together they laid close siege to the Assyrian capital.

The operations of the besiegers seem to have been aided by an unusual
inundation of the Tigris, which undermined a section of the city walls. At
all events the place was taken, and dominion passed away forever from the
proud capital [Footnote: Saracus, in his despair, is said to have erected
a funeral pyre within one of the courts of his palace, and, mounting the
pile with the members of his family, to have perished with them in the
flames; but this is doubtless a poetical embellishment of the story.] (606
B.C.). Two hundred years later, when Xenophon with his Ten Thousand
Greeks, in his memorable retreat (see p. 156), passed the spot, the once
great city was a crumbling mass of ruins, of which he could not even learn
the name.


2. RELIGION, ARTS, AND GENERAL CULTURE.

RELIGION.--The Assyrians were Semites, and as such they possessed the deep
religious spirit that has always distinguished the peoples of this family.
In this respect they were very much like the Hebrews. The wars which the
Assyrian monarchs waged were not alone wars of conquest, but were, in a
certain sense, crusades made for the purpose of extending the worship and
authority of the gods of Assyria. They have been likened to the wars of
the Hebrew kings, and again to the conquests of the Saracens.

As with the wars, so was it with the architectural works of these
sovereigns. Greater attention, indeed, was paid to the palace in Assyria
than in Babylonia; yet the inscriptions, as well as the ruins, of the
upper country attest that the erection and adornment of the temples of the
gods were matters of anxious and constant care on the part of the Assyrian