ASSYRIA 



434 



ASTER 



Outline and Questions on 

 Assyria 



I. Position and Sise 



(1) Varied In extent 



(2) Present boundaries 



II. The Land 



(1) Fertile plain 



(2) Low hills 



(3) 'Irrigation and cultivation of the 



soil 



(4) Mineral wealth 



III. Inhabitants 



(1) A Semetic people 



(2) Characteristics 



(3) Religion, learning and art 



(4) Luxury of ancient life 



(5) Industrial arts 



IV. History 



(1) Beginnings of Assyrian power 



(2) Conquest of Babylonia 



(3) Supremacy of Assyria 



(4) Decline of power 



(5) Overthrow of kingdom by Medes 



and Babylonians 



(6) Later conquests 



(7) Turkish possession 



Questions 



How was the winged lion of As- 

 syria used? 



In what way was the history of the 

 country bound up with Biblical his- 

 tory? 



In what century did it reach the 

 height of its glory? 



How did Nineveh rank among the 

 cities of the East? 



Did the Assyrian farmers, in years 

 of drought, lose all their crops? 



To how many nations did the terri- 

 tory known as Assyria belong in the 

 course of its history? 



Justify the title, "Romans of Asia," 

 as applied to the Assyrians. 



What brought about the decline of 

 power? 



Did the royal palaces indicate a 

 high or a low order of civilization? 



What was the form of the written 

 characters? 



How have we learned many facts 

 about the military and court life of 

 Assyria? 



the death of Assurbanipal the decline of Assy- 

 rian power was rapid. 



Finally, in 606 B.C., the Babylonians under 

 Nabopolassar, the Chaldean, with the aid of 

 the Medes, overthrew Nineveh, which Xeno- 

 phon, 200 years later, leading the retreating 

 10,000 Greeks, saw as a crumbling mass of 

 ruins, without a name (see ANABASIS). Assyria 

 was then divided between the Medes and 

 Babylonians. It was afterwards a province of 

 the Persian Empire, was conquered by Alex- 

 ander the Great, and after his death was ruled 

 by his successors. Coming later under Par- 

 thian, Roman and Persian rule, it was seized 

 by the Turks in 1638, and since then has been 

 a part of the Turkish Empire. See BABYLONIA ; 

 NINEVEH; ASSURBANIPAL. E.D.F. 



Consult Maspero's The Struggle of the Na- 

 tions; Smith's Ancient History from the Monu- 

 ments. 



ASTARTE, astahr'te, the principal female 

 deity of the Phoenicians, was the goddess of 

 fruitfulness and fertility. She was worshiped 

 under various names by other ancient peoples, 

 and was sometimes regarded as the goddess of 

 the moon and of hunting. She was identified 

 with the Greek Aphrodite and also with 

 Artemis, with the Ishtar of the Assyrians and 

 Babylonians, and with the Isis of the Egyp- 

 tians. In the Old Testament this goddess is 

 mentioned again and again under the name 

 Ashtoreth. In II Kings, XXIII, 13, it is told 

 that King Josiah tore down an altar which 

 Solomon had built in her honor, and other 

 passages show that the Israelites often turned 

 from their true religion to her worship. The 

 planet Venus was her star. See APHRODITE; 

 ARTEMIS; MYTHOLOGY. 



ASTER, as' tur, from the Greek word for 

 star, a group of plants which were given their 

 name because of the star-like appearance of 

 their flowers. This group includes several 

 hundred species, which grow in abundance in 

 North America and more sparingly in Asia, 

 Europe and South America. The flowers re- 

 semble those of the daisy, and in England, 

 where asters are in bloom late in September, 

 at the time of the feast of Michaelmas, they 

 are known as the Michaelmas daisy. 



The various species show many charming 

 shades of color, ranging from white to dark 

 purple, and including bright rosy-lilac, pink, 

 rose, crimson, pale blue and violet. Among 

 the more showy varieties, none is more beau- 

 tiful than the stately 6hina aster, which some- 

 times grows in gardens to a height of eighteen 



