To face [page 322].
Belesys, who was still rather pale, smiled uneasily, but with a forced hilarity professed himself ready not only to give my brave men the double allowance of wine, but to provide them with some sheep and oxen besides. Once again a general cheer was raised, and Hannibal made him a military salute. Chamai merely shrugged his shoulders and Bichri could not help confiding to Dionysos that the man before them was nothing but a drunken coward, who ruled the 50,000 men under his command by blows and lashes.
"They are not Hellenes, then," said the young Phocian, proudly; "no Hellenes submit to blows!"
Belesys bit his lip; he had overheard what was said, and it mortified him; he tried to conceal his annoyance, and remarked to me that he had thought Phœnicians were too much engrossed by commerce to have any concern in the affairs of states. Hannibal was on the point of quoting the case of Adonibal, the naval suffect of Utica, as an instance to the contrary, when our attention was arrested by the transit of a section of the Assyrian army from one bank of the river to the other. The water was covered with boats and with large rafts, on which were placed all the war-chariots, and at the stern of every one of them was a group of men holding the heads of the horses that were swimming behind. The passage of the infantry was made on inflated goat-skins. The utmost confusion prevailed; several poor fellows were drowned, but that seemed a matter of utter indifference to the officers that stood upon the bank lashing the men with whips to make them quicken their movements. At one place we observed that a large bevy of prisoners was being conducted before an official who was seated on a kind of open air tribunal, surrounded by guards. Some town had evidently been lately captured. All the gods, and a quantity of booty, were first laid at the officer's feet, and then the prisoners—men, women, and children—were brought before him. They were a wretched, dejected set, many of the men fettered with heavy bronze chains, and nearly all with their hands bound behind their backs, the whole of them being compelled to prostrate themselves in turn before the officer, who placed his foot upon their necks. In a few cases a respite was granted and life was spared; but as a general rule the captives were forthwith hanged or beheaded in the presence of their fellow-sufferers. I observed that out of the number of miserable objects, four were selected and sent off to be tied to stakes that were driven into the ground on an adjacent eminence.
It was truly a heartrending spectacle. Chamai and Hannibal had seen something of the kind before in the course of the warfare in their own land; but to Aminocles and his countrymen, with their Hellenic ideal of liberty, the sight was intolerably shocking, and they were loud in their asseverations that they would die before they would incur the risk of any such utter degradation.
While we were looking on at this humiliating exhibition, a messenger arrived from the King to ascertain the object of my coming. I stated it as briefly as possible, and in another hour the man came again to summon us into the presence of Belochus. I took no one with me except Hanno, and the sailors to carry the Queen's gifts. As we walked along Hanno was silent, evidently preparing some graceful compliment; but his painstaking in this way was of no avail, as we were only permitted to view the splendour of the Assyrian sovereign from a distance. At about a hundred paces from the throne we were commanded to halt, and prostrate ourselves to the ground.
To face [page 324].
Belochus II. was seated beneath a group of trees, surrounded so closely by guards, cup-bearers, attendants with fans and parasols, and slaves, with fly-whisks, that for a long time I could see nothing of him except his tiara, which was very dazzling, his robes, which were very elaborate, and his unshod feet sparkling with gems. But at last the mass of gorgeous pomp seemed to open, and I could plainly distinguish the majestic countenance of the King, encircled with long hair, and conspicuous with a thick frizzled beard.