* We have no direct testimony in support of this hypothesis, but several important considerations give it probability.  As no tribute from Babylon is mentioned in the Annals of Thutmosis III., we must place the beginning of the relations between Egypt and Chaldaea at a later date.  On the other hand, Burnaburiash II., in a letter written to Amenothes III., cites Karaindash as the first of his fathers, who had established friendly relations with the fathers of the Pharaoh, a fact which obliges us to place the interchange of presents before the time of Amenothes III.:  as the reigns of Amenothes II. and of Thutmosis IV. were both short, it is probable that these relations began in the latter years of Thutmosis III.

The remoteness of Egypt from the Babylonian frontier no doubt relieved Karaindash from any apprehension of an actual invasion by the Pharaohs; but there was the possibility of their subsidising some nearer enemy, and also of forbidding Babylonish caravans to enter Egyptian provinces, and thus crippling Chaldaean commerce.  Friendly relations, when once established, soon necessitated a constant interchange of embassies and letters between the Nile and the Euphrates.  As a matter of fact, the Babylonian king could never reconcile himself to the idea that Syria had passed out of his hands.  While pretending to warn the Pharaoh of Syrian plots against him,* the Babylonians were employing at the same time secret agents, to go from city to city and stir up discontent at Egyptian rule, praising the while the great Cosssean king and his armies, and inciting to revolt by promises of help never meant to be fulfilled.  Assyria, whose very existence would have been endangered by the re-establishment of a Babylonian empire, never missed an opportunity of denouncing these intrigues at head-quarters:  they warned the royal messengers and governors of them, and were constantly contrasting the frankness and honesty of their own dealings with the duplicity of their rival.

     * This was done by Kurigalzu I., according to a letter
     addressed by his son Burnaburiash to Amenothes IV.

This state of affairs lasted for more than half a century, during which time both courts strove to ingratiate themselves in the favour of the Pharaoh, each intriguing for the exclusion of the other, by exchanging presents with him, by congratulations on his accession, by imploring gifts of wrought or unwrought gold, and by offering him the most beautiful women of their family for his harem.  The son of Karaindash, whose name still remains to be discovered, bestowed one of his daughters on the young Amenothes III.:  Kallimasin, the sovereign who succeeded him, also sent successively two princesses to the same Pharaoh.  But the underlying bitterness and hatred would break through the veneer of polite formula and protestations when the petitioner received, as the result of his advances, objects of inconsiderable value such as a lord might distribute to his vassals,’or when he was refused a princess of solar blood, or even an Egyptian bride of some feudal house; at such times, however, an ironical or haughty epistle from Thebes would recall him to a sense of his own inferiority.