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kings.^290 There were high priests also in Babylonia, who took
their titles not only from the gods they served, but also from
the cities over which they ruled. The peculiarity in the case of
Assyria, however, was that there the god and the city were one [368]
and the same. When, therefore, the high priest of Assur assumed
the title of king, he still retained his priestly functions under
another title. He was priest, but no longer high priest. Assyria
was a monarchy, not a theocracy; it was founded on military
force, not on priestly influence. The king accordingly was not
a representative and vicegerent of the god, like a Babylonian
prince; he represented the god Assur only because he represented
the city of Assur. It was through the city of Assur that the god
manifested himself as it were to men.
One of the consequences of this fact was that Assur was a
national as opposed to a merely local god. Wherever the power
of the city extended, there the power of the god necessarily
extended as well. When Assur became the capital of a kingdom,
the whole land which owned its authority received its name and
accepted the supremacy of its god. The local cults made way for
the national cults; it was not only in Assur itself that the god had
his temple; wherever a city called itself Assyrian, the worship
of Assur held the first place. There were no old sanctuaries and
cults to displace, as in Babylonia; the deities who were adored
in the cities of Assyria were of Babylonian origin, like Ninâ and
Istar; and when once Assyria had achieved its independence, and
realised that it had a national life of its own, they were unable to
maintain themselves against the national god.
This national god had given his people their freedom and right
to rule. He it was who had led their armies to victory, and
had vanquished the hostile deities of Babylonia. He was thus
identified with the army to which Assyria owed its existence,
and with the king who was its leader in war. Wherever the
(^290) Glaser,Skizze der Geschichte Arabiens(1889), pp. 64-74.