was non-citizens who were getting a free ride from the government's perspective, so they handed out citizenship to whomever they could force to take it, That meant, however, that you had to pay taxes (after a few years' grace to get settled in) and serve in the army. If you were already in your own army and things worked out right, you went straight into Assyria's army, as was the case with the Samaritan chariotry. None of these people were mercenaries, who are, by definition, not citizens of the state which they serve.

Assyria had a standing army recruited from among its citizens, which it supplemented with levies and with troops contributed by tributaries and...