[PLATE CXXXIII., Fig.

6.] Probably one or other of these two methods of steadying the oar was in reality adopted in every instance.
With regard to Assyrian commerce, it must at the outset be remarked that direct notices in ancient writers of any real authority are scanty in the extreme.

The prophet Nahum says indeed, in a broad and general way, of Nineveh, "Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven;" and Ezekiel tells us, more particularly, that Assyrian merchants, along with others, traded with Tyre "in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel." But, except these two, there seem to be no notices of Assyrian trade in any contemporary or quasi-contemporary author.

Herodotus, writing nearly two hundred years after the empire had come to an end, mentions casually that "Assyrian wares" had in very ancient times been conveyed by the Phoenicians to Greece, and there sold to the inhabitants.

He speaks also of a river traffic in his own day between Armenia and Babylon along the course of the Euphrates, a fact which indirectly throws light upon the habits of earlier ages.