ABSTRACT
In the kingdoms – and especially in the so-called ‘empires’ – of the Ancient Near East, extending the boundaries is a constant and expected ideological motif. In a manner perhaps more diffuse or implicit, the motif of the extension of the boundaries is also present in other state formations of the Ancient Near East. The difference between the internal kingdom and the external realms appears manifested in different physical and anthropic features. The same kind of juridical reasoning, based on the norm of reciprocity and on the individuation of the ‘wrong’ deed consisting of initiating hostile actions against an interlocutor who has not previously committed any wrong, is based in the war declarations, which are documented – either in original texts, or in paraphrases in the historical texts – appearing during the whole history of the Ancient Near East, at least since the Mari period and until the Neo-Babylonian period.
