that the name of the King of Assyria engaged against Bibeiashu was Tukulti-ninip; then, combining this fragment with that in the Pinches Chronicle, which deals with the taking of Babylon, he argues that Bibeiashu was the king dethroned by Tukulti-ninip.  An examination of the dates, in so far as they are at present known to us from the various documents, seems to me to render this arrangement inadmissible.  The Pinches Chronicle practically tells us that Tukulti-ninip reigned over Babylon for seven years, when the Chaldaeans revolted, and named Rammanshumusur king.  Now, the Babylonian Canon gives us the following reigns for this epoch:  Bibeiashu 8 years, Belnadinshumu 1 year 6 months, Kadashmankharbe 1 year 6 months, Rammannadinshumu 6 years, Rammanshumusur 30 years, or 9 years between the end of the reign of Bibeiashu and the beginning of that of Rammanshumusur, instead of the 7 years given us by the Pinches Chronicle for the length of the reign of Tukulti- ninip at Babylon.  If we reckon, as the only documents known require us to do, seven years from the beginning of the reign of Rammanshumusur to the date of the taking of Babylon, we are forced to admit that this took place in the reign of Kadashmankharbe IL, and, consequently, that the passage in the Synchronous History, in which mention is made of Bibeiashu, must be interpreted as I have done in the text, by the hypothesis of a war prior to that in which Babylon fell, which was followed by a treaty between this prince and the King of Assyria.

The peace thus concluded might have lasted longer but for an unforeseen catastrophe which placed Babylon almost at the mercy of her rival.  The Blamites had never abandoned their efforts to press in every conceivable way their claim to the Sebbeneh-su, the supremacy, which, prior to Kbammurabi, had been exercised by their ancestors over the whole of Mesopotamia; they swooped down on Karduniash with an impetuosity like that of the Assyrians, and probably with the same alternations of success and defeat.  Their king, Kidinkhutrutash, unexpectedly attacked Belnadinshumu, son of Bibeiashu, appeared suddenly under the walls of Nipur and forced the defences of Durilu and Etimgarka-lamma:  Belnadinshumu disappeared in the struggle after a reign of eighteen months.  Tukulti-ninip left Belna-dinshumu’s successor, Kadashmankharbe II., no time to recover from this disaster; he attacked him in turn, carried Babylon by main force, and put a number of the inhabitants to the sword.  He looted the palace and the temples, dragged the statue of Merodach from its sanctuary and carried it off into Assyria, together with the badges of supreme power; then, after appointing governors of his own in the various towns, he returned to Kalakh, laden with booty; he led captive with him several members of the royal family—­among others, Bammanshumusur, the lawful successor of Bibeiashu.