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| Ashurnasirpal II, often depicted smiling. like a complete badass. |
Sometimes (re-)establishing law and order requires drastic
measures.
"I built a pillar over against the city gate and I
flayed all the chiefs who had revolted and I covered the pillar with their
skins. Some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes and others I bound to stakes
round the pillar. I cut the limbs off the officers who had rebelled. Many
captives I burned with fire and many I took as living captives. From some I cut
off their noses, their ears, and their fingers, of many I put out their eyes. I
made one pillar of the living and another of heads and I bound their heads to
tree trunks round about the city. Their young men and maidens I consumed with
fire. The rest of their warriors I consumed with thirst in the desert of the
Euphrates."
- Ashurnasirpal II, third king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire,
reigned 884-859 BC
