Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief on the bronze gates of Balawât.
The troops advanced in narrow columns, sometimes even in single file, along these improvised roads, always on the alert lest they should be taken at a disadvantage by an enemy concealed in the thickets. In case of attack, the foot-soldiers had each to think of himself, and endeavour to give as many blows as he received; but the charioteers, encumbered by their vehicles and the horses, found it no easy matter to extricate themselves from the danger. Once the chariots had entered into the forest region, the driver descended from his vehicle, and led the horses by the head, while the warrior and his assistant were not slow to follow his example, in order to give some relief to the animals by tugging at the wheels. The king alone did not dismount, more out of respect for his dignity than from indifference to the strain upon the animals; for, in spite of careful leading, he had to submit to a rough shaking from the inequalities of this rugged soil; sometimes he had too much of this, and it is related of him in his annals that he had crossed the mountains on foot like an ordinary mortal.*
* The same fact is found in the accounts of every
expedition, but more importance is attached to it as we
approach the end of the Ninevite empire, when the kings were
not so well able to endure hardship. Sennacherib mentions it
on several occasions, with a certain amount of self-pity for
the fatigue he had undergone, but with a real pride in his
own endurance.
A halt was made every evening, either at some village, whose inhabitants were obliged to provide food and lodging, or, in default of this, on some site which they could fortify by a hastily thrown up rampart of earth. If they were obliged to remain in any place for a length of time, a regular encircling wall was constructed, not square or rectangular like those of the Egyptians, but round or oval.*
* The oval inclines towards a square form, with rounded
corners, on the bas-reliefs of the bronze gates of
Shalmaneser II. at Balawât.
Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Mansell, taken in the
British Museum.