The author offers a stark profile of the Assyrians and discusses their role in the world of the Bible. "Two hundred years ago, nothing was known about the Assyrians except what was written in the Bible and many historians doubted that such people had ever existed," McNamer writes. "They are presented as fierce, invincible warriors who regularly swooped down from the north, terrified the inhabitants of Israel, demanded exorbitant tributes and, satiated, went back home."