“545. ASSYRIAN SIEGES—ISAIAH 37:33”

Assyrian Sieges—Isa_37:33

Sennacherib had in his message defied the Lord to deliver Jerusalem out of his hands. The Lord’s answer is: “Thus saith the Lord, he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it.” This, of course, describes the proceedings the Assyrians intended to adopt in besieging the city, and which they would have adopted had not the Lord’s preventing arm been interposed. It acquires a new interest to us from its being in accordance with, and very completely illustrated by, the sculptures of Nineveh.

The first step in the siege of a fortified place seems to have been to advance the battering-ram. This is not, nor indeed is any other engine of war, named in the text; but their presence on such occasions is expressed in other passages, and is implied here in the fact of “casting a bank” up against the place assailed, the only use of such a bank being for the advance and service of the military engines. Where no natural hills existed for the site of a fortress, an artificial one was made for the purpose. Hence all fortified places were on natural or artificial elevations. In this case, an inclined plane (the “bank” of the text) reaching to the summit of the mound, was formed of earth, stones, or trees; and the besieged were then able to bring their engines to the foot of the walls. This road was not infrequently covered with bricks, forming a kind of paved way up which the ponderous machines could be drawn without much difficulty. These embankments not only enabled the besiegers to push their battering-rams and towers up to the fortress, but also to escalade the walls, the summit of which might else have been beyond the reach of their ladders. The battering-rams were of several kinds, some were joined to movable towers, which held warriors and armed men. The whole then formed one great temporary building, the top of which is represented in the sculptures as on a level with the walls, and even the turrets of a besieged city. In some cases the battering-ram is without wheels, and it was then perhaps constructed on the spot, and not intended to be moved; and the movable tower was probably sometimes unprovided with the ram, though not so represented in the sculptures hitherto discovered.

Archers Shooting against a City

That which the Assyrians were not allowed to do, the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar afterwards did: for we are told that when he besieged Jerusalem, he “built forts against it round about.” These forts or towers, if stationary, were solidly constructed of wood; if movable, they consisted of a light frame covered with wicker-work. For these works all the available trees in the neighborhood were cut down; and this was a very ancient custom, to which we shall soon have further occasion to refer.

It is observable that when the battering-ram was unconnected with any artificial tower, but was worked independently, its frame-work was frequently covered with a cloth or some kind of drapery edged with fringes and otherwise ornamented. Sometimes it may have been covered with hides. It was moved on either four or six wheels, and was furnished with one ram or two. The mode in which the rams were worked, cannot be made out from the sculptures; but it may be presumed that they were partly suspended by a rope fastened to the outside of the machine, and that men directed and impelled them from within as among the Egyptians.

Movable Tower with Battering-ram

The artificial tower was usually occupied by two men; one of whom discharged his arrows against the besieged, whom he was able from his lofty position to harass more effectually than if he had been below, while the other held up a shield for his companion’s defence. This alone would form an adequate illustration of the shooting of arrows against the city, and the coming before it with shields, of the text. But still more adequate illustration of this may be found. We apprehend that a body of archers kept harassing the men who ventured to show themselves upon the walls and towers of the besieged town or fortress, while the storming party advanced under this protection and beneath the cover of their shields to the walls, and mounted the scaling-ladders. Of course, there were other applications of these instruments of war, especially as shield-bearers were much employed under various circumstances in protecting the archers from the missiles of the enemy.

Assault of a Fortress, with impaled Captives

In a very interesting tablet representing the siege of a fortress, several remarkable particulars in connection with this matter are afforded. Two walls, one within another, and strengthened with towers, enclose a hill, upon the sides and summit of which are several detached edifices. The towers have square windows and arched doors—a most interesting and important fact in connection with the controversy respecting the date of the arch, the antiquity of which has been very much questioned. The besiegers, armed with lances and protected by large shields, are ascending actively up the ladders; and that the archers are meanwhile at work, though they do not appear in the tablet, is shown by men transfixed with arrows falling from the summit of the fortress. The inhabitants are in dismay, and the place is manifestly on the point of being taken. Indeed, outside the whole length of the outer wall are a number of poor wretches impaled, after the peculiar manner of the Assyrians. These are no doubt prisoners, thus treated to strike terror into the besieged; reminding us of the account given by Josephus, of the number of Jews crucified for the same purpose, outside the walls of Jerusalem, by the Romans under Titus. In a very similar scene, there are variations which more clearly show the use of the archers to annoy the besiegers when the storming parties mount the ladders; for not only do men fall thickly from the walls, but numerous arrows are represented as sticking in the shields of the besieged, and as lodged in the mortar beneath the coping-stones of the towers. The base of this sculpture, instead of being like the other occupied with men impaled, offers a painful scene of prisoners, male and female, for the most part in bonds, driven alone into captivity with blows and insults.

One piece remarkably illustrates the lifting up of the shields and shooting the arrows. Two warriors are seen plying their arrows vigorously, while in advance of them is a man kneeling on one knee under his shield, probably on his way to the walls to join the soldiers, who, similarly protected by their shields, are trying to set fire to the gates—a device as old as the time of the Judges, for Abimelech was advancing to fire the gate of Thebez when he was struck down by a mill-stone which a woman cast from the wall.

Archers with large Shield

Sometimes the bowmen are seen discharging their arrows from behind the cover of a high curved shield, which, resting upon the ground, protected the persons of the besiegers entirely from the shears and arrows of the enemy. Each of these remarkable shields screened two warriors, one of whom had charge of the shield, while the other shot his arrows.

The ordinary shield used by the Assyrians during sieges was also very large, but not strong in proportion, being, like the one just described, made either of wicker-work or of hides—probably wicker-work covered with hides. Sometimes they appear to have been made of small pieces of wood or leather carefully united. There were, in fact, various kinds of shields suited by their form and materials to different services.

The arrows of the Assyrians appear to have been made of reeds, and kept in a quiver slung over the back. They were barbed with iron or copper, arrow-heads of these metals having been found among the ruins. The bow was drawn to the cheek or to the ear, as among the Saxons, and not to the breast after the fashion of the Greeks.

The text of the day, together with that in Eze_4:2, contain reference to all these modes of attack upon fortified places. In the latter, speaking of Jerusalem, the prophet says—“Lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering-rams against it round about.”

Autor: JOHN KITTO