Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph by Mansell.  The inhabitants of the town who have been taken prisoners, are leaving it with their cattle under the conduct of Assyrian soldiers.

Should the enemy, however, seek an engagement, and the men be drawn up in line to meet him, the action would be opened by archers and light troops armed with slings, who would be followed by the chariotry and heavy infantry for close attack; a reserve of veterans would await around the commanding-general the crucial moment of the engagement, when they would charge in a body among the combatants, and decide the victory by sheer strength of arm.*

* Tiglath-pileser I. mentions a pitched battle against the Muskhu, who numbered 20,000 men; and another against Kiliteshub, King of Kummukh, in his first campaign.  In one of the following campaigns he overcame the people of Saraush and those of Maruttash, and also 6000 Sugi; later on he defeated 23 allied kings of Nairi, and took from them 120 chariots and 20,000 people of Kumanu.  The other wars are little more than raids, during which he encountered merely those who were incapable of offering him any resistance.

The pursuit of the enemy was never carried to any considerable distance, for the men were needed to collect the spoil, despatch the wounded, and carry off the trophies of war.  Such of the prisoners as it was deemed useful or politic to spare were stationed in a safe place under a guard of sentries.  The remainder were condemned to death as they were brought in, and their execution took place without delay; they were made to kneel down, with their backs to the soldiery, their heads bowed, and their hands resting on a flat stone or a billet of wood, in which position they were despatched with clubs.  The scribes, standing before their tent doors, registered the number of heads cut off; each soldier, bringing his quota and throwing it upon the heap, gave in his name and the number of his company, and then withdrew in the hope of receiving a reward proportionate to the number of his victims.*

* The details of this bringing of heads are known to us by representations of a later period.  The allusions contained in the Annals of Tiglath-pileser I. show that the custom was in full force under the early Assyrian conquerors.

When the king happened to accompany the army, he always presided at this scene, and distributed largesse to those who had shown most bravery; in his absence he required that the heads of the enemy’s chiefs should be sent to him, in order that they might be exposed to his subjects on the gates of his capital.  Sieges were lengthy and arduous undertakings.  In the case of towns situated on the plain, the site was usually chosen so as to be protected by canals, or an arm of a river on two or three sides, thus leaving one side only without a natural defence, which the inhabitants endeavoured to make up for by means of double or treble ramparts.*