Assyria

The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire

By: Eckart Frahm

Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies

Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

A new history of Assyria, the ancient civilization that set the model for future empires

At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the first empire the world had ever seen. Here, historian Eckart Frahm tells the epic story of Assyria and its formative role in global history. Assyria’s wide-ranging conquests have long been known from the Hebrew Bible and later Greek accounts. But nearly two centuries of research now permit a rich picture of the Assyrians and their empire beyond the battlefield: their vast libraries and monumental sculptures, their elaborate trade and information networks, and the crucial role played by royal women.

Although Assyria was crushed by rising powers in the late seventh century BCE, its legacy endured from the Babylonian and Persian empires to Rome and beyond. Assyria is a stunning and authoritative account of a civilization essential to understanding the ancient world and our own.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Eckart Frahm (P)2023 Basic Books

Critic reviews

"An extremely readable introduction to Assyria and the Assyrians, from their origins to their ultimate demise. Frahm presents a wealth of knowledge and information in an accessible manner, and with relevance to today, which will be of interest to scholars, students, and members of the general public alike."—Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C.

“Eckart Frahm has produced a compelling account of how the Assyrians built an empire that ruled over large territories and diverse peoples. Assyria offers us a new way to think about the formation and sustainability of an imperial model that has shaped human experiences for much of the past 3000 years. It is ancient history that remains relevant to this day.”—Edward J. Watts, author of Mortal Republic

“A superb, compelling, and exuberantly written history of the Assyrians, popularly known only as the bad guys of the Old Testament, but actually one of the most significant of all ancient Near Eastern empire builders. This book is filled with fascinating detail and cliché-busting analysis. Sweeping yet nuanced, Eckart Frahm challenges—and changes—the way we think about the Assyrians and the culture they fashioned.”—Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, author of Persians

wow, a moving masterpiece!

wanting to learn more about assyria for an upcoming video game I got far more than I bargained for! exceptionally narrated this boom takes you through what feels like a fever dream of history. it takes you along on the journey of the world's first empire step by step.i honestly want to listen to it again right now! p.s the final bit talking about ISIS is particularly moving and makes one believe in karma, the good of humanity and justice.

Fascinating!

There is so much covered here, it was simply fascinating. I appreciated the summary at the end covering the damage inflicted by ISIS and the meaning behind it.

Excellent book and reading

This was a great reading of the book. i enjoyed it very much. Will listen to this again.

Clarity of explanation and historical timeline!

Clarity of explanation and of the timeline. Also enjoyed greatly the historical explanations of many biblical stories.

Outstanding Historical Book

The book was extremely wellwell written and could be easily fallen by non-scholars scholars in those raiders who just enjoy history. The narrator is great, and kept my interest throughout the entire book.

great depth

far more info than I've found in any other single place. Definitely worth the time

Super informative and interesting!

I really enjoyed this book it was a great read and super interesting. I loved to hear the authors perspective and theories on where certain ideas or motif’s that we see in modern times could have originated from in ancient assyria and or from the general Mesopotamian area. Things like the iconography of “Satan” possibly coming from poems and texts about Sargon ii is very interesting. Or the story of the flood being something much older possibly even before the rise of Sumeria and Assyria all together. It’s a super cool that humanity has this collective memory that’s thousands of years old that we continue to change and put a fresh coat of paint onto as time goes on to serve different purposes. It’s very nice to read a very non-baised book about the Assyrians that’s speaks about them as their own unique culture and not something that is inherently evil. Sometimes I feel that when I read about Assyria it’s very much colored with general contempt of an author looking at them through a highly religious Christian lens but that’s not the case with this book. He gives a great overview of the culture and goes into detail about all the amazing accomplishments that the Assyrian empire was able to achieve. He doesn’t sugar coat it either. Like all cultures in ancient and modern times there is good and bad and I felt the author did a great job of showing both. They showed the harsh reality of colonial rule and the brutal means by which power is taken and kings are overthrown but still humanizing this culture by talking about the joke books scribes copied down or in one of my favorite parts in chp 13 where they talk about the average people in Nineveh and how they would curse at each other “… that shit bucket of a fart factory…” 💀💀that’s so funny. Overall very good book I really enjoyed it and definitely recommend!

Narrator is awesome

This is a great history of Assyria for the beginning learner and at the end the author gives fantastic context for how the Assyrian culture lives on.

Too much volume change in narration

The narrator has such a wide range in the volume of his reading that I missed about 15% of the book. He little more than whispers the last 2 to 3 words while almost shouting the first few.

Questions Unanswered

This book has the feeling of the lecture notes of a university survey course on Assyria. What a shame! There is no central argument given on how we should view the Assyrians. The author poses a debatable question and offers an extensive list of different perspectives or causal factors (climate change, economic problems, social oppression, etc.) but at the end will not definitively answer the question he poses. Is this where post-modernism has brought us? Are we that shy to pass definitive judgements on a civilization that has been dead for well over 2000 years?

Additionally, many of the answers offered as explanations seem to be tenuous and speculative trying to awkwardly link modern perspectives to past events. Rather than revise our understanding of events, this book just muddled them, at least for this listener.