Archibald Henry Sayce

“ While the remains found by Dr Schliemann in the Troad do not exhibit any Assyrian influence, the oldest works of art in Greece itself are thoroughly Assyrian in character. Indeed, we can trace the lion-sculpture at Mycenze through the similar rock-carving at Kumbet, in Phrygia, back to the artists of Nineveh. The lions themselves are Assyrian in all their details, and the pillar against which they rest reappears in the monuments of Assur-bani-pal. Columnar architecture, in fact, obtained a more extensive development in the empire of the Tigris than has ever been the case elsewhere. ”

“ Besides porcelain, glass was also manufactured, and though transparent glass does not appear to have been known before the reign of Sargon, coloured glass, with all the tints that we admire in Venetian ware, had long been an article of trade. Metallurgy, again, was a branch of industry in which the Assyrians particularly excelled. Their gold ear-rings and bracelets are admirable both in design and workmanship ; their bronze casts are free from the narrowness of their sculptures in stone ”

“ Assyrian culture reached its culminating point in his reign, and his palaces glittered with the precious metals, and were adorned with the richest sculpture. The library which he formed at Nineveh far surpassed any that had ever existed before ; literary works were collected from all sides; the study of the dead language of Accad was encouraged, grammars and dictionaries were compiled, and learned men of all nations were attracted to the court. Patron of the arts as he was, however, Assur-bani-pal s character was stained by cruelty and sensuality. ”

“ As the one rose the other fell ; and just as the climax of Assyrian glory is marked by the complete sub jugation of Egypt, so the revolt of Egypt was the first signal of the decline of Assyria. The struggle between the representative states of the East led, as was natural, to the appearance of the Greek upon the stage of history. Sargon claims the conquest of Cyprus as well as Phoenicia, and his effigy, found at Idalium, remains to this day a witness of the fact. Babylonia, however, was the point of weakness in the empire. ”

“ Indeed, it may be said that solidity and realism underlie all Assyrian art. Muscular strength and power of an intensely earthly and human nature is expressed in their bas-reliefs and the colossal bulls that guarded the palace from the entrance of evil spirits. Nowhere else in the world can we find such an embodiment of brute force and unimaginative energy. ”

“ With the death of Tiglath-Pileser, Assyria seems to have been reduced to comparative powerlessness, and when next its claims to empire are realised, it is under Assur-natsir-pal, whose reign lasted from 883 to 858 B.C. The boundaries of his empire exceeded those of his predecessor, and the splendid palaces, temples, and other buildings raised by him, with their elaborate sculptures and rich painting, bear witness to a high development of wealth and art and luxury. ”

“ In fact, on two sides, on both north and west, the Assyrian empire was in contact with an Aryan population, and among the twenty-two kings who sent materials for Essar-haddon s palace at Nineveh were Cyprian princes with Greek names. But the most important work of Essar-haddon s reign was the conquest of Egypt, which left the ancient world under the rule of a single power for some twenty years, and by fusing the nations of Western Asia together, broke down their differences, spread an equalised civilisation, and first struck out the idea of universal empire. ”

“ The fullest development of business and commerce, however, does not show itself until the 8th and 7th centuries B.C., when Nineveh was a busy centre of trade. Sidon and Tyre had been ruined by the Assyrian kings indeed, it is very possible that the obstinate wars with the Phoenician cities had their origin in commercial jealousy, and trade had accordingly transferred itself to Carchemish, which was conveniently situated on the Euphrates. The maneh of Carchemish became the standard of weight, and Aramaic the common language of trade. The interest upon money was usually at 4 per cent. ”

“ Its princes soon began to treat with their southern neighbours on equal terms ; the boundaries of the two kingdoms were settled, and inter marriages between the royal families took place, which led more than once to an interference on the part of the Assyrians in the affairs of Babylonia. Finally, in the 14th century B.C., Tiglath-Adar of Assyria captured Babylon, and established a Semitic line of sovereigns there, which continued until the days of the later Assyrian empire. From this time down to the destruction of Nineveh, Assyria remained the leading power of Western Asia. ”

“ The decline of the first Assyrian empire restored Babylon to independence; but it had soon afterwards to submit to the Caldai, and from the reign of Tiglath-Pileser II. to the death of Assur-bani- pal, it was a mere provincial town of Assyria, breaking now and then into fierce revolt under the leadership of the Caldai, and repeatedly taken and plundered by Sargon, Sennacherib, and Assur-bani-pal. ”

“ Naram-Sin and a queen had been the last representatives of a dynasty which had attained a high degree of glory both in arms and in literature. Naram-Sin and his father Sargon had not only subdued the rival princes of Babylonia, but had successfully invaded Syria, Palestine, and even, as it would seem, Egypt. At Agane, a suburb of Sippara, Sargon had founded a library, especially famous for its works on astrology and astronomy, copies of which were made in later times for the libraries of Assyria. ”

“ Still, although Assyrian art clung thus unaccountably to the building materials of another country, it did not dispense with its native stone altogether; and speaking broadly, we may say that the architecture of Nineveh is characterised by the use of stone in contradis tinction to the brickwork of Babylonia. Sculpture was naturally developed by the one, just as painting was by the other ; and the ornamentation which could be lavished on the exterior in Assyria had to be confined to the interior in Chaldea. ”

“ Household furniture, too, gives us a high idea of Assyrian skill. Like gem-cutting, it brought out the Chinese minute ness and accuracy of the people, and the profuse, though taste ful ornamentation of the seats is especially to be noticed.
It is unfortunate that our knowledge of the develop ment of art in the sister kingdom is still so imperfect. As has been said, however, it is characterised by painting rather than sculpture, and the use of brick instead of stone. The few bas-reliefs that exist are small and inferior in execution ”

“ At each of the seven gates of Hades the goddess left some portion of her apparel, until she at last reached the abode of the dead, dark and joyless, where dust alone is the food of the unhappy shades. ”

“ In the Accadian period a father could assign property to his son during his lifetime, though he could not put him in possession ; and in later times a limited power of willing was in existence. The private will of Sennacherib, in which he bequeaths certain treasures to his favourite son Essar-haddon, is one of the most curious documents of antiquity ; unlike other persons, the monarch does not require any witnesses. Great activity of trade is evidenced by this development of law. ”

“ Under his second name of Sin-inadina-pal, he appears as king of Babylon in Ptolemy s list ; arid the complete amalgamation of Assyria and Babylonia in the later years of his rule is shown by the appearance of a prefect of Babylon among the Assyrian eponyms. He was succeeded in 625 by his son Assur-ebil-ili. His death was the signal for a general revolt. Nabopolassar, the viceroy of Babylonia, made himself independent; and Assyria, shorn of its empire, was left to struggle for bare existence, until, under Sara- cus its last monarch, Nineveh was taken and burnt by the Babylonians and Medes. ”

“ The trade of Assyria, on the other hand, was wholly overland; and its first fleet was the one built by Phoenician captives for Sennacherib, when pursuing the fugitive Chaldeans through the Persian Gulf. Like the Jews, however, the Assyrians showed an aptitude for trade from the very first. The earliest Semitic settlements in Babylonia seem to have been mainly for commercial purposes, and their career there may be compared with that of the English in India. ”

“ As yet not a single tomb lias been found in Assyria, while sepulchral remains abound in Chaldea. The vast necropolis of Erech astonishes us by the number of its graves, and the potters of Babylonia were largely employed in making clay coffins. The char acter of Assyrian art being thus secular, and that of Baby lonia sacred and sepulchral, necessarily led to a different application and development of it in the two countries. We must regard Assyrian art as parallel with later Baby lonian, both having branched off from Accadian. In Assyrian we may trace two or even three periods of develop ment ”

“ Nabopolassar was followed in 604 by his son Nebuchadnezzar, whose long reign of forty -three years made Babylon the mistress of the world. The whole East was overrun by the armies of Chaldea, Egypt was invaded, and the city of the Euphrates left without a rival. Until systematic explorations are carried on in Babylonia, however, our knowledge of the history of Nebuchadnezzar s empire must be confined to the notices of ancient writers, although we possess numerous inscriptions which record the restora tion, or construction of temples, palaces, and other public buildings during its continuance. ”

“ The Accadai, or Accad, were " the highlanders " who had descended from the moun tainous region of Elam on the east, and it was to them that the Assyrians ascribed the origin of Chaldean civilisa tion and writing. They were, at all events, the dominant people in Babylonia at the time to which our earliest contemporaneous records reach back, although the Sumir, or " people of the home language," as they are sometimes termed, were named first in the royal titles out of respect to their prior settlement in the country. ”

“ So, too, the Oceanus of Homer finds its prototype in the encircling abysmal waters of Accadian geography, and the fravashis and mithras of Mazdaism were introduced by the Magian (or Turanian) population found in Media by the Aryan invaders.
But the old Shamauistic ideas survived also in Assyria and Babylonia, and so were handed on to the Jews. Au elaborate system of augury flourished down to the last days of the empire, and omens were drawn from every event that could possibly happen. ”

“ Language, Law, and Trade.—As above stated, the lan guage of the primitive Sumirian and Accadian population of Assyria and Babylonia belonged to the Turanian or Ural- Altaic family of speech. The Semitic tribes, who first possessed themselves of the tetrapolis of Sumir or Shinar, and then gradually spread over the whole of Assyria and Babylonia, borrowed many words from their more civilised predecessors, and lent them a few others in return. ”

“ Assur-nadin-sum, Sennacherib s eldest son, was appointed viceroy of the southern kingdom; and the Assyrian monarch felt himself strong enough to carry the war into the heart of Elam, wasting the country with fire and sword. A last attempt, made by the Susiauians and the Chaldeans of Babylonia, to oppose the power of Assyria was shattered in the hardly-contested battle of Khaluli. ”

“ In harmony with this, we find Berosus ascribing the culture of " the mixed population of Chaldea " to Cannes and other similar creatures from the Persiai} Gulf. So far as we can judge, the civilisation of Elam is at least coeval with that of Babylonia, and the capture of Babylon by the Medes, with whom the historical dynasties of Berosus are commonly supposed to begin, must be explained by an Elamite conquest. Media was the Accadian Mada, "the land" par excellence; and Acca- dian tradition looked back upon the mountainous district to the south-west of the Caspian as the cradle of their race. ”

“ See Nineveh.
In contrast with the arid plateau of Mesopotamia, stretched the rich alluvial plain of Chaldea, formed by the deposits of the two great rivers by which it was enclosed. The soil was extremely fertile, and teemed with an industrious population. Eastward rose the mountains of Elam, southward were the sea-marshes and the ancient kingdom of Nituk or Dilvun (the modern Bender-Dilvun) , while on the west the civilisation of Babylonia encroached beyond the banks of the Euphrates, upon the territory of the Semitic nomades (or Suti) . ”

“ The amount of labour bestowed upon these brick edifices must have been enormous, and gives some idea of the human force at the disposal of the monarch. If any further illustration of this fact were needed, it would be found in the statement made by Nebuchadnezzar in one of his inscriptions (and quoted also from Berosus) , that he had finished the Imgur-Bel in fifteen days. The same monarch also continued the embankment of the Euphrates for a considerable distance beyond the limits of Babylon, and cut some canals to carry off the overflow of that river into the Tigris. ”

“ BABYLONIA and ASSYRIA. Geographically, as well as ethnologically and historically, the whole district en closed between the two great rivers of Western Asia, the Tigris and Euphrates, forms but one country. The writers of antiquity clearly recognised this fact, speakingof the whole under the general name of Assyria, though Babylonia, as will be seen, would have been a more accurate designation. It naturally falls into two divisions, the northern being more or less mountainous, while the southern is flat and marshy ”