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To facilitate conquests and maintain control over their growing list of vanquished foes, the Assyrians constructed roads throughout their empire. These same roads were utilized when they established a well-planned and orderly system of mail delivery, which enabled the king to keep in close, albeit indirect, touch with the officials who ruled in his stead in conquered territories. SARGON II (r. C. By this time, the 49 50 THE TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES RIVERS empire was filled with unrest, and Sargon turned his attention to restoring order and control over Assyria’s rebellious provinces.

Hammurabi seemed proud of the laws he had compiled and had them engraved in stone. ” 15 It is not likely that he accomplished all that he intended through his code, but Hammurabi did gain lasting fame and recognition. His engraved statutes are today known around the world. BABYLONIAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY Under Hammurabi’s rule, the Babylonian god Marduk was elevated to role of supreme deity. Sumerian myths were rewritten to recognize Marduk instead of Enlil as the god of creation, and the Babylonian primary female goddess, the ancient mother deity, was renamed Ishtar.

This painting by James Fergusson details the newly constructed palaces of Calah. power over Phoenician cities, Ashurnasirpal washed his weapons in the Mediterranean. Like his predecessors, he worked to reassert control over lost territories. Like the earlier Assyrian kings, Ashurnasirpal made a name for himself by committing brutal atrocities. He recounted the violence meted out against some of his foes: I built a pillar over against his city gate, and I flayed all the chief men . . and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up within the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes .