Identifier: storyofancientna00west (find matches)
Title: The story of the ancient nations : a text-book for high schools
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Westermann, William Linn, 1873-1954
Subjects: History, Ancient
Publisher: New York : London : D. Appleton and Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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d having them copied upon clay tablets. Inhis palace at Nineveh, the excavators found the librarywhich he had brought together. Much of our knowledge of6 66 CIVILIZATION OF EGYPT AND WESTERN Asia Babylonian and Assyrian life and history is duo to thescholarly zoal oi Ashurbanipal.78. Character of Assyrian Civilization.—The talents oi the Assyrian people were shown only in military and inpolitical affairs. In all other linos they took up the ideas of the Babylonians, and added nothing new. Their alphabetand their form oi writing show only slight changes from thoseoi the Babylonians. Their dependence upon the culturedlife of Babylon is remarkably illustrated in their architecture.Since the Babylonians, oi necessity, built their palaces, tem-ples, and houses oi sun-dried brick, the Assyrians did likewise,although they had. close at hand, excellent stone for buildingmaterial. In warfare they were terribly cruel. The royal annals ofAssyria are tilled with accounts of the taking and burn-
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V - SN . . v \ 5 I vN \Vssyrian artist expn - ing of cities, and the pictures in relief on the wall- of theirpalaces testify to the barbarous tortures inflicted upon Assy-rias enemies. When they conquered a new territory, orreconquered a tributary state which had revolted, the Assy-rian kings deported the leading men of that vicinity andplaced them in some far-off region of the empire. 79. Assyrian Deportations. An example of this practiceis to be found above in Sargons account of his conquests inSamaria. Since the ablest men were thus transported intodistant lands, the poorer classes at home were left with- DEVELOPMENT OF THE ORIENTAL NATIONS 67 out leaders who might arouse and guide the spirit oi revoltagainst the domination of Assyria. After the system of de-portations had been carried on by successive rulers for overa century, another important result must be noted. Thepeoples of western Asia. Babylonians, Assyrians, Armenians,Syrians, and Hebrews, seemed to lose the feeling oi se

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