Editing Assyria (section)

=== Administration ===
{{See also|Middle Assyrian Empire#Government|Neo-Assyrian Empire#Government}}
[[File:Stele of Ili-ittija governor of Libbi-ali, Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, Ekallatum, Itu, and Ruqahu. From Assur, Iraq. 804 BCE. Pergamon Museum.jpg|thumb|A stele of [[Ili-ittija]], governor of [[Libbi-ali]], [[Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta]], [[Ekallatum]], [[Itu (Mesopotamia)|Itu]], and [[Ruqahu]], {{Circa}} 804 BC]]
The success of Assyria was not only due to energetic kings who expanded its borders but more importantly due to its ability to efficiently incorporate and govern conquered lands.{{Sfn|Parker|2011|p=359}} From the rise of Assyria as a territorial state at the beginning of the Middle Assyrian period onward, Assyrian territory was divided into a set of provinces or districts (''pāḫutu'').{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|pp=149–150}} The total number and size of these provinces varied and changed as Assyria expanded and contracted.{{Sfn|Llop|2012|p=107}} Every province was headed by a provincial governor (''bel pāḫete'',''{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|pp=149–150}} bēl pīhāti{{Sfn|Yamada|2000|p=300}}'' or ''šaknu''){{Sfn|Yamada|2000|p=300}} who was responsible for handling local order, public safety and economy.

Governors stored and distributed the goods produced in their province, which were inspected and collected by royal representatives once a year. Through these inspections, the central government could keep track of current stocks and production throughout the country. Governors had to pay both taxes and offer gifts to the god Ashur, though such gifts were usually small and mainly symbolic.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|pp=149–150}} The channeling of taxes and gifts were a method of collecting profit and served to connect the elite of the entire empire to the Assyrian heartland.{{Sfn|Parker|2011|p=369}}

In the Neo-Assyrian period, an extensive hierarchy within the provincial administration is attested. At the bottom of this hierarchy were lower officials, such as village managers (''rab ālāni'') who oversaw one or more villages, collecting taxes in the form of labor and goods and keeping the administration informed of the conditions of their settlements,{{Sfn|Parker|2011|pp=360, 370–371}} and [[corvée]] officers (''ša bēt-kūdini'') who kept tallies on the labor performed by forced laborers and the remaining time owed.{{Sfn|Parker|2011|p=360}} Individual cities had their own administrations, headed by mayors (''ḫazi’ānu''), responsible for the local economy and production.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|pp=149–151}}

Some regions of the Assyrian Empire were not incorporated into the provincial system but were still subjected to the rule of the Assyrian kings. Such vassal states could be ruled indirectly through allowing established local lines of kings to continue ruling in exchange for tribute or through the Assyrian kings appointing their own vassal rulers.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|pp=149–151}} Through the [[Ilkum|''ilku'' system]], the Assyrian kings could also grant arable lands to individuals in exchange for goods and military service.{{Sfn|Jakob|2017b|p=154}}

To overcome the challenges of governing a large empire, the Neo-Assyrian Empire developed a sophisticated [[State communications in the Neo-Assyrian Empire|state communication system]],{{sfn|Radner|2012|loc=Road stations across the empire}} which included various innovative techniques and [[Stage station|relay stations]].{{sfn|Radner|2015b|p=64}} Per estimates by [[Karen Radner]], an official message sent in the Neo-Assyrian period from the western border province [[Quwê]] to the Assyrian heartland, a distance of 700 kilometers (430 miles) over a stretch of lands featuring many rivers without any bridges, could take less than five days to arrive. Such communication speed was unprecedented before the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and was not surpassed in the Middle East until the [[telegraph]] was introduced by the Ottoman Empire in 1865, nearly two and a half thousand years after the Neo-Assyrian Empire's fall.{{sfn|Radner|2012|loc=Making speed}}{{sfn|Radner|2015b|p=64}}