Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/110

 78 Outlines of Etiropean History Ashurbani- pal's library Assyrian civilization not a mere echo of Babylonia The fall of Assyria Internal decay Economic decline in this matter wholly devoted to mere wealth, for higher inter- ests were also cultivated and literature flourished. Modern excavation has uncovered the buildings of Ashurbani- pal, Sennacherib's grandson at Nineveh, and here was found a great library of clay tablets. In this library the religious, scien- tific, and literary documents of past ages had been systematically collected by the Emperor's orders. His agents passed around among the ancient cities with authorization to take all the old writings they could find. These thousands on thousands of clay tablets arrayed on shelves formed the earliest library known in Asia, and represented an idea quite in advance of Babylonian civilization described above. The usual impression that Assyr- ian civilization was but an echo of Babylonian culture is very misleading.^ The Assyrians were far more advanced in these matters than the Babylonians. Like many another later ruler, however, the Assyrian em- perors made a profound mistake in policy. They destroyed the industrial and wealth-producing population, first within their own territory and then throughout the subject kingdoms.-^ I'n spite of interest in introducing a new textile like cotton, the Emperor did not or could not build up industries or commerce like those of Babylonia. The people were chiefly agricultural, and in the old days it had sufficed to call out levies of peasant militia to defend the frontiers. With the expansion of the Empire, hoW' ever, such temporary bodies of troops were insufficient, and the peasants we.xt perma7ie?itly called away fro7n the fields to fill the ranks of an ever-growing standing army. We discern disused canals and idle fields as we read of Sargon's efforts to re- store the old farming communities. But even so the vast expan- sion of the Empire exceeds the power of the standing army to 1 The fact that industries, agriculture, commerce, and wealth are historical forces of the first rank was first discerned by historians in the nineteenth cen- tury. The importance of these things in the career of a nation, however, was understood by some rulers as far back as the Egyptian Empire. It is therefore the more remarkable that historians should have been so long in discovering the power of such forces.