rt, and shaped like the Assyrian; but their
handles were less elegant and less elaborately ornamented. They were
worn in the girdle (as they are at the present day in all eastern
countries) either in pairs or singly. [PLATE XXIII., Fig. 3.]

Other weapons of the Babylonians, which we may be sure they used in
war, though the monuments do not furnish any proof of the fact, were the
spear and the bill or axe. These weapons are exhibited in combination
upon one of the most curious of the cylinders, where a lion is disturbed
in his meal off an ox by two rustics, one of whom attacks him in front
with a spear, while the other seizes his tail and assails him in the
rear with an axe. [PI. XXIII., Fig. 5.] With the axe here represented
may be compared another, which is found on a clay tablet brought from
Sinkara, and supposed to belong to the early Chaldaean period.30 The
Sinkara axe has a simple square blade: the axe upon the cylinder has a
blade with long curved sides and a curved edge; while, to balance the
weight of the blade, it has on the lower side three sharp spikes. The
difference between the two implements marks the advance of mechanical
art in the country between the time of the first and that of the fourth
monarchy. [PLATE XXIII., Fig. 4.]

Babylonian armies seem to have been composed, like Assyrian, of three
elements--infantry, cavalry, and chariots. Of the chariots we appear
to have one or two representations upon the cylinders, but they are too
rudely carved to be of much value. It is not likely that the chariots
differed much either in shape or equipment from the Assyrian, unless
they were, like those of Susiana, ordinarily drawn by mules. A peculiar
car, four-wheeled, and drawn by four horses, with an elevated platform
in front and a seat behind for the driver, which the cylinders
occasionally exhibit, is probably not a war-chariot, but a sacred
vehicle, like the tensa or thensa of the Romans. [PLATE XXIV., Fig. 2.]

[Illustration: PLATE XXIV.]

The Prophet Habakkuk evidently considered the cavalry of the Babylonians
to be their most formidable arm. "They are terrible and dreadful," he
said; "from them shall proceed judgment and captivity; their horses
also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening
wolves; and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen
shall come from far; they shall fly, as the eagle that hasteth to
eat." Similarly Ezekiel spoke of the "desirable