The Assyrian Empire had now reached its wid est limits. Elam had fallen, and its capital had been razed to the ground. The three last Elam ite kings were bound to the yoke of Assur-bani pal's chariot. and forced to drag their conqueror through the streets of Nineveh.
The Kedarites were chastised, as well as other nomad tribes of North ern Arabia, the land of Mmni was overrun and the Armenians of Van begged for an alliance with the As syrian king.
But the seeds of disruption were being last sown by a luxurious king. At the very time that the empire reached its greatest limit: in the sub jugation of Elam a rebellion broke out in Babylon Ii. C. 652). Egypt. Arabia. Palestine and Lydia made common cause. and nothing was left of the Assyrian Empire after thy struggle but the old capital of Assur.
8. Art. Assyrian art was for the most part borrowed from Babylonia, even the palaces and temples being constructed of brick and raised on mounds, although stone was plentiful and inun dations which Babylon suffered were not feared.
The walls of the houses, however, were adorned with sculptured slabs of alabaster, in place of the (ermilion paintings of Babylon (Ezek.
he stalls of Diu-Sargon were (ter a mile square. The) acre lortv-six feet thick, thanked with eight tossers, and their corners to the four (final points Columns, nliitli had 'wilt a Ionian invention, were plentifully used, •.tine times in exaggerated resting on the backs of dogs, 'join. or %singed bulls.
Assyrian sculpture was mostly in relief Its first efforts, which began about the tune of natsirind, are charm terized by boldness and lack of perspective. Later, about the tune of the Second the foreground is filled with plant and other foims, drawn with great exactitude. This made the relief work of this period exceed ingly rich.
In the reign of Assur-bani pal the carving is again dodtngfnsKe11 by boldness. but it is finished and accurate The human form, however. never received justice at the hands of the Assyrians.
9. Literature. Assyrians learned the art of writing from the Babylonians. who in turn learned it from the Accathans, the inventors •1 the hiero glyphics. out of which the cuneiform characters of the Assyrians afterwards grew.
The literature, as well as the writing of the Assyrians, came from the Accadians. Old docu ments were re-edited or translated. the writing material was at first papyrus leaves, but clay was plentiful and :eccived easily the impress of the cuneiform characters by means of a metal wedge shaped stylus. This mode of writing did away with curves, circles and continuous lines; pic tures became symbols instead of exact representa tions, and in a few centuries a character would change beyond recognition in its transformation from a hieroglyphic to a cuneiform representa tion.
Nevertheless Assyrian literature was an exotic. The Babylonians, on the other hand, were by na ture a literary people, while the Assyrian gloried in records of ferocity. He was the lion of Nahum, which delighted to tear its prey (Nah. :8; ii :6, 8, 12).
Notwithstanding these changes that were going on, and the poor means for writing and reading, it would seem that there was a large proportion lower classes are indicated. It is evident, how ever, that among the higher classes chairs, ta bles and couches were used, and wines were the usual beverage at their feast. Among the most highly prized of these was that of Khilbun, or Helbon, which is mentioned by Ezekiel (xxvii: 18).
There was also a palm wine, made from dates, and beer, milk, cream, butter or ghee were much used. The tables were ornamented with flowers, and musicians amused the banqueters.
Next to hunting men, the great delight of the Assyrian kings was the hunt of wild animals. Tiglath-Pileser I had hunted elephants in the land of the Hittites, as the Egyptian Pharaohs had done before him. The reem, or wild bull, after wards became their favorite game. It was not un til the reign of Assur-bani-pal that lion hunting ceased to be a dangerous sport. With Esarhad don, however, the old race of warrior kings had come to an end, and lions were afterward cap tured and kept in cages, until they were turned of the people who could read and write. Like Babylon, Assyria had her libraries, which were well stocked with books in papyrus and clay. One of these was at Nineveh, from which most of the Assyrian literature that we possess has come. There was another at Calah, and another at Assur. Many of these books were lexicog raphal, explaining the old Accadian and Aramaic forms. Aramaic was the language of diplomacy (2 Kings xviii :26), as well as of travel, and was used side by side with the Syrian. This explains why the Jews of the post-Babylonish cap tivity gave up their language in favor, not of the Assyrian, but of the Aramaic tongue.
All subjects of knowledge or science of the times were treated of in these libraries. Dis patches of generals, bills of sale, astrology, omens. religion, songs, poetry and astronomy are all found in these ancient books. Their works on astronomy show that records of eclipses had been kept for great periods. Time was measured by a water clock, as well as by the dial. The dial placed at Jerusalem by Ahaz (2 Kings xxii) was no doubt the result of contact with the Assyri ans.
Even medical science was in quite an advanced state. Diseases were classified and modes of treat ment prescribed, although much of superstition was mingled with the prescriptions. (See As SY IAN and BABYLONIAN LIBRARIES.) 10. Manners and Customs. It is only inci dentally that the manners and customs of the out for the royal hunt, and as they then had to be whipped into activity the royal hunters were comparatively safe.
The Assyrians were not an agricultural people, but the kings had their parks and the wealthier classes their gardens. Summer houses were some times built in the midst of them, and as early as the time of Sennacherib we meet with a 'hang ing garden' grown on the roof of a building (Assyria: Its Princes, Priests and People. A, H, Sayce, M. A., 1895).