nnals of Assur-nazir-pal_.

He did not live long to enjoy his triumphs, but his death made no
impression on the impulse given to the fortunes of his country. The
kingdom which he left to Assur-nazir-pal, the eldest of his sons,
embraced scarcely any of the countries which had paid tribute to former
sovereigns. Besides Assyria proper, it comprised merely those districts
of Nairi which had been annexed within his own generation; the
remainder had gradually regained their liberty: first the outlying
dependencies--Cilicia, Melitene, Northern Syria, and then the provinces
nearer the capital, the valleys of the Masios and the Zagros, the
steppes of the Khabur, and even some districts such as Lubdi and
Shupria, which had been allotted to Assyrian colonists at various
times after successful campaigns. Nearly the whole empire had to be
reconquered under much the same conditions as in the first instance.
Assyria itself, it is true, had recovered the vitality and elasticity of
its earlier days. The people were a robust and energetic race, devoted
to their rulers, and ready to follow them blindly and trustingly
wherever they might lead. The army, while composed chiefly of the same
classes of troops as in the time of Tiglath-pileser I.,--spearmen,
archers, sappers, and slingers,--now possessed a new element, whose
appearance on the field of battle was to revolutionize the whole method
of warfare; this was the cavalry, properly so called, introduced as an
adjunct to the chariotry. The number of horsemen forming this contingent
was as yet small; like the infantry, they wore casques and cuirasses,
but were clothed with a tight-fitting loin-cloth in place of the
long kilt, the folds of which would have embarrassed their movements.
One-half of the men carried sword and lance, the other half sword and
bow, the latter of a smaller kind than that used by the infantry. Their
horses were bridled, and bore trappings on the forehead, but had no
saddles; their riders rode bareback without stirrups; they sat far back
with the chest thrown forward, their knees drawn up to grip the shoulder
of the animal.

[Illustration: 009.jpg AN ASSYRIAN HORSEMAN ARMED WITH THE SWORD]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief in bronze on the
gate of Balawat. The Assyrian artist has shown the head and
legs of the second horse in profile behind the first, but he
has forgotten to represent the rest of its body, and also
the man riding