le and almost
unbroken plains furrowed by streams which offered little obstruction
to troops throughout the year, but a land of marshes, arid and rocky
deserts, mighty rivers, capable, in one of their sudden floods, of
arresting progress for days, and of jeopardising the success of a
campaign;* violent and ice-cold torrents, rugged mountains whose summits
rose into "points like daggers," and whose passes could be held against
a host of invaders by a handful of resolute men.**

* Sennacherib was obliged to arrest his march against Elam,
owing to his inability to cross the torrents swollen by the
rain; a similar contretemps must have met Assurbanipal on
the banks of the Ididi.

** The Assyrian monarchs dwell with pleasure on the
difficulties of the country which they have to overcome.

Bands of daring skirmishers, consisting of archers, slingers, and
pikemen, cleared the way for the mass of infantry marching in columns,
and for the chariots, in the midst of which the king and his household
took up their station; the baggage followed, together with the prisoners
and their escorts.*

* Assurbanipal relates, for instance, that he put under his
escort a tribe which had surrendered themselves as
prisoners.

If they came to a river where there was neither ford nor bridge, they
were not long in effecting a passage.

[Illustration: 189.jpg MAKING A BRIDGE FOR THE PASSAGE OF THE CHARIOTS]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief on the bronze
gates of Balawat.

Each soldier was provided with a skin, which, having inflated it by the
strength of his lungs and closed the aperture, he embraced in his arms
and cast himself into the stream. Partly by floating and partly by
swimming, a whole regiment could soon reach the other side. The chariots
could not be carried over so easily.

[Illustration: 190.jpg THE KING'S CHARIOT CROSSING A BRIDGE]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
bronze gates of Balawat.

If the bed of the river was not very wide, and the current not too
violent, a narrow bridge was constructed, or rather an improvised dyke
of large stones and rude gabions filled with clay, over which was spread
a layer of branches and earth, supplying a sufficiently broad passage
for a single chariot, of which the horses were led across at walking
pace.*

* Flying bridges, _titurati_, were mentioned as far back as
the time