Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire

Join us for an ancient history talk with Yale professor, Eckart Frahm. He will discuss his fascinating new book, Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire.

In this talk, historian Eckart Frahm will cover the epic story of Assyria and its formative role in global history. 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. 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. Frahm’s authoritative account of this civilization is essential to understanding the ancient world and our own.

Eckart Frahm is the John M. Musser Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Yale University. His research interests focus on Assyrian and Babylonian history, cuneiform scholarly texts of the first millennium BCE, and the connections between literature, religion, and politics in ancient Mesopotamia and Israel. He is the author or co-author of seven books, most recently Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Empire (New York and London 2023).