* Isolated horsemen must no doubt have existed in the
Assyrian just as in the Egyptian army, but we never find any
mention of a body of cavalry in inscriptions prior to the
time of Assur-nazir-pal; the introduction of this new corps
must consequently have taken place between the reigns of
Tiglath-pileser and Assur-nazir-pal, probably nearer the
time of the latter. Assur-nazir-pal himself seldom speaks of
his cavalry, but he constantly makes mention of the horsemen
of the Aramaean and Syrian principalities, whom he
incorporated into his own army.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs
of the gate of Balawât.
The army thus reinforced was at all events more efficient, if not actually more powerful, than formerly; the discipline maintained was as severe, the military spirit as keen, the equipment as perfect, and the tactics as skilful as in former times. A knowledge of engineering had improved upon the former methods of taking towns by sapping and scaling, and though the number of military engines was as yet limited, the besiegers were well able, when occasion demanded, to improvise and make use of machines capable of demolishing even the strongest walls.*
* The battering-ram had already reached such a degree of
perfection under Assur-nazir-pal, that it must have been
invented some time before the execution of the first bas-
reliefs on which we see it portrayed. Its points of
resemblance to the Greek battering-ram furnished Hoofer with
one of his mam arguments for placing the monuments of
Khorsabad and Koyunjik as late as the Persian or Parthian
period.
The Assyrians were familiar with all the different kinds of battering-ram; the hand variety, which was merely a beam tipped with iron, worked by some score of men; the fixed ram, in which the beam was suspended from a scaffold and moved by means of ropes; and lastly, the movable ram, running on four or six wheels, which enabled it to be advanced or withdrawn at will. The military engineers of the day allowed full rein to their fancy in the many curious shapes they gave to this latter engine; for example, they gave to the mass of bronze at its point the form of the head of an animal, and the whole engine took at times the form of a sow ready to root up with its snout the foundations of the enemy’s defences. The scaffolding of the machine was usually protected by a carapace of green leather or some coarse woollen material stretched over it, which broke the force of blows from projectiles: at times it had an additional arrangement in the shape of a cupola or turret in which archers were stationed to sweep the face of the wall opposite to the point of attack.
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bronze bas-reliefs
of the gate of Balawât.