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[[File: Ashurbanipal_lion_hunting.jpg|300px|thumbnail|left|Relief of King Ashurbanipal on a Lion Hunt]]

The ancient Near East could be a brutal place and among the most efficiently brutal of all Near Eastern peoples were the Assyrians. From their stronghold in the city of Ashur, high on a cliff above the Tigris River in northern Mesopotamia, the Assyrians embarked on an odyssey of violence that eventually resulted in them conquering some of the oldest and most venerable kingdoms of the region including: Babylon, Mitanni, Israel, and Egypt. An examination of Assyrian military campaigns reveals that they were able to conquer their neighbors by using a combination of new military tactics and technologies, following a religion that promoted warfare, and employing a level of brutality that would have made Genghis Khan wince, yet was totally efficient and effective.