MILITARY SCENES. 329 
the one behind, as he runs, turns back to shoot. In the next scene, which tells the 
result of the conflict, two of the horses are captured and held, one is escaping with 
his rider, and the other is galloping away riderless, while the leader pursues them. 
There are two short inscriptions in Aramaic characters which read: DY7NIN (or 
Owsnin) and jp13?, but which it is not easy to translate. They give the name of 
the owner and perhaps his office. Apparently we have here the pictured story of some 
proud incident in the life of the owner, who had been engaged as an officer in com- 
mand of foot-soldiers and had gained a victory over the mounted troops of the enemy. 
The question now arises, What is the nationality and period of the cylinder 
and its figured contestants? The character of the inscription, epigraphically, 
would make it at least as late as 600 B. C. The art suggests a Greek period, in its 
freedom. I should presume that it represents a scene in the time of the Persian 
control of Western Asia. 
No less does fig. 1055 appear to belong to a period when it begins to feel the 
Greek influence, it is drawn with such life. It is again a fight between a horseman 
and a foot-soldier, but the horseman seems to have the better of it, as his spear seems 
to reach his foe’s body despite his shield. ‘The footman also carries a spear and his 
helmet is adorned with a horsetail plume. He appears to be closely clad or naked. 
It would be easy to conceive of the horseman as a Persian fighting a Greek enemy. 
It is impossible to fix the origin of the cylinder shown in fig. 1056. The 
rudeness of the cutting with the wheel suggests that it is late. A soldier in a chariot 
with a charioteer draws a bow against a foe or beast, while a second lies dead under 
the horse. We have an interesting case in fig. 1057. Here we seem to see a foot-soldier 
pursuing, with an uplifted ax, a bending figure 
in a chariot, speeding his horses. ‘There is also 
a bird. But this cylinder seems to belong to an 
earlier Syrian period with Egyptian influence. It 
is not Egyptian, but Assyrian, influence, which 
we discover in fig. 1058. Here we have a soldier 
in a chariot, holding his bow, and a charioteer. 
His goddess Ishtar goes before him armed with (\ “4 Ss 
her bow and carried by a winged monster. Be- HUSA <A PUY FY 
hind the chariot is another bowman. Besides we 
see the lance of Marduk, the crescent of Sin, and the star of Ishtar. We have another 
military scene in fig. 1059. “Two helmeted soldiers on horseback are followed by 
another soldier on foot, who carries a shield and spear in one hand, while with the 
other he swings what may be a sling. Small objects fill up the spaces, a crescent, 
a man fighting an animal, a monkey, and a scorpion. In fig. 1060 an archer in a 
chariot is fighting with an archer on foot, while a dead body is under the bull which 
draws the chariot. It would seem that the horse was not in use when this cylinder 
was made. It is described as of colored marble, and the border lines indicate that 
it belongs to an Assyrian rather than Babylonian region, and it may be of a period 
as much as 2000 B.C. The four spokes to the wheels also suggest an early period. 
Another smaller cylinder may be Syro-Hittite (fig. 1061). All the figures are 
in short garments. One grasps another by the wrist and threatens him with a 
club. A third figure holds up his two hands in supplication and is followed by the 
fourth figure whose action is not easy to explain. We have in fig. 1062 a confused 
battle scene, of an Assyrian period. 


