CHAPTER VI.
ARCHITECTURE AND OTHER ARTS.
"Architecti multarum artium solertes."-- Mos.

CHOR.

(De Assyriis) i.

15.
The luxury and magnificence of the Assyrians, and the advanced condition of the arts among them which such words imply, were matters familiar to the Greeks and Romans, who, however, had little ocular evidence of the fact, but accepted it upon the strength of a very clear and uniform tradition.

More fortunate than the nations of classical antiquity, whose comparative proximity to the time proved no advantage to them, we possess in the exhumed remains of this interesting people a mass of evidence upon the point, which, although in many respects sadly incomplete, still enables us to form a judgment for ourselves upon the subject, and to believe--on better grounds than they possessed--the artistic genius and multiform ingenuity of the Assyrians.