pt about him bodies of soldiers who perhaps were foreign mercenaries,
like the Mazaiu of the armies of the Pharaohs, and who formed his
permanent body-guard in times of peace. When a war was imminent, a
military levy was made upon his domains, but we are unable to find out
whether the recruits thus raised were drawn indiscriminately from the
population in general, or merely from a special class, analogous to that
of the warriors which we find in Egypt, who were paid in the same way by
grants of land. The equipment of these soldiers was of the rudest kind:
they had no cuirass, but carried a rectangular shield, and, in the case
of those of higher rank at all events, a conical metal helmet, probably
of beaten copper, provided with a piece to protect the back of the neck;
the heavy infantry were armed with a pike tipped with bronze ox-copper,
an axe or sharp adze, a stone-headed mace, and a dagger; the light
troops were provided only with the bow and sling. As early as the third
millennium b.c., the king went to battle in a chariot drawn by onagers,
or perhaps horses; he had his own peculiar weapon, which was a curved
baton probably terminating in a metal point, and resembling the sceptre
of the Pharaohs. Considerable quantities of all these arms were stored
in the arsenals, which contained depots for bows, maces, and pikes, and
even the stones needed for the slings had their special department for
storage. At the beginning of each campaign, a distribution of weapons
to the newly levied troops took place; but as soon as the war was at an
end, the men brought back their accoutrements, which were stored till
they were again required. The valour of the soldiers and their chiefs
was then rewarded; the share of the spoil for some consisted of cattle,
gold, corn, a female slave, and vessels of value; for others, lands or
towns in the conquered country, regulated by the rank of the recipients
or the extent of the services they had rendered.

[Illustration: 266.jpg A SOLDIER BRINGING PRISONERS AND SPOIL.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the Chaldaean intaglio in the
British. Museum.

Property thus given was hereditary, and privileges were often added to
it which raised the holder to the rank of a petty prince: for instance,
no royal official was permitted to impose a tax upon such lands, or take
the cattle off them, or levy provisions upon them; no troop of soldiers
might enter them, not even for the purpose of arresting a