[PLATE CXXXVII., Fig.

4.] There is reason to believe that the Assyrians drank wine very freely.
The vine was cultivated extensively, in the neighborhood of Nimrud and elsewhere; and though there is no doubt that, grapes were eaten, both raw and dried, still the main purpose of the vineyards was unquestionably the production of wine.

Assyria was "a land of corn and wine," emphatically and before all else.

Great banquets seem to have been frequent at the court, as at the courts of Babylon and Persia, in which drinking was practised on a large scale.

The Ninevites generally are reproached as drunkards by Nahum.