ASSYRIA
497
ASSYRIA
his person (Diod. Sicul. ii, 21, 23 ; comp. Cephalion, in Syncell. p. 167). Under him there were provisional satraps, called in Isa. x, 8, "princes," of the rank and power of ordinary kings (Diod. Sic. ii, 24). The great officers of the household were commonly eunuchs (comp. Gesenius on Isa. xxxvi, 2). The religion of the Assyrians was, in its leading features, the same as that of the Chaldaeans, viz. the symbolical worship of the heavenly bodies, especially the planets. In Scrip- ture there is mention of Nisroch (Isa. xxxvii, 38), Adrammelech, Anammelech, Nibhaz, Tartak (2 Kings xvii, 31), as the names of idols worshipped by the na- tives either of Assyria Proper or of the adjacent coun- tries which the}' had subdued, besides planets (see
Gesenius, Zu Jesafas, not belong to the Se- mitic, but to the Medo- Persian family. As Ar- amaic, however, was spoken by a large part of the Western popu- lation, it was proba- bly understood by the great officers of state, which accounts for Rabshakeh address- ing Hezekiah's mes- sengers in Hebrew (2 Kings xviii, 26), al- though the rabbins ex- plain the circumstance bj' supposing that he was an apostate Jew (but see Strabo xvi, 745). — Kitto, s. v.
(:>.) Its Extent.— With regard to the ex- tent of the Assyrian empire very exagger- ated views have been entertrined by many writers. Ctesias took Semiramis to India, and made the empire of Assyria at least co- extensive with that of Persia in his own day. This false notion has long been exploded, but even Niebuhr ap- pears to have believed in the extension of As- sj'rian influence over Asia Minor, in the ex- pedition of Memnon- — ■ whom he considered an Assyrian — to Troj', and in the derivation of the Lydian Hera- clids from the first dynasty of Ninevite mon.irehs (.1 It. Ge- schickt. i, 28-lJ). The information derived from the native mon- uments tends to con- tract the empire with- in more reasonable bounds, and to give it only the expansion which is indicated for it in Scripture. On the west, the Medi- terranean and the riv- er Halys appear to have been the extreme boundaries, but the do-
;uage did
minion beyond the confines of S3'ria and Asia Minor was not of a strict character ; on the north, a fluctuating line, never reaching the Euxine, nor extending beyond the northern frontier of Armenia ; on the east, the Cas- pian Sea and the Great Salt Desert ; on the south, the Persian Gulf and the Desert of Arabia. The countries included within these utmost limits are the following : Susiana, Chaldaea, Babylonia, Media, Matiene, Arme- nia, Assyria Proper, Mesopotamia, parts of Cappadoeia and Cilicia, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, and Idumsea. Cyprus was also for a while a dependency of the Assyr- ian kings, and they may perhaps have held at one time certain portions of Lower Egypt. Lydia, however, Phrygia, Lycia, Pamphylia, Pontus, Iberia, on the west and north, Bactria, Sacia, Parthia, India — even Car-
ASSYRIA
498
ASTARTE
mania and Persia Proper — upon the cast, were alto- gether beyond the limit of the Assyrian sway, and appeal at "no time even to have been overrun by the Assyrian armies.
(10.) Civilization of 'the Assyrians.— -This, as has been already observed, was derived originally from the Bab- ylonians. They were a Semitic race, originally res- ident in Babylonia (which at that time was Cushite), and thus acquainted with the Babylonian inventions and discoveries, who ascended the valley of the Tigris and established in the tract immediately below the Armenian mountains a separate and distinct national- ity. Their modes of writing and building, the form and size of their bricks, their architectural ornamenta- tion, their religion and worship, in a great measure, were drawn from Babylon, which they always regard- ed as a sacred land — the orignal seat of their nation, and the true home of all their gods, with the one ex- ception of Asshur. Still, as their civilization devel- oped, it became in many respects peculiar. Their art is of home growth. The alabaster quarries in their neighborhood supplied them with a material unknown to their southern neighbors, on which they could rep- resent, far better than upon enamelled bricks, the scenes which interested them. Their artists, faithful and la- borious, acquired a considerable power of rendering the human and animal forms, and made vivid and striking representations of the principal occupations of human life. If they do not greatly affect the ideal, and do not, in this branch, attain to any very exalted rank, yet even here their emblematic figures of the gods have a dignity and grandeur which is worthy of remark, and which implies the possession of some ele- vated feelings. But their chief glory is in the repre- sentation of the actual. Their pictures of war, and of the chase, and even sometimes of the more peaceful incidents of human life, have a fidelity, a spirit, a bold- ness, and an appearance of life, which place them high among realistic schools. Their art, it should lie also noted, is progressive. Unlike that of the Egyptians, which continues comparativel}' stationary from the earliest to the latest times, it plainly advances, becom- ing continually more natural and less uncouth, more life-like and less stiff, more varied and less conven- tional. The latest sculptures, which are those in the hunting-palace of the son of Esarhaddon, are decidedly the best. Here the animal forms approach perfection, and in the striking attitudes, the new groupings, and the more careful and exact drawing of the whole, we see the beginnings of a taste and a power which might have expanded under favorable circumstances into the finished excellence of the Greeks. The advanced con- dition of the Assj'rians in various other respects is abundantly evidenced alike by the representations on the sculptures and by the remains discovered among their buildings. They are found to have understood and applied the arch ; to have made tunnels, aqueducts, and drains; to have used the lever and the roller; to have engraved gems ; to have understood the arts of inlaying, enamelling, and overlaying with metals ; to have manufactured glass, and been acquainted with the lens; to have possessed vases, jars, bronze and ivory ornaments, dishes, bells, ear-rings, mostly of good workmanship and elegant forms — in a word, to have attained to a very high pitch of material comfort and prosperity. They were still, however, in the most im- portant points barbarians. Their government was rude and inartificial ; their religion coarse and sensu- al; their conduct of war cruel; even their art mate- rialistic and bo debasing; they had served their pur- pose when they bad prepared the East for centralized government, and been (iod's scourge to punish the peo- ple of Israel ( Is.-i. x, 5-6); they were, therefore, swept away to allow the rise of that Arian race which, with less appreciation of art, was to introduce into Western Asia a more spiritual form of religion, a better treatment of captives, and a superior government.— Smith, s. v.