don boasts of having built ten palaces and
thirty-six temples in Assyria and Chaldaea.[73] Some traces of one of these
palaces have been found within the _enceinte_ of Nineveh, at Nebbi-Younas;
but it was chiefly upon Nimroud that Esarhaddon left marks of his
magnificence. The palace called the South-western Palace, in consequence of
its position in the mound, was commenced by him. It was never finished, but
in plan it was more grandiose than any other of the royal dwellings. Had it
been complete it would have included the largest hall ever provided by an
Assyrian architect for the pomps of the Ninevitish court.

Assurbanipal was cruel in victory and indefatigable in the chase. Judging
from his bas-reliefs he was as proud of the lions he killed by hundreds in
his hunts, as of the men massacred by thousands in his wars and military
promenades, or of the captives driven before him, like herds of helpless
cattle, from one end of Asia to the other. He appears also to have been a
patron of literature and the arts. It was under his auspices that the
collection of inscribed terra-cotta tablettes was made in the palace at
Kouyundjik,[74] of which so many fragments have now been recovered. He
ordered the transcription of several ancient texts which had been first
cut, many centuries before, at Ur of the Chaldees. In fact, he collected
that royal library whose remains, damaged by time though they be, are yet
among the most valued treasures of the British Museum. Documents of many
kinds are to be found among them: comparative vocabularies, lists of
divinities with their distinguishing epithets, chronological lists of kings
and eponymous heroes, grammars, histories, tables of astronomical
observations, scientific works of various descriptions, &c., &c. These
tablets were classified according to subject and arranged in several rooms
of the upper story, so that they suffered much in the fall of the floors
and roofs. Very few are quite uninjured but in many cases the pieces have
been successfully put together. When first discovered these broken remains
covered the floors of the buried palace to the depth of about two feet.[75]

The building was no less remarkable for the richness and beauty of its
bas-reliefs. We shall have occasion to reproduce more than one of the
hunting scenes which are there represented, and of which we give a first
illustration on the opposite page. Some remains of another palace built by
the same prince have bee