vide the troops into
companies and form distinct bodies of the spearmen, the archers, and the
cavalry. The Assyrian troops were organized in this way, at least from
the time of Sennacherib, on whose sculptures we find, in the first
place, bodies of cavalry on the march unaccompanied by infantry;
secondly, engagements where cavalry only are acting against the enemy;
thirdly, long lines of spearmen on foot marching in double file, and
sometimes divided into companies; and, fourthly, archers drawn up
together, but similarly divided into companies, each distinguished by
its own uniform. We also meet with a corps of pioneers, wearing a
uniform and armed only with a hatchet, and with bodies of slingers, who
are all armed and clothed alike. If, in the battles and the sieges of
this time, the troops seem to be to a great extent confused together, we
may account for it partly by the inability of the Assyrian artists to
represent bodies of troops in perspective, partly by their not aiming at
an actual, but rather at a typical representation of events, and partly
also by their fondness for representing, not the preparation for battle
or its first shock, but the rout and flight of the enemy and their own
hasty pursuit of them.

The wars of the Assyrians, like those of ancient Rome, consisted of
annual inroads into the territories of their neighbors, repeated year
after year, till the enemy was exhausted, sued for peace, and admitted
the suzerainty of the more powerful nation. The king in person usually
led forth his army, in spring or early summer, when the mountain passes
were opened, and, crossing his own borders, invaded some one or other of
the adjacent countries. The monarch himself invariably rode forth in his
chariot, arrayed in his regal robes, and with the tiara upon his head:
he was accompanied by numerous attendants, and generally preceded and
followed by the spearmen of the Royal Guard, and a detachment of
horse-archers. Conspicuous among the attendants were the charioteer who
managed the reins, and the parasol-bearer, commonly a eunuch, who,
standing in the chariot behind the monarch, held the emblem of
sovereignty over his head. A bow-bearer, a quiver-bearer, and a
mace-bearer were usually also in attendance, walking before or behind
the chariot of the king, who, however, did not often depend for arms
wholly upon them, but carried a bow in his left hand, and one or more
arrows in his right, while he had a further stor