The Great Emperor- A Battle of Raphia ATL

The Endless War: Phase II (10 BC-10 AD)

Introduction

The Second Phase of the Endless War is generally marked as being between 10 BC and 10 AD between the fall of Cyprus and the beginning of the Assyrian civil war in 10 BC and the fall of Ephesos in 10 AD. This was really the height of the Endless War and the point at which fighting was heaviest for both sides, it also featured some huge events such as the fall of Carthage, the economic crisis and the great plague. It was here that the war really could have gone either way before winding down in the third phase between 10 and 20 AD and finally coming to an end in 30 AD. This was also the period in which a huge figure in history would be born and the world would be changed forever.

The Assyrian Civil War (10-5 BC)

An Overview of the Assyrian Civil War

In general the Assyrian Civil War kicked off after the death of Ardys II in 10 BC which left only his 8 year old Assurbanipal III to take the throne. However upon the assassination of the king in 10 BC, three candidates rose to be in a position to take the throne:

-Tigranes or Igranes: Tigranes was easily the most well known of the three candidates and had significant public support from the people. For many of the non-Assyrian ethnic groups in the empire Tigranes represented this huge hope for the future. There was huge support for him from the lower classes which he generally represented and the entire PR around him was based on this. However there was one area where Tigranes lacked major support: the nobility. At the time the vast majority of the aristocracy and nobility of the empire were distinctly Assyrian and still looked down upon other ethnicities. As it was Tigranes was an Armenian and this conservative nobility looked down upon him as an upstart and blatantly refused to acknowledge an Armenian as emperor. But the aristocracy had one major flaw in that it was divided on who, as an Assyrian, should become emperor between two candidates.

-Murmaza: Murmaza was an Assyrian general who had initially been sent to Egypt to defeat Arcatheus and had been beaten twice by Shepeskaf heavily. The response to this was that Murmaza was removed from command and sent to a relatively minor post in the Iranian region to prevent a rebellion. However Murmaza came from a very rich merchant family that had grown rich from the Assyrian Empire and their trade throughout it. This gave Murmaza huge resources and influence among the aristocracy. Incidentally Murmaza held a huge grudge for Anumalik and his son Ardys II and one theory is that he used his huge support to have Ardys assassinated. Nevertheless Murmaza had major support among the aristocracy and was in a position to become emperor whether he would have been good for the position or not.

-Rabsuna: Unlike Murmaza, Rabsuna was an Assyrian merchant who had never seen battle in any way but was a cunning and devious politician. Rabsuna had spent the last few years pulling strings and growing influence in the state to such a point at which he held huge influence over the aristocracy and rich of the empire. Therefore by 10 BC Rabsuna was in a position to take the throne for himself and used his influence to gain a significant backing for such a venture. This meant that he, like Murmaza, had a significant position to take the throne for himself.

Initial Moves

Interestingly enough the goals of Murmaza and Rabsuna to try and take the throne were very different to those of Tigranes. For Murmaza and Rabsuna the answer to becoming emperor lay in holding Nineveh and thus managing to take control of Mesopotamia. Such wealth had the opportunity to allow them to defeat Tigranes through the use of bribes and assassinations as they took a very political approach to the civil war. Therefore for them the first thing to do was beat one another to Nineveh to crown themselves emperor properly.

Tigranes on the other hand had come to the realisation that he would never beat them to Nineveh but he did have a strong power base in Egypt and there was a leaderless army in Southern Anatolia. Almost immediately Tigranes left his army behind and travelled lightly with his own personal guard to meet with and take control of the army in Anatolia. Without his army, Tigranes moved quickly through the Levant and even gained some further soldiers from various people declaring their support of him. However Tigranes simply had most of these people travel to Egypt where they could meet up with his Egyptian army and prepare for the war ahead.

The Siege of Nineveh and the Fight for the Levant

In August 10 BC Tigranes reached the city of Antioch and there met with the governor of the Levant to try and gain his support. Tigranes knew that if he could take control of the Anatolian army then he would have the Assyrian territories in Anatolia and Armenia as part of his power-base but that without the Levant then he could never bring them together. Initially talks went well and Tigranes came exceptionally close to gaining the support of the governor there. However on August 25th 10 BC, a failed assassination attempt on Tigranes' life was blamed on the governor by his guard and talks broke down. Only the next day Tigranes left the city unsuccessful and travelled into Anatolia.

In Anatolia the Assyrian army had been just about able to hold it's own despite having lost Ardys only recently and had given little land to Mithridates. When Tigranes arrived in October 10 BC, he quickly took control of the army and gained significant support in the region. However increased pressure by Mithridates in the region forced Tigranes to spend the next couple of weeks fighting the Pontic Empire and establishing basic fortifications to hold the line.

In the meantime Rabsuna and Murmaza raced towards Nineveh both intending to crown themselves emperor. Rabsuna had only about 6000 soldiers on hand and therefore travelled faster than his counterpart towards the city. On October 4th 10 BC Rabsuna reached the city and succeeded in entering with little opposition with his military force and even managed to strengthen his force with the local garrison to about 7500 soldiers. He also succeeded in capturing the palace itself which was situated just to the North of the city. Inside the palace Rabsuna managed to capture Assurbanipal III who he initially kept in the palace under guard.

However only a few days later news came of Murmaza being very close to the city with his numerically superior military force and Rabsuna chose to withdraw his forces and the entire royal family to the city itself. As for the palace Rabsuna had it stripped of valuables and burnt to the ground so as to not allow Murmaza control of the structure. On 12th October 10 BC Murmaza reached the city and promptly laid siege to it with 12,000 soldiers intending to take it and eliminate a major rival at the same time. Murmaza also knew that there were a number of aristocrats who supported him within the city, a fact which he intended to make use of. Murmaza succeeded in getting into contact with a number of his supporters inside the city who promised to open the gates. Only a couple of days later these supporters made an attempt to open the gates to Murmaza but were caught and arrested by Rabsuna. At this point Rabsuna realised that Murmaza's supporters in the city were the biggest threat to his position so, on 18th October 10 BC Rabsuna had any and all supporters of Murmaza rounded up and executed. Their heads were then flung over the wall to Murmaza's army as a public display of antagonism.

Meanwhile on October 20th 10 BC Tigranes met with the Assyrian fleet at Seleukeia after the fleet had declared their support of Tigranes earlier that year. However the force garrisoning Cyprus refused to support Tigranes and instead proclaimed support for Murmaza and the governor of the Levant followed suit shortly afterwards. This put Tigranes in an awkward position as it effectively split his two regions of power in two with the Levant in support of Murmaza. To try and take control of Cyprus, Tigranes sent a missive to the island to get in touch with the 'Eagle of Cyprus' and to gain their support. While initially talks with the Cypriots came to nothing, the later talks soon managed to gain growing support from the growing group. To try and help facilitate the resistance against Murmaza, Tigranes began sending some of his more veteran soldiers and commanders to Cyprus to help train the group. This proved important as their training would gradually change the resistance group from a band of pirates and Cypriots into a well-trained and disciplined fighting force, in later years the ‘Eagle of Cyprus’ would become a strong and important portion of the Cypriot army.

Meanwhile Tigranes began amassing his soldiers in an attempt to take the Levant and then march on the capital, he left enough soldiers simply to garrison his fortifications against Mithridates and left with a significant portion of the force towards the Levant. Meanwhile he got in touch with his forces in Egypt and began organising an attack from the South. Starting in early November 10 BC the Egyptian army began the march North and laid siege to Gaza while Tigranes simultaneously laid siege to Antioch in the North. Gaza, which had always been a minor base for the navy and had a huge following of people supporting Tigranes, fell within a couple of weeks and the army managed to push on easily towards the North. However Antioch held firm against Tigranes with its three-tiered defence system set up by Seleucus IV resisting Tigranes and the exceptional food storage within the city allowing it to hold out under siege for months. The siege of Antioch would prove to be a long and bitter struggle for both sides over the next year and a half from 10 BC to 8 BC. In the meantime the Southern army made good progress to the North and pushed through Gaza to Hierosolyma, Ptolemais and finally Tyros. It was at Tyros that the Southern army reached a standstill unable to break the city’s defences and push through to take it from the defenders.

At the same time Rabsuna was faced with a problem as the siege of Nineveh progressed poorly for him, for the first few months between October 10 BC and February 9 BC he and the defenders held firm against Murmaza. But in March 9 BC the attackers broke through and took the walls from the defending force. Realising that the city was lost to the attackers, Rabsuna fled and escaped through a passageway he had had dug during the course of the siege. From here he and his small force fled West pursued most of the way by 5000 cavalry sent by Murmaza. Rabsuna had realised now that he had one hope to take the throne and that was to rendezvous with his supporters in the West and try to build a power-base in Syria using their soldiers. Making use of the few supporters he had in Tigranes’ army, Rabsuna succeeded in building up his force to about 10,000 strong and laid siege to the city of Damaskos in July 9 BC. The city of Damaskos had a small garrison and fell by August 9 BC allowing Rabsuna control of the city. Later that month Rabsuna finally confronted the cavalry force sent to defeat him and decisively defeated them. From here Rabsuna turned his attention to expanding his power base beyond Damaaskos into the rest of the region and turned his eyes towards the main prize itself, Antioch. Meanwhile Murmaza was finally crowned emperor of the Assyrian empire in July 9 BC and became Murmaza II as he denounced Tigranes and Rabsuna as traitors and rebels that he would now go and crush.

As it was, by the beginning of August 9 BC, all three candidates had some sort of influence in the Levant although Murmaza was effectively pushed away from his by Rabsuna and Tigranes. In revenge for what Rabsuna did to his supporters, Murmaza followed his counter-part by having Rabsuna’s supporters rounded up and executed save for those who succeeded in fleeing the city. It wouldn’t be until October 9 BC that Murmaza would leave Nineveh and begin the march West to take Damaskos and then relieve Antioch from Tigranes’ siege. Meanwhile Rabsuna was also travelling West towards Tyros to try and get the city on-side and open up a port city for himself. When Rabsuna finally arrived in November 9 BC, he found a garrison on the verge of defeat and made the offer to help repel Tigranes’ Egyptian force on the condition they hand the city over. Initially the defenders refused and continued to hold against the increasingly dangerous attackers but as the defenders fell back from the walls and lost more and more of the city, they finally relented and allowed Rabsuna into the city. With his 10,000 soldiers, Rabsuna joined the defenders and succeeded in pushing the attackers back and even eventually expelling them from the city. However this didn't break the siege which only dragged on despite the defeat in the city.

Probably the height of Rabsuna's position would come on 10th December 9 BC when the governor of the Levant died and all three pretenders to the throne put forward their own candidate for the position to secure the province. Tigranes favoured a Greek by the name of Alexander who was, at the time, one of the primary administrators in the province and was staying in Antioch. In comparison Murmaza favoured an Assyrian candidate from Nineveh by the name of Eparna for the position of governor. As another pro-Assyrian pretender, Rabsuna favoured another Assyrian candidate by the name of Saulmagina who, at the time, was captain of the guard within Antioch but part of a very powerful and influential noble family centred ibn the Levant. But Murmaza's candidate was immediately out in the short term as he wasn't situated in the city but in Nineveh, nevertheless Murmaza did have him brought to join the army so that he could be set up as governor once the region was brought back under control.

Fearing for his life inside the city as simply and administrator, Alexander managed to sneak out of Antioch and met with Tigranes himself to avoid Saulmagina who, as captain of the guard, would undoubtedly have him arrested. While this saved Alexander's life, it also effectively handed control of the city and position as governor of the Levant to Saulmagina who easily took the position by force. At the time Saulmagina was about 45 years old and had had a life of fighting in the military and, after being wounded in battle, the city guard of Antioch. His family's wealth was a major source of funding for Rabsuna and one of the main reasons that Rabsuna's war for the throne continued and it is likely that the family used this wealth to 'convince' Rabsuna to put forth Saulmagina as governor. But Saulmagina faced heavy opposition within the city as many members of the guard, primarily the non-Assyrian members supported Tigranes and wanted to open the gates to him. This was a major threat to Saulmagina who quickly clamped down and re-established his control with brutal discipline, notably he had a number of members of the guard executed and their heads sent to Tigranes' camp.

But in late December Rabsuna's control of the Levant, or what control he had, was shattered when Murmaza laid siege to Damaskos. With Rabsuna occupied fighting Tigranes' force at Tyros, there were few soldiers left to protect Damaskos which basically assured Murmaza's victory. Having thoroughly angered Murmaza to the point at which his life was at stake and coming to the realisation that this was not a war that could be won, Rabsuna turned to Tigranes for help. Damaskos held for months during which time Rabsuna managed to get into contact with Tigranes and asked for help. While Tigranes did offer to provide help on the condition that Rabsuna give up his claim to throne, there was one major point of contention, Antioch. See Tigranes was worried about Antioch for the future because it was a city traditionally dominated by families supported Rabsuna. What Tigranes demanded from Rabsuna was not just handing over the city but also effectively cutting all ties with these noble families who potentially could support a coup in the future. This included his own family which formed a huge basis of contention between the two as neither would back down from their point of view.

However the decisive moment would come in June 8 BC when, after a shockingly bitter and long resistance, Damaskos fell and Murmaza turned his attention towards Tyros itself. At this point Rabsuna finally gave in and accepted Tigranes' demands simply to prevent Murmaza gaining an overall victory so as to save his life. Tyros surrendered immediately although it wouldn't be until a month later that Antioch would follow suit when Saulmagina, the last real opposition to letting Tigranes in, was killed during a fight on the walls of Antioch. Antioch soon opened it's gates and Alexander was named governor of the Levant. With Rabsuna having effectively capitulated, the civil war was down to two candidates: Tigranes and Murmaza.

The Desert Storm

Probably one of the most well known names for Tigranes came from a good 100 years after his death in a Greek drama titled 'I Assyriaki' which literally means 'The Assyrian'. The playwright himself is unknown but he was believed to have come from Athens at a time when the Assyrian Empire was at it's height and dominated the Mediterranean. Interestingly enough this was a period of fascination with the old great men of Assyria, people like Ardys Accalu, Tigranes and Murmaza I. It was also a period in which Tigranes was incredibly popular as a figure and great general and in which Murmaza was portrayed as this terrible villain out to destroy the noble, young Tigranes and Rabsuna was portrayed as a vile, scheming, coward who betrays everything and everyone he knows. Of course none of these people were evil or even good necessarily, not even Tigranes. Tigranes certainly played at being this noble character and by all accounts he was above the standard level of people at the time but this doesn't take into account his dark sides. Tigranes was intelligent, charismatic, popular and and military genius but he was also manipulative, brutal at times and just easy to fall prey to the same traps everybody else did. Rabsuna became known as this vile, manipulative and treacherous man while Murmaza has become known as arrogant, brutal and downright evil.

But Murmaza was intelligent, undoubtedly charismatic and just as able to secure popular support. Rabsuna certainly changed sides and manipulated people to his own gains but Tigranes did that just as much, especially at the Battle of Damaskos where Tigranes effectively killed Rabsuna. A great example can be seen when Antioch fell, the legend people know was that the nobles supporting Rabsuna tried to assassinate Tigranes but no evidence was ever found to support this claim which came from a good 200 years later. In fact it's most likely that Tigranes' first act was to round up the more dangerous nobles and have them executed to prevent them from launching a coup. Yet the storied and legends of the nobility and greatness of Tigranes spread to the point at which people hundreds of years later from various religions praised him as being this semi-divine figure despite his obvious flaws.

Of course therefore, the quote which bore the most well-known name of Tigranes was uttered in regards to an arrogant Murmaza after he claimed that Tigranes would be crushed by nightfall. The full quote was:

'Boreíte poreía me éna strató apó éna ekatommýrio ischyró kai ómos tha prépei na eínai dýspistoi óson aforá tin kataigída tis erímou giatí tha skorpísei stratiótes sas ston ánemo .'

Which means:

'You march with an army a million strong and yet you must be wary of the desert storm for he shall scatter your soldiers to the wind.'

This was a quote formed out of the famous battle of Aravia and it's overall impact on the Assyrian Empire but it was one that had a resonating effect and one which made the name of 'The Desert Storm' a common one. In later years the Greeks even started referring to Tigranes whenever he was talked about in any context as 'Tigránis tin Kataigída tis Erímou' or 'Tigranes the Desert Storm'.

With the surrender of Antioch in July 8 BC, Tigranes was faced with one enemy between him and the title of emperor: Murmaza. As it was Murmaza was based at Damaskos and had his eyes on taking control of the Levant which Tigranes held on to. In August 8 BC Murmaza made his move and began the march towards Tyros, at the time the majority of Assyrian soldiers were under the command of either Murmaza or Tigranes with only a few on the border being pushed back by Mithridates as he managed to regain large swathes of Southern Anatolia. This gave Tigranes a total of 20,000 soldiers in the Egyptian army supported by about 10,000 soldiers from Rabsuna and about 50,000 in his army at Antioch. In late August he finally received help from the Eagles of Cyprus in the form of about 5000 men who had just arrived from the conclusion of the brutal fighting in Cyprus. In comparison Murmaza had about 60,000 soldiers and was marching towards Tyros albeit slowly. Initially Tigranes' plan was to join his armies together to crush Murmaza which he began to do in late August.

However the march would soon be brought to a halt when a deadly outburst of plague tore through his army and inflicted heavy casualties and left significant portions of the army incapable of travelling. Instead Tigranes, desperate to save his army at Tyros, went on ahead bringing with him only 2000 of the Cypriots and no other soldiers as support. They travelled quickly and managed to arrive at Tyros in early October only to find the city already besieged by Murmaza. Murmaza had led 40,000 soldiers to besiege the city to make sure it fell and had sent his other 20,000 North to threaten Tigranes in the North and prevent his army from making a major move at risk of losing Antioch. However what he didn't expect what Tigranes' approach to the city with his Cypriot support. Upon realising the predicament the city was in, Tigranes sent a hurried missive to his navy stationed in Cyprus asking for support and set up a fort on a hill overlooking the besiegers.

However a heavy storm inflicted heavy damage on the Assyrian fleet after only a week at sea and forced them to return to Antioch for repairs thus lengthening the time it would take for them to arrive. News soon reached Tigranes who began desperate efforts to shore up his defences in case Murmaza attacked his position. However with only 2000 soldiers it would be virtually impossible to hold the fort if a concerted attack actually came. But sure enough on October 28th 8 BC, Murmaza attacked Tigranes' position with 15,000 of his 40,000 soldiers to assure the defeat of his enemy. This has become known as the Battle of Tyros and has fallen into legend for being one of Tigranes' greatest victories.

Murmaza himself didn't lead the attack and instead sent his son, Samaskumua, with the 15,000 soldiers to take the fort and bring Tigranes to him, preferably alive. Realising that holding the fort in a direct defence would never work, Tigranes instead made preparations to lure the attackers into a trap. Now the fort was made of wood and a traditional fort just like those that had been situated along the steel wall earlier in the war, inside the fort Tigranes also had a number of longs left over for various uses. It was these logs that Tigranes had cut into thin boards which were planted into the ground the inside of the walls with boards for covering up the sides. This inner wall was designed to be thin and easy to break down and was quickly built by his soldiers as a preparation. When the attack began and the enemy soldiers reached the fort, they found no resistance as they travelled through the fort. There were no provisions or weapons and most importantly soldiers to be found, the gates had been left open and everything suggested that Tigranes had somehow fled the fort which wasn't beyond belief especially with his reputation.

Soon enough the majority of the attackers were crowded into the camp and the trap was sprung. Breaking down the inner wall, the defenders fell upon their enemy and caught them by surprise. The sheer heavy weight and shock of the attack quickly forced Murmaza's soldiers back and allowed Tigranes to take control of the gates allowing his soldiers to break out. Then, in a particularly brutal move, Tigranes had the gates shut and the opening mechanisms destroyed to lock them so. His soldiers easily pushed back the few thousand soldiers outside the camp and proceeded to set fire to the wooden camp. The wooden boards inside the camp allowed the fire to easily spread to the inner buildings in a similar situation to what Tigranes had done to the Pontic soldiers. The dry wood ignited extremely quickly and Tigranes' soldiers fanned out around the camp and cut down anyone who escaped. By the time the battle had ended, a good 13,000-14,000 soldiers were dead and the rest badly wounded. Many had burnt alive including Samaskumua who's head Tigranes had sent to Murmaza.

The defeat was huge in regards to the morale of Murmaza's soldiers who, under near constant raids by Tigranes and the Cypriots, began to feel complete terror in regards to the general. To them Tigranes was this man of nightmare, he had never lost a battle and had just slaughtered thousands of Murmaza's soldiers relatively easily. Now Tigranes was out of the fort and launching attacks against them time and again and they never knew where or when to expect Tigranes to strike. Bit by bit Tigranes' constant attacks wore away at the enemy morale and numbers as their soldiers began to fear him more and more. However this only lasted for about 3 weeks before the attacks ceased, for Murmaza and his army there was seemingly no reason for this and Tigranes remained this terrible threat simply watching them from afar and waiting to strike. Soon enough this paranoia took a noticeable effect to the strength and morale of Murmaza's army but there was a perfectly reasonable and, potentially horrifying explanation for why Tigranes had stopped the attacks, he was inside the city.

Tigranes had soon received word that the navy had arrived to support and transport him into the city and had pulled back from the area to, unbeknownst to Murmaza, be transported into the city. Murmaza certainly saw ships but this wasn't unusual as naval supply missions to Tyros had been a common sight for Murmaza and his army. But what they didn't know was that this supply mission contained extra passengers in the form of Tigranes and his 2000 Cypriots. It was this paranoia that Tigranes was still outside the city that he intended to play on to his advantage. The attacks had raised Murmaza's guard to attacks from the outside and possibly the arrival of the entirety of Tigranes' army but the guard of the city itself was actually lower as a result as their focus was on the countryside. This was what Tigranes exploited as he took command of the total 32,000 soldiers in the city and prepared to defeat Murmaza's army once and for all.

Tigranes waited a while to allow the paranoia to set in before he made his move towards Murmaza's army. Tigranes used a tactic used by Hannibal in the Second Punic War as he had a number of his men sneak out of the city the same way they had come in and tie torched to oxen one night before sending them towards Murmaza's army. While this was happening, Tigranes had his army launch a sally but kept himself deliberately hidden so as to let Murmaza's army still believe he was out there. Soon enough the oxen arrived but Murmaza's army could only actually see the torches and assumed that that was Tigranes, here the fear set in and, believing they had been flanked, the army began to break. This morale advantage was all Tigranes' army needed to capitalise on as they broke through and routed Murmaza's army.

Tyros was saved and Tigranes was victorious once again as he turned his attention to crushing Murmaza. He pursued Murmaza East and managed to manoeuvre his army to push Murmaza into the desert. However Tigranes left a significant portion of his army to besiege Damaskos and, with Rabsuna at his side, pursued Murmaza's 30,000 soldiers into the desert with only 5000. Effectively the next few weeks are considered to be the Battle of Aravia and would constitute an important victory for Tigranes. Between late December 8 BC and early February 7 BC Tigranes pursued Murmaza's army and launched a number of raids on him. In one of these raids he sent Rabsuna with only 300 cavalry to attack Murmaza promising him support following up. However this support never came and Rabsuna's force was slaughtered likely as a deliberate act on the part of Tigranes. However Tigranes' raids in conjunction with ever-fading supplies, would soon start to kill Murmaza's army bit by bit.

Tigranes could move faster and had more supplies for fewer soldiers and thus could keep going as compared to the retreating and poorly supplied Murmaza. Tigranes also used is army to block off Murmaza's attempts to escape the desert and force him further into it. By early February Murmaza only had about 17,000 soldiers left and finally gave up trying to avoid a pitched battle he was worried he would lose. So it was that the battle of Aravia would end with a pitched confrontation and it would be a slaughter. Murmaza's army had virtually no morale and was exhausted, hungry and parched from trekking through the desert. Unable to put up a proper resistance, Murmaza's army was slaughtered although Murmaza himself escaped into the desert on horseback. A few days later Tigranes' army found Murmaza's dead horse which had been thoroughly chewed and significant amounts of blood drank, presumably by Murmaza. Murmaza was never found however as his never turned up despite a number of searches commissioned by Tigranes later in his reign and he himself never returned to Nineveh.

From here Tigranes moved North and, in June 7 BC, effectively integrated Murmaza's remaining army into his own and, as the sole pretender to the throne, marched on Nineveh. The trip would take longer than expected due to numerous setbacks but in late November 7 BC Tigranes arrived at Nineveh.

The Siege of Nineveh

The civil war had destroyed the aristocracy nearly entirely as most of the powerful and influential families had been wiped out by Murmaza, Tigranes and Rabsuna or driven to bankruptcy. Many were dead from the Endless War itself and the aristocracy was effectively ruined by the conflicts. But what little resistance remained to Tigranes was holed up in Nineveh and it was this resistance that Tigranes sought to crush. The siege of Nineveh would be another long, bitter struggle lasting between November 7 BC and July 5 BC as the defenders held out against all odds and refused to give even an inch of the city up. But the siege itself would end in July 5 BC after a long, hard assault which finally pushed the defenders back from the walls and into the city.

Finally on 15th August 5 BC, Tigranes was crowned emperor and finally became Tigranes (more commonly known as Igranes) I of the Assyrian Empire.
 
A Brief History of the 'The Eagles of Cyprus'

In 11 BC the island of Cyprus finally fell to Assyrian forces after a lengthy campaign which had resulted in the island coming under Assyrian control. However the pirate groups who had originally helped the Assyrians were faced with a terrible vengeance for their piracy as the Assyrians hunted them down in their thousands and slaughtered them. Between February and December 11 BC hundreds of pirates were hunted down and slaughtered by the Assyrian army with only a few surviving. At the head of these surviving pirates was a Cypriot pirate named Ioannas who had been especially notable for fighting alongside the Assyrians. This time fighting with the Assyrians had taught him a lot and as Ioannas came to lead the group of rebels, who named themselves the Eagles of Cyprus, he began to organise them.

By now the island of Cyprus had been ravaged by the war and the people were already feeling the effects of a continued Assyrian military presence. As the Assyrian army remained on the island, the food supplies remaining were unable to sustain them and the people began to feel the effects of this quite distinctly in their starvation. It was this that Ioannas began to play upon to increase his numbers, between 11 and 10 BC Ioannas would strengthen his group from about 200 strong to about 3000 strong from the local populace. From here he would begin a bitter and sustained guerilla war against the Assyrians. With about 13,000 Assyrians on the island, Ioannas retreated to the Troodos Mountains situated in the centre of Cyprus where he established his base. For the next 2 years this would be the centre of his operations as his group of rebels fought against their enemy supported by Tigranes.

Ioannas' rebellion would usually take the form of numerous raids on Assyrian positions including military bases and garrisons in towns. However they tended to avoid targeting Cypriots and therefore managed to use the idea of being the fighters for the Cypriots to recruit members. Soon enough the Assyrian army would begin to strike back and attempted to subdue the Troodos Mountains. But these mountains would prove to be deadly to the Assyrian army as their heavily armoured soldiers found themselves unable to scale the mountains effectively. In the winter the snowfall trapped the Assyrian soldiers and inflicted heavy casualties and cut their supply lines off. Constant raids on the Assyrian army in combination with stretched supply lines would prove to be deadly to the Assyrian army which would take heavy casualties over the next couple of years until, by 8 BC, there were only a few thousand soldiers left. However it was in this year that Ioannas would die during a raid and the 'Eagles of Cyprus' would fall to an Egyptian by the name of Thampsis.

It was Thampsis that would officially establish a treaty with Tigranes which has become known as the 'Treaty of Cyprus' by the terms of this treaty the island of Cyprus would be part of the Assyrian Empire but would be considered it's own province and granted the right for the people to choose their own governor from among themselves. It also granted a few further freedoms to the island of Cyprus as a more autonomous province than the others. However in return the Eagles of Cyprus would form a portion of the Assyrian army and promise undying support to the Assyrian Emperors as a portion of the Assyrian army. The island would also stay as part of the Assyrian empire and thus the empire would retain control of the island.

From here Thampsis would send his army to the mainland to join with Tigranes and help fight Murmaza and Rabsuna thus becoming an important part of the Assyrian army.
 
The Economic Crisis

Causes

The obvious question that people ask about the economic crisis was: Why did it happen and why at the time it did? Naturally the answer to such a question is complicated and requires looking at the Assyrian Empire itself dating right back to Ardys Accalu himself. Of course when we talk about the economic crisis we're really referring to the Assyrian Empire and not the economic troubles in the Pontic Empire at the same time because the troubles in the Assyrian Empire just spiralled out of control incredibly quickly and, like the Endless War itself, the crisis spiralled out of control from a series of events.

But to understand why the economy fell apart like it did, we have to look at why it was so strong in the first place and this can be traced to two major factors: Population and Trade.

The entire factor of population being such a huge part of the economy dates back beyond even the Assyrian or Seleucid or even Persian Empire and right back to the Babylonians. Under the Babylonians a number of canals were built between the two rivers defining Mesopotamia for irrigation purposes and they had a phenomenal effect in dramatically increasing the fertility of the region. This is why the Assyrians had such a large population, because there was such fertility in the ground owing to these canals the region grew massively. While the population declined at various points, it exploded under the Assyrian Empire so that there were a good 500,000 people in Mesopotamia in 21 BC and 120,000 of those in Nineveh alone. This was only compounded by the Assyrian policy of settling nomadic tribes from the north into the empire. These tribes formed the cavalry and at the very least formed significant portions of the teachers for the cavalry and so were very important. The deal was to grant the nomads some land for their tribes to settle in as part and citizens of the Assyrian Empire in return for their services and the standard obligations filled out by citizens. Initially these tribes were settled in the Iranian Plateau in what amounted to knew cities which is where we get a number of cities such as Politoutabiti or 'City of Tabiti' [1] or 'Politonskyton' which meant 'City of the Scythians'. [2] However later these people were instead settled in various places throughout the empire and not in dedicated cities in the Iranian Plateau which only served to increase the population of Mesopotamia quite dramatically.

This was important because this population did everything for helping Mesopotamia and thus the Assyrian Empire become this economic machine. First of all this population formed a huge market for traders throughout the Assyrian Empire and became a centre of trade throughout the Assyrian Empire as merchants travelled to Mesopotamia due to the incredibly high population of the Mesopotamian Basin. This alone brought in huge revenue to the state with trade from India to the Mediterranean going through Mesopotamia and vice versa. However secondly the population formed a huge agricultural and industrial base and huge amounts of food and various other products of the Assyrian Empire were made in Mesopotamia. Finally there was tax as these people all had to pay tax and this tax brought in massive revenue for the Empire from Mesopotamia alone and not counting the other people throughout the empire.

The other factor that made up the majority of the Assyrian Economy was trade which flowed through the empire nearly constantly. This has already been talked about extensively in how it flowed right through the empire from India to the Mediterranean and through Egypt in particular. This of course brought huge wealth but it is here that we see the big problem with trade starting to crop up in how it was facilitated. The improved roads and safety and the river navy certainly provided huge boosts to the trade network but the people who facilitated it were the aristocracy. Immediately after Ardys Accalu's ascension to the throne, the aristocracy were those who had been his primary supporters and a lot of them had been farmers. These were people who came to power through war but had no idea how to keep their position. This meant that by the time Assurbelnisi died in 90 BC this aristocracy had been wiped out and replaced by a new set of people, merchants. These were the people who exploited the strength of the growing empire to expand their trade networks before anyone else and gain a decisive factor over their rivals. These people then grew to become incredibly rich and formed this new aristocracy for the empire of super-rich, powerful people. This was the same aristocracy and aristocratic families that had survived all the way until the civil war and it was this group that had an interest in facilitating trade. While this group was responsible for the very divisions that had led to the problems with Shepeskaf and of course had given Tigranes so much support, they were also the ones who kept the trade flowing through their careful and remarkably complicated trade networks. These people facilitated the trade through the empire and really were the ones powerful enough to keep their trade going despite the war raging in the Eastern Mediterranean. Soon enough by 21 BC the trade hinged on these people and it was these people that kept the trade going for so long due to their influence and power.

Ultimately therefore the Assyrian economy was really built upon these two factors: Population and Trade. Both factors were also important enough that, even if one failed, the other factor could theoretically keep the economy going. The population was so immense that even when the war was raging at it's height and thousands were dead after dozens of brutal and messy battles, there were still enough people to keep the economy working. So how was it that the economy fell apart like it did with these strong factors making up the economy?

As mentioned above the Assyrian trade network was facilitated and more or less run by the aristocracy. But the aristocracy had grown over the years leading up to a height in 21 BC and this had created this unique cold war between them. While none of the aristocratic families really got along, there was no real conflict for the trade network as none of the families could or would really risk such a conflict. Therefore what happened was they kind-off stepped around one another and set up countless agreements so that, by 21 BC, there was an incredibly complicated and messy system of trade throughout the empire that really only the aristocracy understood. But while they remained strong the trade network did so as well.

But then the civil war came along and that all went as the aristocracy was pretty much wiped out during it as they finally fought one another and brought themselves crashing down. But the trade networks still remained in place and had become the norm by now. But now there was no facilitation and no one who could even understand the mess that had been created to try and fix it. Nobody could take control of the trade network that had been created and without the aristocracy to facilitate the trade or fix it, the trade simply fell apart. Sure there was still some minor trade along the network but that was very minor and nothing on the scale of previous trade under the aristocratic families.

Under any other circumstances the economy would not have been doomed and could have still held on due to the population bringing in significant amounts of tax for the state. But this would only be temporary by itself because, once the trade dried up so did the income and once the income dried up, the tax was next. But even that never came to pass because, in 3 BC, the most devastating hit to the Assyrian economy finally came.

Between 5 and 3 BC Tigranes fought a number of battles against Mithridates and finally succeeded in pushing him back to where the boundaries had been prior to the civil war. By July 3 BC, the 40-year-old Tigranes was on the verge of making an important assault which he intended to use to capture Ephesos, the primary Pontic port in Southern Anatolia. Capturing Ephesos was important because it was currently housing the Pontic navy which had launched a number of raids on the Assyrian supply lines and even trade routes. Tigranes was hoping that by capturing Ephesos he could force them out and gain a decisive naval victory. At the Assyrian fleet was en route from Antioch to Alexandreia while the Pontic fleet was in the dock at Ephesos. Mithridates himself still had about 60,000 soldiers and Tigranes had 50,000 soldiers in comparison but these represented really the last major armies the two could raise in the short term. But it was here, on the verge of this important campaign, that a small group of soldiers who were recent recruits from the Easternmost part of the empire, arrived at the army. Unbeknownst to Tigranes they carried a weapon more deadly than anything either the Assyrians or Pontic Empire had to use: Disease.

The Great Plague

Throughout the centuries there have been hundreds of people to study the great plague and try to work out what exactly it was. However despite numerous investigations and studies into the 'Great Plague' there have been no conclusions. Whatever the disease was it spread ridiculously quickly, it had a relatively low mortality rate at only about 10% as compared to Smallpox which had about 30%. But the fear of the disease came from its ease of spreading and it spread quickly.

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Initially the disease remained limited to the Assyrian army but it ravaged the army and, within only a couple of days had spread to a good 95% of the army. From here soldiers who were sent back, ill or dying, to the cities spread it among the populace and messengers spread it further as well. Soon it had reached Mithridates and his army and tore through it, killing thousands very quickly. To the people of the time, the disease was a thing of nightmares. It appeared to come out of nowhere and within a very short amount of time seemed to overwhelm people who, soon enough, died. The disease first broke out in September 3 BC but by the end of the year had spread throughout Western Anatolia and had ravaged the local population. Both the Assyrian and Pontic armies were brought down by the plague and were denied reinforcements from the disease ridden towns and cities throughout Anatolia.

On 9th November 3 BC Mithridates himself came down with the disease and died only two days later leaving the throne to his son Pharnaces III who was still based in Amaseia at the time. But the plague wasn't limited to the local people and armies as it brought down the Pontic Navy and inflicted heavy casualties on the crews and marines of the fleet. In comparison the Assyrian Navy missed the first few years of the outbreak as it was out at sea and then situated in Alexandreia. By the end of the year over 60,000 people were dead with the Assyrian and Pontic armies having lost a good 10-20% of their soldiers in the outbreak.

2 BC was just as bad a year as the outbreak spread out further, primarily it spread into Eastern Anatolia and into Syria where it hit cities such as Antioch especially hard but there was significant outbreaks on a number of Aegean Islands. The plague spread quickly and was carried just as much in the merchants and trade routes as the people and this allowed it to spread far and very quickly. It was during this year that the plague first made landfall on the other side of the Bosphorus albeit in small numbers. At the time there was a conflict going on as part of the Endless War with the Thalassan League. However this was a conflict brought to a halt by the outbreak the next year.

Throughout 1 BC the plague ravaged the Assyrian Empire through the Middle East to the Western banks of the Euphrates. It tore South through cities such as Tyros [3] and Damaskos and through the Sinai Peninsula into Egypt. In the North the Thalassan League had it's own army brought low by the plague and much of Thracia was hit heavily.

However if there was one year that marked the height of the plague, it was 0 when it spread ever further into the Assyrian Empire and finally reached Mesopotamia properly. The two most economically vital regions of Egypt and Mesopotamia were ravaged with over 40,000 deaths in Egypt and about 65,000 in Mesopotamia alone. The plague tore through the countryside and into Nineveh with deadly effects, in the meantime Greece was also ripped apart by the disease which reached even down to the island of Crete and hit the population heavily. The Assyrian Navy was trapped in the port of Alexandreia and took heavy casualties which forced it to remain in port as it was unable to sail. In the North the disease reached as far as Crimea and hit the migrating nomads especially bad as they tried to cross into the Assyrian Empire. Tribes took heavy casualties and many lost their leaders of heirs which hit their social structure especially badly. In the East it reached the Caspian Sea and in the West it even reached Southern Italy which was torn apart by the disease. Both Samnium and Etruria lost huge portions of what remained of their population after the 5th Italian War and were left damaged and broken once and for all.

For the next two years the disease started to slow down and spread far less than it had in 0 BC and killed significantly less people. Throughout 1 AD it spread further East into the Iranian Plateau and further North towards the Danube while in Italy it reached it's height at the Po Valley in July but began to recede over the next few months. 2 BC saw very limited growth as the disease made further inroads into the Caucasus and North to the Danube and even saw some expansion into the Iranian Plateau while in Italy the disease lost ground at an extraordinary rate and, by the end of the year, had more or less left the peninsula once and for all. The reason it really expanded far less throughout these years was the lack of people to infect, the regions North of Greece had far fewer people than Greece and the same went for the Caucasus which had few people. The Iranian Plateau fits the same bill and in the West, the people of Garamantia often weren't connected enough to one another for the disease to spread efficiently. In Italy the survivors were those who were more immune to the disease and with the population ravaged by war and then disease, there weren't enough people to keep it going.

Just as quickly as it had come, the disease burnt itself out and by August 3 BC it was more or less gone from the Assyrian and Pontic Empire. But the effect was huge as over 200,000 people were dead because of the outbreak and the populations of all the states involved in the outbreak were heavily broken.

But while it certainly seemed like the end of the chaos and death and fear that dominated people's lives, this was really only the beginning because things were about to take a turn for the worse...

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[1] Tabiti was a Scythian goddess and part of their pantheon and was equated with Hestia as part of the Greek Pantheon by Herodotus.

[2] The majority of the nomadic tribes appear to have been Scythian and there are notable mentions of Scythian tribes who settled in the region. However later historians mention tensions between Scythians and Sarmatians within the state leading us to believe there was some degree of Sarmatian migration into the Assyrian Empire.

[3] Tyros took the plague especially badly due to the extensive damage caused by the fighting during the civil war.


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Note from the Author: I'm so sorry about not having it up a couple of days ago, I wrote and re-wrote this update numerous times and was never happy with it until this final draft. I was going to go on to describe the economic crisis itself but I'll leave that for the next update assuming I haven't alienated everyone because I haven't had my daily updates.

Feedback appreciated. :D
 
A brutal number of years for the world. Still from what I understand it sounds like the Assyrian Empire is yet to hit its high point in 100 years. It could fall fast or decline over a large number of years. With the destruction of much of the nobility and wide spread death from the plague that also opens things up. A new merchant class may spread the wealth around more and labor will have more opportunities much like after the Black Death in Europe. Anyways great work as always.
 
I wonder how cultures and/or language are evolving differently so far...

Also why are you using BC/AD instead of something more neutral like BCE/CE? Christianity's been butterflied away after all.
 
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I wonder how cultures and/or language are evolving differently so far...

Also why are you using BC/AD instead of something more neutral like BCE/CE? Christianity's been butterflied away after all.

Yeah at some point, probably after the Endless War, I'll go over culture and language at the time.

Also the BC and AD thing is because that's just what I'm used to using as opposed to BCE and CE. But I don't see why Christianity has been butterflied away exactly.
 
Well that's the thing, the discrimination was subtle enough that it wasn't noticed by the majority of people, Shepeskaf's rebellion didn't take place until 17 BC so news would have reached the rest of the empire between then and 15 BC. This leaves only two years until Tigranes came along and became this figurehead for ending it. In the end these people get their point across by supporting Tigranes against the state. During this time it is possible for there to be a leader leading a revolt but unlike Shepeskaf's revolt, these are areas that have been part of the empire for longer (apart from Armenia but that is full of Assyrian soldiers at the time) and don't have Pontic soldiers walking around the place. Once Tigranes came along with his ridiculously good PR, this sentiment of revolution kind-off evolved into supporting Tigranes for the throne. I hope that answers your question. ::)

As always, however, thank you for the support.

Thanks for answering. Been too intrigued with the civil war to remember to reply.

:eek:

I'm guessing the foreshadowing in the last sentence will be about Assyria's messed up trade weakening and introducing a lot of chaos?

Sounds fun.

:D
 
Thanks for answering. Been too intrigued with the civil war to remember to reply.

:eek:

I'm guessing the foreshadowing in the last sentence will be about Assyria's messed up trade weakening and introducing a lot of chaos?

Sounds fun.

:D

Well exactly, the foreshadowing is that the Assyrian economy is about to collapse and this collapse will rain hell down upon the Mediterranean.
 
Menkera 'the Destroyer'

Probably one of the most famous personalities of the economic crisis and a man who definitely embodied everything that happened and can be seen as a perfect case study of the economic crisis was Menkera. Menkera is most well known as one of the most successful pirates of the ancient world, but one of his most important effects historically comes from how we can see, in him, the economic crisis unfold.

Menkera was born to a relatively poor merchant family in 38 BC on the border of the province of Egypt in a small town by the name of Clyneimu [1] which was situated right on the border on the Levantine coast of the Sinai desert. By no means were his family farmers or manufacturers, instead his family was primarily a merchant family and it was this that led to the problems. When Menkara was born, the city of Clyneimu was part of a region in Egypt that was under the influence of the Sankhiro family. As mentioned previously, the aristocratic families didn't want a full on confrontation between themselves and so worked out this incredibly complicated and downright ridiculous system to avoid such conflict. This system involved cutting up the territory throughout the empire into regions of influence in which a certain family would hold influence over trade, people and even local government. But this also meant that the regions of influence of a certain family were disjointed and all over the place and this led to a complicated and messy series of trade routes to minimise influence from other families.

Looking at Menkara's family we can see exactly how the trade worked because the aristocratic families themselves didn't perform the trade but facilitated minor merchant families to do it for them. Menkara's family came under the influence of the Sankhiro family and had trade facilitated throughout the empire. By the time Menkara was born they traded as far as Nineveh and Thebes but never beyond the empire. The Sankhiro family kept their trade safe, pushed their interests over merchant families from other aristocratic regions and helped them bring in money. But what they certainly didn't do was protect their interests over the interests of other merchant families working for the Sankhiro family and they certainly didn't do any of this for free. The Sankhiro family extorted a heavy tax on any trade from Menkara's family of about 40% of the income for Menkara's family itself. Not just that but competition from other merchant families within the Sankhiro territory also cut down on profits from trade. There was, of course, a way for Menkara's family to gain a lead over their rivals within the Sankhiro territory and that was to pay an extortionate fee for the Sankhiro family to put their interests above the interests of other merchant families. Naturally such an arrangement of the Sankhiro family favouring them would only last temporarily and would rarely bring in actual profits. But Menkara's family, like most merchant families, were oblivious to such a fact and wasted large amounts of money to gain this bonus.

These were all reasons why Menkara's family, like so many merchant families throughout the empire, remained poor. Now while there was no direct confrontation between the Sankhiro family and their main rival, the Asmaro family, there was political scheming and treachery between the two to advance their interests. The rivalry was born out of a desire to control the Sinai peninsula and thus hold influence over trade between Egypt and mainland Assyria and to help control more of Syria. [2] This political scheming led the heads of both families to meet in Antioch where they discussed an end to the conflict between the two. In Syria the Sankhiro family gained the Asmaro territory and, in the Sinai peninsula, the Asmaro family gained the Sankhiro territory. Now Menkara's family had a choice, go bankrupt or switch their trade to the Asmaro family. This was a common choice for merchant families at the time and posed a massive problem for them because the effects were never good. Naturally Menkara's family changed to Asmaro trading support but at a tax rate of 50% of their income from trade. Interestingly enough it would never be the crippling taxes on their primary income that would destroy Menkara’s family but what would happen later.

The Asmaro family had lost the Sinai desert by about 14 BC and were replaced by another great Assyrian family in the region [3] who held the Sinai desert in its entirety for only two years with Menkara and his family now suffering a good 55% tax on their trade. However in 12 BC the Sinai desert reverted to being split between two families one of which was the Sankhiro who once again retained the region around Clyneimu. However the tax didn’t revert to 40% but actually increased to about 58% of any income coming in from trade. The Sankhiro family would retain the region for the next 2 years until 10 BC when the civil war broke out and the aristocracy was forced into a heavy conflict. Effectively they did retain influence in the region but there was a steady decline in their actual power there until 7 BC by which point they had receded. By 5 BC the majority of the great families had been wiped out save for a couple who survived only barely. One of the few surviving families were the Sankhiro who pretty much retreated any trading operations to a minor region in the South. This civil war was the end of the previous merchant arrangement as the previous aristocratic families had their fortunes ruined and their influence broken. Interestingly enough, the Sankhiro family survived both the civil war and the great plague and would later make a recovery.

As for Menkara and his family, they were driven to ruin like many other poorer merchant families. They no longer had to pay the crippling tax on their trade but now there was no trade and no way to facilitate it. Soon enough, however, it seemed as if trade might have been returning to the empire and the next 2 years would be filled with the merchant families trying to restore trade to their regions and achieve some income. Nevertheless many were financially ruined and suffered heavy from starvation and lack of water including Menkara’s family who were nearly destroyed by starvation. In 3 BC the killing blow came and Menkara’s family was destroyed leaving only the 35 year old Menkara as the sole survivor.

Menkara was now bankrupt, financially ruined and had seen his family destroyed and so turned to get money in one of the oldest ways possible, banditry. This was not the piracy that Menkara would later be known for but it was the start of his career and just as impressive as his later work. Between 2 BC and 1 AD Menkara would travel to Gaza and other cities throughout the Levant and build up a group of bandits under his leadership with the promise of riches. This was a group that soon became known as ‘Ta Gerakia tou Adi’ or ‘The Falcons of Hades’. Initially they began as most bandit groups did, with small scale raiding of travellers along the roads in the Levant around the region of Tyre and this would see some success but any attempts at larger goals failed ultimately due to local guards. Really things began in 3 AD with the real beginning of the economic crisis, without the population or aristocrats to sustain trade or enough population for taxes, the economy crumbled and with it poverty spiralled out of control. There was no aristocracy anymore and the middle classes fell drastically, even the empire itself found itself quickly running out of money to pay soldiers with. But it wasn’t just Assyria that was affected but the Mediterranean as well, initially the attempts made to save the economy involved a) Minting more money and b) devaluing the money by decreasing the gold or silver or bronze content with cheaper materials. This was the initial response to the bankruptcy of the treasury in 4 AD and the rapidly accumulating debt in 5 AD and would bring everything down. The Assyrian empire was a huge centre of trade and the trade was vital to other states in the Mediterranean such as Samnium and Etruria or even Qart Hadasht. A number of Greek states also relied heavily on Assyrian trade not to mention the many tribes and kingdoms on the Assyrian borders. As the entire Assyrian trade network fell apart around Tigranes’ ears, so did the Mediterranean trade network as suddenly a huge source of not only goods but currency had been removed from the equation. Trade with India from the Mediterranean was gone, access to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf was gone and probably the biggest market in the world was gone. The economic crisis began in Assyria but it tore everything down around it all across the Mediterranean, Carthage, a number of Greek city states, Samnium, most of Southern Italy and Sicily, Massalia and a number of Gallic tribes in Southern Gaul suddenly lost a huge market and a huge source of both money and goods. Suddenly debts couldn’t be paid and the treasuries of many states just disintegrated before their eyes.

For Menkara this was, surprisingly, a golden opportunity for his group of bandits as he suddenly found that guards could be very easily bribed now that there was an economic crisis (despite the fact that the value of the Assyrian currency was about to go into free-fall). Not just that but Menkara found that he could achieve huge numbers of supporters and his bandit group grew exponentially. By August 5 AD, Menkara had basically carved out his own little kingdom of influence in the Levant from Tyre to Damaskos and even Gaza. From his own little base in the centre of his web, Menkara bribed entire towns and guards and extorted huge sums of money from the people. Notably he even used his power to sack both Damaskos and Tyre and opened up huge sums of money to him and his bandits. But Menkara’s bandit group would only last another two months before a group of soldiers under personal command of Tigranes’ second son, Assurbanipal [4], hunted them down and slaughtered them. Menkara , however, survived albeit heavily wounded and fled to Tyre with about 60 remaining men and managed to take control of a warship docked in the port and fled out to sea.

By November the Assyrian economy was ruined as the currency had more or less no value to it and was nigh-on useless. By this point Assyria was in crippling debt and, ironically, so was Pontus and yet the fighting continued albeit very lightly along the border between the two empires. Menkara now led his group of pirates to Crete where he raided a number of towns and villages along the coastline of the island before turning his attention to the Aegean Islands. In January 6 AD Menkara stopped in Athens and his crew swelled to about 200 strong from the bankrupt and impoverished state, at this point Menkara could barely sustain this crew on his one ship and, when in February Menkara docked once again and had his crew swell yet again from another impoverished city state, he set about acquiring further ships. In late February 6 AD Menkara and his men raided and sacked the city they were in and took control of a number of other ships before sailing off into the Aegean. Here Menkara led a devastating series of raids against the majority of the Aegean Islands. Everywhere Menkara went he found poverty and ruined economies as the situation worsened. But Menkara never took any currency from the places he sacked for one reason, most currencies were completely useless by this point anyway and instead he took valuable goods and prisoners. But there was a need to make some useable money from his ventures and Menkara turned South to Garamantia.

If two states really took advantage of the turmoil, they were Garamantia and Qart Hadasht, for a long time these two states were overshadowed in their trade by Assyria who dominated the trade throughout the Mediterranean and both states wanted to grow their trade networks. In late November 6 AD Menkara sailed into the port at Lepcis and there met with the Garamantian king, Simisola II. At the time the Garamantians had been laying siege, unsuccessfully to the city of Carthage and Menkara offered them a deal:

-Menkara would help them take Carthage but would share in the looting
-Menkara would also continue piracy in the Mediterranean but not against Garamantian ships to allow them to grow their trade network.
-The Garamantians would provide a market for stolen goods and would act as a fence of sorts for the pirates.

This was a deal Simisola agreed to which led to Menkara leaving the port and sailing for Carthage, en route Menkara encountered a good 10 Carthaginian ships going to help at the siege and confronted them. Surprisingly Menkara succeeded in defeating the Carthaginians and took many of the ships even recruiting some 23 Carthaginians to his cause. Menkara’s fleet now sailed along to Carthage and blockaded the port. Once again Menkara used his greatest ability against his enemies, bribery. Despite the poor state of the Carthaginian economy, the currency had held up and was still useful for bribes which Menkara certainly was happy to use. One night Menkara bribed a number of Carthaginian soldiers to release the chains that protected the cothon [5] and to let his ships in, these guards did just that and Menkara managed to sneak into the port. Inside he launched a surprise attack on the Carthaginian fleet to deadly effect and left the majority of them smouldering husks in the water as his soldiers began an attack on the city. The defenders had been taken by surprise as Menkara’s pirates pushed into the city and managed to quickly take significant portions of it including one of the gates. This gate they opened to the Garamantians and set about looting the city.

This has become known as the ‘Desecration of Carthage’ and that was exactly what happened as Menkara’s men were released on the city. Men were slaughtered and significant portions of the city were burnt, women and children were raped and killed with significant amounts of possessions being taken by the pirates. A good third of the city was completely destroyed with another third suffering heavy damage before the pirates finally receded back to their ships. The majority of the goods were then sold on to the Garamantians for a profit and Menkara’s pirates moved on. The next 3 years were full of brutality as Menkara launched an unprecedented spree of raids throughout the Mediterranean from Antioch (which he sacked in 8 AD) to Qart Hadasht (which he sacked in July 9 AD). Interestingly enough these 3 years aren't very well documented save for the sheer destruction he caused.

By 9 AD Menkara and his crew were rich as they returned to Lepcis once again after the sack of Qart Hadasht. Menkara had become a feared force in the Mediterranean and was preparing for what he intended to make his biggest spree of raids ever as he intended to tear through the Mediterranean and sack all the biggest ports. This was a move that would have cemented Menkara's reputation as an invincible pirate on the Mediterranean sea. In November 9 AD Menkara docked in the Garamantian Empire and sold off his goods and began making preparations for his biggest raid-spree ever. In late December Menkara left Lepcis. He would never return.

What exactly happened is unknown as Menkara nor his fleet ever turned up, they never raided another port or sank another ship and none of his wealth (whatever wealth he kept on his ships) ever turned up. Nor did his crew ever turn up and Menkara seemed to just vanish off the face of the planet. Conspiracies and theories abound from aliens having kidnapped him to simply a storm destroying the fleet but no evidence has ever been found of what happened to Menkara 'the Destroyer'.

The Siege of Ephesos

By late August 9 AD the Assyrian Empire was completely bankrupt and deep in debt from an unending war against Pontus but the war had gone too deep to simply arrange a peace treaty between the two and Tigranes was on the verge of taking Ephesos. By this point the Pontic fleet was completely gone and the Assyrian fleet was pretty much unusable so neither side could expect a naval victory to help win the war and had to slug it out on land.

Pharnaces had pulled his forces North and sought to save himself in Amaseia as he mustered as many remaining soldiers as possible while leaving Southern Anatolia to it's fate. Tigranes now finally broke the stalemate and pushed forward towards Ephesos itself with his battered army. Ephesos was an important port for the Pontic Empire and Tigranes hoped it would be the point at which the Pontic Empire would submit to the Assyrians. But it was not to be. Nevertheless the siege would be the point at which the war would start to wind down from and the real turning point of the conflict, it would also be the height of the overall crisis for Assyria. By this point both states were bankrupt and seemed completely doomed to destruction as they limped on in this war.

Finally in early November Tigranes laid siege to Ephesos with his army for what would amount to a 9-month siege of the city. The city held firm against his force and refused to yield, even as their resources ran out the Tigranes breached the walls. But in March 10 AD Tigranes was shot by an archer on the walls and killed at the age of 53 on March 16th. He was succeeded by his son, second king in the Ohanesian Dynasty, who took the name Tigranes and became Tigranes II. However Tigranes died within a month of coming to the throne and was succeeded by his younger, 24 year-old, brother Assurbanipal IV.

Assurbanipal IV was no warrior nor a general and was more or less incompetent militarily. But he knew that and left the duty of command to more capable people and really only worked as a figurehead for the army with very little actual command of the army. He had defeated Menkara's bandits but that was primarily due to significantly higher numbers of men. But Assurbanipal had one major advantage to him that his father didn't really have, he was a brilliant politician and economist. Assurbanipal IV was a fantastic diplomat, politician, economist and political leader and really was the Seleucus IV of the Assyrian Empire. If there was one man who could save Assyria, it was Assurbanipal and he certainly intended to save it.

Finally in July 10 AD, Ephesos fell to Assyrian forces and Assurbanipal arranged a 10-month truce with Pontus to give him time to strengthen his position. But he knew that after those 7 months, the war would commence and there was a very high chance that the Assyrian Empire could not take much more warfare as it was. This gave Assurbanipal 10 months, 10 months to fix decades of decay and rot, 10 months to fix cracks to the very centre of the empire, 10 months to bring the economy back from the depths and 10 months to save the empire...

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[1] Clyneimu was a small Egyptian town founded as part of the Egyptian province in 45 BC.

[2] Both families held neighbouring regions of influence in both the Sinai peninsula and Syria.

[3] This family is never named in any of the sources it is mentioned in but was known to be an influential family in Northern Egypt.

[4] Tigranes had a number of sons who were primarily given Assyrian names and named after previous Assyrian Kings.

[5] The primary Carthaginian port situated at the port of Carthage, it could hold an estimated 400 ships and had chains that could be pulled over to prevent hostile ships from entering.
 
Great chapter. I especially loved the story of Menkara and his transformation from poor member of a merchant family to rapacious conquerer. What he did to Carthage was savage. Will the Assyrians be the next to fall and will Egypt collapse into civil war?
 
Great chapter. I especially loved the story of Menkara and his transformation from poor member of a merchant family to rapacious conquerer. What he did to Carthage was savage. Will the Assyrians be the next to fall and will Egypt collapse into civil war?

Well if anyone has the ability to save Assyria and keep Egypt in the empire, it's Assurbanipal. That isn't to say he will succeed because the last guy like him to tried to keep an empire together was Seleucus IV and he lost pretty much everything East of Mesopotamia and large portions of Anatolia doing so. But who knows.

As for Menkara, yes I enjoyed his development and I enjoyed building it up. My thinking was that it would give a better view of exactly why the situation was so bad once the aristocracy fell apart because they facilitated the trade of the empire and what exactly the economic crisis did to people. The thing is that I didn't want Menkara to be a good man or even so much a bad man, he destroys the population of Carthage and does some savage and terrible things but it is the loss of pretty much everything that led to that point.

Thanks for the support though. Apologies about the big break, I don't know if I can keep up the momentum of one a day any more even though I tried.
 
The Endless War: Phase III (10-20 AD)

The Truce

It was at the very beginning of Assurbanipal's reign in July 10 AD that a ten month truce was declared between Assyria and Pontus so as to give Assurbanipal time to re-organise the empire and try to save it from collapse which it was on the brink of doing. There was one major problem standing in his way in that the truce was to be a total of ten months after which the war would resume and the Assyrian Empire could very well collapse. However the truce wouldn't even last ten months and would end after only 7 in the end.

Month I: August 10 AD

Assurbanipal moved quickly to protect his position in the empire and immediately had the army disperse to camps along the border so as to reduce the threat posed by a large standing army with nothing to do. His first job had to be to secure his reign which he moved to do by travelling straight to Nineveh for an official crowning ceremony. En route however Assurbanipal set about surveying the situation of the aristocrats prior to the war and began trying to sort out the mess. He had a map drawn up of the various regions of influence of each family and set about making his own version of what the aristocrats did.

On 23rd August 10 AD Assurbanipal began work on, once again, facilitating trade. To do this he wrote to a number of small merchant families in important regions of the empire to effectively set them up as primary merchant families for the empire. It was these families that would benefit the most from more facilitated trade and it was these families that would effectively become the major merchants for the empire. Like with the aristocrats, Assurbanipal set up what became known as the 'Merchant Tax'. This was a tax on any and all trade throughout the empire levied directly byu the state to go to the treasury but it was generally set at a basic of only 5% for Assyrian merchants and 10% for foreign merchants. [1]

Effectively this worked in that any money made trading throughout the empire, was taxed by the state and the tax went to the treasury itself. This involved any monetary transactions involving merchants but the tax varied depending on the type of transaction. If an Assyrian merchant was selling goods to anyone, the money paid to that merchant only underwent a 5% tax. However if a foreign merchant was selling anything in Assyria, the money paid to that merchant underwent a 10% tax. This was effectively to give the Assyrian merchants an upper hand against their rivals in matters of trade and money.

This of course wouldn't take hold immediately and certainly wouldn't work while the empire itself couldn't facilitate trade and while it's infrastructure was still in a decaying state. At the moment the Assyrian Empire still had no money with which to begin rebuilding the infrastructure and to facilitate important trade with. This was Assurbanipal's next priority.

Month II: September

In September 10 AD, Assurbanipal began visiting numerous towns and villages en route to Nineveh while furthering his goals. He knew that the treasury was empty and that improving the entire situation required money but this was where the problem arose in that the Assyrian currency was completely worthless. This was the catch 22 of the economic crisis:

To give the Assyrian currency more value, Assurbanipal needed money. But to be able to use money in such a way, Assurbanipal needed the currency to have more value.

So Assurbanipal, now faced with a major problem, solved it by simply scrapping the Assyrian currency and beginning to make a new one. This was huge because it required so much organisation and without a currency to pay men with, this seemed utterly impossible. But Assurbanipal did begin rounding up the old currency and having it all filtered to the various mints throughout the empire so as to establish a new currency.

Month III: October

In early October 10 AD, Assurbanipal finally arrived at Nineveh and began designing a new Assyrian currency. This was to turn the tide of devaluation by bringing the weight and degree of gold, silver and bronze back up. This new currency was brought back up to the original weight of the previous currency at 5 grams, 10 grams and 50 grams but new measures were put in. The currency was given limits to how much it could be devalued in times of crisis, the basic was to be kept at these weights at all times but in times of crisis they could be devalued by up to only 5% and no more. To devalue the currency any more than by 5% was considered a serious crime. This meant that the very bottom weight of a 50 gram coin was at 45 grams.

Assurbanipal also began scrapping the old Greek-named currency and replaced it with an older and more traditional type of currency known as the sheqel. The original sheqel (or shekel) was a specific unit of currency weighted at about 11 grams but the new Assyrian style came in a number of forms. This time you had the basic sheqel weighted at 5 grams with the 'silver' sheqel being weighted at ten grams and the 'gold' sheqel being weighted at 50. The mints were kept the same and in the same number as they were for the previous economy.

Once this new currency had been designed in late October, Assurbanipal had copies sent out to every mint in the empire to start producing the coins they had the ability to produce.

Month IV: November

Assurbanipal now had to wait for the currency to begin proper circulation before he could begin to fill up his treasury and turn the crisis around and set about reviewing the empire. Assurbanipal was lucky at this point that the manpower had been drained sufficiently that the people didn't revolt against him but there was still a risk of the army turning against him and that certainly seemed to be happening.

To counter this growing problem, Assurbanipal had his official coronation in Nineveh in early November before leaving for the front lines. En route Assurbanipal made sure to meet with the local people and to get them on his side to secure his position. While he did this, Assurbanipal also began making notes on the main problems of the empire. These were namely the sheer corruption of the guards throughout the empire and inability for merchants to communicate and trade over long distances.

Month V: December

Assurbanipal moved quickly and met with the army in mid December 10 AD and established himself only 5 miles from the front lines in a relatively small base of operations. He began meeting with important members of the army and using his diplomatic skill to win them over to his side so as to gain their support. Gradually, bit by bit, Assurbanipal succeeded in getting the soldiers back on his side and cutting down drastically on the threat of rebellion.

Month VI: January

By January 11 AD, the new currency was really beginning to circulate and become more established, the real establishment would still take a long time and Assurbanipal knew this but he could finally set it up as the official currency of the empire. Throughout January he also met with a number of people to begin designing a number of reforms for when the economy was ready.

Month VII: February

In February 11 AD, Assurbanipal was faced with growing tensions with Pontus as he met with Pharnaces to come to an agreement to stop the truce from being broken. In the short term he did succeed in avoiding the truce being broken throughout February but it wouldn't last through March and Assurbanipal saw this coming. At this point he was faced with a major problem as he didn't have an established currency yet with which to properly pay the soldiers. Assurbanipal knew that he needed more time to save himself even if the truce was broken with Pontus and he began working on giving himself this needed time. In late February Assurbanipal wrote to a number of small anti-Pontic groups in Anatolia most of which were led by descendants of the kings who originally ruled these lands and people who had a claim to the land.

Assurbanipal effectively promised these people help in their rebellions if they began helping him out militarily by actually rebelling against Pontus. By using his diplomatic skill, Assurbanipal managed to convince them that their rebellions would work with Assyrian support. Ultimately however this was only to distract Pharnaces and give Assurbanipal much needed time as he intended to actually provide little support.

In March the truce was broken and the war resumed once again.

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[1] This did vary at points for different states and could be lower or higher depending on various political factors or treaties established between states.
 
The Turning Point​

11 AD was really a turning point for the Assyrian Empire and the Endless War as a whole, it was at this point that the Endless War began to really begin it's decline towards the actual ending and it was at this point that the Assyrian Empire really began it's recovery. The rebels in Pontus helped distract the Pontic army by large and certainly gave Assurbanipal time to sort out more problems back home. In the months between February and November 11 AD Assurbanipal travelled around the empire and finished writing up his set of reforms on more or less everything. By using his diplomatic skill, Assurbanipal met with representatives for each province of the empire and used their feedback to develop these reforms.

During this period the currency managed to circulate even more which definitely shows some revival of trade already before Assurbanipal could properly begin to facilitate it. In July 11 AD Assurbanipal sent out missives to a number of states asking for loans to build up his treasury notably Garamantia and Qart Hadasht. He promised lowered taxes on trade and favour in the same area in return for their money as a loan for the Assyrian Empire which would be paid back eventually. Ultimately in October Assurbanipal received a total of 2 million sheqels in loans which drastically increased the debt of the empire but gave Assurbanipal money to work with.

Assurbanipal then put this money to good use as he began re-establishing trade routes throughout the empire and developing trading outposts. In general this money largely went to facilitating trade once again and helping establish proper trade routes. As part of this Assurbanipal began instituting his reforms which, as part of the reforms, completely overhauled the guards of the empire and cut down on corruption and crime. Generally Assurbanipal began investing huge sums of money into the empire which soon began to get the infrastructure up and running once again. Bit by bit Assurbanipal, between November 11 AD and July 12 AD, really brought the Assyrian economy back from the brink. The trade began to start up properly once again throughout the empire and the tax began rolling in again which finally gave the Assyrians some money in their treasury to use.

In August 12 AD Assurbanipal finally instituted his reforms properly using the money he had on hand to rebuild the empire. The reforms were both huge and comprehensive and are very important in the empire's history overall.

Assurbanipal's Reforms

Military

-Really the main portion of Assurbanipal's reforms was centred around bringing the military together and making it a more effective fighting force. To this extent he began to completely re-define the Assyrian armies from being simply the 1st Assyrian Army to being, say, the Mesopotamian Army. These armies weren't limited to the regions they were posted in or fought in but were given names based on provinces throughout the empire. Soldiers would be assigned an army when they began their military career and would stay with that army until their career ended or until they died.

-Unlike before generals were no longer simply swapped around but assigned an army and stayed with it. This led to greater trust between the soldiers and their generals and created a more efficient fighting force.

-Armies were also reformed in such a way so as to allow them to have some degree of change based upon a number of factors. This meant that armies would change over the course of their lifetime and pick up traditions and some minor differences which could come from fighting specific campaigns or being posted in specific areas. For example the Armenian Army would become known later for it's strong infantry while the Egyptian Army would become known for the cavalry element which was both larger and generally better than that of the Armenian army.

Trade

-In general Assurbanipal did everything he could to facilitate trade and to prevent an incredibly strong aristocracy from forming as had happened before. The first reform was to put the job of facilitating trade in the hands of the state and to keep it that way, to which end Assurbanipal created an entirely new group in the court responsible for monitoring trade throughout the empire and facilitating it.

-Next Assurbanipal set up a number of trade outposts along the Assyrian road which were to act as rest stops for traders so as to allow for further trading. These rest stops allowed traders to rest and water their horses and to rest themselves before trading further. This gave the traders more ability to trade further afield.

-The next set of reforms were to help protect poorer merchant families and to help them facilitate trade throughout the empire. Markets were opened up throughout the empire and there was a strong ability to trade both far and wide but also to trade locally. Assurbanipal also put a large focus on trading throughout the empire and not just in local areas.

Infrastructure

-Assurbanipal first made sweeping repairs to the road network and to harbours and ports throughout the empire. He also made an effort to improve both. Along the road network he completely overhauled the guard system and restructured it to, not only cut down on corruption, but give a detailed hierarchy to the guards of the empire.

-Assurbanipal also began repairs to town and city defences and even the fort system along the borders of the empire.

-Next Assurbanipal finally established a courier system throughout the empire so as to help speed up communications in addition to repairing the beacon system.

There were a number of other reforms that Assurbanipal would institute but these were the main areas of the reform and easily had the biggest impact on the empire. By late 12 AD the Assyrian economy was really getting going once again and Assurbanipal could turn his attention back to his two main goals, ending the Endless War and ending the economic crisis once and for all.
 
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