Endnote 12 – The Divine Warrior in His Tent

We do know from several palatial reliefs found at Nineveh that the Assyrians had a very different form of military camp. Although the orientation varies, the camp’s perimeter is always oval in shape, and the form of the king’s tent bears little resemblance to the Tabernacle. Nevertheless, seven centuries after the Battle of Kadesh, Xenophon (Cyropaedia 8.5.3) describes the Persian tent of Cyrus as placed in the middle of the camp and oriented east. More than one thousand years later, the Roman army at times used rectangular camps, although the more common shape was square (Polybius 6.31–32; Pseudo-Hyginus 21). The general’s tent was erected in the camp’s center, but its orientation depended on the topography.