### q1a mass deportation policies were common in the Ancient Near East > None of these things are really unique to the Assyrians, though. The Egyptians, Hittites, and Babylonians also engaged in mass deportation policies. Kings such as Šulgi of the Ur III dynasty in the 21st century BCE proclaimed their destruction of city after city, often using them as year names (since years are often named retroactively according to an important event of that year) and used these conquests for their own propaganda. Titles that the Assyrians used to universalise their own claim to empire such as *Šarru Kibrat 'Arbaim* (King of the Four Corners of the World) or *Šarru kiššat māti* (King of the Universe) are much older than Neo-Assyria, dating back to the kings of Agade in the 3rd millennium BCE. There was a religious element to their conquests and imperialistic ideology, but this had been true for every imperial state in Mesopotamia; Sargon claimed to conquer the Upper Euphrates by the will of the god Dagan, for example. In the religion of the time, any conquest *was* necessarily the result of the God's favour. The proof could be found in the victory. - [[Assyrian imperialism#q1a mass deportation policies were common in the Ancient Near East|View in Vault]]