In the 8th and 7th centuries BCE, the Assyrians built the first true empire in world history. They developed governamental structures, imperial ideology, culture and religion. Assyrian monarchy became a model of power even beyond its final collapse in 612 BCE. Phases, episodes, dynamics and protagonists of the construction of Assyrian power are analyzed by means of various epigraphical and archaeological sources, with particular attention for the world context of the time, the functioning of the administrative system, economic factors, social organization, ideological and cultural constructs and impact. The result is a comprehensive picture of the history of Assyria and the Near East in the first centuries of the first millennium BC, with considerations concerning the legacy of the imperial structure.