“Ce fameux bâton qu’on a dans sa giberne”: So you want to be an Assyrian Officer?

Ce fameux bâton qu’on a dans sa giberne”, this famous staff we all have in our cartridge box, is a reference to a French proverb employed in the armies of Napoléon Ier. This quote meant that the most common private had virtually all the chances to receive the staff of field-marshall, the highest military dignity, in his cartridge box. Several French officers and field-marshals, mostly from the lowest social origins, came to power only thanks to their prowess during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. On a lot of aspects, the Revolutionary and Napoleonic armies can be compared
with the Neo-Assyrian kisir šarruti, as long as polyvalence, meritocracy and organization are concerned. In that respect, a first census of all the skills demonstrated by the archers in the Neo-Assyrian army, and their relation to power, can help to understand how long and hard was the way to a commanding position, moreover for those of the lowest social origins.