Volume 1: Ancient Times 51

chapter eight
The Assyrians

Shamshi-Adad, King of the Whole World

Hammurabi was the most powerful king in southern Mesopota-

mia. But up to the north, another king was building another empire
His name was Shamshi-Adad, and he didn’t want to be a fair ruler
who made good laws. He just wanted to rule the whole world.
Shamshi-Adad lived in a city called Assur. Babylon was in the
south of Mesopotamia, next to the Euphrates River. But Assur
was in the north part of Mesopotamia, beside the Tigris River.
When Shamshi-Adad became king of Assur, he decided
that Assur should be the center of a new empire. He started out
by building a huge temple to the god he worshipped, The God
of Winds and Storms. The temple was made out of cedar logs,
covered with silver and gold. Shamshi-Adad even rubbed the
foundation with oil, honey, and butter to make his god happy. He
wanted The God of Winds and Storms to be on his side and to
give him more power, so that he could win battles more easily.
On the day that the temple was finished, Shamshi-Adad
announced, “The God of Winds and Storms loves the city of
Assur more than any other city in the world! And he wants
me to be the king of the whole world.” The people of Assur all
shouted, “Shamshi-Adad will be king of the whole world!”
52 The Story of the World

Then Shamshi-Adad gathered his army together and set off

to conquer the cities of Mesopotamia. His two sons went with
him to fight beside him. Every time Shamshi-Adad conquered
a new city, he made his sons the new rulers of that city. Soon
the Assyrian army had conquered all the cities nearby!
Shamshi-Adad wanted the people of Mesopotamia to be
afraid of him. He was a dictator—he didn’t allow any of the
people in his new kingdom to ask questions about his laws
and his commands. He just wanted them to obey him im-
mediately.
How did he get them to obey? He killed anyone who
wouldn’t do exactly what he said! When he conquered a city,
he chopped off the heads of all the leaders and put them up
on stakes around the city. He burned buildings and told his
soldiers to destroy everything they could find.
No wonder everyone in Mesopotamia was afraid of the
Assyrians! Soon, Shamshi-Adad didn’t even have to fight battles
to conquer cities. As soon as he got near a city’s walls, the leaders
would come out and surrender. They would offer to pay him
money and to call him their king, if he would just let them
live. Shamshi-Adad would agree to spare their lives—but only
if they would do exactly what he said and obey every single
one of his decrees.
Now Shamshi-Adad’s empire spread all over the northern
part of Mesopotamia. He named his empire Assyria, after the city
of Assur. And he called himself the King of the Whole World.
But this wasn’t exactly true. Remember Babylon, down
in the south of Mesopotamia? Babylon had an empire too.
Shamshi-Adad never tried to conquer Babylon, or to take
Babylon’s cities away. He knew that Babylon was too strong
for him.
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When Shamshi-Adad died, he left one of his sons the job

of ruling over the whole Assyrian Empire. He left the other son
in charge of one of biggest cities in Assyria, the city of Mari.
He hoped that the two young men would work together to
keep his empire strong.
But the brothers bickered with each other. They wrote each
other nasty letters. They complained about each other. They
didn’t keep Assyria united and strong.
Soon, Hammurabi decided that he wanted to make Assyria
part of the Babylonian Empire. He marched up into northern
Mesopotamia with his army. He destroyed the city of Mari,
and he took over the city of Assur. Now the Assyrians had to
pay tribute to Hammurabi, and call Hammurabi “King of the
Whole World.”
But Hammurabi wasn’t as cruel as Shamshi-Adad had been.
He let some of the Assyrian leaders stay in charge of their cit-
ies, as long as they followed his Code of Laws. And he didn’t
chop off the heads of leaders, or burn their houses. The Assyr-
ians agreed to obey Hammurabi—but all the time, they were
thinking, “One day we will be free again—and we will try to
conquer the world one more time.”

The Story of Gilgamesh

Both the Babylonians and the Assyrians told stories about a

great, mythical king named Gilgamesh. The story of Gilgamesh
is one of the oldest fairy tales in the world!
54 The Story of the World

O nce upon a time, a king named Gilgamesh

ruled the city of Uruk. Gilgamesh was half-
god, and half-man. He was the strongest man on
earth. He could lift huge stones with one hand and
leap over high walls without even trying hard. He
was young and healthy, and he had all the money
and power any man could ever want.
But Gilgamesh was as cruel as he was strong.
He made the people of Uruk serve him day and
night. He took their money and their food. He took
their children to be his slaves. He never thought of
others—only of himself.
The people of Uruk were desperate to get rid of
this wicked king. So they called out to the sky-god,
Anu. “Help us!” they cried. “Our king is evil, and
we cannot fight him, because he has the strength
of a god!”
Anu looked down from the sky and was very
unhappy. “Look at this king, Gilgamesh!” he said.
“He has all the strength and power in the world—
and yet he is cruel to the weak and helpless! This
is not right. I will send an enemy to teach him a
lesson.”
So Anu created a monster called Enkidu—a
monster who was half man and half animal, with the
strength of a dozen lions. “Go and fight Gilgamesh,”
he told Enkidu, and sent the beast-man down into
the wild wastelands around the city of Uruk.
Meanwhile, Gilgamesh had a nightmare! He
dreamed that a huge axe appeared at his door—an
axe so big and sharp that he couldn’t even lift it.
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When he woke up, he asked his mother what the

dream meant. “A man is coming who can destroy
you!” his mother told him. “You will have to make
friends with him—or die!”
Enkidu came closer and closer to the city of
Uruk. But in the forest outside the city’s walls, he
met the son of a trapper, out checking his father’s
traps. When the boy saw the naked wildman, he
was frightened. But he felt sorry for Enkidu, because
the beast-man had no clothes or food, and could
not even speak. So he took Enkidu home with him
and introduced him to his friends, shepherds who
tended their flocks outside the city walls. Enkidu
lived with the trapper’s son and the shepherds for
a long time. They taught him how to talk, how to
eat, and how to wear clothes.
One day, Enkidu and his friends went into
Uruk, to the wedding of a great man who was
giving a feast for the whole city. But during the
wedding feast, Gilgamesh decided that he wanted
the bride. He marched into the hall, grabbed the
beautiful girl, and started to drag her away.
Enkidu was furious. He leaped up in front of
the door. “You may be the king,” he shouted, “but
you’ll have to kill me before you take this woman
away from her bridegroom!”
No one had ever told Gilgamesh what to do!
He leaped at Enkidu and tried to wrestle him to
the ground. They fought all up and down the wed-
ding hall until the food was smashed underfoot and
both of them were bleeding. Gilgamesh had never
56 The Story of the World

before met anyone so strong. Finally he won the

match—he pinned Enkidu down and sat on him.
But he was so tired from fighting that he could
barely move. He gasped out, “Let us be friends
from now on!”
From then on, Enkidu and Gilgamesh were
friends. Gilgamesh became kinder to the people in
his city, and he and Enkidu had many adventures
together.
One day, the bull of the gods escaped from
the sky and came down to earth. It came charg-
ing through Gilgamesh’s kingdom, killing hun-
dreds of people. It was so powerful that whenever
it breathed, huge holes and chasms opened up in the
earth. The people called to Gilgamesh and Enkidu
for help. Enkidu killed the bull and delivered the
whole country.

Slaying the bull of Heaven

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But the gods were angry with Enkidu for

killing their bull. They sent terrible illness upon
him. He suffered in pain for twelve days, and then
died.
Gilgamesh mourned his friend’s death. He or-
dered the whole world to weep over Enkidu. He
stopped taking baths; he even stopped eating. He
could not bear the thought that death had taken
Enkidu away. Finally, he decided that he would
have to find the secret of eternal life and conquer
death itself.
He decided to go see Utnapishtim—the only
immortal man on the whole earth. He traveled for
a year and a day, and finally reached Utnapishtim’s
home.
“What is the secret of eternal life?” he asked
Utnapishtim.
“If you can stay awake for six days and seven
nights,” Utnapishtim told him, “you too can be-
come immortal.”
Gilgamesh agreed—and instantly fell asleep.
He woke up seven days later. “Give me another
chance!” he begged.
“Well,” Utnapishtim said, “there is one more
chance for you. If you can swim all the way down
to the bottom of the ocean, you will find a magical
plant that lives on the sea’s bottom. Pick it and eat
it, and you will become young again.”
Gilgamesh leaped up, tied a stone to his feet,
and jumped into the ocean. He sank all the way
down to the bottom. There he found the magic
58 The Story of the World

plant. He picked it, swam back up to the top of the

ocean, and began the long journey home. “When
I get home,” he thought, “I will eat the plant, and
then I will live forever.”
But one night, while Gilgamesh slept, a snake
slithered up to him and found the plant. It smelled
good—so the snake ate it, and immediately became
young again. That is why snakes shed their skins.
When they begin to get old, they just climb out of
their wrinkled, old skins and become young again.
But Gilgamesh woke up to find his magic plant
gone. He went home to Uruk, weeping and mourn-
ing. And like all men, he became old and died.

But his story was told to all the children of Uruk, and has
been told to all their children, and to their children’s children,
until this very day.

Note to Parent: The Gilgamesh Epic was composed between 3000–1200

BC/BCE.