Ancient Assyrian Armlets. The. one exhibited on a larce scale is from the Ninevite sculp- ture- in tln> British Museum; the others are from delinea- tions of the .Monuments by Botta.
ARMLET
419
ARMOR
armlet. These ornaments are frequent on the sculp- tures of Persepolis and Nineveh, and were set in rich and fantastic shapes resembling the heads of animals (Layard, Nineveh, ii, 250). The kings of Persia wore them, and Astyages presented a pair, among other ornaments, to Cyrus (Xen. Cyr. i, 3). The ^Ethiopians, to whom some were sent by Cambyses, scornfully char- acterized them as weak fetters (Herod, ii, 23). Nor were they confined to the kings, since Herodotus (viii, 113) calls the Persians generally "wearers of brace- lets" (ipt\io<p6pot). In the Egyptian monuments kings are often represented with armlets and brace- lets (Wilkinson's Ant: Egypt, iii, 375, and Plates 1, 2,
Ancient Egyptian Armlets. The large circlet is of gold, now in the Leyden Museum; the rest, here shown on a smaller scale, are from the Monuments.
14). They were even used by the old British chiefs (Turner, Angl. Sax. i, 383). The story of Tarpeia shows that the}' were common among the ancient Sa- bines, but the Romans considered the use of them effeminate, although they were Sometimes given as military rewards (Liv. x, 44). Finally, they are still worn among the most splendid regalia of modern Oriental sovereigns, and it is even said that those of the King of Persia are worth a million sterling (Kitto, Pict. Hist, of Pal. i, 499). They form the chief wealth of modern Hindu ladies, and are rarely taken off. They are made of every sort of material, from the finest
Modern Oriental Armlets. The first column is of Persian specimens, the second of Indian.
gold, jewels, ivory, coral, and pearl, down to the com- mon glass rings and varnished earthenware bangles of the women of the Deccan. Now, as in ancient times, they are sometimes plain, sometimes enchased; some- times with the ends not joined, and sometimes a com- plete circle. The arms are sometimes quite covered with them, and if the wearer be poor, it matters not how mean they are, provided only that the}' glitter. It is thought essential to beauty that they should fit close, and hence Harmer calls them "rather manacles than bracelets," and Buchanan says that "the poor girls rarely get them on without drawing blood, and
rubbing part of the skin from the hand ; and as they wear great numbers, which often break, they suffer much from their love of admiration." Their enormous weight may be conjectured from Gen. xxiv, 24. — Smith, s. v. See Bracelet.
Armon. See Chestnut.
Armo'ni (Heb. Armoni', "OB'nK, prob. inhabit- ant of a fortress, q. d. Palatums; Sept. 'Ap/.twvi,'Ep- fiwvot), the first named of the two sons of Saul and Rizpah, who was given up by David to be hanged with his brethren by the Gibeonites (2 Sam. xxi, 8, 9). B.C. cir. 1019.
Armor (represented in the Auth. Vers, by several Heb. words, Gr. 07rAa), properly distinguished from Arsis as being military equipment for the protection of the person, while the latter denotes implements of aggressive warfare ; but in the English Bible the for- mer term alone is employed in both senses. In the records of a people like the children of Israel, so large a part of whose history was passed in warfare, we nat- urally look for much information, direct or indirect, on the arms and modes of fighting of the nation itself and of those with whom it came into contact. Unfortu- nately, however, the notices that we find in the Bible on these points are extremely few and meagre, while even those few, owing to the uncertainty which re*t: on the true meaning and force of the terms, do not con- vey to us nearly all the information which they might. This is the more to be regretted because the notices of the history, scanty as they are, are literally every thing we have to depend on, inasmuch as they are not yet supplemented and illustrated either by remains of the arms themselves, or by those commentaries which the sculptures, vases, bronzes, mosaics, and paintings of other nations furnish to the notices of manners and cus- toms contained in their literature. (See, general!}', Jahn's Archceology, § 266-285.) In order to give a clear view of this subject, we shall endeavor to show, succinctly and from the best authorities now available, what were the martial instruments borne upon the per- son, whether for attack or resistance, by the ancient Asiatics, leaving for other proper heads an explanation of the composition and tactical condition of their armies, their systems of fortification, their method of conduct- ing sieges and battles, and their usages of war as re- gards spoil, captives, etc — Smith, s. v. ; Kitto, s. v. See Battle; Fortification; Siege; War; Army; Fight ; Fortress, etc.
I. Offensive Weapons. — 1. The instruments at first employed in the chase or to repel wild beasts, but converted by the wicked to the destruction of their fel- low-men, or used by the peaceable to oppose aggression, were naturally the most simple. Among these were the club and the throwing-bat. The first consisted originally of a heavy piece of wood, variously shaped, made to strike with, and, according to its form, de- nominated a mace, a bar, a hammer, or a maul. This weapon was in use among the Hebrews, for in the time of the kings wood had already been superseded by met- al; and the PT"i3 "5rS 8he'bet barzel', "rod of iron"1 (Psa. ii, 9), is supposed to mean a mace, or gavclock, or crowbar. It is an instrument of great power when used by a strong arm ; as when, in modern menageries, a man with one in his hand compels a tiger's ferocity to submit to his will. (See Wilkinson's Ancient Egyp- tians, i, 327, fig. 3, 4; and mace, fig. 1, 2. The throw- stick, or lissan, occurs p. 329.) See Rod ; Sceptre. The other was also known if, as is probable, "|*"£". mephits' (Prov. xxv, 18), be a "maul," a martel, or a war-hammer. It is likely metal was only in general use at a later period, and that a heavy crooked billet continued long to serve both as a missile and a sword. The throwstick, made of thorn-wood, is the same instru- ment which we see figured on Egyptian and Assyrian monuments. By the native Arabs it is still called lis-