f so many centuries and so many successive displacements of the
political centre of gravity, the order of precedence of the Mesopotamian
gods was often changed. The dominant city promoted its own gods over the
heads of their fellows and modified for a time which might be long or
short, the comparative importance of the Chaldaean divinities. Sin, the moon
god, headed the list during the supremacy of Ur, Samas during that of
Larsam. With the rise of Assyria its national god, Assur, doubtless a
supreme god of the heavens, acquired an uncontested pre-eminence. It was in
his name that the Assyrians subdued all Asia and shed such torrents of
blood. Their wars were the wars of Assur; they were undertaken to extend
his empire and to glorify his name. Hence the extreme rigour, the hideous
cruelty, of the punishments inflicted by the king on his rebellious
subjects; he was punishing heretics and apostates.[110]

In the religious effusions of Mesopotamia, we sometimes find an accent of
exalted piety recalling the tone of the Hebrew scriptures; but it does not
appear that the monotheistic idea towards which they were ever tending, but
without actually reaching it and becoming penetrated by its truth, had ever
acquired sufficient consistence to stimulate the Chaldaean artist to the
creation of a type superior in beauty and nobility to those of gods in the
second rank. The fact that the idea did exist is to be inferred from the
use of certain terms rather than from any mention of it in theological
forms or embodiment in the plastic arts.

At Nineveh, Assur was certainly looked upon as the greatest of the gods, if
not as the only god. Idols captured from conquered nations were sometimes
restored to their worshippers, but not before they had been engraved with
the words, "_To the glory of Assur_." Assur was always placed at the head
of the divine lists. He is thought to be descended from Anou or Sin: but he
was raised to such a height by his adoption as the national deity, that it
became impossible to trace in him the distinguishing characteristics of his
primary condition as a god of nature; he became, like the Jehovah of the
Israelites, a god superior to nature. His attributes were of a very general
kind, and were all more or less derived from his dignity as chief leader
and father, as master of legions and as president in the assemblies of the
gods. He was regarded as the supreme arbiter, as the granter of victory and
of the spoils o