Asii

Asii is a historical ethnonym used by ancient Greek and Latin writers to designate the Assyrian people of northern Mesopotamia. The form is a Hellenized rendering of the name associated with the Assyrian heartland centered on the cities of Assur (Ashur) and Nineveh. In classical and later ethnographic sources, Asii is employed to refer to the population and, by extension, to the territory governed by the Assyrian state.

The Asii inhabited what is now northern Iraq and adjacent regions, including parts of southeastern Turkey and western Iran. They gave rise to one of the major ancient Near Eastern polities, with political continuity from the Old, Middle, and Neo-Assyrian periods (roughly from the 2nd millennium BCE into the 7th century BCE). The Neo-Assyrian Empire (circa 911–609 BCE) established a vast, centralized administration and left a large corpus of cuneiform sources. The fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE marked a turning point, but the label Asii continued to appear in later texts to refer to former Assyrian lands and communities.

Language and culture: The ancient Assyrians spoke Akkadian, using the Assyrian dialect written in cuneiform. Over time, Aramaic became widespread in administration and daily life, and modern Assyrian communities primarily speak Neo-Aramaic varieties. Culturally, Assyrian contributions include monumental architecture, royal propaganda, and extensive annalistic literature.

Modern usage: In contemporary scholarship, Asii is mainly a historical term and is not used to identify living populations; today the descendants of ancient Assyrians identify as Assyrians or Syriacs, with cultural and religious diversity within the community.