Horse Sense
It is instructive to reflect that almost everything we know about ancient Assyria is concerned with warfare and conquest. Battle is the only sustained theme recorded in its art and inscriptions, as well as the in extant comments of its neighbors.
From the fourteenth century before Christ until a coalition of Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians brought them down near the end of the seventh century (Ashur in 614, Nineveh in 612, Harran in 610), everyone feared the warfare tactics of the Assyrians. For more than half a millennium, they were invariably victorious.
Among the reasons for their military success was the Assyrians’ respect for the terrain on which they fought. Victory in the land of Mesopotamia required an emphasis on offense. On those large, open plains, fixed positions were very difficult to defend, because the defenders could easily be outflanked. For this reason, it was always Assyria’s preference to “take the battle to the enemy.”
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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).
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