Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/389

LEFT ASSYRIA 311 ASSYRIA father of Nebuchadnezzer, openly threw off all semblance of his allegiance and declared himself king. The last Assyrian King was Esar-haddon II. (the Sarakos of Ctesias), in whose reign Babylon definitely threw off the Assyrian yoke. There are some tablets relating to this prince which show that during his rule the N. E. provinces were invaded by a powerful confederation of Aryan and Tu- ranian tribes, Medes, Cimmerians, and Armenians, under the command of Cyaxares. The meager character of the inscriptions about this date, and the ap- parent number of claimants to the throne, indicate that after the death of Asshur- the Ottoman Turks from 1638, at which period it was wrested from the Persians. People and Language. — The Assyrians belonged to the northern branch of the Semitic family, a race of people who spread over the country and mingled with or supplanted the original inhab- itants, while their language took the place of the Akkadian, the latter becom- ing a dead language. Their language differed little from the Babylonian, and both retained traces of the Akkadian. Religion. — The religion of Assyria, though essentially of Babylonian origin, was much simpler, and although poly- theistic in character, was free from the ASSYRIAN SCULPTURE. THE SACRED TREE, WITH EAGLE-HEADED DEITIES banipal a period of disruption and an- archy set in, followed, about 606 B. c, by the siege and destruction of Nineveh by the combined forces of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar. Assyria became a Median province in 606 B. C, and afterward, in conjunction with Babylonia, formed one of the satrapies of the Persian Empire. In 312 B. c. Assyria became part of the kingdom of the Seleucidae, whose capital was Seleucia, on the Tigris. It was after- ward subject to the Parthian kings, whose capital was Ctesiphon, and was more than once temporarily in possession of the Romans. When the Persian mon- archy of the Sassanidae, which succeeded that of the Parthians, was destroyed^ by the Mohammedans, Assyria was subject to the caliphs, whose seat was at Bagdad from 702 A. o. till 1258. It has been under multitudinous pantheon of the more an- cient empire. At the head of the pan- theon was the god Assur, the national deity. He was symbolically represented by a winged circle inclosing the figure of an archer. The Assyrian pantheon contained two principal triads, with numerous minor deities. A number of spirits, good and evil, presided over the minor operations of nature. There were set forms of regulating the worship of all the gods and spirits, and prayers to each were inscribed on clay tablets with blanks for the names of the persons using them. The morning and evening saci'ifice, the offering of cakes, wines, milk, and honey, are found in the litur- g:ies of the temple. Art atid Industry. — The Assyrians were far advanced in art and industry.