AFTER Rme"s bad start she hadne king after anther， and smef these kings were pretty gd and sme were pretty bad... .
The mst imprtant city in the wrld at this time was far away frm Rmen the Tigris River. This city was called Nineveh， and here lived the kingsf the cuntry called Assyria， which I tld yu abut sme time ag.
As usual， the chief thing we hear abut Assyria and the Assyrians is that they were fighting with their neighbrs. This， hwever， was nt the faultf their neighbrs.
The Assyrian kings wh lived in Nineveh wanted mre land and pwer， and s they fught their neighbrs inrder t take their land away frm them. These kings had lng crkscrew curls. They were such vicius fighters that they were feared far and near. They treated their prisners terribly； they skinned them alive， cutff their ears， pulledut their tngues， bred sticks int their eyes， then bragged abut it. They made the peple whm they cnquered pay them huge sumsf mney and prmise t fight alng with them whenever they went t war.
Assyria became s strng and pwerful that itwned a ltf the wrld， the land between the rivers called Mesptamia， and the land t the east， nrth， and suth， and Phenicia， and even Egypt.
This big， big cuntryf Assyria was ruled by the kings at Nineveh， wh lived in great magnificence. They built wnderful palaces fr themselves， andn each sidef the way that led t the palace， they placed rwsf huge statuesf bulls and lins with wings and men"s heads. These winged animals are what are called cherubs in the Bible.
Perhaps yu have heard a pretty little baby angel called a cherub. Isn"t it strange that these Assyrian mnsters shuld be called cherubs als？
When the Assyrian kings were nt fighting men， they were fighting wild animals， fr they were very fndf hunting with bw and arrw， and they had pictures and statues madef themselvesn hrsebackr in charits fighting lins.ften they wuld capture the animals they hunted alive and put them in cages s that the peple culd cme and see them. This was smething like a z such as we have nwadays.
The rulersf Assyria had very strange names. Sennacherib wasnef themst famus. Sennacherib lived abut 700 B.C.nce upn a time Sennacherib was fighting Jerusalem. His whle army was campedne night when as they lay asleep smething happened， fr when the mrning came， nne wke up； all were dead， bth men and hrses. An English pet named Byrn has written a pem called The Destructinf Sennacherib describing this event. Perhaps they were pisned； what d yu think？
Ashurbanipal was anther king wh ruled later-abut 650 B.C. . He was a great fighter t， but he was alsvery fndf bks and reading； sAn Assyrian cherub ( 一个亚述"基路伯")Ashurbanipal started the first publiclibrary. The bks in that first public library were， hwever， very peculiar.f curse they were nt printed bks， and they were nt even madef paper. They were madef mud with the wrds pressed int the clay befre it dried. This writing was cuneifrm， which I have already tld yu abut. The bks were nt arranged in bkcases either， but were placed in pilesn the flr. They were， hwever， kept in carefulrder and numbered s that a persn wh wanted t see a bk in the library culd call fr it by its number.
Assyria reached the heightf her pwer during the reignf Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal， and everything in Nineveh was s lvely fr the Ninevites that the time when Ashurbanipal reigned was called the Glden Age.
Althugh everything in Nineveh was s lvely fr the Ninevites， everywhere else the Assyrians were hated and feared， fr their armies brught death and destructin wherever they went.
It came t pass that nt lng after Ashurbanipal died， twf the neighbrsf Nineveh culd stand it n lnger. These tw neighbrs were the kingf Babyln， wh lived suth， and a peple called the Medes， wh lived t the east. The kingsf Babyln and the Medes gt tgether and attacked Nineveh， and tgether they wiped that cityff the facef the earth. This was in 612 B.C.- Six-ne-Tw-and the pwerf Nineveh and Assyria was killed dead. This， therefre is called the Fallf Nineveh， the endf Nineveh. We might put up a tmbstne：
公元前 612 年
17 Kings with Crkscrew Curls 87
【中文阅读】
以邪恶为开端的罗马城以后迎来了一个又一个国王，其中有些国王还好，有些 却相当坏……当时世界上最重要的城市是在离罗马很远的底格里斯河畔。这个城市叫尼尼微， 这里住着亚述国的历代国王。这个国家我在前面讲过了。
按照惯例，我们听到有关亚述和亚述人的最主要的事情就是他们总是和邻国打 仗。但是，这并不是由于他们的邻居有什么错。
住在尼尼微的亚述国王们贪图更多的土地和更大的权力，因此，他们征讨邻国 就是要夺取他们的土地。这些国王都留着长长的螺旋形卷发，他们因凶残善战而远 近闻名，人们都很惧怕他们。他们对待俘虏十分残忍；常用活剥皮、割耳朵、拔舌 头、扎眼睛这样的酷刑，还以此为荣而自夸。他们迫使那些被征服的人上缴大量的 钱财，还迫使这些人保证随时和他们一起出兵打仗。
亚述变得非常强大而有实力，结果占领了世界上大片的土地，包括两河流域美 索不达米亚和东面、北面、南面的土地，还有腓尼基，甚至埃及。
这个庞大的亚述国由定都于尼尼微的历代国王们统治着，他们居住的地方极 尽奢华。他们为自己修建了富丽堂皇的宫殿，通往宫殿的道路两旁摆放着一行行长 着翅膀和人头的公牛以及狮子的巨型雕像。这些长着翅膀的动物就是圣经中所谓的 "基路伯"。
你可能听过有人把婴儿般美丽的天使叫"基路伯"，但是这些亚述人的怪物也叫 "基路伯"，不是很奇怪吗？
亚述国王不和人打仗的时候，就和动物们作战，因为他们很喜欢用弓箭打猎。 他们让人画的图画和雕像都表现了他们骑在马上或在战车上和狮子搏斗的样子。他 们经常活捉那些猎到的动物，然后把它们关在笼子里让人们来观看。这有点像我们 今天的动物园。
亚述国王们的名字都是稀奇古怪的。西拿基立是其中最有名的一位，他生活在大约公元前 700 年。有一次，西拿基立正在攻打耶路撒冷。到了晚上，他的整个 军队都扎营安顿下来，就在他们熟睡时，不知发生了什么奇怪的事，因为第二天早 上，没有一个人醒过来；所有的人和马都死了。有个名叫拜伦的英国诗人写了一首 题目叫《西拿基立的毁灭》的诗描述了这件事。可能他们是被毒死的，你怎么看这 件事？
亚述巴尼拔是后来统治亚述的另一位国王--大约生活在公元前 650 年。他同 样骁勇善战，但同时也很爱书籍和阅读；所以，亚述巴尼拔创建了第一个公共图书 馆。但是，这第一个图书馆里的书却很独特。它们当然不是印刷出来的书，甚至不 是用纸做的，而是用泥做成的，上面的文字是在泥土变干之前压上去的。这种文字 是楔形文字，我在前面讲过。这些书也不是放在书架上，而是成堆地放在地上。但 是，它们存放得很有次序，还编了号。因此，到图书馆看书的人，只要报出序号就 可以找到书。
在西拿基立和亚述巴尼拔统治时期，亚述王国达到了权力的巅峰，尼尼微人认 为尼尼微的一切都是美好的，因此，亚述巴尼拔的统治时期被称为"黄金时代"。
尽管尼尼微人对尼尼微的一切都感到十分满意，其他地方的人对亚述人却既恨 又怕，因为他们的军队给所到之处带来的只有死亡和毁灭。
亚述巴尼拔死后不久，事情终于有了变化，尼尼微城的两个邻国再也无法忍受 亚述的暴政了。这两个邻国分别是南边的巴比伦和东边的米堤亚。巴比伦国王和米 堤亚人联合起来攻打尼尼微，他们一起把这座城市从地球上消除了。是在公元前 612 年--记住 6-1-2--尼尼微和亚述王国的强权彻底被消灭了。这件事史称"尼尼 微的衰亡"、"尼尼微的毁灭"。我们可以立一块墓碑了。（参见第 87 页图）
