the weakness of Assyria—­the Gambulu, the Pukudu, the Eutu, and the Itua—­had a natural tendency to join forces with Elam for the purpose of raiding the wealthy cities of Chaldaea, and this alliance, or subjection, as it might be more properly termed, always insured them against any reprisals on the part of their victims.  The unknown king who dwelt at Susa in 745 B.C. committed the error of allowing Tiglath-pileser to crush these allies.  Khumban-igash, who succeeded this misguided monarch in 742 B.C., did not take up arms to defend Bit-Amuk-kani and the other states of the Kalda from 731 to 729, but experience must have taught him that he had made a mistake in remaining an unmoved spectator of their misfortunes; for when Merodach-baladan, in quest of allies, applied to him, he unhesitatingly promised him his support.*

* The date of his accession is furnished by the passage in Pinches’ Babylonian Chronicle, where it is stated that he ascended the throne of Elam in the fifth year of Nabonazir.  The Assyrian and Babylonian scribes assimilated the Susian b to the m, and also suppressed the initial aspirate of the Elamite name, writing generally Umman-igash for Khumban- igash.

Assyria and Elam had hitherto seldom encountered one another on the field of battle.  A wide barrier of semi-barbarous states had for a long time held them apart, and they would have had to cross the territory of the Babylonians or the Cossaeans before coming into contact with each other.  Tiglath-pileser I., however, had come into conflict with the northern districts of Elam towards the end of the twelfth century B.C., and more recently the campaigns of Assur-nazir-pal, Shalmaneser III., and Ramman-nirari had frequently brought these sovereigns into contact with tribes under the influence of Susa; but the wildness and poverty of the country, and the difficulties it offered to the manoeuvres of large armies, had always prevented the Assyrian generals from advancing far into its mountainous regions.* The annexation of Aramaean territory beyond the Tigris, and the conquest of Babylon by Tiglath-pileser III., at length broke through the barrier and brought the two powers face to face at a point where they could come into conflict without being impeded by almost insurmountable natural obstacles, namely, in the plains of the Umliash and the united basins of the Lower Ulai and the Uknu.  Ten years’ experience had probably sufficed to convince Khumban-igash of the dangers to which the neighbourhood of the Assyrians exposed his subjects.  The vigilant watch which the new-comers kept over their frontier rendered raiding less easy; and if one of the border chieftains were inclined to harry, as of old, an unlucky Babylonian or Cossaean village, he ran the risk of an encounter with a well-armed force, or of being plundered in turn by way of reprisal.

     * Sargon declares distinctly that Merodach-baladan had
     invoked the aid of Khumban-igash.