The people, who from the towers of the city descry his furious driving, and the terrible slaughter his troops are making among those who are sent to oppose them, are in the greatest consternation: but the city being strongly fortified by nature, having on one side a deep ravine which forbids approach, the besieged still hold out, until in the next scene we have the king in his chariot dictating terms to them by the mouth of a gigantic warrior.

On the next slab (fig. 94) is seen the continuation of the hill strewed with dead bodies, and the fortress surmounting it the fortress has but one row of towers, on which the be

Fig. 94.-PART OF BESIEGED CITY, SHOWING CIRCULAR-HEADED TABLET (BOTTA, pl. 64),

LOWER PART.

sieged are beheld in attitudes of despair. In this city the king has at some former period set up one of those circularheaded tablets, such as have been found at Nahr el Kelb (fig. 32), Cyprus, and elsewhere, and which were apparently chronicles or records of conquests, like those preserved in the temples of Byzantium. From this circumstance we presume the people to have been a rebellious people, and to have more than once troubled the Assyrian monarchy, particularly as we find repeated representations of their chiefs in the halls of judgment, undergoing the severe punishment of rebellion, each representation, as we imagine, recording the punishment of a repetition of the crime.

12 Kings, ix. 20.

2 Herodotus, Melp. lxxxvii.

224

KHORSABAD.-ATTACK BY BOW AND SPEARMEN.

Descending into the plain "country, we arrive at an attack made on another considerable place (fig. 95) situated on an eminence, with an oblique road, up to its gate. The city has, first, one boundary-wall, which is battlemented; and next, another, which is fortified with towers, above whose summit appear two or three flat-roofed houses. A few of the besieged still defend themselves with their lances, and cover their bodies with square shields, the surface of which is reticulated, most probably to represent metallic plates. Others of the besieged, placed upon the lower walls, appear already to despair of the defence. The costume of these individuals appears to consist merely of a simple tunic, scooped out between the clavicles. Their hair is arranged almost in the same manner as that of the Assyrians, but it is simply girt with a red band;

Fig. 95.-ATTACK BY BOW AND SPEARMEN.-SETTING FIRE TO A CITY'S GATES.

it is also shorter, and does not fall upon the shoulders; the beard is short and curled. A few corpses are stretched on the flanks of the hill on which the place is built.

Among the besiegers there are two archers, all the upper portion of whose bodies, as well as their legs, is bare; their only covering consists of a piece of fringed cloth, wrapped round the body, and held in its place by a large girdle; the sword is attached to a narrow baldric passing over the right shoulder, and traversing the breast, which is besides crossed by a cord, which Mr.

McCaul writing from the British Museum suggests,' is a spare bowstring: the bow and the wood of the arrows are painted red; the iron is painted blue. The beard of these two archers is, as we have before observed, shorter than that of the Assyrians, and is simply curled; they no doubt represent auxiliary troops. Before them is a kneeling warrior, who has a casque with a curved crest, and furnished with a flap which covers the ears. Other soldiers, represented smaller, are kneeling near the gates, and covering themselves with their shields, while they try to set the place on fire by means of torches; indeed, the flames, which are painted red, are very plainly perceived beginning to consume the gates. Notwithstanding the vigour of the attack, and the firing of the gates, the besieged offer a determined resistance, both from the walls of the city, and of the citadel; but within the lower town the inhabitants manifest the greatest consternation at seeing the gates on fire.

The king himself does not appear to be present at this siege, which is conducted by his chief eunuch, who advances under

(BOTTA,

cover of the great moveable breast-work (fig. 96). Farther on we perceive the successive ranks or stages of advance which the regular troops have made, under the protection of the tall moveable breast-work, each division being commanded by a beardless officer.

'Athenæum, No. 1412, Nov. 18, 1954.

KHORSABAD.-RETIRING CHAMBER.

As this concludes our second circuit of the banqueting-hall, before leaving the main body of the palace, we will enter the small doorway (c), at the lower end of the room.

CHAMBER III.-RETIRING CHAMBER.

Upon finding ourselves within this chamber, we perceive that it has two entrances, both furnished with folding-doorsone into the Chamber of Judgment (Iv.), and the other, by which we entered, connecting it with the banqueting-hall just described.

This room, like the one we have left, was divided into two lines of illustration, by a band of cuneatic, the remains of which, with the figure of a warrior, are still visible in the recess of the doorway. Farther within the chamber the only fragment now existing is the subject we have engraved (fig. 97).

Fig. 97.-CITY ON A HEIGHT, WEAR A CASTELLATED HILL FROM WHICH FLOWS A
STREAM. (BOTTA, pl. 78.)

The sculpture represents a fortified city, built upon a considerable elevation, opposite to which is a still higher craggy hill, surmounted by a castellated tower, from the base of which a narrow stream flows down into the valley that separates the two hills. It is especially to be observed that olive trees are growing upon both the hills, but more particularly on the one

upon the summit of which is the tower; and that on the hill of the city is a walk, or road, about half-way up, below which, and at the side of the stream, is a row of tombs, or inferior houses. The relative situations of these objects exactly resemble the position of similar objects visible in approaching Jerusalem from the east, On our left we have Mount Moriah and the high wall of the Temple; at our feet the Brook Kedron, and the tombs of the Valley of Jehosaphat, or some inferior buildings at the base of Mount Moriah; and, on our right, the Mount of Olives. The chief objection to this interpretation of the scene is the circumstance of the stream taking its rise in the Mount of Olives-a topographical inaccuracy, however, that might easily be pardoned in the Assyrian artist, if time and the Arabs had but spared us the other friezes to assist us in interpreting this relievo, and the other significant decorations of the chamber.

We will now return into the Banqueting Hall, and proceed through the central door-way (F) into the inner court (L).

THE INNER COURT (L).

Passing through the central opening (F) of the banquetinghall, we find, from the winged bulls at the jambs, that it is an external door-way leading into an open court. In the recess formed at each side by the projection of the bulls, are three small figures, one above the other, probably the figures of priests; and on the side of the projection is a representation of the winged man with the eagle's head, and wearing only the short sacerdotal tunic, his position and attributes being exactly similar to those already described. Upon turning to examine the entire façade, we find that instead of the bulls placed back to back on each side of the central opening, as in the King's Court (N), their places are supplied by a representation of the king walking out of the door, followed by his attendant Rabsaris and Selikdar, and met on the right by the Rab Signeen, with whom, as usual, he is in conversation. The whole of these figures are in high preservation, retaining colour upon the sandals, when found; and they have been admirably engraved in Plates 13 and 14 of Botta's great work. In our collection of the British Museum we have a precisely similar figure of the king and his chief officer, brought by Mr.