Assyria, remorse, and fools

In a previous study, I suggested that the Assyrians, who were required to provide men for wars and expeditions from which not everyone returned, needed reassurance In relation to two problems that have always confronted soldiers in war: fear of death (open, self-evident) and repugnance of or remorse (more subliminal) for killing fellow human beings.

To counteract the fear of death, Assyrian records relate that enemies die, and their deaths are counted in the hundreds and thousands; Assyrian losses are always omitted. Remorse for killing, buried deep in the human conscience, is exorcised by the conviction that the Assyrians are not to blame for these deaths. Instead, the enemies who foolishly oppose the universal order are at fault; they are the ones who began hostilities (or at least provoked war with their attitude): they force us to kill them. There is no shortage of modern and contemporary parallels.—Mario Liverani, Assyria: The Imperial Mission, 89

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I had read bits and pieces of this book over the years. Back before it was published, Jim forwarded the introduction to me, which immediately sold me on how important a book it is. Because I was the marketing guy at Eisenbrauns at the time, I made sure that the introduction was posted to the book's page. I figured that anyone who read the introduction would want to read the whole thing. It's still posted; you can find it here.

We'll only dip lightly into the book for the next week or two, but if you are at all interested in empire or the Assyrians, this is an excellent resource. So many of the succeeding empires learned from the Assyrians—both positively and negatively!
</idle musing>