Art and Science, etc.— Although in art, as in other things, Assyria was the pupil of Baby lon, there was yet a notable difference between its development in the two countries, due partly to two causes. The alabaster quarries scattered over the country supplied the Assyrians with a material inaccessible to their southern neigh bors on which they could represent, far better than the Babylonians on their enameled bricks, the scenes which interested them. Sculpture was naturally developed by the one, just as painting was by the other, and the ornamentation which could be lavished on the exterior of buildings in Assyria had to be confined to the interior in Babylonia. The Assyrian artists, faithful and indefatigable, acquired a considerable power in representing the forms of men and animals, and produced vivid and striking scenes of the chief occupations of human life. If they did not strive greatly after the ideal, and never in this direction reached a very exalted rank, yet even here their emblematic figures of the gods have a dignity and grandeur which implies the possession of some elevated feelings. But their grand merit is in the representation of the real. Their scenes of war and of the chase, and even sometimes of the more peaceful incidents of life, have a fidelity, boldness and lifelike ap pearance which place them high among the realistic schools. Unlike that of the Egyptians, which remained comparatively stationary from the earliest to the latest ages, the art of the Assyrians is plainly progressive, becoming gradually more natural and less uncouth, more lifelike and less stiff, more varied and less con ventional. It may be said to have reached its highest stage of development in the reign of Assurbanipal when it was characterized by great chasteness and softness, delicacy and fin ish. The beginning of Greek art coincides with the decadence of the Assyrian, and there can be no doubt that the Hellenic artists owe much to their Assyrian predecessors. The advanced condition of the Assyrians in various other re spects is sufficiently evidenced by the represen tations on the sculptures and by the remains discovered among their ruined buildings. We now know that they understood and applied the arch; that they constructed tunnels, aque ducts and drains; that they used the lever and the roller; that they engraved gems in a highly artistic way; that they understood the arts of inlaying, enameling and overlaying with metals; that they manufactured porcelain and transparent and colored glass, and were ac quainted with the lens; that they possessed vases, jars and other dishes, bronze and ivory ornaments, bells, gold earrings and bracelets of excellent design and workmanship. Their household furniture also gives us a high idea of their skill, taste, minuteness and accuracy. The
cities of Nineveh, Assur and Arbela had each its royal observatory, superintended by an as tronomer-royal, who had to send in his report to the king twice a month. At an early date the stars were numbered and named; a calendar was formed, in which the year was divided into 12 months (of 30 days each) called after the zodiacal signs, but as this division was found to be inaccurate an intercalary month was added every six years. The week was divided into seven days, the seventh being a day of rest; the day was divided into 12 casbu of two hours each, each casbu being subdivided into 60 min utes, and these again into 60 seconds. Eclipses were recorded from a very remote epoch, and their recurrence roughly determined. The prin cipal astronomical work, called the (Illumina tion of Bel,' was compiled for the library of Sargon of Agade; it was inscribed on 70 tab lets, and went through numerous editions, one of the latest being in the British Museum. It treats, among other things, on observations of comets, the polar star, the conjunction of the sun and moon and motions of Venus and Mars. The study of mathematics was fairly advanced, and the people who were acquainted with the sundial, the clepsydra, the pulley and the lever must have had considerable knowledge of me chanics. See ASSYRIOLOGY.
Government.— Like all the ancient mon archies which attained to any considerable ex tent, Assyria was composed of a number of separate kingdoms. In the East conquest has very, seldom led to amalgamation, and in the primitive empires there was not even any at tempt at that governmental centralization which we find at a later period in the satrapal system of Persia. The Assyrian monarchs reigned over a number of petty kings, the native rulers of the several countries, over the whole extent of their dominions. These native princes were feudatories of the Great Monarch, holding their crowns from him by the double tenure of hom age and tribute. This system naturally led to the frequent outbreak of troubles. See CUNEI FORM WRITING; NINEVEH ; NIPPUiL Bibliography.— Botta and Flandin, (Mon uments de Nimve' (1847-50) ; Layard, (Nine veh and its Remains) (1849) ; Oppert, (Histoire des Empires de Chattily et d'Assyrie' (1866); George Smith, (Assyrian Discoveries); (As syria,) and (The Assyrian Eponym, (1875); Sayce, (Ancient Empires of the East) (1884); his (Assyria: its Priests and People) (1885), and his 'Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments) (1886) ; Jastrow, (Religion of Babylonia and Assyria) (1898); Maspero, (The Dawn of Civilization' (1894), etc. See ASSY RIOLOGY for detailed bibliography.