MILITARY SOLDIERS IN ANCIENT TIMES

The Assyrians who fought at Lachish were feared throughout the ancient world. They had outstanding commanders, well-trained soldeirs, the latest equipment, courage, and confidence in their own ability. They rarely lost a battle, and most people faced with an Assyrian onslaught sensibly preferred to surrender. 

ARMY UNITS

They broke their army into separate levels and units, each with specialized skills:

• the king was the army's Commander in Chief
• his assistant, the equivalent of a field marshal, was in charge of keeping the army ready for battle, and moving it to a battlefield as required
• under the field marshal were lesser officers, each in command of units of soldiers
• these units were divided into 1,000, 200, 100, 50 and 10 men each.

There were light and heavy infantry (foot soldiers). Light infantry wore little or no armor; heavy infantry wore body armor and helmets.

Heavy infantry usually had direct contact with the enemy; light infantry fought from behind them, using various types of missiles.

This section of an Assyrian wall relief, held in the British Museum, shows different types of soldiers: archers, shield-bearers, sappers undermining
the city walls, and engineers manning the battering ram

ARCHERS AND SHIELD-BEARERS

Perhaps the most important section of the Assyrian infantry was its archers, who with their high advanced composite bow were used in all types of attach.

They often stood in chariots and fired arrows as the vehicle moved, but at Lachish this tactic was not used. The city was under siege and chariots were not used.

Instead, there was a tactical unit called the 'archer pair'. The first man was a traditional archer and marksman. He was accompanied by a second man who held a large wicker and hide shield that protected the archer against incoming arrows and any other types of missiles.

An archer takes aim, protected by a second soldier holding a wicker and hide shield.

Auxiliary archer in the Assyrian army; with kilt and studded headband;
his weapon is a composite bow

SLINGERS

Missile fighters like slingmen opened the battle under the protection of the heavy infantry, then retreated behind them when it came to close combat.

Slingers had been a part of the Israelite army for hundreds of years, as the story of David and Goliath suggests. As a weapon, they were cheap, easily manufactured, and effective.

They were also the weapon of choice for non-soldiers who were drawn into combat. For example, shepherds used them if they were defending their flocks against wild animals; their skill with a sling could also be useful in time of war.

The Assyrians formalised this by having units of slingers in their army.

SPEARMEN

Spearmen auxiliaries were used to scale the walls of a besieged city. They carried their weapons ready for use, and got covering fire from archers and slingers beneath them.

They were more lightly armored than the Assyrian infantry and wore a distinctive crested helmet instead of the pointed helmet of the other Assyrian soldiers.

 Amidst fierce fighting, spearmen made an assault on the fortified walls

 This auxiliary spearman has a round shield,
 crested helmet, and crossed chest straps

HEAVY INFANTRY

 An Assyrian heavy infantryman with conical iron helmet,
body armor of metal scales, and large shield

Heavy infantry was used in an open attack between two armies, but since the Assyrian army, with its formidable infantry, cavalry and chariot corps was so overwhelmingly successful, smaller nations stood no chance. They preferred instead to rely more and more on defending fortified cities, like Lachish.

Moreover, details of heavy infantry engagements are not as plentiful. When the Assyrian artists do show open battle, they content themselves with stressing the key part played by the chariots, charging from all directions and engaging in battle. 

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One important element of ancient warfare not mentioned here, because there is very little information about it, is the intelligence system.

But it certainly existed, as is shown in the story of Joshua's spies at Jericho. See 'JERICHO: RAHAB THE PROSTITUTE'S HOUSE' for this story.

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TWO VERSIONS OF THE STORY

The Bible describes Judah's humiliating defeat in just one verse: 'Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.'(2 Kings 18:13).

But Sennacherib's own records of the event are fuller: 'As to Hezekiah the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to forty-six villages in their vicinity, and conquered by means of well-stamped ramps, and battering rams brought near, attack by foot soldiers, mines, breeches as well as sapper work.... Himself (King Hezekiah) I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage.