[Illustration:  013.jpg THE TURRETED BATTERING-RAM ATTACKING THE WALLS OF A TOWN]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief brought from
     Nimroud, now in the British Museum.

Torches, lighted tow, burning pitch, and stink-pots were hurled down upon its roofing:  attempts were made to seize the head of the ram by means of chains or hooks, so as to prevent it from moving, or in order to drag it on to the battlements; in some cases the garrison succeeded in crushing the machinery with a mass of rock.  The Assyrians, however, did not allow themselves to be discouraged by such trifling accidents; they would at once extinguish the fire, release, by sheer force of muscle, the beams which the enemy had secured, and if, notwithstanding all their efforts, one of the machines became injured, they had others ready to take its place, and the ram would be again at work after only a few minutes’ delay.  Walls, even when of burnt brick or faced with small stones, stood no chance against such an attack.

[Illustration:  014.jpg THE BESIEGED ENDEAVOURING TO CRIPPLE OR DESTROY THE BATTERING-RAM]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief from Nimroud, now
     in the British Museum.

The first blow of the ram sufficed to shake them, and an opening was rapidly made, so that in a few days, often in a few hours, they became a heap of ruins; the foot soldiers could then enter by the breach which the pioneers had effected.

It must, however, be remembered that the strength and discipline which the Assyrian troops possessed in such a high degree, were common to the military forces of all the great states—­Elam, Damascus, Nairi, the Hittites, and Chaldaea.  It was owing to this, and also to the fact that the armies of all these Powers were, as a rule, both in strength and numbers, much on a par, that no single state was able to inflict on any of the rest such a defeat as would end in its destruction.  What decisive results had the terrible struggles produced, which stained almost periodically the valleys of the Tigris and the Zab with blood?  After endless loss of life and property, they had nearly always issued in the establishment of the belligerents in their respective possessions, with possibly the cession of some few small towns or fortresses to the stronger party, most of which, however, were destined to come back to its former possessor in the very next campaign.  The fall of the capital itself was not decisive, for it left the vanquished foe chafing under his losses, while the victory cost his rival so dear that he was unable to maintain the ascendency for more than a few years.  Twice at least in three centuries a king of Assyria had entered Babylon, and twice the Babylonians had expelled the intruder of the hour, and had forced him back with a blare of trumpets to the frontier.  Although the Ninevite dynasties had persisted in their pretensions to a suzerainty which they had generally been unable to enforce, the