first conquests were in the north of Babylonia, and from this base of operations he succeeded in overthrowing Nararn-Sin (or Rim- Ac u?) in the south, and making himself master of the whole of Chaldea. Naram-Sin and a queen had been the last representatives of a dynasty which had attained a high degree of glory both in arms and in literature. Naram-Sin and his father Sargon had not only subdued the rival princes of Babylonia, but had successfully invaded Syria, Palestine, and even, as it would seem, Egypt. At Agane, a suburb of Sippara, Sargon had founded a library, especially famous for its works on astrology and astronomy, copies of which were made in later times for the libraries of Assyria. Indeed, so prominent a place did Sargon take in the early history of Babylonia, that his person became surrounded with an atmosphere of myth. Not only was he regarded as a sort of eponymous hero of litera ture, a Babylonian Solomon, whose title was "the de viser of law and prosperity," popular legends told of his mysterious birth, how, like Romulus and Arthur, he knew no father, but was born in secrecy, and placed by his mother in an ark of reeds and bitumen, and left to the care of the river; how, moreover, this second Moses was carried by the stream to the dwelling of a ferryman, who reared him as his own son, until at last the time came that his rank should be discovered, and Sargon, " the constituted king," for such is the meaning of his name, took his seat upon the throne of his ancestors. It was while the Cassite sovereigns were reigning in the south, and probably in consequence of reverses that they suffered at the hands of the Egyptians, who, under the monarchs of the 18th dynasty, were pushing eastward, that the kingdom of Assyria took its rise. Its princes soon began to treat with their southern neighbours on equal terms ; the boundaries of the two kingdoms were settled, and inter marriages between the royal families took place, which led more than once to an interference on the part of the Assyrians in the affairs of Babylonia. Finally, in the 14th century B.C., Tiglath-Adar of Assyria captured Babylon, and established a Semitic line of sovereigns there, which continued until the days of the later Assyrian empire. From this time down to the destruction of Nineveh, Assyria remained the leading power of Western Asia. Occasion ally, it is true, a king of Babylon succeeded in defeating his aggressive rival and invading Assyria ; but the contrary was more usually the case, and the Assyrians grew more and more powerful at the expense of the weaker state, until at last Babylonia was reduced to a mere apanage of
Assyria.We possess an almost continuous list of Assyrian kings ; and, as from the beginning of the 9th century downwards there exists a native canon, in which each year is dated by the limmu or arclion eponymos, whose name it bears, as well as a portion of a larger canon which records the chief events of each eponymy, it is evident that our chronology of the later period of Assyrian history is at once full and trustworthy. Similar chronological lists once existed for the earlier period also, since an inscription of a king of the 14th century B.C. is dated by one of these eponymies ; and the precise dates given in the inscriptions for occurrences which took place in the reigns of older monarchs cannot otherwise be accounted for. How far back an accurate chronological record extended it is impossible to say ; but astronomical observations were made in Babylonia from a remote period, and the era of Cudur-nankhundi was known, as we have seen, more than 1600 years afterward ; while in Assyria not only can Sennacherib state at Bavian that Tiglath-Pileser I. was defeated by the Babylonians 418 years before his own invasion of that country, but the same Tiglath-Pileser can fix 701 years as the exact interval between his restoration of the temple of Anu and Rimmon at Kalah Sherghat and its foundation by the dependent viceroys of the city of Assur.
This Tiglath-Pileser, in spite of his subsequent defeat by the Babylonians, was one of the most eminent of the sovereigns of the first Assyrian empire. He carried his arms far and wide, subjugating the Moschians, Comagenians, Urumians, and other tribes of the north, the Syrians and Hittites in the west, and the Babylonians (including their capital) in the south. His empire, accordingly, stretched from the Mediterranean on the one side to the Caspian and the Persian Gulf on the other ; but, founded as it was on conquest, and centralised in the person of a single individual, it fell to pieces at the least touch. With the death of Tiglath-Pileser, Assyria seems to have been reduced to comparative powerlessness, and when next its claims to empire are realised, it is under Assur-natsir-pal, whose reign lasted from 883 to 858 B.C. The boundaries of his empire exceeded those of his predecessor, and the splendid palaces, temples, and other buildings raised by him, with their elaborate sculptures and rich painting, bear witness to a high development of wealth and art and luxury. Calah, which had been founded by Shalmaneser I. some four or five centuries previously, but had fallen into decay, became his favourite residence, and was raised to the rank of a capital. His son Shalmaneser had a, long reign of 35 years, during which he largely extended, the empire he had received from his father. Armenia and the Parthians paid him tribute ; and under the pretext of restoring the legitimate monarch he entered Babylon, and reduced the country to a state of vassalage. It is at this time that we first hear of the Caldai or Chaldeans, carefully to be dis tinguished from the Casdim or Semitic " conquerors " of Scripture, who formed a small but independent principality on the sea-coast. In the west Shalmaneser succeeded in defeating in 854 B.C. a dangerous confederacy, headed by Rimmon-idri or Ben-hadad of Damascus and including Ahab of Israel and several Phoenician kings. Later on in his reign he again annihilated the forces of Hazael, Ben- hadad s successor, and extorted tribute from the princes of Palestine, among others from Jehu of Samaria, whose servants are depicted on the black obelisk. The last few years of his life, however, were troubled by the rebellion of his eldest son, which well-nigh proved fatal to the old king. Assur, Arbela, and other places joined the pretender, and the revolt was with difficulty put down by Shalmaneser s second son, Samas-Rimmon, who shortly after succeeded him. Samas-Rimmon (824-811) and Rirnmon-nirari (811-782) preserved the empire of Assyria undiminished ; but their principal exploits were in Babylonia, which they wasted with fire and sword, and converted into an Assyrian province.
The first Assyrian empire came to an end in 744, when the old dynasty was overthrown by a usurper, Tiglath- Pileser, after a struggle of three or four years. Once settled on the throne, however, Tiglath-Pileser proceeded to restore and reorganise the empire. Babylonia was first attacked ; the Assyrian monarch offered sacrifices and set up his court in its chief cities; and the multitudinous Arab tribes who encamped along the banks of the Euphrates were reduced to subjection. The Caldai in the south alone held out, and to them belonged the first four kings given in Ptolemy s cano n. Indeed, it may be said that from the invasion of Tiglath-Pileser to the revolt of Nabopolassar, Babylonia ceased to have any separate existence. It was governed by Assyrian kings or the viceroys they appointed, and the only attempts to recover independence were made under the leadership of the " Caldean " chiefs. It becomes nothing more than an important province of Assyria.
