Note 664 — Chapter X · THE SWORD IN BABYLONIA, ASSYRIA AND PERSIA, AND ANCIENT INDIA.

Assyria, like Egypt, cultivated geometry and algebra, which have been supposed to originate from revenue surveys and altar measurements. She used the Astrolabe and popularised square roots and fractions, with a denominator of 60, the sole representative of the decimal and duodecimal systems. With her fall (b.c. 555) coincides the birth of literature in Greece, where writing became general about b.c. 500. The Assyrians were great in magic and in divination, such as birth-portents, dog-omens, &c. &c.