The governors of provinces were selected from among the higher aristocracy, who alone had the privilege of sharing with the king the office of _limmu_, or eponymous archon after whom the year was named.

Most of these officers seem to have been confined to Assyria; we do not hear of them in the southern kingdom of Babylonia.

There, however, from an early period royal judges had been appointed, who went on circuit and sat under a president.

Sometimes as many as four or six of them sat on a case, and subscribed their names to the verdict.
The main attention of the Assyrian government was devoted to the army, which was kept in the highest possible state of efficiency.

It was recruited from the free peasantry of the country--a fact which, while it explains the excellence of the Assyrian veterans, also shows why it was that the empire fell as soon as constant wars had exhausted the native population.