outweighed by their losses in men and treasure.  For nearly a hundred years Nineveh found its hands free, and its rulers were able to concentrate all their energy on two main points of the frontier—­to the south-west on Syria and Egypt, to the south-east on Chaldaea and Elam.  Chaldaea gave little trouble, but the condition of Syria presented elements of danger.  The loyalty of its princes was more apparent than real; they had bowed their necks after the fall of Unki, but afterwards, as the years rolled on without any seeming increase in the power of Assyria, they again took courage and began once more to quarrel among themselves.  Menahem had died, soon after he had paid his tribute (737 B.c.); his son Pekahiah had been assassinated less than two years later (736)* and his murderer, Pekah, son of Remaliah, was none too firmly seated on the throne.  Anarchy was triumphant throughout Israel; so much so that Judah seized the opportunity for throwing off the yoke it had borne for well-nigh a hundred years.  Pekah, conscious of his inability to suppress the rebellion, called in Rezin to help him.  The latter was already on the way when Jotham was laid with his fathers (736 B.C.), and it was Ahaz, the son of Jotham, who had to bear the brant of the assault.  He was barely twenty years old, a volatile, presumptuous, and daring youth, who was not much dismayed by his position.** Jotham had repaired the fortifications of Jerusalem, which had been left in a lamentable state ever since the damage done to them in the reign of Amaziah;*** his successor now set to work to provide the city with the supply of water indispensable for its defence,**** and, after repairing the ancient aqueducts, conceived the idea of constructing a fresh one in the spur of Mount Sion, which extends southwards.

* 2 Kings xv. 22-26.  The chronology of the events which took place between the death of Menahem and the fall of Samaria, as presented by the biblical documents in the state in which they have been transmitted to us, is radically inaccurate:  following the example of most recent historians, I have adhered exclusively to the data furnished by the Assyrian texts, merely indicating in the notes the reasons which have led me to adopt certain dates in preference to others.

     ** 2 Kings xv. 38, xvi. 1, 2.  Ahaz is called Iaukhazi, i.e. 
     Jehoahaz, in the Assyrian texts, and this would seem to have
     been the original form of the name.

     *** The restoration of the walls of Jerusalem by Jotham is
     only mentioned in 2 Chron. xxvii. 3.

**** We may deduce this from the words of Isaiah (vii. 3), where he represents Ahaz “at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller’s field.”  Ahaz had gone there to inspect the works intended for the defence of the aqueduct.

As time pressed, the work was begun simultaneously at each end; the workmen had made a wide detour underground,