back in disorder, but the victor lost time before one of their
strongholds, and, winter coming on before he could take it, he burnt his
engines of war, set fire to his camp, and returned home. Next year,
a rapid march carried him right under the walls of Assur; then
Assurîshishî came to the rescue, totally routed his opponent, captured
forty of his chariots, and drove him flying across the frontier. The war
died out of itself, its end being marked by no treaty: each side kept
its traditional position and supremacy over the tribes inhabiting the
basins of the Turnât and Eadanu. The same names reappear in line after
line of these mutilated Annals, and the same definite enumerations of
rebellious tribes who have been humbled or punished. These kings of
the plain, both Ninevite and Babylonian, were continually raiding the
country up and down for centuries without ever arriving at any decisive
result, and a detailed account of their various campaigns would be as
tedious reading as that of the ceaseless struggle between the Latins and
Sabines which fills the opening pages of Roman history. Posterity soon
grew weary of them, and, misled by the splendid position which Assyria
attained when at the zenith of its glory, set itself to fabricate
splendid antecedents for the majestic empire established by the latter
dynasties. The legend ran that, at the dawn of time, a chief named
Ninos had reduced to subjection one after the other--Babylonia, Media,
Armenia, and all the provinces between the Indies and the Mediterranean.
He built a capital for himself on the banks of the Tigris, in the form
of a parallelogram, measuring a hundred and fifty stadia in length,
ninety stadia in width; altogether, the walls were four hundred and
eighty stadia in circumference. In addition to the Assyrians who formed
the bulk of the population, he attracted many foreigners to Nineveh,
so that in a few years it became the most flourishing town in the whole
world. An inroad of the tribes of the Oxus interrupted his labours;
Ninos repulsed the invasion, and, driving the barbarians back into
Bactria, laid siege to it; here, in the tent of one of his captains, he
came upon Semiramis, a woman whose past was shrouded in mystery. She
was said to be the daughter of an ordinary mortal by a goddess, the
Ascalonian Derketô. Exposed immediately after her birth, she was found
and adopted by a shepherd named Simas, and later on her beauty aroused
the passion of Oannes, governor of Syria. Ninos, amazed at the courage
displayed by her on more than one occasion, carried her off, made her
his favourite wife, and finally met his death at her hands. No sooner
did she become queen, than she founded Babylon on a far more extensive
scale than that of Nineveh. Its walls were three hundred and sixty
stadia in length, with two hundred and fifty lofty towers, placed here
and there on its circuit, the roadway round the top of the ramparts
being wide enough for six chariots to drive abreast. She made a kind of
harbour in the Euphrates, threw a bridge across it, and built quays one
hundred and sixty stadia in length along its course; in the midst of the
town she raised a temple to Bel. This great work was scarcely finished
when disturbances broke out in Media; these she promptly repressed, and
set out on a tour of inspection through the whole of her provinces,
with a view to preventing the recurrence of similar outbreaks by her
presence. Wherever she went she left records of her passage behind her,
cutting her way through mountains, quarrying a pathway through the solid
rock, making broad highways for herself, bringing rebellious tribes
beneath her yoke, and raising tumuli to mark the tombs of such of her
satraps as fell beneath the blows of the enemy. She built Ecbatana in
Media, Semiramocarta on Lake Van in Armenia, and Tarsus in Cilicia;
then, having reached the confines of Syria, she crossed the isthmus, and
conquered Egypt and Ethiopia. The far-famed wealth of India recalled her
from the banks of the Nile to those of the Euphrates, _en route_ for
the remote east, but at this point her good fortune forsook her: she was
defeated by King Stratobates, and returned to her own dominions, never
again to leave them. She had set up triumphal stelae on the boundaries
of the habitable globe, in the very midst of Scythia, not far from the
Iaxartes, where, centuries afterwards, Alexander of Macedon read
the panegyric of herself which she had caused to be engraved there.
Nature, she writes, gave me the body of a woman, but my deeds have
put me on a level with the greatest of men. I ruled over the dominion of
Ninos, which extends eastwards to the river Hinaman, southwards to the
countries of Incense and Myrrh, and northwards as far as the Sacaa and
Sogdiani. Before my time no Assyrian had ever set eyes on the sea: I
have seen four oceans to which no mariner has ever sailed, so far remote
are they. I have made rivers to flow where I would have them, in the
places where they were needed; thus did I render fertile the barren soil
by watering it with my rivers. I raised up impregnable fortresses, and
cut roadways through the solid rock with the pick. I opened a way for
the wheels of my chariots in places to which even the feet of wild
beasts had never penetrated. And, amidst all these labours, I yet found
time for my pleasures and for the society of my friends. On discovering
that her son Ninyas was plotting her assassination, she at once
abdicated in his favour, in order to save him from committing a crime,
and then transformed herself into a dove; this last incident betrays the
goddess to us. Ninos and Semiramis are purely mythical, and their mighty
deeds, like those ascribed to Ishtar and Gilgames, must be placed in the
same category as those other fables with which the Babylonian legends
strive to fill up the blank of the prehistoric period.*
* The legend of Ninos and Semiramis is taken from Diodorus
Siculus, who reproduces, often word for word, the version of
Ctesias.
[Illustration: 172.jpg the dove-goddess]
Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch published in Longpérier.
The real facts were, as we know, far less brilliant and less extravagant
than those supplied by popular imagination. It would be a mistake,
however, to neglect or despise them on account of their tedious monotony
and the insignificance of the characters who appear on the stage. It
was by dint of fighting her neighbours again and again, without a single
days respite, that Rome succeeded in forging the weapons with which
she was to conquer the world; and any one who, repelled by their tedious
sameness, neglected to follow the history of her early struggles, would
find great difficulty in understanding how it came about that a city
which had taken centuries to subjugate her immediate neighbours should
afterwards overcome all the states on the Mediterranean seaboard with
such magnificent ease. In much the same way the ceaseless struggles of
Assyria with the Chaldaeans, and with the mountain tribes of the
Zagros Chain, were unconsciously preparing her for those lightning-like
campaigns in which she afterwards overthrew all the civilized nations
of the Bast one after another. It was only at the cost of unparalleled
exertions that she succeeded in solidly welding together the various
provinces within her borders, and in kneading (so to speak) the many
and diverse elements of her vast population into one compact mass,
containing in itself all that was needful for its support, and able to
bear the strain of war for several years at time without giving way, and
rich enough in men and horses to provide the material for an effective
army without excessive impoverishment of her trade or agriculture.
[Illustration: 173.jpg AN ASSYRIAN]
Drawn by Boudier, from a painted bas-relief given in Layard.
The race came of an old Semitic strain, somewhat crude as yet, and
almost entirely free from that repeated admixture of foreign elements
which had marred the purity of the Babylonian stock. The monuments show
us a type similar in many respects to that which we find to-day on the
slopes of Singar, or in the valleys to the east of Mossul.
The figures on the monuments are tall and straight, broad-shouldered and
wide in the hips, the arms well developed, the legs robust, with good
substantial feet. The swell of the muscles on the naked limbs is perhaps
exaggerated, but this very exaggeration of the modelling suggests
the vigour of the model; it is a heavier, more rustic type than the
Egyptian, promising greater strength and power of resistance, and in so
far an indisputable superiority in the great game of war. The head is
somewhat small, the forehead low and flat, the eyebrows heavy, the eye
of a bold almond shape, with heavy lids, the nose aquiline, and full at
the tip, with wide nostrils terminating in a hard, well-defined curve;
the lips are thick and full, the chin bony, while the face is framed by
the coarse dark wavy hair and beard, which fell in curly masses over the
nape of the neck and the breast. The expression of the face is rarely
of an amiable and smiling type, such as we find in the statues of the
Theban period or in those of the Memphite empire, nor, as a matter of
fact, did the Assyrian pride himself on the gentleness of his manners:
he did not overflow with love for his fellow-man, as the Egyptian made
a pretence of doing; on the contrary, he was stiff-necked and proud,
without pity for others or for himself, hot-tempered and quarrelsome
like his cousins of Chaldæa, but less turbulent and more capable of
strict discipline. It mattered not whether he had come into the world in
one of the wretched cabins of a fellah village, or in the palace of
one of the great nobles; he was a born soldier, and his whole education
tended to develop in him the first qualities of the soldier--temperance,
patience, energy, and unquestioning obedience: he was enrolled in an
army which was always on a war footing, commanded by the god Assur, and
under Assur, by the king, the vicegerent and representative of the god.
His life was shut in by the same network of legal restrictions which
confined that of the Babylonians, and all its more important events
had to be recorded on tablets of clay; the wording of contracts, the
formalities of marriage or adoption, the status of bond and free, the
rites of the dead and funeral ceremonies, had either remained identical
with those in use during the earliest years of the cities of the Lower
Euphrates, or differed from them only in their less important details.
The royal and municipal governments levied the same taxes, used the
same procedure, employed the same magistrates, and the grades of their
hierarchy were the same, with one exception. After the king, the highest
office was filled by a soldier, the _tartan_ who saw to the recruiting
of the troops, and led them in time of war, or took command of the
staff-corps whenever the sovereign himself deigned to appear on the
scene of action.*
* We can determine the rank occupied, by the _tartanu_ at
court by the positions they occupy in the lists of eponymous
_limmu_: they invariably come next after the king--a fact
which was noticed many years ago.
The more influential of these functionaries bore, in addition to their
other titles, one of a special nature, which, for the space of one year,
made its holder the most conspicuous man in the country; they became
_limmu_, and throughout their term of office their names appeared on
all official documents. The Chaldæans distinguished the various years of
each reign by a reference to some event which had taken place in
each; the Assyrians named them after the _limmu_.* The king was the
_ex-officio limmu_ for the year following that of his accession, then
after him the _tartan_, then the ministers and governors of provinces
and cities in an order which varied little from reign to reign. The
names of the _limmu_, entered in registers and tabulated--just as,
later on, were those of the Greek archons and Roman consuls--furnished
the annalists with a rigid chronological system, under which the facts
of history might be arranged with certainty.**
* According to Delitzsch, the term _limu,_ or _limmu_, meant
at first any given period, then later more especially the
year during which a magistrate filled his office; in the
opinion of most other Assyriologists it referred to the
magistrate himself as eponymous archon.
** The first list of _limmu_ was discovered by H. Rawlinson.
The portions which have been preserved extend from the year
893 to the year 666 B.C. without a break. In the periods
previous and subsequent to this we have only names scattered
here and there which it has not been possible to classify:
the earliest _limmu_ known at present flourished under
Rammân-nirâri I., and was named Mukhurilâni. Three different
versions of the canon have como down to us. In the most
important one the names of the eponymous officials are
written one after another without titles or any mention of
important events; in the other two, the titles of each
personage, and any important occurrences which took place
during his year of office, are entered after the name.
The king still retained the sacerdotal attributes with which Cossæan
monarchs had been invested from the earliest times, but contact with the
Egyptians had modified the popular conception of his personality. His
subjects were no longer satisfied to regard him merely as a man superior
to his fellow-men; they had come to discover something of the divine
nature in him, and sometimes identified him--not with Assur, the master
of all things, who occupied a position too high above the pale of
ordinary humanity--but with one of the demi-gods of the second rank,
Shamash, the Sun, the deity whom the Pharaohs pretended to represent in
flesh and blood here below. His courtiers, therefore, went as far as to
call him Sun when they addressed him, and he himself adopted this title
in his inscriptions.*
* Nebuchadrezzar I. of Babylon assumes the title of _Shamash
mati-shu_, the Sun of his country, and Hilprecht rightly
sees in this expression a trace of Egyptian influences;
later on, Assurnazirpal, King of Assyria similarly describes
himself as _Shamshu kishshat nishi_, the Sun of all
mankind. Tiele is of opinion that these expressions do not
necessarily point to any theory of the actual incarnation of
the god, as was the case in Egypt, but that they may be mere
rhetorical figures.
Formerly he had only attained this apotheosis after death, later on he
was permitted to aspire to it during his lifetime. The Chaldæans adopted
the same attitude, and in both countries the royal authority shone with
the borrowed lustre of divine omnipotence. With these exceptions life
at court remained very much the same as it had been; at Nineveh, as at
Babylon, we find harems filled with foreign princesses, who had either
been carried off as hostages from the country of a defeated enemy, or
amicably obtained from their parents. In time of war, the command of the
troops and the dangers of the battle-field; in time of peace, a host
of religious ceremonies and judicial or administrative duties, left but
little leisure to the sovereign who desired to perform conscientiously
all that was required of him. His chief amusement lay in the hunting of
wild beasts: the majority of the princes who reigned over Assyria had a
better right than even Amenôthes III. himself to boast of the hundreds
of lions which they had slain. They set out on these hunting expeditions
with quite a small army of charioteers and infantry, and were often away
several days at a time, provided urgent business did not require their
presence in the palace. They started their quarry with the help of large
dogs, and followed it over hill and dale till they got within bowshot:
if it was but slightly wounded and turned on them, they gave it the
finishing stroke with their lances without dismounting.
[Illustration: 178.jpg A LION-HUNT]
Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief in the British Museum.
Occasionally, however, they were obliged to follow their prey into
places where horses could not easily penetrate; then a hand-to-hand
conflict was inevitable. The lion would rise on its hind quarters and
endeavour to lay its pursuer low with a stroke of its mighty paw, but
only to fall pierced to the heart by his lance or sword.
[Illustration: 179.jpg LION TRANSFIXED BY AN ARROW]
Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief in the British Museum.
This kind of encounter demanded great presence of mind and steadiness of
hand; the Assyrians were, therefore, trained to it from their youth
up, and no hunter was permitted to engage in these terrible encounters
without long preliminary practice. Seeing the lion as they did so
frequently, and at such close quarters, they came to know it quite as
well as the Egyptians, and their sculptors reproduce it with a realism
and technical skill which have been rarely equalled in modern times.
But while the Theban artist generally represents it in an attitude of
repose, the Assyrians prefer to show it in violent action in all the
various attitudes which it assumes during a struggle, either crouching
as it prepares to spring, or fully extended in the act of leaping;
sometimes it rears into an upright position, with arched back, gaping
jaws, and claws protruded, ready to bite or strike its foe; at others
it writhes under a spear-thrust, or rolls over and over in its dying
agonies. In one instance, an arrow has pierced the skull of a male lion,
crashing through the frontal bone a little above the left eyebrow, and
protrudes obliquely to the right between his teeth: under the shock of
the blow he has risen on his hind legs, with contorted spine, and beats
the air with his fore paws, his head thrown back as though to free
himself of the fatal shaft. Not far from him the lioness lies stretched
out upon its back in the rigidity of death.
[Illustration: 180.jpg PAINTINGS OF CHAIRS]
The rimu, or urus, was, perhaps, even a more formidable animal to
encounter than any of the _felido_, owing to the irresistible fury of
his attack. No one would dare, except in a case of dire necessity, to
meet him on foot. The loose flowing robes which the king and the nobles
never put aside--not even in such perilous pastimes as these--were ill
fitted for the quick movements required to avoid the attack of such an
animal, and those who were unlucky enough to quit their chariot ran a
terrible risk of being gored or trodden underfoot in the encounter. It
was the custom, therefore, to attack the beast by arrows, and to keep it
at a distance. If the animal were able to come up with its pursuer, the
latter endeavoured to seize it by the horn at the moment when it lowered
its head, and to drive his dagger into its neck. If the blow were
adroitly given it severed the spinal cord, and the beast fell in a heap
as if struck by lightning. A victory over such animals was an occasion
for rejoicing, and solemn thanks were offered to Assur and Ishtar, the
patrons of the chase, at the usual evening sacrifice.
[Illustration: 181.jpg A UBUS HUNT]
Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief in the British Museum.
The slain beasts, whether lion or urus, were arranged in a row
before the altar, while the king, accompanied by his flabella, and
umbrella-bearers, stood alongside them, holding his bow in his left
hand. While the singers intoned the hymn of thanksgiving to the
accompaniment of the harp, the monarch took the bowl of sacred wine,
touched his lips with it, and then poured a portion of the contents on
the heads of the victims. A detailed account of each hunting exploit was
preserved for posterity either in inscriptions or on bas-reliefs.*
* In the _Annals of Tiglath-pileser I._ the king counts the
number of his victims: 4 urus, 10 male elephants, 120 lions
slain in single combat on foot, 800 lions killed by arrows
let fly from his chariot. In the _Annals of Assurnazirpal,_
the king boasts of having slain 30 elephants, 250 urus, and
370 lions.
The chase was in those days of great service to the rural population;
the kings also considered it to be one of the duties attached to their
office, and on a level with their obligation to make war on neighbouring
nations devoted by the will of Assur to defeat and destruction.
[Illustration: 182.jpg LIBATION POURED OVER THE LIONS ON THE RETURN FROM
THE CHASE]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hommel.
The army charged to carry out the will of the god had not yet acquired
the homogeneity and efficiency which it afterwards attained, yet it had
been for some time one of the most formidable in the world, and even
the Egyptians themselves, in spite of their long experience in military
matters, could not put into the field such a proud array of effective
troops. We do not know how this army was recruited, but the bulk of it
was made up of native levies, to which foreign auxiliaries were added
in numbers varying with the times.* A permanent nucleus of troops was
always in garrison in the capital under the tartan, or placed in the
principal towns at the disposal of the governors.**
* We have no bas-relief representing the armies of Tiglath-
pileser I. Everything in the description which follows is
taken from the monuments of Assurnazirpal and Shalmaneser
II., revised as far as possible by the inscriptions of
Tiglath-pileser; the armament of both infantry and chariotry
must have been practically the same in the two periods.
** This is based on the account given in the Obelisk of
Shalmaneser, where the king, for example, after having
gathered his soldiers together at Kalakh [Calah], put at
their head Dainassur the artan, the master of his
innumerable troops.
[Illustration: 183.jpg TWO ASSYRIAN ARCHERS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin.
The contingents which came to be enrolled at these centres on the first
rumour of war may have been taken from among the feudal militia, as was
the custom in the Nile valley, or the whole population may have had to
render personal military service, each receiving while with the colours
a certain daily pay. The nobles and feudal lords were accustomed to call
their own people together, and either placed themselves at their head or
commissioned an officer to act in their behalf.*
* The assembling of foot-soldiers and chariots is often
described at the beginning of each campaign; the _Donation
of Bittimerodach_ brings before us a great feudal lord, who
leads his contingent to the King of Chaldæa, and anything
which took place among the Babylonians had its counterpart
among the Assyrians. Sometimes the king had need of all the
contingents, and then it was said he assembled the
country. Auxiliaries are mentioned, for example, in the
_Annals of Assurnazirpal_, col. iii. 11. 58-77, where the
king, in his passage, rallies one after the other the troops
of Bît-Bakhiâni, of Azalli, of Bît-Adini, of Garganish, and
of the Patinu.
[Illustration: 184.jpg AN ASSYRIAN WAR-CHARIOT CHARGING THE FOE]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell.
These recruits were subjected to the training necessary for their
calling by exercises similar to those of the Egyptians, but of a rougher
sort and better adapted to the cumbrous character of their equipment.
The blacksmiths art had made such progress among the Assyrians since
the times of Thûtmosis III. and Ramses IL, that both the character and
the materials of the armour were entirely changed.
[Illustration: 185a.jpg HARNESS OF THE HORSES]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from G. Rawlinson.
[Illustration: 185b.jpg PIKEMAN]
While the Egyptian of old entered into the contest almost naked, and
without other defence than a padded cap, a light shield, and a leather
apron, the Assyrian of the new age set out for war almost cased in
metal. The pikemen and archers of whom the infantry of the line was
composed wore a copper or iron helmet, conical in form, and having
cheek-pieces covering the ears; they were clad in a sort of leathern
shirt covered with plates or imbricated scales of metal, which protected
the body and the upper part of the arm; a quilted and padded loin-cloth
came over the haunches, while close-fitting trousers, and buskins laced
up in the front, completed their attire. The pikemen were armed with a
lance six feet long, a cutlass or short sword passed through the girdle,
and an enormous shield, sometimes round and convex, sometimes arched at
the top and square at the bottom. The bowmen did not encumber themselves
with a buckler, but carried, in addition to the bow and quiver,
a poignard or mace. The light infantry consisted of pikemen and
archers--each of whom wore a crested helmet and a round shield of
wicker-work--of slingers and club-bearers, as well as of men armed with
the two-bladed battle-axe. The chariots were heavier and larger than
those of the Egyptians. They had high, strongly made wheels with eight
spokes, and the body of the vehicle rested directly on the axle; the
panels were of solid wood, sometimes covered with embossed or carved
metal, but frequently painted; they were further decorated sometimes
with gold, silver, or ivory mountings, and with precious stones. The
pole, which was long and heavy, ended in a boss of carved wood or
incised metal, representing a flower, a rosette, the muzzle of a lion,
or a horses head. It was attached to the axle under the floor of the
vehicle, and as it had to bear a great strain, it was not only fixed to
this point by leather thongs such as were employed in Egypt, but also
bound to the front of the chariot by a crossbar shaped like a spindle,
and covered with embroidered stuff--an arrangement which prevented its
becoming detached when driving at full speed. A pair of horses were
harnessed to it, and a third was attached to them on the right side
for the use of a supplementary warrior, who could take the place of his
comrade in case of accident, or if he were wounded. The trappings were
very simple; but sometimes there was added to these a thickly padded
caparison, of which the various parts were fitted to the horse by tags
so as to cover the upper part of his head, his neck, back, and breast.
The usual complement of charioteers was two to each vehicle, as in
Egypt, but sometimes, as among the Khâti, there were three--one on the
left to direct the horses, a warrior, and an attendant who protected the
other two with his shield; on some occasions a fourth was added as an
extra assistant. The equipment of the charioteers was like that of the
infantry, and consisted of a jacket with imbricated scales of metal,
bow and arrows, and a lance or javelin. A standard which served as a
rallying-point for the chariots in the battle was set up on the front
part of each vehicle, between the driver and the warrior; it bore at
the top a disk supported on the heads of two bulls, or by two complete
representations of these animals, and a standing figure of Assur letting
fly his arrows. The chariotry formed, as in most countries of that time,
the picked troops of the service, in which the princes and great lords
were proud to be enrolled. Upon it depended for the most part the issue
of the conflict, and the position assigned to it was in the van,
the king or commander-in-chief reserving to himself the privilege of
conducting the charge in person. It was already, however, in a state
of decadence, both as regards the number of units composing it and its
methods of manoeuvring; the infantry, on the other hand, had increased
in numbers, and under the guidance of abler generals tended to become
the most trustworthy force in Assyrian campaigns.*
* Tiglath-pileser is seen, for instance, setting out on a
campaign in a mountainous country with only thirty chariots.
Notwithstanding the weight of his equipment, the Assyrian foot-soldier
was as agile as the Egyptian, but he had to fight usually in a much more
difficult region than that in which the Pharaohs troops were accustomed
to manouvre.
[Illustration: 188.jpg CROSSING A RIVER IN BOATS AND ON INFLATED SKINS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.
The theatre of war was not like Syria, with its fertile and almost
unbroken plains furrowed by streams which offered little obstruction
to troops throughout the year, but a land of marshes, arid and rocky
deserts, mighty rivers, capable, in one of their sudden floods, of
arresting progress for days, and of jeopardising the success of a
campaign;* violent and ice-cold torrents, rugged mountains whose summits
rose into points like daggers, and whose passes could be held against
a host of invaders by a handful of resolute men.**
* Sennacherib was obliged to arrest his march against Elam,
owing to his inability to cross the torrents swollen by the
rain; a similar contretemps must have met Assurbanipal on
the banks of the Ididi.
** The Assyrian monarchs dwell with pleasure on the
difficulties of the country which they have to overcome.
Bands of daring skirmishers, consisting of archers, slingers, and
pikemen, cleared the way for the mass of infantry marching in columns,
and for the chariots, in the midst of which the king and his household
took up their station; the baggage followed, together with the prisoners
and their escorts.*
* Assurbanipal relates, for instance, that he put under his
escort a tribe which had surrendered themselves as
prisoners.
If they came to a river where there was neither ford nor bridge, they
were not long in effecting a passage.
[Illustration: 189.jpg MAKING A BRIDGE FOR THE PASSAGE OF THE CHARIOTS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief on the bronze
gates of Balawât.
Each soldier was provided with a skin, which, having inflated it by the
strength of his lungs and closed the aperture, he embraced in his arms
and cast himself into the stream. Partly by floating and partly by
swimming, a whole regiment could soon reach the other side. The chariots
could not be carried over so easily.
[Illustration: 190.jpg THE KINGS CHARIOT CROSSING A BRIDGE]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
bronze gates of Balawât.
If the bed of the river was not very wide, and the current not too
violent, a narrow bridge was constructed, or rather an improvised dyke
of large stones and rude gabions filled with clay, over which was spread
a layer of branches and earth, supplying a sufficiently broad passage
for a single chariot, of which the horses were led across at walking
pace.*
* Flying bridges, _tîturâti_, were mentioned as far back as
the time of Tiglath-pileser I.
But when the distance between the banks was too great, and the stream
too violent to allow of this mode of procedure, boats were requisitioned
from the neighbourhood, on which men and chariots were embarked, while
the horses, attended by grooms, or attached by their bridles to the
flotilla, swam across the river.* If the troops had to pass through a
mountainous district intersected by ravines and covered by forests, and
thus impracticable on ordinary occasions for a large body of men, the
advance-guard were employed in cutting a passage through the trees
with the axe, and, if necessary, in making with the pick pathways
or rough-hewn steps similar to those met with in the Lebanon on the
Phoenician coast.**
* It was in this manner that Tiglath-pileser I. crossed the
Euphrates on his way to the attack of Carchemish.
** Tiglath-pileser I. speaks on several occasions, and not
without pride, of the roads that he had made for himself
with bronze hatchets through the forests and over the
mountains.
[Illustration: 191.jpg THE ASSYRIAN INFANTRY CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief on the bronze gates of
Balawât.
The troops advanced in narrow columns, sometimes even in single file,
along these improvised roads, always on the alert lest they should be
taken at a disadvantage by an enemy concealed in the thickets. In case
of attack, the foot-soldiers had each to think of himself, and endeavour
to give as many blows as he received; but the charioteers, encumbered
by their vehicles and the horses, found it no easy matter to extricate
themselves from the danger. Once the chariots had entered into the
forest region, the driver descended from his vehicle, and led the horses
by the head, while the warrior and his assistant were not slow to follow
his example, in order to give some relief to the animals by tugging at
the wheels. The king alone did not dismount, more out of respect for his
dignity than from indifference to the strain upon the animals; for, in
spite of careful leading, he had to submit to a rough shaking from the
inequalities of this rugged soil; sometimes he had too much of this, and
it is related of him in his annals that he had crossed the mountains on
foot like an ordinary mortal.*
* The same fact is found in the accounts of every
expedition, but more importance is attached to it as we
approach the end of the Ninevite empire, when the kings were
not so well able to endure hardship. Sennacherib mentions it
on several occasions, with a certain amount of self-pity for
the fatigue he had undergone, but with a real pride in his
own endurance.
A halt was made every evening, either at some village, whose inhabitants
were obliged to provide food and lodging, or, in default of this, on
some site which they could fortify by a hastily thrown up rampart of
earth. If they were obliged to remain in any place for a length of time,
a regular encircling wall was constructed, not square or rectangular
like those of the Egyptians, but round or oval.*
* The oval inclines towards a square form, with rounded
corners, on the bas-reliefs of the bronze gates of
Shalmaneser II. at Balawât.
[Illustration: 193.jpg THE KING CROSSING A MOUNTAIN IN HIS CHARIOT]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell, taken in the
British Museum.
It was made of dried brick, and provided with towers like an ancient
city; indeed, many of these entrenched camps survived the occasion of
their formation, and became small fortified towns or castles, whence a
permanent garrison could command the neighbouring country. The interior
was divided into four equal parts by two roads, intersecting each other
at right angles. The royal tents, with their walls of felt or brown
linen, resembled an actual palace, which could be moved from place to
place; they were surrounded with less pretentious buildings reserved for
the kings household, and the stables.
[Illustration: 194.jpg AN ASSYRIAN CAMP]
Drawn by Boudier, from Layard.
The tent-poles at the angles of these habitations were plated with
metal, and terminated at their upper extremities in figures of goats and
other animals made of the same material. The tents of the soldiers, were
conical in form, and each was maintained in its position by a forked
pole placed inside. They contained the ordinary requirements of the
peasant---bed and head-rest, table with legs like those of a gazelle,
stools and folding-chairs; the household utensils and the provisions
hung from the forks of the support. The monuments, which usually
give few details of humble life, are remarkable for their complete
reproductions of the daily scenes in the camp. We see on them, the
soldier making his bed, grinding corn, dressing the carcase of a sheep,
which he had just killed, or pouring out wine; the pot boiling on the
fire is watched by the vigilant eye of a trooper or of a woman, while
those not actively employed are grouped together in twos and threes,
eating, drinking, and chatting. A certain number of priests and
soothsayers accompanied the army, but they did not bring the statues of
their gods with them, the only emblems of the divinities seen in battle
being the two royal ensigns, one representing Assur as lord of the
territory, borne on a single bull and bending his bow, while the other
depicted him standing on two bulls as King of Assyria.* An altar smoked
before the chariot on which these two standards were planted, and every
night and morning the prince and his nobles laid offerings upon it, and
recited prayers before it for the well-being of the army.
Military tactics had not made much progress since the time of the great
Egyptian invasions. The Assyrian generals set out in haste from Nineveh
or Assur in the hope of surprising their enemy, and they often succeeded
in penetrating into the very heart of his country before he had time
to mobilise or concentrate his forces. The work of subduing him was
performed piecemeal; they devastated his fields, robbed his orchards,
and, marching all through the night,** they would arrive with such
suddenness before one or other of his towns, that he would have no time
to organise a defence. Most of their campaigns were mere forced marches
across plains and mountains, without regular sieges or pitched battles.
* It is possible that each of these standards corresponded
to some dignity of the sovereign; the first belonged to him,
inasmuch as he was _shar kishshati,_ king of the regions,
and the other, by virtue of his office, of _shar Ashshur_,
King of Assyria.
** Assurnazirpal mentions several night marches, which
enabled him to reach the heart of the enemys country.
[Illustration: 196.jpg A FORTIFIED TOWN]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell. The
inhabitants of the town who have been taken prisoners, are
leaving it with their cattle under the conduct of Assyrian
soldiers.
Should the enemy, however, seek an engagement, and the men be drawn up
in line to meet him, the action would be opened by archers and light
troops armed with slings, who would be followed by the chariotry and
heavy infantry for close attack; a reserve of veterans would await
around the commanding-general the crucial moment of the engagement, when
they would charge in a body among the combatants, and decide the victory
by sheer strength of arm.*
* Tiglath-pileser I. mentions a pitched battle against the
Muskhu, who numbered 20,000 men; and another against
Kiliteshub, King of Kummukh, in his first campaign. In one
of the following campaigns he overcame the people of Saraush
and those of Maruttash, and also 6000 Sugi; later on he
defeated 23 allied kings of Naîri, and took from them 120
chariots and 20,000 people of Kumanu. The other wars are
little more than raids, during which he encountered merely
those who were incapable of offering him any resistance.
The pursuit of the enemy was never carried to any considerable distance,
for the men were needed to collect the spoil, despatch the wounded, and
carry off the trophies of war. Such of the prisoners as it was deemed
useful or politic to spare were stationed in a safe place under a guard
of sentries. The remainder were condemned to death as they were brought
in, and their execution took place without delay; they were made to
kneel down, with their backs to the soldiery, their heads bowed, and
their hands resting on a flat stone or a billet of wood, in which
position they were despatched with clubs. The scribes, standing before
their tent doors, registered the number of heads cut off; each soldier,
bringing his quota and throwing it upon the heap, gave in his name and
the number of his company, and then withdrew in the hope of receiving a
reward proportionate to the number of his victims.*
* The details of this bringing of heads are known to us by
representations of a later period. The allusions contained
in the _Annals of Tiglath-pileser I_. show that the custom
was in full force under the early Assyrian conquerors.
When the king happened to accompany the army, he always presided at this
scene, and distributed largesse to those who had shown most bravery; in
his absence he required that the heads of the enemys chiefs should be
sent to him, in order that they might be exposed to his subjects on the
gates of his capital. Sieges were lengthy and arduous undertakings. In
the case of towns situated on the plain, the site was usually chosen
so as to be protected by canals, or an arm of a river on two or three
sides, thus leaving one side only without a natural defence, which the
inhabitants endeavoured to make up for by means of double or treble
ramparts.*
* The town of Tela had three containing walls, that of
Shingisha had four, and that of Pitura two.
[Illustration: 198.jpg THE BRINGING OF HEADS AFTER A BATTLE]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.
These fortifications must have resembled those of the Syrian towns; the
walls were broad at the base, and, to prevent scaling, rose to a height
of some thirty or forty feet: there were towers at intervals of a
bowshot, from which the archers could seriously disconcert parties
making attacks against any intervening points in the curtain wall; the
massive gates were covered with raw hides, or were plated with metal
to resist assaults by fire and axe, while, as soon as hostilities
commenced, the defence was further completed by wooden scaffolding.
Places thus fortified, however, at times fell almost without an attempt
at resistance; the inhabitants, having descended into the lowlands to
rescue their crops from the Assyrians, would be disbanded, and, while
endeavouring to take refuge within their ramparts, would be pursued by
the enemy, who would gain admittance with them in the general disorder.
If the town did not fall into their hands by some stroke of good
fortune, they would at once attempt, by an immediate assault, to terrify
the garrison into laying down their arms.*
* Assurnazirpal, in this fashion, took the town of Pitura in
two days, in spite of its strong double ramparts.
The archers and slingers led the attack by advancing in couples till
they were within the prescribed distance from the walls, one of the two
taking careful aim, while the other sheltered his comrade behind his
round-topped shield. The king himself would sometimes alight from his
chariot and let fly his arrows in the front rank of the archers, while
a handful of resolute men would rush against the gates of the town
and attempt either to break them down or set them alight with torches.
Another party, armed with stout helmets and quilted jerkins, which
rendered them almost invulnerable to the shower of arrows or stones
poured on them by the besieged, would attempt to undermine the walls by
means of levers and pick-axes, and while thus engaged would be protected
by mantelets fixed to the face of the walls, resembling in shape the
shields of the archers. Often bodies of men would approach the suburbs
of the city and endeavour to obtain access to the ramparts from the
roofs of the houses in close proximity to the walls. If, however,
they could gain admittance by none of these means, and time was of no
consideration, they would resign themselves to a lengthy siege, and the
blockade would commence by a systematic desolation of the surrounding
country, in which the villages scattered over the plain would be burnt,
the vines torn up, and all trees cut down.
[Illustration: 200.jpg THE KING LETS FLY ARROWS AT A BESIEGED TOWN]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.
The Assyrians waged war with a brutality which the Egyptians would never
have tolerated. Unlike the Pharaohs, their kings were not content to
imprison or put to death the principal instigators of a revolt, but
their wrath would fall upon the entire population. As long as a town
resisted the efforts of their besieging force, all its inhabitants
bearing arms who fell into their hands were subjected to the most cruel
tortures; they were cut to pieces or impaled alive on stakes, which were
planted in the ground just in front of the lines, so that the besieged
should enjoy a full view of the sufferings of their comrades.
[Illustration: 201.jpg ASSYRIAN SAPPERS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.
Even during the course of a short siege this line of stakes would
be prolonged till it formed a bloody pale between the two contending
armies. This horrible spectacle had at least the effect of shaking the
courage of the besieged, and of hastening the end of hostilities. When
at length the town yielded to the enemy, it was often razed to the
ground, and salt was strewn upon its ruins, while the unfortunate
inhabitants were either massacred or transplanted _en masse_ elsewhere.
If the bulk of the population were spared and condemned to exile, the
wealthy and noble were shown no clemency; they were thrown from, the top
of the city towers, their ears and noses were cut off, their hands and
feet were amputated, or they and their children were roasted over a slow
fire, or flayed alive, or decapitated, and their heads piled up in a
heap.
[Illustration: 202.jpg A TOWN TAKEN BY SCALING]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the
bronze gate at Balawât. The two soldiers who represent the
Assyrian army carry their shields before them; flames appear
above the ramparts, showing that the conquerors have burnt
the town.
The victorious sovereigns appear to have taken a pride in the
ingenuity with which they varied these means of torture, and dwell with
complacency on the recital of their cruelties. I constructed a pillar
at the gate of the city, is the boast of one of them; I then flayed
the chief men, and covered the post with their skins; I suspended their
dead bodies from this same pillar, I impaled others on the summit of the
pillar, and I ranged others on stakes around the pillar.
Two or three executions of this kind usually sufficed to demoralise the
enemy. The remaining inhabitants assembled: terrified by the majesty of
Assur, and as it were blinded by the brightness of his countenance, they
sunk down at the knees of the victor and embraced his feet.*
* These are the very expressions used in the Assyrian texts:
The terror of my strength overthrew them, they feared the
combat, and they embraced my feet; and again: The
brightness of Assur, my lord, overturned them. This latter
image is explained by the presence over the king of the
winged figure of Assur directing the battle.
[Illustration: 203.jpg TORTURES INFLICTED ON PRISONERS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the
bronze gates of Balawât; on the right the town is seen in
flames, and on the walls on either side hangs a row of
heads, one above another.
The peace secured at the price of their freedom left them merely with
their lives and such of their goods as could not be removed from the
soil. The scribes thereupon surrounded the spoil seized by the soldiery
and drew up a detailed inventory of the prisoners and their property:
everything worth carrying away to Assyria was promptly registered, and
despatched to the capital.
[Illustration: 204.jpg A CONVOY OF PRISONERS AND CAPTIVES AFTER THE
TAKING OF A TOWN]
Drawn by Faucher Gudin, from Layard.
The contents of the royal palace led the way; it comprised the silver,
gold, and copper of the vanquished prince, his caldrons, dishes and
cups of brass, the women of his harem, the maidens of his household,
his furniture and stuffs, horses and chariots, together with his men
and women servants. The enemys gods, like his kings, were despoiled
of their possessions, and poor and rich suffered alike. The choicest of
their troops were incorporated into the Assyrian regiments, and helped
to fill the gaps which war had made in the ranks;* the peasantry and
townsfolk were sold as slaves, or were despatched with their families to
till the domains of the king in some Assyrian village.* Tiglath-pileser
I. in this manner incorporated 120 chariots of the Kashki and the Urumi
into the Assyrian chariotry.
[Illustration: 205.jpg CONVOY OF PRISONERS BOUND IN VARIOUS WAYS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief of one of the
gates of Balawât.
The monuments often depict the exodus of these unfortunate wretches.
They were represented as proceeding on their way in the charge of a few
foot-soldiers--each of the men carrying, without any sign of labour, a
bag of provisions, while the women bear their young children on their
shoulders or in their arms: herds of cows and flocks of goats and sheep
follow, chariots drawn by mules bringing up the rear with the baggage.
While the crowd of non-combatants were conducted in irregular columns
without manacles or chains, the veteran troops and the young men capable
of bearing arms were usually bound together, and sometimes were further
secured by a wooden collar placed on their necks. Many perished on the
way from want or fatigue, but such as were fortunate enough to reach
the end of the journey were rewarded with a small portion of land and
a dwelling, becoming henceforward identified with the indigenous
inhabitants of the country. Assyrians were planted as colonists in the
subjugated towns, and served to maintain there the authority of the
conqueror. The condition of the latter resembled to a great extent that
of the old Egyptian vassals in Phoenicia or Southern Syria. They were
allowed to retain their national constitution, rites, and even their
sovereigns; when, for instance, after some rebellion, one of these
princes had been impaled or decapitated, his successor was always chosen
from among the members of his own family, usually one of his sons, who
was enthroned almost before his father had ceased to breathe. He was
obliged to humiliate his own gods before Assur, to pay a yearly tribute,
to render succour in case of necessity to the commanders of neighbouring
garrisons, to send his troops when required to swell the royal army, to
give his sons or brothers as hostages, and to deliver up his own sisters
and daughters, or those of his nobles, for the harem or the domestic
service of the conqueror. The unfortunate prince soon resigned himself
to this state of servitude; he would collect around him and reorganise
his scattered subjects, restore them to their cities, rebuild their
walls, replant the wasted orchards, and sow the devastated fields. A few
years of relative peace and tranquillity, during which he strove to
be forgotten by his conqueror, restored prosperity to his country; the
population increased with extraordinary rapidity, and new generations
arose who, unconscious of the disasters suffered by their predecessors,
had, but one aim, that of recovering their independence. We must,
however, beware of thinking that the defeat of these tribes was as
crushing or their desolation as terrible as the testimony of the
inscriptions would lead us to suppose. The rulers of Nineveh were but
too apt to relate that this or that country had been conquered and its
people destroyed, when the Assyrian army had remained merely a week or
a fortnight within its territory, had burnt some half-dozen fortified
towns, and taken two or three thousand prisoners.*
* For example, Tiglath-pileser I. conquers the Kummukli in
the first year of his reign, burning, destroying, and
depopulating the towns, and massacring the remainder of the
Kummukh who had taken refuge in the mountains, after which,
in his second campaign, he again pillages, burns, destroys,
and depopulates the towns, and again massacres the remainder
of the inhabitants hiding in the mountains. He makes the
same statements with regard to most of the other countries
and peoples conquered by him, but we find them reappearing
with renewed vigour on the scene, soon after their supposed
destruction.
If we were to accept implicitly all that is recorded of the Assyrian
exploits in Naîri or the Taurus, we should be led to believe that for
at least half a century the valleys of the Upper Tigris and Middle
Euphrates were transformed into a desert; each time, however, that they
are subsequently mentioned on the occasion of some fresh expedition,
they appear once more covered with thriving cities and a vigorous
population, whose generals offer an obstinate resistance to the
invaders. We are, therefore, forced to admit that the majority of these
expeditions must be regarded as mere raids. The population, disconcerted
by a sudden attack, would take refuge in the woods or on the mountains,
carrying with them their gods, whom they thus preserved from captivity,
together with a portion of their treasures and cattle; but no sooner had
the invader retired, than they descended once more into the plain and
returned to their usual occupations. The Assyrian victories thus rarely
produced the decisive results which are claimed for them; they almost
always left the conquered people with sufficient energy and resources
to enable them to resume the conflict after a brief interval, and the
supremacy which the suzerain claimed as a result of his conquests was of
the most ephemeral nature. A revolt would suffice to shake it, while a
victory would be almost certain to destroy it, and once more reduce the
empire to the limits of Assyria proper.
Tukultiabalesharra, familiar to us under the name of Tiglath-pileser,*
is the first of the great warrior-kings of Assyria to stand out before
us with any definite individuality.
* Tiglath-pileser is one of the transcriptions given in the
LXX. for the Hebrew version of the name: it signifies, The
child of Esharra is my strength. By the child of Esharra
the Assyrians, like the Chaldæans, understood the child of
Ninib.
We find him, in the interval between two skirmishes, engaged in hunting
lions or in the pursuit of other wild beasts, and we see him lavishing
offerings on the gods and enriching their temples with the spoils of
his victories; these, however, were not the normal occupations of this
sovereign, for peace with him was merely an interlude in a reign of
conflict. He led all his expeditions in person, undeterred by any
consideration of fatigue or danger, and scarcely had he returned from
one arduous campaign, than he proceeded to sketch the plan of that for
the following year; in short, he reigned only to wage war. His father,
Assurîshishi, had bequeathed him not only a prosperous kingdom, but a
well-organised army, which he placed in the field without delay. During
the fifty years since the Mushku, descending through the gorges of the
Taurus, had invaded the Alzi and the Puru-kuzzi, Assyria had not only
lost possession of all the countries bordering the left bank of the
Euphrates, but the whole of Kummukh had withdrawn its allegiance from
her, and had ceased to pay tribute. Tiglath-pileser had ascended the
throne only a few weeks ere he quitted Assur, marched rapidly across
Eastern Mesopotamia by the usual route, through Singar and Nisib, and
climbing the chain of the Kashiara, near Mardîn, bore down into the very
heart of Kummukh, where twenty thousand Mushku, under the command of
five kings, resolutely awaited him. He repulsed them in the very first
engagement, and pursued them hotly over hill and vale, pillaging the
fields, and encircling the towns with trophies of human heads taken
from the prisoners who had fallen into his hands; the survivors, to the
number of six thousand, laid down their arms, and were despatched to
Assyria.*
* The king, starting from Assur, must have followed the
route through Sindjar, Nisib, Mardîn, and Diarbekîr--a road
used later by the Romans, and still in existence at the
present day. As he did not penetrate that year as far as the
provinces of Alzi and Purukuzzi, he must have halted at the
commencement of the mountain district, and have beaten the
allies in the plain of Kuru-tchaî, before Diarbekîr, in the
neighbourhood of the Tigris.
The Kummukh contingents, however, had been separated in the rout from
the Mushku, and had taken refuge beyond the Euphrates, near to the
fortress of Shirisha, where they imagined themselves in safety behind a
rampart of mountains and forests. Tiglath-pileser managed, by cutting
a road for his foot-soldiers and chariots, to reach their retreat: he
stormed the place without apparent difficulty, massacred the defenders,
and then turning upon the inhabitants of Kurkhi,* who were on their way
to reinforce the besieged, drove their soldiers into the Nâmi, whose
waters carried the corpses down to the Tigris. One of their princes,
Kilite-shub, son of Kaliteshub-Sarupi, had been made prisoner during
the action. Tiglath-pileser sent him, together with his wives, children,
treasures, and gods,** to share the captivity of the Mushku; then
retracing his steps, he crossed over to the right bank of the Tigris,
and attacked the stronghold of Urrakhinas which crowned the summit of
Panâri.
* The country of the Kurkhi appears to have included at this
period the provinces lying between the Sebbeneh-Su and the
mountains of Djudî, probably a portion of the Sophene, the
Anzanone and the Gordyenc of classical authors.
** The vanquished must have crossed the Tigris below
Diarbekîr and have taken refuge beyond Mayafarrikîn, so that
Shirisha must be sought for between the Silvan-dagh and the
Ak-dagh, in the basin of the Batman-tchai, the present Nâmi.
The people, terror-stricken by the fate of their neighbours, seized
their idols and hid themselves within the thickets like a flock of
birds. Their chief, Shaditeshub, son of Khâtusaru,* ventured from out of
his hiding-place to meet the Assyrian conqueror, and prostrated himself
at his feet. He delivered over his sons and the males of his family
as hostages, and yielded up all his possessions in gold and copper,
together with a hundred and twenty slaves and cattle of all kinds;
Tiglath-pileser thereupon permitted him to keep his principality under
the suzerainty of Assyria, and such of his allies as followed his
example obtained a similar concession. The king consecrated the tenth
of the spoil thus received to the use of his god Assur and also to
Rammân;** but before returning to his capital, he suddenly resolved to
make an expedition into the almost impenetrable regions which separated
him from Lake Van.
* The name of this chiefs father has always been read
Khâtukhi: it is a form of the name Khâtusaru borne by the
Hittite king in the time of Ramses II.
** The site of Urrakhinas--read by Winckler Urartinas--is
very uncertain: the town was situated in a territory which
could belong equally well to the Kummukh or to the Kurkhi,
and the mention of the crossing of the Tigris seems to
indicate that it was on the right bank of the river,
probably in the mountain group of Tur-Abdîn.
This district was, even more than at the present day, a confused
labyrinth of wooded mountain ranges, through which the Eastern Tigris
and its affluents poured their rapid waters in tortuous curves. As
hitherto no army had succeeded in making its way through this territory
with sufficient speed to surprise the fortified villages and scattered
clans inhabiting the valleys and mountain slopes, Tiglath-pileser
selected from his force a small troop of light infantry and thirty
chariots, with which he struck into the forests; but, on reaching the
Aruma, he was forced to abandon his chariotry and proceed with the
foot-soldiers only. The Mildîsh, terrified by his sudden appearance,
fell an easy prey to the invader; the king scattered the troops hastily
collected to oppose him, set fire to a few fortresses, seized the
peasantry and their flocks, and demanded hostages and the usual tribute
as a condition of peace.*
* The Mildîsh of our inscription is to be identified with
the country of Mount Umildîsh, mentioned by Sargon of
Assyria.
In his first campaign he thus reduced the upper and eastern half of
Kummukh, namely, the part extending to the north of the Tigris, while in
the following campaign he turned his attention to the regions bounded by
the Euphrates and by the western spurs of the Kashiari. The Alzi and the
Purukuzzi had been disconcerted by his victories, and had yielded him
their allegiance almost without a struggle. To the southward, the Kashku
and the Urumi, who had, to the number of four thousand, migrated from
among the Khâti and compelled the towns of the Shubarti to break their
alliance with the Ninevite kings, now made no attempt at resistance;
they laid down their arms and yielded at discretion, giving up
their goods and their hundred and twenty war-chariots, and resigning
themselves to the task of colonising a distant corner of Assyria. Other
provinces, however, were not so easily dealt with; the inhabitants
entrenched themselves within their wild valleys, from whence they had
to be ousted by sheer force; in the end they always had to yield, and to
undertake to pay an annual tribute. The Assyrian empire thus regained
on this side the countries which Shalmaneser I. had lost, owing to the
absorption of his energies and interests in the events which were taking
place in Chaldæa.
In his third campaign Tiglath-pileser succeeded in bringing about the
pacification of the border provinces which shut in the basin of the
Tigris to the north and east. The Kurkhi did not consider themselves
conquered by the check they had received at the Nâmi; several of their
tribes were stirring in Kharia, on the highlands above the Arzania, and
their restlessness threatened to infect such of their neighbours as
had already submitted themselves to the Assyrian yoke. My master Assur
commanded me to attack their proud summits, which no king has ever
visited. I assembled my chariots and my foot-soldiers, and I
passed between the Idni and the Ala, by a difficult country, across
cloud-capped mountains whose peaks were as the point of a dagger,
and unfavourable to the progress of my chariots; I therefore left my
chariots in reserve, and I climbed these steep mountains. The community
of the Kurkhi assembled its numerous troops, and in order to give me
battle they entrenched themselves upon the Azubtagish; on the slopes of
the mountain, an incommodious position, I came into conflict with
them, and I vanquished them. This lesson cost them twenty-five towns,
situated at the feet of the Aîa, the Shuîra, the Idni, the Shizu, the
Silgu, and the Arzanabiu*--all twenty-five being burnt to the ground.
* The site of Kharia must be sought for probably between the
sources of the Tigris and the Batman-tchaî.
The dread of a similar fate impelled the neighbouring inhabitants of
Adaush to beg for a truce, which was granted to them;* but the people of
Saraush and of Ammaush, who from all time had never known what it was
to obey, were cut to pieces, and their survivors incorporated into the
empire--a like fate overtaking the Isua and the Daria, who inhabited
Khoatras.**
* According to the context, the Adaush ought to be between
the Kharia and the Saraush; possibly between the Batman-
tchaî and the Bohtân-tchaî, in the neighbourhood of Mildîsh.
** As Tiglath-pileser was forced to cross Mount Aruma in
order to reach the Ammaush and the Saraush, these two
countries, together with Isua and Daria, cannot be far from
Mildîsh; Isua is, indeed, mentioned as near to Anzitene in
an inscription of Shalmaneser II., which obliges us to place
it somewhere near the sources of the Batman-tchaî. The
position of Muraddash and Saradaush is indirectly pointed
out by the mention of the Lower Zab and the Lulumê; the name
of Saradaush is perhaps preserved in that of Surtash, borne
by the valley through which runs one of the tributaries of
the Lower Zab.
Beyond this, again, on the banks of the Lesser Zab and the confines of
Lulumô, the principalities of Muraddash and of Saradaush refused to come
to terms. Tiglath-pileser broke their lines within sight of Muraddash,
and entered the town with the fugitives in the confusion which ensued;
this took place about the fourth hour of the day. The success was so
prompt and complete, that the king was inclined to attribute it to the
help of Rammân, and he made an offering to the temple of this god at
Assur of all the copper, whether wrought or in ore, which was found
among the spoil of the vanquished. He was recalled almost immediately
after this victory by a sedition among the Kurkhi near the sources of
the Tigris. One of their tribes, known as the Sugi, who had not as
yet suffered from the invaders, had concentrated round their standards
contingents from some half-dozen cities, and the united force was, to
the number of six thousand, drawn up on Mount Khirikhâ. Tiglath-pileser
was again victorious, and took from them twenty-five statues of their
gods, which he despatched to Assyria to be distributed among the
sanctuaries of Belît at Assur, of Anu, Bammân, and of Ishtar. Winter
obliged him to suspend operations. When he again resumed them at the
beginning of his third year, both the Kummukh and the Kurkhi were so
peaceably settled that he was able to carry his expeditions without fear
of danger further north, into the regions of the Upper Euphrates between
the Halys and Lake Van, a district then known as Naîri. He marched
diagonally across the plain of Diarbekîr, penetrated through dense
forests, climbed sixteen mountain ridges one after the other by paths
hitherto considered impracticable, and finally crossed the Euphrates by
improvised bridges, this being, as far as we know, the first time that
an Assyrian monarch had ventured into the very heart of those countries
which had formerly constituted the Hittite empire.
He found them occupied by rude and warlike tribes, who derived
considerable wealth from working the mines, and possessed each their
own special sanctuary, the ruins of which still appear above ground,
and invite the attention of the explorer. Their fortresses must have all
more or less resembled that city of the Pterians which flourished for so
many ages just at the bend of the Halys;* its site is still marked by
a mound rising to some thirty feet above the plain, resembling the
platforms on which the Chaldæan temples were always built--a few walls
of burnt brick, and within an enclosure, among the débris of rudely
built houses, the ruins of some temples and palaces consisting of large
irregular blocks of stone.
* The remains of the palace of the city of the Pterians, the
present Euyuk, are probably later than the reign of Tiglath-
pileser, and may be attributed to the Xth or IXth century
before our era; they, however, probably give a very fair
idea of what the towns of the Cappadocian region were like
at the time of the first Assyrian invasions.
[Illustration: 216.jpg GENERAL VIEW OF THE RUINS OF EUYUK]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.
[Illustration: 217.jpg THE SPHINX ON THE RIGHT OF EUYUK]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
Two colossal sphinxes guard the gateway of the principal edifice,
and their presence proves with certainty how predominant was Egyptian
influence even at this considerable distance from the banks of the Nile.
They are not the ordinary sphinxes, with a human head surmounting the
body of a lion couchant on its stone pedestal; but, like the Assyrian
bulls, they are standing, and, to judge from the Hathorian locks which
fall on each side of their countenances, they must have been intended
to represent a protecting goddess rather than a male deity. A remarkable
emblem is carved on the side of the upright to which their bodies are
attached; it is none other than the double-headed eagle, the prototype
of which is not infrequently found at Telloh in Lower Chaldæa, among
remains dating from the time of the kings and vicegerents of Lagash.
[Illustration: 218.jpg TWO BLOCKS COVERED WITH BAS-RELIEFS IN THE EUYUK
PALACE]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
The court or hall to which this gate gave access was decorated with
bas-reliefs, which exhibit a glaring imitation of Babylonian art; we can
still see on these the king, vested in his long flowing robes, praying
before an altar, while further on is a procession of dignitaries
following a troop of rams led by a priest to be sacrificed; another
scene represents two individuals in the attitude of worship, wearing
short loin-cloths, and climbing a ladder whose upper end has an
uncertain termination, while a third person applies his hands to his
mouth in the performance of some mysterious ceremony; beyond these are
priests and priestesses moving in solemn file as if in the measured
tread of some sacred dance, while in one corner we find the figure of a
woman, probably a goddess, seated, holding in one hand a flower, perhaps
the full-blown lotus, and in the other a cup from which she is about to
drink. The costume of all these figures is that which Chaldæan fashion
had imposed upon the whole of Western Asia, and consisted of the long
heavy robe, falling from the shoulders to the feet, drawn in at the
waist by a girdle; but it is to be noted that both sexes are shod with
the turned-up shoes of the Hittites, and that the women wear high peaked
caps.
[Illustration: 219.jpg MYSTIC SCENE AT EUYUK]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
The composition of the scenes is rude, the drawing incorrect, and the
general technique reminds us rather of the low reliefs of the Memphite
or Theban sculptors than of the high projection characteristic of the
artists of the Lower Euphrates. These slabs of sculptured stone formed
a facing at the base of the now crumbling brick walls, the upper
surface of which was covered with rough plastering. Here and there a
few inscriptions reveal the name, titles, and parentage of some once
celebrated personage, and mention the god in whose honour he had
achieved the work.
[Illustration: 220.jpg AN ASIATIC GODDESS]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph.
The characters in which these inscriptions are written are not, as a
rule, incised in the stone, but are cut in relief upon its surface,
and if some few of them may remind us of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the
majority are totally unlike them, both in form and execution. A careful
examination of them reveals a medley of human and animal outlines,
geometrical figures, and objects of daily use, which all doubtless
corresponded to some letter or syllable, but to which we have as yet
no trustworthy key. This system of writing is one of a whole group of
Asiatic scripts, specimens of which are common in this part of the world
from Crete to the banks of the Euphrates and Orontes. It is thought that
the Khâti must have already adopted it before their advent to power, and
that it was they who propagated it in Northern Syria. It did not take
the place of the cuneiform syllabary for ordinary purposes of daily life
owing to its clumsiness and complex character, but its use was reserved
for monumental inscriptions of a royal or religious kind, where it could
be suitably employed as a framework to scenes or single figures.
[Illustration: 221.jpg THE ASIATIC INSCRIPTION OF KOLITOLU-YAÎLA]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hogarth.
It, however, never presented the same graceful appearance and
arrangement as was exhibited in the Egyptian hieroglyphs, the signs
placed side by side being out of proportion with each other so as to
destroy the general harmony of the lines, and it must be regarded as a
script still in process of formation and not yet emerged from infancy.
Every square yard of soil turned up among the ruins of the houses of
Euyuk yields vestiges of tools, coarse pottery, terra-cotta and bronze
statuettes of men and animals, and other objects of a not very high
civilization. The few articles of luxury discovered, whether in
furniture or utensils, were not indigenous products, but were imported
for the most part from Chaldæa, Syria, Phoenicia, and perhaps from
Egypt; some objects, indeed, came from the coast-towns of the Ægean,
thus showing that Western influence was already in contact with the
traditions of the East.
[Illustration: 222.jpg DOUBLE SCEND OF OFFERINGS]
Drawn by Paucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hogarth. It
will be remarked that both altars are in the form of a
female without a head, but draped in the Assyrian robe.
All the various races settled between the Halys and the Orontes were
more or less imbued with this foreign civilization, and their monuments,
though not nearly so numerous as those of the Pharaohs and Ninevite
kings, bear, nevertheless, an equally striking evidence of its power.
Examples of it have been pointed out in a score of different places in
the valleys of the Taurus and on the plains of Cappadocia, in
bas-reliefs, steke, seals, and intaglios, several of which must be
nearly contemporaneous with the first Assyrian conquest.
[Illustration: 223.jpg THE BAS-RELIEF OF IBRIZ]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Hogarth.
One instance of it appears on the rocks at Ibriz, where a king stands in
a devout attitude before a jovial giant whose hands are full of grapes
and wheat-ears, while in another bas-relief near Frakhtîn we have a
double scene of sacrifice. The rock-carving at Ibriz is, perhaps, of all
the relics of a forgotten world, that which impresses the spectator most
favourably. The concept of the scene is peculiarly naïve; indeed, the
two figures are clumsily brought together, though each of them, when
examined separately, is remarkable for its style and execution. The king
has a dignified bearing in spite of his large head, round eyes, and the
unskilful way in which his arms are set on his body. The figure of the
god is not standing firmly on both feet, but the sculptor has managed
to invest him with an air of grandeur and an expression of vigour and
_bonhomie,_ which reminds us of certain types of the Greek Hercules.
Tiglath-pileser was probably attracted to Asia Minor as much by
considerations of mercantile interest as by the love of conquest or
desire for spoil. It would, indeed, have been an incomparable gain for
him had he been able, if not to seize the mines themselves, at least
to come into such close proximity to them that he would be able to
monopolise their entire output, and at the same time to lay hands on the
great commercial highway to the trade centres of the west. The eastern
terminus of this route lay already within his domains, namely, that
which led to Assur by way of Amid, Nisibe, Singar, and the valley of the
Upper Tigris; he was now desirous of acquiring that portion of it
which wound its way from the fords of the Euphrates at Malatîyeh to the
crossing of the Halys. The changes which had just taken place in
Kummukh and Nairi had fully aroused the numerous petty sovereigns of
the neighbourhood. The bonds which kept them together had not been
completely severed at the downfall of the Hittite empire, and a certain
sense of unity still lingered among them in spite of their continual
feuds; they constituted, in fact, a sort of loose confederation, whose
members never failed to help one another when they were threatened by a
common enemy. As soon as the news of an Assyrian invasion reached them,
they at once put aside their-mutual quarrels and combined to oppose
the invader with their united forces. Tiglath-pileser had, therefore,
scarcely crossed the Euphrates before he was attacked on his right flank
by twenty-three petty kings of Naîri,* while sixty other chiefs from the
same neighbourhood bore down upon him in front. He overcame the first
detachment of the confederates, though not without a sharp struggle; he
carried carnage into their ranks, as it were the whirlwind of Eammân,
and seized a hundred and twenty of the enemys chariots. The sixty
chiefs, whose domains extended as far as the Upper Sea, ** were
disconcerted by the news of the disaster, and of their own accord laid
down their arms, or offered but a feeble resistance.
* The text of the Annals of the Xth year give thirty instead
of twenty-three; in the course of five or six years the
numbers have already become exaggerated.
** The site of the Upper Sea has furnished material for
much discussion. Some believe it to be the Caspian Sea or
the Black Sea, others take it to be Lake Van, while some
think it to be the Mediterranean, and more particularly the
Gulf of Issus between Syria and Cilicia. At the present day
several scholars have returned to the theory which makes it
the Black Sea.
Tiglath-pileser presented some of them in chains to the god Shamash; he
extorted an oath of vassalage from them, forced them to give up their
children as hostages, and laid a tax upon them _en masse_ of 1200
stallions and 2000 bulls, after which he permitted them to return to
their respective towns. He had, however, singled out from among them to
grace his own triumph, Sini of Dayana, the only chief among them who had
offered him an obstinate resistance; but even he was granted his liberty
after he had been carried captive to Assur, and made to kneel before the
gods of Assyria.*
* Dayani, which is mentioned in the Annals of Shalmaneser
II., has been placed on the banks of the Murad-su by
Schrader, and more particularly in the neighbourhood of
Melasgerd by Sayce; Delattre has shown that it was the last
and most westerly of twenty-three kingdoms conquered by
Tiglath-pileser I., and that it was consequently enclosed
between the Murad-su and the Euphrates proper.
Before returning to the capital, Tiglath-pileser attacked Khanigalbat,
and appeared before Milidia: as the town attempted no defence, he spared
it, and contented himself with levying a small contribution upon
its inhabitants. This expedition was rather of the nature of a
reconnaissance than a conquest, but it helped to convince the king
of the difficulty of establishing any permanent suzerainty over the
country. The Asiatic peoples were quick to bow before a sudden attack;
but no sooner had the conqueror departed, than those who had sworn him
eternal fealty sought only how best to break their oaths. The tribes in
immediate proximity to those provinces which had been long subject to
the Assyrian rule, were intimidated into showing some respect for a
power which existed so close to their own borders. But those further
removed from the seat of government felt a certain security in
their distance from it, and were tempted to revert to the state of
independence they had enjoyed before the conquest; so that unless the
sovereign, by a fresh campaign, promptly made them realise that their
disaffection would not remain unpunished, they soon forgot their
feudatory condition and the duties which it entailed.
Three years of merciless conflict with obstinate and warlike mountain
tribes had severely tried the Assyrian army, if it had not worn out
the sovereign; the survivors of so many battles were in sore need of a
well-merited repose, the gaps left by death had to be filled, and both
infantry and chariotry needed the re-modelling of their corps. The
fourth year of the kings reign, therefore, was employed almost entirely
in this work of reorganisation; we find only the record of a raid of
a few weeks against the Akhlamî and other nomadic Aramæans situated
beyond the Mesopotamian steppes. The Assyrians spread over the district
between the frontiers of Sukhi and the fords of Carchemish for a whole
day, killing all who resisted, sacking the villages and laying hands
on slaves and cattle. The fugitives escaped over the Euphrates, vainly
hoping that they would be secure in the very heart of the Khâti.
Tiglath-pileser, however, crossed the river on rafts supported on skins,
and gave the provinces of Mount Bishri over to fire and sword:* six
walled towns opened their gates to him without having ventured to strike
a blow, and he quitted the country laden with spoil before the kings of
the surrounding cities had had time to recover from their alarm.
* The country of Bishri was situated, as the _Annals_ point
out, in the immediate neighbourhood of Carchemish. The name
is preserved in that of Tell Basher still borne by the
ruins, and a modern village on the banks of the Sajur. The
Gebel Bishri to which Hommel alludes is too far to the south
to correspond to the description given in the inscription of
Tiglath-pileser.
This expedition was for Tiglath-pileser merely an interlude between
two more serious campaigns; and with the beginning of his fifth year
he reappeared in the provinces of the Upper Euphrates to complete his
conquest of them. He began by attacking and devastating Musri, which lay
close to the territory of Milid. While thus occupied he was harassed by
bands of Kumani; he turned upon them, overcame them, and imprisoned the
remainder of them in the fortress of Arini, at the foot of Mount Aisa,
where he forced them to kiss his feet. His victory over them, however,
did not disconcert their neighbours. The bulk of the Kumani, whose
troops had scarcely suffered in the engagement, fortified themselves
on Mount Tala, to the number of twenty thousand; the king carried the
heights by assault, and hotly pursued the fugitives as far as the range
of Kharusa before Musri, where the fortress of Khunusa afforded them
a retreat behind its triple walls of brick. The king, nothing daunted,
broke his way through them one after another, demolished the ramparts,
razed the houses, and strewed the ruins with salt; he then constructed
a chapel of brick as a sort of trophy, and dedicated within it what
was known as a copper thunderbolt, being an image of the missile which
Eammân, the god of thunder, brandished in the face of his enemies. An
inscription engraved on the object recorded the destruction of Khunusa,
and threatened with every divine malediction the individual, whether
an Assyrian or a stranger, who should dare to rebuild the city. This
victory terrified the Kumani, and their capital, Kibshuna, opened
its gates to the royal troops at the first summons. Tiglath-pileser
completely destroyed the town, but granted the inhabitants their lives
on condition of their paying tribute; he chose from among them, however,
three hundred families who had shown him the most inveterate hostility,
and sent them as exiles into Assyria.*
* The country of the Kumani or Kammanu is really the
district of Comana in Cataonia, and not the Comana Pontica
or the Khammanene on the banks of the Halys. Delattre thinks
that Tiglath-pileser penetrated into this region by the
Jihun, and consequently seeks to identify the names of towns
and mountains, e.g. Mount Ilamuni with Jaur-dagh, the
Kharusa with Shorsh-dagh, and the Tala with the Kermes-dagh;
but it is difficult to believe that, if the king took this
route, he would not mention the town of Marqasi-Marash,
which lay at the very foot of the Jaur-dagh, and would have
stopped his passage. It is more probable that the Assyrians,
starting from Melitene, which they had just subdued, would
have followed the route which skirts the northern slope of
the Taurus by Albistan; the scene of the conflict in this
case would probably have been the mountainous district of
Zeitûn.
With this victory the first half of his reign drew to its close; in five
years Tiglath-pileser had subjugated forty-two peoples and their princes
within an area extending from the banks of the Lower Zab to the plains
of the Khâti, and as far as the shores of the Western Seas. He revisited
more than once these western and northern regions in which he had
gained his early triumphs. The reconnaissance which he had made
around Carchemish had revealed to him the great wealth of the Syrian
table-land, and that a second raid in that direction could be made more
profitable than ten successful campaigns in Naîri or upon the banks
of the Zab. He therefore marched his battalions thither, this time
to remain for more than a few days. He made his way through the whole
breadth of the country, pushed forward up the valley of the Orontes,
crossed the Lebanon, and emerged above the coast of the Mediterranean in
the vicinity of Arvad.
[Illustration: 230.jpg SACRIFICE OFFERED BEFORE THE ROYAL STELE]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
bronze gates of Balawât.
This is the first time for many centuries that an Oriental sovereign had
penetrated so far west; and his contemporaries must have been obliged
to look back to the almost fabulous ages of Sargon of Agadê or of
Khammurabi, to find in the long lists of the dynasties of the Euphrates
any record of a sovereign who had planted his standards on the shores of
the Sea of the Setting Sun.*
*This is the name given by the Assyrians to the
Mediterranean.
Tiglath-pileser embarked on its waters, made a cruise into the open, and
killed a porpoise, but we have no record of any battles fought, nor do
we know how he was received by the Phoenician towns. He pushed on, it is
thought, as far as the Nahr el-Kelb, and the sight of the hieroglyphic
inscriptions which Ramses had caused to be cut there three centuries
previously aroused his emulation. Assyrian conquerors rarely quitted
the scene of their exploits without leaving behind them some permanent
memorial of their presence. A sculptor having hastily smoothed the
surface of a rock, cut out on it a figure of the king, to which was
usually added a commemorative inscription. In front of this stele was
erected an altar, upon which sacrifices were made, and if the monument
was placed near a stream or the seashore, the soldiers were accustomed
to cast portions of the victims into the water in order to propitiate
the river-deities.
[Illustration: 231.jpg PORTIONS OF THE SACRIFICIAL VICTIMS THROWN INTO
THE WATER]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
bronze gates of Balawât.
One of the half-effaced Assyrian stelæ adjoining those of the Egyptian
conqueror is attributed to Tiglath-pileser.*
*Boscawen thinks that we may attribute to Tiglath-pileser I.
the oldest of the Assyrian stelæ at Nahr el-Kelb; no
positive information has as yet confirmed this hypothesis,
which is in other respects very probable.
It was on his return, perhaps, from this campaign that he planted
colonies at Pitru on the right, and at Mutkînu on the left bank of the
Euphrates, in order to maintain a watch over Carchemish, and the more
important fords connecting Mesopotamia with the plains of the Apriê and
the Orontes.*
* The existence of these colonies is known only from an
inscription of Shalmaneser II.
The news of Tiglath-pilesers expedition was not long in reaching the
Delta, and the Egyptian monarch then reigning at Tanis was thus made
acquainted with the fact that there had arisen in Syria a new power
before which his own was not unlikely to give way. In former times such
news would have led to a war between the two states, but the time
had gone by when Egypt was prompt to take up arms at the slightest
encroachment on her Asiatic provinces. Her influence at this time was
owing merely to her former renown, and her authority beyond the isthmus
was purely traditional. The Tanite Pharaoh had come to accept with
resignation the change in the fortunes of Egypt, and he therefore
contented himself with forwarding to the Assyrian conqueror, by one of
the Syrian coasting vessels, a present of some rare wild beasts and
a few crocodiles. In olden times Assyria had welcomed the arrival of
Thûtmosis III. on the Euphrates by making him presents, which the Theban
monarch regarded in the light of tribute: the case was now reversed, the
Egyptian Pharaoh taking the position formerly occupied by the Assyrian
monarch. Tiglath-pileser graciously accepted this unexpected homage, but
the turbulent condition of the northern tribes prevented his improving
the occasion by an advance into Phoenicia and the land of Canaan. Naîri
occupied his attention on two separate occasions at least; on the second
of these he encamped in the neighbourhood of the source of the river
Subnat. This stream, had for a long period issued from a deep grotto,
where in ancient times a god was supposed to dwell. The conqueror
was lavish in religious offerings here, and caused a bas-relief to be
engraved on the entrance in remembrance of his victories.
[Illustration 233.jpg THE STELE AT SEBENNEH-SU]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by P. Taylor, in G.
Rawlinson.
He is here represented as standing upright, the tiara on his brow, and
his right arm extended as if in the act of worship, while his left, the
elbow brought up to his side, holds a club. The inscription appended
to the figure tells, with an eloquence all the more effective from its
brevity, how, with the aid of Assur, Shamash, and Eammân, the
great gods, my lords, I, Tiglath-pileser, King of Assyria, son of
Assurîshishî, King of Assyria, son of Mutakkilnusku, King of Assyria,
conqueror from the great sea, the Mediterranean, to the great sea of
Naîri, I went for the third time to Naîri.
The gods who had so signally favoured the monarch received the greater
part of the spoils which he had secured in his campaigns. The majority
of the temples of Assyria, which were founded at a time when its city
was nothing more than a provincial capital owing allegiance to Babylon,
were either, it would appear, falling to ruins from age, or presented a
sorry exterior, utterly out of keeping with the magnitude of its recent
wealth. The king set to work to enlarge or restore the temples of
Ishtar, Martu, and the ancient Bel;* he then proceeded to rebuild,
from the foundations to the summit, that of Anu and Bammân, which the
vicegerent Samsirammân, son of Ismidagan, had constructed seven hundred
and one years previously. This temple was the principal sanctuary of
the city, because it was the residence of the chief of the gods, Assur,
under his appellation of Anu.**
* Bel the ancient, or possibly the ancient master,
appears to have been one of the names of Anu, who is
naturally in this connexion the same as Assur.
** This was the great temple of which the ruins still exist.
The soil was cleared away down to the bed-rock, upon which an enormous
substructure, consisting of fifty courses of bricks, was laid, and above
this were erected two lofty ziggurâts, whose tile-covered surfaces shone
like the rising sun in their brightness; the completion of the whole was
commemorated by a magnificent festival. The special chapel of Bammân
and his treasury, dating from the time of the same Samsirammân who had
raised the temple of Anu, were also rebuilt on a more important scale.*
* The British Museum possesses bricks bearing the name of
Tiglath-pileser I., brought from this temple, as is shown by
the inscription on their sides.
These works were actively carried on notwithstanding the fact that war
was raging on the frontier; however preoccupied he might be with warlike
projects, Tiglath-pileser never neglected the temples, and set to work
to collect from every side materials for their completion and adornment.
[Illustration: 235.jpg TRANSPORT OF BUILDING MATERIALS BY WATER]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief on the bronze
doors at Balawât.
He brought, for example, from Naîri such marble and hard stone as might
be needed for sculptural purposes, together with the beams of cedar and
cypress required by his carpenters. The mountains of Singar and of the
Zab furnished the royal architects with building stone for ordinary
uses, and for those facing slabs of bluish gypsum on which the
bas-reliefs of the kings exploits were carved; the blocks ready squared
were brought down the affluents of the Tigris on rafts or in boats, and
thus arrived at their destination without land transport.
[Illustration: 236.jpg RARE ANIMALS BROUGHT BACK AS TROPHIES BY THE
KING]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the cast in the Louvre. The
original is in the British Museum.
The kings of Assyria, like the Pharaohs, had always had a passion for
rare trees and strange animals; as soon as they entered a country, they
inquired what natural curiosities it contained, and they would send back
to their own land whatever specimens of them could be procured.
[Illustration: 237.jpg MONKEY BROUGHT BACK AS TRIBUTE]
Drawn by Boudier, from the bas-relief in Layard.
The triumphal _cortege_ which accompanied the monarch on his return
after each campaign comprised not only prisoners and spoil of a
useful sort, but curiosities from all the conquered districts, as,
for instance, animals of unusual form or habits, rhinoceroses and
crocodiles,* and if some monkey of a rare species had been taken in the
sack of a town, it also would find a place in the procession, either
held in a leash or perched on the shoulders of its keeper.
* A crocodile sent as a present by the King of Egypt is
mentioned in the _Inscription of the Broken Obelisk_. The
animal is called _namsukha_, which is the Egyptian _msuhu_
with the plural article _na._
The campaigns of the monarch were thus almost always of a double nature,
comprising not merely a conflict with men, but a continual pursuit of
wild beasts. Tiglath-pileser, in the service of Ninib, had killed four
great specimens of the male urus in the desert of Mitanni, near to the
town of Arazîki, opposite to the countries of the Khâti;* he killed them
with his powerful bow, his dagger of iron, his pointed lance, and he
brought back their skins and horns to his city of Assur. He secured ten
strong male elephants, in the territory of Harrân and upon the banks of
the Khabur, and he took four of them alive: he brought back their skins
and their tusks, together with the living elephants, to his city of
Assur. He killed moreover, doubtless also in the service of Ninib, a
hundred and twenty lions, which he attacked on foot, despatching eight
hundred more with arrows from his chariot,** all within the short space
of five years, and we may well ask what must have been the sum total,
if the complete record for his whole reign were extant. We possess,
unfortunately, no annals of the later years of this monarch; we have
reason to believe that he undertook several fresh expeditions into
Nairi,*** and a mutilated tablet records some details of troubles with
Elam in the Xth year of his reign.
* The town of Arazîki has been identified with the Eragiza
(Eraziga) of Ptolemy; the Eraziga of Ptolemy was on the
right bank of the Euphrates, while the text of Tiglath-
pileser appears to place Arazîki on the left bank.
** The account of the hunts in the _Annals_ is supplemented
by the information furnished in the first column of the
Broken Obelisk. The monument is of the time of Assur-nazir-
pal, but the first column contains an abstract from an
account of an anonymous hunt, which a comparison of numbers
and names leads us to attribute to Tiglath-pileser I.; some
Assyri-ologists, however, attribute it to Assur-nazir-pal.
* The inscription of Sebbeneh-Su was erected at the time of
the third expedition into Naîri, and the _Annals_ give only
one; the other two expeditions must, therefore, be
subsequent to the Vth year of his reign.
We gather that he attacked a whole series of strongholds, some of
whose names have a Cossæan ring about them, such as Madkiu, Sudrun,
Ubrukhundu, Sakama, Shuria, Khirishtu, and Andaria. His advance in this
direction must have considerably provoked the Chaldæans, and, indeed,
it was not long before actual hostilities broke out between the two
nations. The first engagement took place in the valley of the Lower Zab,
in the province of Arzukhina, without any decisive result, but in the
following year fortune favoured the Assyrians, for Dur-kurigalzu, both
Sipparas, Babylon, and Upi opened their gates to them, while Akar-sallu,
the Akhlamê, and the whole of Sukhi as far as Eapîki tendered their
submission to Tiglath-achuch-sawh-akhl-pileser.
[Illustration: 239.jpg MERODACH-NADIN-AKHI]
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the heliogravure in Pr.
Lenormant. The original is in the British Museum. It is one
of the boundary stones which were set up in a corner of a
field to mark its legal limit.
Merodach-nadin-akhi, who was at this time reigning in Chaldæa, was
like his ancestor Nebuchadrezzar I., a brave and warlike sovereign: he
appears at first to have given way under the blow thus dealt him, and to
have acknowledged the suzerainty of his rival, who thereupon assumed the
title of Lord of the four Houses of the World, and united under a single
empire the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates. But this state of things
lasted for a few years only; Merodach-nadin-akhi once more took courage,
and, supported by the Chaldæan nobility, succeeded in expelling the
intruders from Sumir and Akkad. The Assyrians, however, did not allow
themselves to be driven out without a struggle, but fortune turned
against them; they were beaten, and the conqueror inflicted on the
Assyrian gods the humiliation to which they had so often subjected those
of other nations. He took the statues of Eammân and Shala from Ekallati,
carried them to Babylon, and triumphantly set them up within the temple
of Bel. There they remained in captivity for 418 years.* Tiglath-pileser
did not long survive this disaster, for he died about the year 1100
B.C.,** and two of his sons succeeded him on the throne. The elder,
Assur-belkala,*** had neither sufficient energy nor resources to resume
the offensive, and remained a passive spectator of the revolutions which
distracted Babylon.
* We know this fact from the inscription of Bavian, in which
Sennacherib boasts of having brought back these statues to
Assyria after they had been 418 years in the possession of
the enemy. I have followed the commonly received opinion,
which places the defeat of Tiglath-pileser after the taking
of Babylon; others think that it preceded the decisive
victory of the Assyrians. It is improbable that, if the loss
of the statues preceded the decisive victory, the Assyrian
conquerors should have left their gods prisoners in a
Babylonian temple, and should not have brought them back
immediately to Ekallati.
** The death of Tiglath-pileser must have followed quickly
on the victory of Babylon; the contents of the inscription
of Bavian permit us to fix the taking of Ekallati by the
Chaldæans about the year 1108-1106 B.C. We shall not be far
wrong in supposing Tiglath-pileser to have reigned six or
eight years after his defeat.
*** I followed the usually received classification. It is,
however, possible that we must reverse the order of the
sovereigns.
Merodach-nadin-akhi had been followed by his son Merodach-shapîk-zîrîm,*
but this prince was soon dethroned by the people, and Bammân-abaliddîn,
a man of base extraction, seized the crown.
* The name of the Babylonian king has been variously read
Merodach-shapîk-zirat, Merodach-shapîk-kullat, Merodach-
shapîk-zirmâti and Merodach-shapîk-zîrîm.
Assur-belkala not only extended to this usurper the friendly relations
he had kept up with the legitimate sovereign, but he asked for the hand
of his daughter in marriage, and the rich dowry which she brought her
husband no doubt contributed to the continuation of his pacific policy.
He appears also to have kept possession of all the parts of Mesopotamia
and Kammukh conquered by his father, and it is possible that he may have
penetrated beyond the Euphrates. His brother, Samsi-rammân III.,
does not appear to have left any more definite mark upon history than
Assur-belkala; he decorated the temples built by his predecessors,
but beyond this we have no certain record of his achievements. We know
nothing of the kings who followed him, their names even having been
lost, but about a century and a half after Tiglath-pileser, a certain
Assurirba seems to have crossed Northern Syria, and following in the
footsteps of his great ancestor, to have penetrated as far as the
Mediterranean: on the rocks of Mount Amanus, facing the sea, he left
a triumphal inscription in which he set forth the mighty deeds he
had accomplished. This is merely a gleam out of the murky night which
envelops his history, and the testimony of one of his descendants
informs us that his good fortune soon forsook him: the Aramaeans wrested
from him the fortresses of Pitru and Mutkînu, which commanded both banks
of the Euphrates near Carchemish. Nor did the retrograde movement slaken
after his time: Assyria slowly wasted away down to the end of the Xth
century, and but for the simultaneous decadence of the Chaldaeans, its
downfall would have been complete. But neither Rammân-abaliddîn nor his
successor was able to take advantage of its weakness; discord and
want of energy soon brought about their own ruin. The dynasty of
Pashê disappeared towards the middle of the Xth century, and a family
belonging to the Countries of the Sea took its place: it had continued
for about one hundred and thirty-two years, and had produced eleven
kings.*
* It is no easy matter to draw up an exact list of this
dynasty, and Hilprechts attempt to do so contains more than
one doubtful name. The following list is very imperfect and
doubtful, but the best that our present knowledge enables us
to put forward.
[Illustration: 242.jpg TABLE OF KINGS]
What were the causes of this depression, from which Babylon suffered at
almost regular intervals, as though stricken with some periodic malady?
The main reason soon becomes apparent if we consider the nature of
the country and the material conditions of its existence. Chaldæa was
neither extensive enough nor sufficiently populous to afford a solid
basis for the ambition of her princes. Since nearly every man capable
of bearing arms was enrolled in the army, the Chaktean kings had no
difficulty in raising, at a moments notice, a force which could be
employed to repel an invasion, or make a sudden attack on some distant
territory; it was in schemes which required prolonged and sustained
effort that they felt the drawbacks of their position. In that age of
hand-to-hand combats, the mortality in battle was very high, forced
marches through forests and across mountains entailed a heavy loss of
men, and three or four consecutive campaigns against a stubborn foe soon
reduced an army to a condition of dangerous weakness. Recruits might be
obtained to fill the earlier vacancies in the ranks, but they soon grew
fewer and fewer if time was not given for recovery after the opening
victories in the struggle, and the supply eventually ceased if
operations were carried on beyond a certain period.
The total duration of the dynasty was, according to the Royal Canon, 72
years 6 months. Peiser has shown that this is a mistake, and he proposes
to correct it to 132 years 6 months, and this is accepted by most
Assyri-ologists.
A reign which began brilliantly often came to an impotent conclusion,
owing to the king having failed to economise his reserves; and the
generations which followed, compelled to adopt a strictly defensive
attitude, vegetated in a sort of anaemic condition, until the birth-rate
had brought the proportion of males up to a figure sufficiently high to
provide the material for a fresh army. When Nebuchadrezzar made war upon
Assurîshishî, he was still weak from the losses he had incurred during
the campaign against Elam, and could not conduct his attack with the
same vigour as had gained him victory on the banks of the Ulaî; in
the first year he only secured a few indecisive advantages, and in the
second he succumbed. Merodach-nadin-akhi was suffering from the reverses
sustained by his predecessors when Tiglath-pileser provoked him to war,
and though he succeeded in giving a good account of an adversary who was
himself exhausted by dearly bought successes, he left to his descendants
a kingdom which had been drained of its last drop of blood. The same
reason which explains the decadence of Babylon shows us the cause of
the periodic eclipses undergone by Assyria after each outburst of her
warlike spirit. She, too, had to pay the penalty of an ambition
which was out of all proportion to her resources. The mighty deeds of
Shalmaneser and Tukulti-ninip were, as a natural consequence,
followed by a state of complete prostration under Tukultiassurbel
and Assurnîrarî: the country was now forced to pay for the glories of
Assurîshishî and of Tiglath-pileser by falling into an inglorious state
of languor and depression. Its kings, conscious that their rule must be
necessarily precarious as long as they did not possess a larger stock of
recruits to fall back on, set their wits to work to provide by various
methods a more adequate reserve. While on one hand they installed native
Assyrians in the more suitable towns of conquered countries, on the
other they imported whole hordes of alien prisoners chosen for their
strength and courage, and settled them down in districts by the banks of
the Tigris and the Zab. We do not know what Eammânirâni and Shalmaneser
may have done in this way, but Tiglath-pileser undoubtedly introduced
thousands of the Mushku, the Urumseans, the people of Kummukh and
Naîri, and his example was followed by all those of his successors
whose history has come down to us. One might have expected that such an
invasion of foreigners, still smarting under the sense of defeat, might
have brought with it an element of discontent or rebellion; far from
it, they accepted their exile as a judgment of the gods, which the
gods alone had a right to reverse, and did their best to mitigate the
hardness of their lot by rendering unhesitating obedience to their
masters. Their grandchildren, born in the midst of Assyrians, became
Assyrians themselves, and if they did not entirely divest themselves of
every trace of their origin, at any rate became so closely identified
with the country of their adoption, that it was difficult to distinguish
them from the native race. The Assyrians who were sent out to colonise
recently acquired provinces were at times exposed to serious risks. Now
and then, instead of absorbing the natives among whom they lived, they
were absorbed by them, which meant a loss of so much fighting strength
to the mother country; even under the most favourable conditions
a considerable time must have passed before they could succeed in
assimilating to themselves the races amongst whom they lived. At
last, however, a day would dawn when the process of incorporation was
accomplished, and Assyria, having increased her area and resources
twofold, found herself ready to endure to the end the strain of
conquest. In the interval, she suffered from a scarcity of fighting men,
due to the losses incurred in her victories, and must have congratulated
herself that her traditional foe was not in a position to take advantage
of this fact.
The first wave of the Assyrian invasion had barely touched Syria; it
had swept hurriedly over the regions in the north, and then flowed
southwards to return no more, so that the northern races were able to
resume the wonted tenor of their lives. For centuries after this
their condition underwent no change; there was the same repetition of
dissension and intrigue, the same endless succession of alliances and
battles without any signal advantage on either side. The Hittites still
held Northern Syria: Carchemish was their capital, and more than one
town in its vicinity preserved the tradition of their dress, their
language, their arts, and their culture in full vigour. The Greek
legends tell us vaguely of some sort of Cilician empire which is said
to have brought the eastern and central provinces of Asia Minor into
subjection about ten centuries before our era.*
* Solinus, relying on the indirect evidence of Hecatseus of
Miletus, tells us that Cilicia extended not only to the
countries afterwards known as Cataonia, Commagene, and
Syria, but also included Lydia, Media, Armenia, Pamphylia,
and Cappadocia; the conquests of the Assyrian kings must
have greatly reduced its area. I am of opinion that the
tradition preserved by Hecatous referred both to the
kingdom of Sapalulu and to that of the monarchs of this
second epoch.
Is there any serious foundation for such a belief, and must we assume
that there existed at this time and in this part of the world a kingdom
similar to that of Sapalulu? Assyria was recruiting its forces, Chaldæa
was kept inactive by its helplessness, Egypt slumbered by the banks of
its river, there was no actor of the first rank to fill the stage; now
was the opportunity for a second-rate performer to come on the scene and
play such a part as his abilities permitted. The Cilician conquest, if
this be indeed the date at which it took place, had the boards to itself
for a hundred years after the defeat of Assurirba. The time was too
short to admit of its striking deep root in the country. Its leaders and
men were, moreover, closely related to the Syrian Hittites; the language
they spoke was, if not precisely the Hittite, at any rate a dialect of
it; their customs were similar, if, perhaps, somewhat less refined, as
is often the case with mountain races, when compared with the peoples of
the plain. We are tempted to conclude that some of the monuments found
south of the Taurus were their handiwork, or, at any rate, date from
their time. For instance, the ruined palace at Sinjirli, the lower
portions of which are ornamented with pictures similar to those
at Pteria, representing processions of animals, some real, others
fantastic, men armed with lances or bending the bow, and processions
of priests or officials. Then there is the great lion at Marash, which
stands erect, with menacing head, its snarling lips exposing the teeth;
its body is seamed with the long lines of an inscription in the Asiatic
character, in imitation of those with which the bulls in the Assyrian
palaces are covered. These Cilicians gave an impulse to the civilization
of the Khâti which they sorely needed, for the Semitic races, whom they
had kept in subjection for centuries, now pressed them hard on all the
territory over which they had formerly reigned, and were striving to
drive them back into the hills.
[Illustration: 248.jpg LION AT MAKASH]
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph of the cast shown at the
Paris Exhibition of 1889.
The Aramæans in particular gave them a great deal of trouble. The states
on the banks of the Euphrates had found them awkward neighbours; was
this the moment chosen by the Pukudu, the Eutu, the Gambulu, and a dozen
other Aramaean tribes, for a stealthy march across the frontier of Elam,
between Durilu and the coast? The tribes from which, soon after, the
Kaldi nation was formed, were marauding round Eridu, Uru, and Larsa, and
may have already begun to lay the foundations of their supremacy over
Babylon: it is, indeed, an open question whether those princes of the
Countries of the Sea who succeeded the Pashê dynasty did not come from
the stock of the Kaldi Aramaeans. While they were thus consolidating on
the south-east, the bulk of the nation continued to ascend northwards,
and rejoined its outposts in the central region of the Euphrates, which
extends from the Tigris to the Khabur, from the Khabur to the Balîkh and
the Apriê. They had already come into frequent conflict with most of the
victorious Assyrian kings, from Eammânirâri down to Tiglath-pileser; the
weakness of Assyria and Chaldæa gave them their opportunity, and they
took full advantage of it. They soon became masters of the whole of
Mesopotamia; a part of the table-land extending from Carchemish to Mount
Amanus fell into their hands, their activity was still greater in the
basin of the Orontes, and their advanced guard, coming into collision
with the Amorites near the sources of the Litany, began gradually to
drive farther and farther southwards all that remained of the races
which had shown so bold a front to the Egyptian troops. Here was an
almost entirely new element, gradually eliminating from the scene of the
struggle other elements which had grown old through centuries of war,
and while this transformation was taking place in Northern and Central,
a similar revolution was effecting a no less surprising metamorphosis in
Southern Syria. There, too, newer races had gradually come to displace
the nations over which the dynasties of Thûtmosis and Ramses had once
held sway. The Hebrews on the east, the Philistines and their allies on
the south-west, were about to undertake the conquest of the Kharu and
its cities. As yet their strength was inadequate, their temperament
undecided, their system of government imperfect; but they brought with
them the quality of youth, and energies which, rightly guided, would
assure the nation which first found out how to take advantage of
them, supremacy over all its rivals, and the strength necessary for
consolidating the whole country into a single kingdom.
[Illustration: 250.jpg TAILPIECE]