e 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 Chaldaeans 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 Amenothes 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.

Occasion