Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/68

A HISTORY OF ART IN CHAI.P.^A AND ASSYRIA. The building was no less remarkable for the richness and beauty of its bas-relieis. e shall have occasion to reproduce more than one 01 the hunting scenes which are there represented. and of which we give a first illustration on the opposite pao^e. S:me remains 01 anotner palace built by the same prince have been discovered in the mound of Xebbi-Younas. Never had the empire seemed more strong and flourishing than now. and yet it was close to its lall. The Sargonids understood fighting and pillage, but they made no continuous effort to unite the various peoples whom they successfully conquered and trampled rfoot. The Assyrians have been compared to the Romans. in s;me respects the irarall-.l is good. They showed a Roman "Cy in the cone/.:: . : their incessant struggles, and the soldiers brought victory so Dl'ten to the standards f the Sennacheribs . Shalm - - must have been in their time, as the legions f the consuls and dictators were in later years, the best troops in Asia : they were tetter armed, trtter disciplined, and better led than those of neighbouring states, more used to fatigue, to lono; o o marches and rapid evolutions. The brilliance o: their success and its long duration are thus explained, for the chiefs of the empire never see::: to have had the faintest :-::s::i:i;n of the adroit policy which was afterwards to bind so many conquered peoples to Roman sceptre. The first necessity for civilized man is rity the ho] e, r rather the certainty, of enjoying the fruits jfhis y str in] eac " . n this certainty is assured to him he quickly : irdons an 3 forgets the injuries he has suffered. This fact has be-_:: continually ignored by Oriental conquerors and by Assyrian conquerors more than any others. The Egyptians and Persian . ar nowa::_l then to have succeeded in reconciling their . -. o subject races, ar. .1 in softening their mutual hatreds bv paving some - i o attention to their political wants. But the Assyrians reckoned entirely upon terror. And yet one generation was olten enough to obliterate the memory of the most cruel disasters. Sons did not learn from the experience of their fathers, and. although preserved of its texts have been published at various times under the siipenision of Sir Henry RAWLINSON and George SMITH. These texts have been translated into English, French, and German, and much discussed by the scholars of all three nations. The reader may also consult tie small volume contributed by M. T. MEXANT to the BiHictteqw oriental tiziriricnne under the title: La Bibliotheque d-u Palais df ^':n:'rf, i vol. iSmo.. iSSo (Ernest Lerouxj.