Assur-nirari, the last of his line, ascended the throne in troublous time; Assur, the capital, rose in revolt; the cities and outlying districts were surging with discontent; ten years later the army rebelled, and the monarch and his dynasty fell together, 33. Assyrian book, with illustration from the original in the British Museum, 98. Assyrian _campaigns_ at first undertaken for the sake of plunder and exacting tribute; made but little effort to retain their conquests, till the time of the Second Empire, 33. Assyrian _history_ scarcely known till Bel-kapkapi became king; decline of Assyrian power and influence, and revived by Assur-dayan II and his warlike successors, who conquered the Babylonians, Hittites, and Phœnicians, 34-7. Assyrian _law_ relied greatly on precedents and decisions; the king supreme, and appointed the judges; in its general principles resembled the English; earliest code, Accadian, 138. Assyrian _literature_, wide range of subjects, included history, legend, poetry, astronomy, and astrology, &c.; letters of the king, reports of astronomers and generals, 102. Assyrian _palace_, built of brick on a raised platform; description, extent of courts and royal chambers; the observatory built in stages on the west side; exaggerated forms of columnar architecture used; apertures which served as windows protected in winter by heavy folds of tapestry, 86-8. Assyrian _sculptures_, mostly in relief; three periods traceable; characteristics and comparison with Egyptian art; colour used on the bas-reliefs, 89-90. Assyrian _Semites_, allied in blood and language to the Hebrews, Aramæans, and Arabs; the Babylonians a mixed race, partly Semites and Accadians, the original possessors of the soil of Chaldea, 24. Assyrians and Babylonians contrasted, 66-7. Assyro-Babylonians excelled in a knowledge of mathematics; tables of squares and cubes and geometrical figures have been found at Senkereh, and the plan of an estate at Babylon, 118. B. Babel, tower of, and the dispersion, 82-3. Babylonian _myth_ of the seven evil spirits warring against the moon; flight of Samas and Istar; and the demons put to flight by Merodach; explanation of the myth, 78. Babylonian _story_ of the god Zu stealing the lightning of Bel compared with that of the Greek Prometheus, 78. Balawât, colossal doors of, the work of native artists, description of the bronze framework and reliefs; explanatory texts relating to Shalmaneser's campaigns; Carchemish and Armenian warriors depicted, 30. Banquets, wines of various kinds used; those of Helbon most highly prized; other luxuries common; the tables ornamented with flowers, and musicians hired to entertain the guests, 128-9. Bel-kapkapi, the founder of the kingdom of Assur; its extent and varying frontiers; the inhabitants Semites, 27. Bêrôssus' great work of seventy-two books translated into Greek, 102.