* Nebuchadrezzar I. of Babylon assumes the title of Shamash mati-shu, the “Sun of his country,” and Hilprecht rightly sees in this expression a trace of Egyptian influences; later on, Assurnazirpal, King of Assyria similarly describes himself as Shamshu kishshat nishi, the “Sun of all mankind.”  Tiele is of opinion that these expressions do not necessarily point to any theory of the actual incarnation of the god, as was the case in Egypt, but that they may be mere rhetorical figures.

Formerly he had only attained this apotheosis after death, later on he was permitted to aspire to it during his lifetime.  The Chaldaeans adopted the same attitude, and in both countries the royal authority shone with the borrowed lustre of divine omnipotence.  With these exceptions life at court remained very much the same as it had been; at Nineveh, as at Babylon, we find harems filled with foreign princesses, who had either been carried off as hostages from the country of a defeated enemy, or amicably obtained from their parents.  In time of war, the command of the troops and the dangers of the battle-field; in time of peace, a host of religious ceremonies and judicial or administrative duties, left but little leisure to the sovereign who desired to perform conscientiously all that was required of him.  His chief amusement lay in the hunting of wild beasts:  the majority of the princes who reigned over Assyria had a better right than even Amenothes III. himself to boast of the hundreds of lions which they had slain.  They set out on these hunting expeditions with quite a small army of charioteers and infantry, and were often away several days at a time, provided urgent business did not require their presence in the palace.  They started their quarry with the help of large dogs, and followed it over hill and dale till they got within bowshot:  if it was but slightly wounded and turned on them, they gave it the finishing stroke with their lances without dismounting.

[Illustration:  178.jpg A LION-HUNT]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief in the British Museum.

Occasionally, however, they were obliged to follow their prey into places where horses could not easily penetrate; then a hand-to-hand conflict was inevitable.  The lion would rise on its hind quarters and endeavour to lay its pursuer low with a stroke of its mighty paw, but only to fall pierced to the heart by his lance or sword.

[Illustration:  179.jpg LION TRANSFIXED BY AN ARROW]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a bas-relief in the British Museum.