Behind them on such occasions were the two fan-bearers, while near at hand were guards, scribes, grooms, and other attendants.

In their palace halls undoubtedly the ceremonial used was stricter, grander, and more imposing.

The sculptures, however, furnish no direct evidence on this point, for there is nothing to mark the scene of the great processional pieces.
In the pseudo-history of Ctesias, the Assyrian kings were represented as voluptuaries of the extremest kind, who passed their whole lives within the palace, in the company of their concubines and their eunuchs, indulging themselves in perpetual ease, pleasure, and luxury.

We have already seen how the warlike character of so many monarchs gives the lie to these statements, so far as they tax the Assyrian kings with sloth and idleness.

It remains to examine the charge of over-addiction to sensual delights, especially to those of the lowest and grossest description.