e
great part played by the king with the help and under the tutelage of the
priesthood. Upon the walls of palaces, temples, and towns, on the
statuettes of bronze and terra-cotta which were buried under the thresholds
of buildings and placed as votive offerings in the temples, upon cylinders
and engraved stones, we find only complex and varied emblems, fantastic and
symbolic forms, attitudes suggestive of worship and sacrifice (Figs. 20 and
21), images of gods, goddesses, and secondary genii, princes surrounded
with royal pomp and offering their homage to the deity. Hence a certain
poverty and monotony and the want of recuperative power inseparable from an
absorbed contemplation of sacred types and of a transcendental world.

[Illustration: FIG. 20.--Chaldaean Cylinder.]

[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Chaldaean Cylinder; from the British Museum.[121]]

Assyrian society was different in many respects from that of Chaldaea. The
same gods, no doubt, were adored in both countries, and their worship
involved a highly-placed priesthood; but at Nineveh the royal power rested
on the army, and the initiative and independence of the sovereign were
much greater than in the case of Babylon. Assyria was a military monarchy
in the fullest sense of the word. Almost as often as the spring came round
the king led his invincible legions to the conquest of new subjects for
Assur. He traversed deserts, crossed trackless mountain chains, and plunged
into forests full of hidden dangers. He destroyed the walls and towers of
hostile cities, in spite of the rain of arrows, stones, and boiling pitch
that poured upon himself and his hosts; he was at once the skilful captain
and the valiant soldier, he planned the attack and never spared himself in
the _melee_. First in danger, he was the first in honour. In person he
implored the good will of the god for whom he braved so many dangers, in
person he thanked him for success and presented to him the spoils of the
conquered enemy. If he was not deified, like the Pharaohs, either alive or
after his death, he was the vicar of Assur upon earth, the interpreter of
his decrees and their executor, his lieutenant and pontif, and the
recipient of his confidences.[122]

There was no room by the side of this armed high priest for a sacerdotal
caste at all equal to him in prestige. The power and glory of the king grew
with every successive victory, and in the vast empire of the Sargonids, the
highest places were f