This study set out to address the question how we can explain the remarkable success of Assyria. Why did this imperial state survive for over seven centuries (ca. 1350–612 BCE), and how can we explain its emergence as the dominant Near Eastern Empire in the Iron Age, blazing the trail for a series of successor empires (Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid, Seleukids, Parthians, Sasanian) that one can trace over another millennium until the fall of the Sasanian Empire around 650 CE.