* To mention but a single instance, it was in this way that
     Assur-bani-pal treated the Arab kings captured by him.

The streets leading from the gates were of uniform breadth throughout, from one side of the enclosure to the other.  They were paved, had no sideways or footpaths, and crossed one another at right angles.  The houses on either side of them seem, for the most part, to have consisted of a single story.  They were built of bricks, either baked or unbaked, the outer surfaces of which were covered with white or tinted rough-casting.  The high and narrow doors were nearly always hidden away in a corner of the front; the bare monotony of the walls was only relieved here and there at long intervals by tiny windows, but often instead of a flat roof the building was surmounted by a conical dome or by semi-cupolas, the concave sides of which were turned inwards.  The inhabitants varied greatly in race and language:  Sargon had filled his city with prisoners collected from all the four quarters of his empire, from Elam, Chaldaea, and Media, from Urartu and Tabal, Syria and Palestine, and in order to keep these incongruous elements in check he added a number of Assyrians, of the mercantile, official, or priestly classes.  He could overlook the whole city from the palace which he had built on both sides the north-eastern wall of the town, half within and half without the ramparts.  Like all palaces built on the Euphratean model, this royal castle stood on an artificial eminence of bricks formed of two rectangles joined together in the shape of the letter T. The only entrance to it was on the city side, foot-passengers being admitted by a double flight of steps built out in front of the ramparts, horsemen and chariots by means of an inclined plane which rose in a gentle gradient along the right flank of the masonry work, and terminated on its eastern front.  Two main gates corresponded to these two means of approach; the one on the north-east led straight to the royal apartments, the other faced the city and opened on to the double staircase.  It was readily distinguishable from a distance by its two flagstaffs bearing the royal standard, and its two towers, at the base of which were winged bulls and colossal figures of Gilgames crushing the lion.

[Illustration:  402.jpg bird’s eye view of sargon’s palace at dur-sharrukin]

     Drawn by Boudier, from the restoration by Thomas in Place.

Two bulls of still more monstrous size stood sentry on either side of the gate, the arch was outlined by a course of enamelled bricks, while higher up, immediately beneath the battlements, was an enamelled mosaic showing the king in all his glory.  This triumphal arch was reserved for his special use, the common people being admitted by two side doors of smaller size less richly decorated.

[Illustration:  403.jpg ONE OF THE GATES OF THE PALACE AT DUR-SHARRUKIN]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from the restoration by Thomas, in
     Place.