Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
ISBN: 978-85-352-8543-7
ISBN versão eletrônica: 978-85-352-8544-4
Inclui bibliografia
ISBN 978-85-352-8543-7
§ 5. Arms.
We shall not, of course, study Assyrian arms from the military
point of view. That question has been treated with all the care it
deserves by Rawlinson and Layard.[431] From the stone axes and
arrow-heads that have been found in the oldest Chaldæan tombs, to
the fine weapons and defensive armour in iron and bronze, used by
the soldiers of Nineveh in its greatest years, by the cavalry, the
infantry, and the chariot-men of Sargon and Sennacherib, the
progress is great and must have required many long centuries of
patient industry. In Assyria no trade can have occupied more hands
or given rise to more invention than that of the armourer. For two
centuries the Assyrian legions found no worthy rivals on the
battlefields of Asia; and, although their superiority was mainly due, of
course, to qualities of physical vigour and moral energy developed
by discipline, their unvarying success was in some degree the result
of their better arms. Without dwelling upon this point we may just
observe that when war is the chief occupation of a race, its arms are
sure to be carried to an extreme degree of luxury and perfection.
Some idea of their elaboration in the case of Assyria may be gained
from the reliefs and from the original fragments that have come down
to us.