Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

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first conquests were in tlie north of Babylonia, and from
this base of operations he succeeded in overthrowing
Naram-Sin (or Rim-Acu?) in the south, and making himself
master of the whole of Chaldea. Naram-Sin and a
queen had been the last representatives of a dynasty
which had attained a high degree of glory both in arms
and in literature. Naram-Sin and his father Sargon
had not only subdued the rival princes of Babylonia,
but had successfully invaded Syria, Palestine, and even,
as it would seem, Egypt. At Agane, a suburb of Sippara,
Sargon had founded a library, especially famous for
its works on astrology and astronomy, copies of which
were made in later times for the libraries of Assyria.
Indeed, so prominent a place did Sargon take in the
early history of Babylonia, that his person became
surrounded with an atmosphere of myth. Not only
was he regarded as a sort of eponymous hero of litera¬
ture, a Babylonian Solomon, whose title was “the de¬
viser of law and prosperity,” popular legends told of
his mysterious birth, how, like Romulus and Arthur, he
knew no father, but was born in secrecy, and placed by his
mother in an ark of reeds and bitumen, and left to the care
of the river; how, moreover, this second Moses was
carried by the stream to the dwelling of a ferryman, who
reared him as his own son, until at last the time came
that his rank should be discovered, and Sargon, “ the
constituted king,” for such is the meaning of his name,
took his seat upon the throne of his ancestors. It was
while the Cassite sovereigns were reigning in the south,
and probably in consequence of reverses that they suffered
at the hands of the Egyptians, who, under the monarchs of
the 18th dynasty, were pushing eastward, that the kingdom
of Assyria took its rise. Its princes soon began to treat
with their southern neighbours on equal terms; the
boundaries of the two kingdoms were settled, and inter¬
marriages between the royal families took place, which
led more than once to an interference on the part of the
Assyrians in the affairs of Babylonia. Finally, in the 14th
century b.c., Tiglath-Adar of Assyria captured Babylon,
and established a Semitic line of sovereigns there, which
continued until the days of the later Assyrian empire.
From this time down to the destruction of Nineveh, Assyria
remained the leading power of Western Asia. Occasion¬
ally, it is true, a king of Babylon succeeded in defeating
his aggressive rival and invading Assyria ; but the contrary
was more usually the case, and the Assyrians grew more
and more powerful at the expense of the weaker state,
until at last Babylonia was reduced to a mere apanage of
Assyria.
We possess an almost continuous list of Assyrian kings ;
and, as from the beginning of the 9th century downwards
there exists a native canon, in which each year is dated by
the limmu or archon eponymos, whose name it bears, as
well as a portion of a larger canon which records the chief
events of each eponymy, it is evident that our chronology
of the later period of Assyrian history is at once full and
trustworthy. Similar chronological lists once existed for
the earlier period also, since an inscription of a king of the
14th century B.c. is dated by one of these eponymies ; and
the precise dates given in the inscriptions for occurrences
which took place in the reigns of older monarchs cannot
otherwise be accounted for. How far back an accurate
chronological record extended it is impossible to say ; but
astronomical observations were made in Babylonia from a
remote period, and the era of Cudur-nankhundi was known,
as we have seen, more than 1600 years afterward ; while
in Assyria not only can Sennacherib state at Bavian that
Tiglath-Pileser I. was defeated by the Babylonians 418
years before his own invasion of that country, but the same
Tiglath-Pileser can fix 701 years as the exact interval
[history.
between his restoration of the temple of Anu and Rimmon
at Kalah Sherghat and its foundation by the dependent
viceroys of the city of Assur.
This Tiglath-Pileser, in spite of his subsequent defeat by
the Babylonians, was one of the most eminent of the
sovereigns of the first Assyrian empire. He carried his
arms far and wide, subjugating the Moschians, Comagenians,
Urumians, and other tribes of the north, the Syrians and
Hittites in the west, and the Babylonians (including their
capital) in the south. His empire, accordingly, stretched
from the Mediterranean on the one side to the Caspian
and the Persian' Gulf on the other; but, founded as it
was on conquest, and centralised in the person of a single
individual, it fell to pieces at the least touch. With the
death of Tiglath-Pileser, Assyria seems to have been
reduced to comparative powerlessness, and when next its
claims to empire are realised, it is under Assur-natsir-pal,
whose reign lasted from 883 to 858 b.c. The boundaries
of his empire exceeded those of his predecessor, and the
splendid palaces, temples, and other buildings raised by
him, with their elaborate sculptures and rich painting,
bear witness to a high development of wealth and art and
luxury. Calah, which had been founded by Shalmaneser I.
some four or five centuries previously, but had fallen into
decay, became his favourite residence, and was raised to the
rank of a capital. His son Shalmaneser had a long reign
of 35 years, during which he largely extended the empire
he had received from his father. Armenia and the Parthians
paid him tribute ; and under the pretext of restoring the
legitimate monarch he entered Babylon, and reduced the
country to a state of vassalage. It is at this time that we
first hear of the Caldai or Chaldeans,—carefully to be dis¬
tinguished from the Casdim or Semitic “ conquerors ” of
Scripture,—who formed a small but independent principality
on the sea-coast. In the west Shalmaneser succeeded in
defeating in 854 b.c. a dangerous confederacy, headed by
Rimmon-idri or Ben-hadad of Damascus and including
Ahab of Israel and several Phoenician kings. Later on
in his reign he again annihilated the forces of Hazael, Ben-
hadad’s successor, and extorted tribute from the princes of
Palestine, among others from Jehu of Samaria, whose
servants are depicted on the black obelisk. The last few
years of his life, however, were troubled by the rebellion of
his eldest son, which well-nigh proved fatal to the old king.
Assur, Arbela, and other places joined the pretender, and
the revolt was with difficulty put down by Shalmaneser’s
second son, Samas-Rimmon, who shortly after succeeded
him. Samas-Rimmon (824-811) and Rimmon-nirari
(811-782) preserved the empire of Assyria undiminished;
but their principal exploits were in Babylonia, which they
wasted with fire and sword, and converted into an
Assyrian province.
The first Assyrian empire came to an end in 744, when
the old dynasty was overthrown by a usurper, Tiglath-
Pileser, after a struggle of three or four years. Once
settled on the throne, however, Tiglath-Pileser proceeded
to restore and reorganise the empire. Babylonia wras first
attacked; the Assyrian monarch offered sacrifices and set
up his court in its chief cities; and the multitudinous
Arab tribes who encamped along the banks of the Euphrates
were reduced to subjection. The Caldai in the south alone
held out, and to them belonged the first four kings given
in Ptolemy’s canon. Indeed, it may be said that from the
invasion of Tiglath-Pileser to the revolt of Nabopolassar,
Babylonia ceased to have any separate existence. It was
governed by Assyrian kings or the viceroys they appointed,
and the only attempts to recover independence wTere made
under the leadership of the “ Caldean ” chiefs. It becomes
nothing more than an important province of Assyria. . _
The second Assyrian empire differed from the first in its
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