suffered long from a lack of capable generals, and there would be little to distinguish Tiglath-pileser from any of his predecessors, if we could place nothing more than a few successful campaigns to his credit.  His claim to a pre-eminent place among them rests on the fact that he combined the talents of the soldier with the higher qualities of the administrator, and organised his kingdom in a manner at once so simple and so effective, that most of the Oriental powers down to the time of the Grecian conquest were content to accept it as a model.  As soon as the ambition of the Assyrian kings began to extend beyond the region confined between the Khabur and the Greater Zab, they found it necessary to parcel out their territory into provinces under the authority of prefects for the purpose of preserving order among the vanquished peoples, and at the same time of protecting them from the attacks of adjacent tribes; these representatives of the central power were supported by garrisons, and were thus enabled to put down such minor insurrections as broke out from time to time.  Some of these provinces were already in existence in the reigns of Shalmaneser or Tiglath-pileser I.; after the reverses in the time of Assurirba, their number decreased, but it grew rapidly again as Assur-nazir-pal and Shalmaneser III. gradually extended the field of their operations and of their victories.  From this epoch onwards, the monuments mention over a score of them, in spite of the fact that the list thus furnished is not a complete one; the provinces of which we know most are those whose rulers were successively appointed to act as limmi, each of them giving their name to a year of a reign.  Assyria proper contained at least four, viz.  Assur (called the country, as distinguished from all others), Calah, Nineveh, and Arbela.  The basin of the Lesser Zab was divided into the provinces of Kakzi, Arrapkha, and Akhizukhina;* that of the Upper Tigris into those of Amidi, Tushkhan, and Gozan.  Kirruri was bounded by Mazamua, and Mazamua by Arrapkha and Lake Urumiah.  We hear of the three spheres of Nazibina (Nisibis), Tela, and Kazappa in Mesopotamia,** the two former on the southern watersheds of the Masios, on the highways leading into Syria; the latter to the south of the Euphrates, in the former kingdom of the Laqi.

     * Akhizukhina is probably identical with Arzukhina = “the
     City of Zukhma,” which is referred to as being situated in
     the basin of the Lesser Zab.

** Razappa is the biblical Rezeph (2 Kings xix. 12; Isa. xxxvii. 12) and the Resapha of Ptolemy, now Er-Rasafa, to the south of the Euphrates, on one of the routes leading to Palmyra.

Most of them included—­in addition to the territory under the immediate control of the governor—­a number of vassal states, kingdoms, cities, and tribes, which enjoyed a certain measure of independence, but were liable to pay tribute and render military service.