c excellence of their ornamentation, the pomp and splendor which
they set before us as familiar to the king who raised them, the skill in
various useful arts which they display or imply, have excited the
admiration of Europe, which has seen with astonishment that many of its
inventions were anticipated, and that its luxury was almost equalled, by
an Asiatic people nine centuries before the Christian era. It will be
our pleasing task at this point of the history, after briefly sketching
Asshur-izir-pal's wars, to give such an account of the great works which
he constructed as will convey to the reader at least a general idea of
the civilization and refinement of the Assyrians at the period to which
we are now come.

Asshur-izir-pal's first campaign was in north-western Kurdistan and in
the adjoining parts of Armenia. It does not present any very remarkable
features, though he claims to have penetrated to a region "never
approached by the kings his fathers." His enemies are the Numi or Elami
(i.e., the mountaineers) and the Kirkhi, who seem to have left their
name in the modern Kurkh. Neither people appears to have been able to
make much head against him: no battle was fought: the natives merely
sought to defend their fortified places; but these were mostly taken and
destroyed by the invader. One chief, who was made prisoner, received
very barbarous treatment; he was carried to Arbela, and there flayed and
hung up upon the town wall.

The second expedition of Asshur-izir-pal, which took place in the same
year as his first, was directed against the regions to the west and
north-west of Assyria. Traversing the country of Qummukh, and receiving
its tribute, as well as that of Serki and Sidikan (Arban), he advanced
against the Laki, who seem to have been at this time the chief people of
Central Mesopotamia, extending from the vicinity of Hatra as far as, or
even beyond, the middle Euphrates. Here the people of a city called
Assura had rebelled, murdered their governor, and called in a foreigner
to rule over them. Asshur-izir-pal marched hastily against the rebels,
who submitted at his approach, delivering up to his mercy both their
city and their new king. The latter he bound with fetters and carried
with him to Nineveh; the former he treated with almost unexampled
severity. Having first plundered the whole place, he gave up the houses
of the chief men to his own officers, established an Assyrian governor
in the palace, and