, replant the wasted orchards, and sow the devastated fields. A few
years of relative peace and tranquillity, during which he strove to
be forgotten by his conqueror, restored prosperity to his country; the
population increased with extraordinary rapidity, and new generations
arose who, unconscious of the disasters suffered by their predecessors,
had, but one aim, that of recovering their independence. We must,
however, beware of thinking that the defeat of these tribes was as
crushing or their desolation as terrible as the testimony of the
inscriptions would lead us to suppose. The rulers of Nineveh were but
too apt to relate that this or that country had been conquered and its
people destroyed, when the Assyrian army had remained merely a week or
a fortnight within its territory, had burnt some half-dozen fortified
towns, and taken two or three thousand prisoners.*

* For example, Tiglath-pileser I. conquers the Kummukli in
the first year of his reign, burning, destroying, and
depopulating the towns, and massacring "the remainder of the
Kummukh" who had taken refuge in the mountains, after which,
in his second campaign, he again pillages, burns, destroys,
and depopulates the towns, and again massacres the remainder
of the inhabitants hiding in the mountains. He makes the
same statements with regard to most of the other countries
and peoples conquered by him, but we find them reappearing
with renewed vigour on the scene, soon after their supposed
destruction.

If we were to accept implicitly all that is recorded of the Assyrian
exploits in Nairi or the Taurus, we should be led to believe that for
at least half a century the valleys of the Upper Tigris and Middle
Euphrates were transformed into a desert; each time, however, that they
are subsequently mentioned on the occasion of some fresh expedition,
they appear once more covered with thriving cities and a vigorous
population, whose generals offer an obstinate resistance to the
invaders. We are, therefore, forced to admit that the majority of these
expeditions must be regarded as mere raids. The population, disconcerted
by a sudden attack, would take refuge in the woods or on the mountains,
carrying with them their gods, whom they thus preserved from captivity,
together with a portion of their treasures and cattle; but no sooner had
the invader retired, than they descended once more into the plain and
returned to