CHAPTER LVIII. 
MILITARY SCENES. 
It is often impossible to fix the country from which cylinders come which 
represent military scenes. They are not usually Babylonian (yet see figs. 97, 98) 
or Assyrian, but seem to be mostly either Persian or to come from one of the out- 
lying regions in the highlands north or west of Assyria. Something can be gathered 
from the fact that in these, and in the hunting scenes which seem allied to them, 
the stone on which they are cut is likely to be peculiar and to represent a quarry 
about which at some time geologists may be able to give us information. 




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1051 1050 
Military scenes are frequent enough on the rock sculptures of the Archamenian 
period, but not on the cylinders. A few such, however, there are. One is to be 
seen in fig. 1048, a beautiful cylinder of banded agate. Here under the winged disk 
of Ahura-mazda a Persian soldier, holding a spear, leads three prisoners with hands 
bound behind their backs. The prisoners wear pointed helmets and close trousers, 
or greaves, while the soldier is in the usual Persian costume. 
A purely Persian scene of war we have in fig. 1049. Here the bearded soldier, 
with Persian garment and a feathered crown, and bow and quiver on his shoulder, 
strikes a kneeling and appealing enemy with his spear. The latter is elaborately 
clothed and wears a high helmet. Behind the soldier and before a palm-tree are 
four prisoners, their hands tied behind them and their necks held by a rope. 
The victorious soldier in fig. 1053 is also dressed in Persian trousers. Behind 
him he leads a helmeted prisoner with hands tied behind his back, and before him 
he strikes with his spear at a second similar helmeted enemy who carries a round 
shield; while between them kneels a third figure in the attitude of supplication. The 
conquered enemies may be Greek. There is an inscription of four or five Aramaic 
letters which doubtless represent the name of the military owner, Kantan or Kantar. 
327 
