Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/109

THE PEOPLE AND GOVERNMENT. 89 south long preserved their names, their fame, and the sanctity of their altars. The religion of Nineveh differed from that of Babylon, however, in minor particulars, to which attention has already been called. 1 A single system of theology is differently understood by men whose manner and intellectual bent are distinct. Rites seem to have been .more voluptuous and sensual at Babylon than at Nineveh ; it was at the former city that Herodotus saw those religious prostitutions that astonished him by their immorality. 2 The Assyrian tendency to monotheism provoked a kind of fanaticism of which no trace is to be found in Chalcla?a. The Ninevite conquerors set themselves to extend the worship of their great national god ; they sacrificed by hecatombs the presumptuous enemies who blasphemed the name of Assur. The sacrifice of chastity was in favour at Babylon, that of life seemed to the Assyrians a more effectual offering. A soldier people, they were hardened by the strife of centuries, by the perpetual hardships of the battlefield, by the never-ending conflicts 'in which they took delight. Their religious conceptions were, therefore, narrower and more stern, their rites more cruel than those of their southern neighbours. The civilization of Babylon was more refined, men gave themselves more leisure for thought and enjoyment ; their manners were less rude, their ideas less rigid and conservative ; they were more inclined towards intellectual analysis and speculation. So that when we find traces of the beliefs and useful arts of Mesopotamia on the coasts, and even among the isles, of the /Ega^an, the honour of them must be given to Babylon rather than to Nineveh. 7. The People and Government. WE have already explained how it is that the religions of Chaldaea and Assyria are less well known to us than that of Egypt ; the insufficiency of our knowledge of the political and social organization of the two kingdoms is to be explained by the same reasons. The inscriptions, prolix enough on some subjects, hardly touch on others that would be much more interesting, and, moreover, their interpretation is full of difficulty. The Greek travellers knew nothing of Nineveh, while their visits to Babylon 1 TIKLK, Manuel, &c. pp. 77, 78. - HERODOTUS, i. 99. N