

The Amorites: Bronze Age Invaders Who United an Empire
Sometime during the third millennium BC, a group of nomadic raiders expanded out of their mountainous homelands in Syria and stormed Mesopotamia. They were known as the Martu Read More


Alexander the Great: Bleeding Asia Dry – Part II
A famous Roman aphorism was used well by Tacitus: “They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal; this they falsely name Empire, and when they create a desert, then they call it peace”. It is a disillusioned speech from a later age which could...


Mithridates Clashes with Kings and Swallows up Territory: The ‘King of Kings’ of Ancient Iran — Part II
Mithridates (“The Gift of Mithra) exhibited qualities that most kings rarely have: experience and maturity. He understood that a king could retain his power only as long as the people and nobles were treated fairly.
To the benefit of h...


Alexander the Great Destroyer: Ancient Revenge or War for Profit? – Part II
“As Persepolis had exceeded all other cities in prosperity, so in the same measure it now exceeded all others in misery.”
Miseries along with poverty, for the people were raped of their land and their self. However, with such...


Hunting the Lions: The Last King of Assyria, and the Death of the Empire – Part II
The Assyrian empire, with the death of King Ashurbanipal, was collapsing und...


The Military Campaigns of Tiglath-pileser III: Priest King and Conqueror – Part 1
The year is 745 BCE and much of the Middle East is about to be conquered and confiscated by the powerful Assyrian Empire under King Tiglath-pileser III.
Tiglath-pileser III, is regarded as the founder of the second Assyrian Empire. Though...


Cyrus the Great: Conquests and Death! – Part I
Cyrus the Great or “Cyrus II” was King of Anshan from 559-530 BCE and known as the King of Four Corners of the world and founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Cyrus was the son of King Cambyses I of Anshan 580 to 559 BCE and his mother Mandane wa...


Banduddu: Solving the Mystery of the Babylonian Container
One of the great riddles in Mesopotamian sacred art concerns the image of anthropomorphic winged figures called Apkallu holding a mullilu (tree fruit) in one hand, and a banduddû — a container — in the other. The p...