He could indulge, however, freely in the chase of the wild ass still to this day a habitant of the Mesopotamian region; and he would hunt the stag, the hind, and the ibex or wild goat.

In these tamer kinds of sport he seems, however, to have indulged only occasionally--as a light relaxation scarcely worthy of a great king.
Asshur-bani-pal is the only one of the Assyrian monarchs to whom we can ascribe a real taste for learning and literature.

The other kings were content to leave behind them some records of the events of their reigns, inscribed on cylinders, slabs, bulls, or lions, and a few dedicatory inscriptions, addresses to the gods whom they especially worshipped.
Asshur-bani-pal's literary tastes were far more varied--indeed they were all-embracing.

It seems to have been under his direction that the vast collection of clay tablets--a sort of Royal Library--was made at Nineveh, from which the British Museum has derived perhaps the most valuable of its treasures.

Comparative vocabularies, lists of deities and their epithets, chronological lists of kings and eponyms, records of astronomical observations, grammars, histories, scientific works of various kinds, seems to have been composed in the reign, and probably at the bidding of this prince, who devoted to their preservation certain chambers in the palace of his grandfather, where they were found by Mr.
Layard.