Sennacherib’s foot spearmen are of two classes only.  The better armed have pointed helmets, with lappets protecting the ears, a coat of mail descending to the waist and also covering all the upper part of the arms, a tunic opening at the side, a phillibeg, close-fitting trousers, and greaves of the ordinary character. [PLATE XCIX., Fig. 3.] They carry a large convex shield, apparently of metal, which covers them almost from head to foot, and a spear somewhat less than their own height.  Commonly they have a short sword at their right side.  Their shield is often ornamented with rows of bosses towards the centre and around the edge.  It is ordinarily carried in front; but when the warrior is merely upon the march, he often bears it slung at his back, as in the accompanying representation.  There is reason to suspect that the spearmen of this description constituted the royal bodyguard.  They are comparatively few in number, and are usually seen in close proximity to the monarch, or in positions which imply trust, as in the care of prisoners and of the spoil.  They never make the attacks in sieges, and are rarely observed to be engaged in battle.  Where several of them are seen together, it is almost always in attendance upon the king whom they constantly precede upon his journeys.

The inferior spearmen of Sennacherib are armed nearly like those of Sargon.  They have crested helmets, plain tunics confined at the waist by a broad girdle, cross-belts ornamented with circular disks where they meet in the centre of the breast, and, most commonly, round wicker shields.  The chief points wherein they differ from Sargon’s spearmen is the following:  they usually (though not universally) wear trousers and greaves; they have sleeves to their tunics, winch descend nearly to the elbow; and they carry sometimes, instead of the round shield, a long convex one arched at the top. [PLATE XCIX., fig. 4.] Where they have not this defence, but the far commoner targe, it is always of larger dimensions than the targe of Sargon, and is generally surrounded by a rim. [PLATE XCIX., Fig. 4.] Sometimes it appears to be of metal:  but more often it is of wickerwork, either of the plain construction common in Sargon’s time, or of one considerably more elaborate.

Among the foot soldiers of Sennacherib we seem to find a corps of pioneers.  They wear the same dress as the better equipped of the spearmen, but carry in their hands, instead of a spear, a doubled-headed axe or hatchet, wherewith they clear the ground for the passage and movements of the army.  They work in pairs, one pulling at the tree by its branches while the other attacks the stem with his weapon.