Page 426 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

surpassed his great predecessor, Samsi-Adad, and like the mythi­
cal Sargon of old he ruled from the Upper to the Lower Sea.

Occasional campaigns were still necessary, more police actions
than regular warfare, but now he could devote himself to the
pleasures of empire, to the magnificent lion and elephant hunts
which were seriously reducing the numbers of these beasts in the

HUNTING WAS THE PRINCIPAL RECREATION OF THE ASSYRIAN KINGS
AND NOBLES, AND THIS SCENE, FROM AN ASSYRIAN CYLINDER SEAL,

SHOWS A PLEASING INCIDENT FROM AN OSTRICH HUNT. THE OSTRICH,
LIKE THE LION AND THE ELEPHANT, WAS AT THIS TIME TO BE FOUND
IN THE SYRIAN DESERT.

river valleys, and to the building of temples and palaces. i
the wealth of his empire available, with the silver of the Taurus

and the cedars of Lebanon at his disposal, he i ebuilt at Nineve
and Assur the temples of Bel and Ishtar and Adad in magni cenJ
style, laying out parks with deer and ibex and foreign plants an
trees. On their infrequent visits to town, the aged veterans .looked

with proprietorial pride at the national evidence of the success of
their arms.