m that in most cases, after a
longer or a shorter resistance, the enemy broke and fled, sometimes
throwing away his arms, at other tunes fighting as he retired, always
vigorously pursued by horse and foot, and sometimes driven headlong into
a river. Quarter was not very often given in a battle. The barbarous
practice of rewarding those who carried back to camp the heads of foemen
prevailed; and this led to the massacre in many cases even of the
wounded, the disarmed, and the unresisting, though occasionally quarter
was given, more especially to generals and other leading personages whom
it was of importance to take alive. Even while the engagement continued,
it would seem that soldiers might quit the ranks, decapitate a fallen
foe, and carry off his head to the rear, without incurring any reproof;
and it is certain that, so soon as the engagement was over, the whole
army turned to beheading the fallen, using for this purpose the short
sword which almost every warrior carried at his left side. A few unable
to obtain heads, were forced to be content with gathering the spoils of
the slain and of the fled, especially their arms, such as quivers, hews,
helmets, and the like; while their more fortunate comrades, proceeding
to an appointed spot in the rear, exhibited the tokens of their valor,
or of their good luck, to the royal scribes, who took an exact account
of the amount, of the spoil, and of the number of the enemy killed.

When the enemy could no longer resist in the open field, he usually fled
to his strongholds. Almost all the nations with whom the Assyrians waged
their wars possessed fortified cities, or castles, which seem to have
been places constructed with a good deal of skill, and possessed of no
inconsiderable strength. According to the representations of the
sculptures, they were all nearly similar in character, the defences
consisting of high battlemented walls, pierced with loopholes or windows
towards their upper part, and flanked at intervals along their whole
course by towers. [PLATE CIX., Fig. 3.] Often they possessed two or more
_enceintes_, which in the bas-reliefs are represented one above the
other; and in these cases the outermost circuit was sometimes a mere
plain continuous wall, as in the illustration. They were entered by
large gateways, most commonly arched, and closed by two huge gates or
doors, which completely filled up the aperture. Occasionally, however,
the gateways were square-headed, as