Anu had but few temples in Assyria.  He seems to have had none at either Nineveh or Calah, and none of any importance in all Assyria, except that at Asshur.  There is, however, reason, to believe that he was occasionally honored with a shrine in a temple dedicated to another deity.

BIL, or BEL.

The classical writers represent Bel as especially a Babylonian god, and scarcely mention his worship by the Assyrians; but the monuments show that the true Bel (called in the first part of this volume Bel-Nimrod) was worshipped at least as much in the northern as in the southern country.  Indeed, as early as the time of Tiglath-Pileser I., the Assyrians, as a nation, were especially entitled by their monarchs “the, people of Belus;” and the same periphrasis was in use during the period of the Lower Empire.  According to some authorities, a particular quarter of the city of Nineveh was denominated “the city of Belus” which would imply that it was in a peculiar way under his protection.  The word Bel does not occur very frequently as an element in royal names:  it was borne, however, by at least three early Assyrian kings:  and there is evidence that in later times it entered as an element into the names of leading personages with almost as much frequency as Asshur.

The high rank of Bel in Assyria is very strongly marked.  In the invocations his place is either the third or the second.  The former is his proper position, but occasionally Anu is omitted, and the name of Bel follows immediately on that of Asshur.  In one or two places he is made third, notwithstanding that Anu is omitted, Shamas, the Sun-god, being advanced over his head; but this is very unusual.

The worship of Bel in the earliest Assyrian times is marked by the royal names of Bel-snmili-kapi and Bel-lush, borne by two of the most ancient kings.  He had a temple at Asshur in conjunction with Il or Ra, which must have been of great antiquity, for by the time of Tiglath-Pileser I.  (B.C. 1130) it had fallen to decay and required a complete restoration, which it received from that monarch.  He had another temple at Calah; besides which he had four “arks” or “tabernacles,” the emplacement of which is uncertain.  Among the latter kings, Sargon especially paid him honor.  Besides coupling him with Anu in his royal titles, he dedicated to him—­in conjunction with Beltis, his wife—­one of the gates of his city, and in many passages he ascribes his royal authority to the favor of Bel and Merodach.  He also calls Bel, in the dedication of the eastern gate at Khorsabad, “the establisher of the foundations of his city.”

It may be suspected that the horned cap, which was no doubt a general emblem of divinity, was also in an especial way the symbol of this god.  Esarhaddon states that he setup over “the image of his majesty the emblems of Asshur, the Sun, Bel, Nin, and Ishtar.”  The other kings always include Bel among the chief objects of their worship.  We should thus expect to find his emblem among those which the kings specially affected; and as all the other common emblems are assigned to distinct gods with tolerable certainty, the horned cap alone remaining doubtful, the most reasonable conjecture seems to be that it was Bel’s symbol.