Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 2.djvu/87

Towns and their Defences. 6 9 square yards of passage and chamber could scarcely have been explained without the use of plans. Military necessities are in- sufficient to explain such elaborate contrivances. The existence of barbican and flanking towers is justified by them, but hardly the size of the court and the two great transepts. We cease to be surprised at these, however, when we remember the part Flq. 27. — Longitudinal section through the archway *of one of the city gates, Khorsabad from Place. played by the city gates in the lives of the urban populations of the Levant. In the East the town gate is and always has been what the açora was to the cities of Greece and the forum to those of Italy. Doubtless it was ill-adapted to be used as a theatre of