ed by
Luschan.

The wood-work of the Ninevite Bit-khilani was of cedar from Mount
Amanus, the door-frames and fittings were of various rare woods, inlaid
with ivory and metal. The entrance was guarded by the usual colossal
figures, and the walls of the state reception-rooms were covered with
slabs of alabaster; on these, in accordance with the usual custom,* were
carved scenes from the royal wars, with explanatory inscriptions.
The palace was subsequently dismantled, its pictures defaced and its
inscriptions obliterated,** to mark the hatred felt by later generations
towards the hero whom they were pleased to regard as a usurper; we can
only partially succeed in deciphering his annals by the help of the
fragmentary sentences which have escaped the fury of the destroyer.

* The building of Tiglath-pileser's palace is described in
the Nimroud Inscription. It stood near the centre of the
platform of Nimroud.

** The materials were utilised by Esarhaddon, but it does
not necessarily follow that the palace was dismantled by
that monarch; this was probably done by Sargon or by
Sennacherib.

The cities and fortresses which he raised throughout the length and
breadth of Assyria proper and its more recently acquired provinces have
similarly disappeared; we can only conjecture that the nobles of his
court, fired by his example, must have built and richly endowed more
than one city on their hereditary estates, or in the territories under
their rule. Bel-harran-beluzur, the marshal of the palace, who twice
gave his name to years of the king's reign, viz. in 741 and 727 B.C.,
possessed, it would seem, an important fief a little to the north
of Assur, near the banks of the Tharthar, on the site of the present
Tel-Abta. The district was badly cultivated, and little better than a
wilderness; by express order of the celestial deities--Marduk, Nabu,
Shamash, Sin, and the two Ishtars--he dug the foundations of a city
which he called Dur-Bel-harran-beluzur. The description he gives of it
affords conclusive evidence of the power of the great nobles, and shows
how nearly they approached, by their wealth and hereditary privileges,
to the kingly rank. He erected, we are told, a _ziggurat_ on a raised
terrace, in which he placed his gods in true royal fashion; he assigned
slaves, landed property, and a yearly income to their priests, in order
that worship might be paid to them in perpetuity; he grant