The Assyrians waged war with a brutality which the Egyptians would never have tolerated.  Unlike the Pharaohs, their kings were not content to imprison or put to death the principal instigators of a revolt, but their wrath would fall upon the entire population.  As long as a town resisted the efforts of their besieging force, all its inhabitants bearing arms who fell into their hands were subjected to the most cruel tortures; they were cut to pieces or impaled alive on stakes, which were planted in the ground just in front of the lines, so that the besieged should enjoy a full view of the sufferings of their comrades.

[Illustration:  201.jpg ASSYRIAN SAPPERS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.

Even during the course of a short siege this line of stakes would be prolonged till it formed a bloody pale between the two contending armies.  This horrible spectacle had at least the effect of shaking the courage of the besieged, and of hastening the end of hostilities.  When at length the town yielded to the enemy, it was often razed to the ground, and salt was strewn upon its ruins, while the unfortunate inhabitants were either massacred or transplanted en masse elsewhere.  If the bulk of the population were spared and condemned to exile, the wealthy and noble were shown no clemency; they were thrown from, the top of the city towers, their ears and noses were cut off, their hands and feet were amputated, or they and their children were roasted over a slow fire, or flayed alive, or decapitated, and their heads piled up in a heap.

[Illustration:  202.jpg A TOWN TAKEN BY SCALING]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs of the bronze gate at Balawat.  The two soldiers who represent the Assyrian army carry their shields before them; flames appear above the ramparts, showing that the conquerors have burnt the town.

The victorious sovereigns appear to have taken a pride in the ingenuity with which they varied these means of torture, and dwell with complacency on the recital of their cruelties.  “I constructed a pillar at the gate of the city,” is the boast of one of them; “I then flayed the chief men, and covered the post with their skins; I suspended their dead bodies from this same pillar, I impaled others on the summit of the pillar, and I ranged others on stakes around the pillar.”

Two or three executions of this kind usually sufficed to demoralise the enemy.  The remaining inhabitants assembled:  terrified by the majesty of Assur, and as it were blinded by the brightness of his countenance, they sunk down at the knees of the victor and embraced his feet.*

* These are the very expressions used in the Assyrian texts:  “The terror of my strength overthrew them, they feared the combat, and they embraced my feet;” and again:  “The brightness of Assur, my lord, overturned them.”  This latter image is explained by the presence over the king of the winged figure of Assur directing the battle.

[Illustration:  203.jpg TORTURES INFLICTED ON PRISONERS]