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CHAPTER I—­THE ASSYRIAN REVIVAL AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SYRIA

Assur-nazir-pal (885-860) and Shalmaneser III. (860-825)—­The kingdom of Urartu and its conquering princes:  Menuas and Argistis.

Assyria was the first to reappear on the scene of action.  Less hampered by an ancient past than Egypt and Chaldaea, she was the sooner able to recover her strength after any disastrous crisis, and to assume again the offensive along the whole of her frontier line.

Image Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a bas-relief at Koyunjik of the time of Sennacherib.  The initial cut, which is also by Faucher-Gudin, represents the broken obelisk of Assur- nazir-pal, the bas-reliefs of which are as yet unpublished.

During the years immediately following the ephemeral victories and reverses of Assurirba, both the country and its rulers are plunged in the obscurity of oblivion.  Two figures at length, though at what date is uncertain, emerge from the darkness—­a certain Irbaramman and an Assur-nadinakhe ii., whom we find engaged in building palaces and making a necropolis.  They were followed towards 950 by a Tiglath-pileser ii., of whom nothing is known but his name.* He in his turn was succeeded about the year 935 by one Assurdan ii., who appears to have concentrated his energies upon public works, for we hear of him digging a canal to supply his capital with water, restoring the temples and fortifying towns.  Kamman-nirari iii., who followed him in 912, stands out more distinctly from the mists which envelop the history of this period; he repaired the gate of the Tigris and the adjoining wall at Assur, he enlarged its principal sanctuary, reduced several rebellious provinces to obedience, and waged a successful warfare against the neighbouring inhabitants of Karduniash.  Since the extinction of the race of Nebuchadrezzar I., Babylon had been a prey to civil discord and foreign invasion.  The Aramaean tribes mingled with, or contiguous to the remnants of the Cossoans bordering on the Persian gulf, constituted possibly, even at this period, the powerful nation of the Kalda.**

     * Our only knowledge of Tiglath-pileser ii. is from a brick,
     on which he is mentioned as being the grandfather of Ramman-
     nirari ii.

** The names Chaldaea and Chaldaeans being ordinarily used to designate the territory and people of Babylon, I shall employ the term Kaldu or Kalda in treating of the Aramaean tribes who constituted the actual Chaldaean nation.

It has been supposed, not without probability, that a certain Simashshikhu, Prince of the Country of the Sea, who immediately followed the last scion of the line of Pashe,* was one of their chiefs.  He endeavoured to establish order in the city, and rebuilt the temple