• I.t. 'my son l.i Bnmman' (Bel).
t I.e. ' Dofiran lu-nnl.' I)af;an is another name fop Bel. An old Bab. kinjr of Nl.sin bore the same name.
i I.e. ' Bel Is inlffhty.' Igur (Ocean of Heaven] Is another name for the god Bel.
the arrangement by which the year (limm^t) was called after the chief officer of state ; and even at that time Assyria, which, owing to the position of its old capital Assur on the west bank of the Tigris, had begun to gravitate unduly towards the north-west, must have cultivated commercial relations with Cappadncia. Only on this supposi- tion can we account for the fact that a considerable number of Assyr. contract-tablets, containing lists of contracts in ancient writing, which belong to this period, have been discovered in Cappadocia. We may also infer that the intermediate territory, especially Mesopotamia and Harran, was probably at times under Assyr. rule, or, at any rate, Assyr. influence.
To the period when the As.syrian rulers bore the title 'Patesi' probably belong most of the half - mythological, half - historical narratives which have been preserved tor us in the Assyrian libraries. In one of these a description of the building of temples in SirguUa, Nippur, and Nisin is followed by an account ' of terrible wars, and a famine so fearful that brothers ate one another, and parents sold their children for gold, and the treasures of Babylon were carried to the land of Su, the king of Babylon allowing the treasures of his own palace to be handed over to the prince of A.ssur.' It is of some importance that in this text the ruler is called, not 'king,' but 'prince' (ruhu) of .Xssur at that time. The so-called ' Legends of the Plague-Demon ' (see Bahtluxi.v) seem to refer to the same events. The inhabitants of Su, tlie wild Sutieans, who at that time possessed the greater part of Assyria, and a part of Mesopotamia as well, are proved to have been the originators of the fearful devastations in Babylonia ; and it appears from the same text, that not the Sutieans, but the Elamites, those old foes of Babylon and Assur, were the instigators. Finally, the dis- astrous wars were diverted from the territories of the Euphrates and Tigris to the west, from which we may surmise that the predatory Sutieans poured also over a part of Syria and Palestine. As a matter of fact, some centuries later, in the Tel el- Amarna letters, the Sutaeans are mentioned as the enemies of the Phren. town Gebal (Byblos). In the Egyp. inscriptions of the New Kingdom (somewhere about B.C. 1600) a similar name {Setct) proves that the Asiatics in general, and more particularly the Asiatic hunting tribes, as well as the Bedawin of the Syro-Arabian desert, ex- tended their marauding expeditions at that time, just as the}' do to-day, to Palestine and Phoenicia, on the one side, and beyond Mesopotamia and the territory to the east of the Tigris, on the other.
Accurate and uninterrupted knowledge of Assyr. history begins about the year B.C. 1500. Possibly, however, the two kings Assur-nirari and Xabti- dan belong to the previous centuries, which as far as our knowledge is concerned are complete blanks. All that we know about these kings is that they were contemporaries of a king — about whom also we know nothing — Bamman-mnshi'shir of Kar- dunias (I'.p. of Babylon, at the time of the Ka.ssite rulers). From B.C. 1500 to B.C. 14:50 AsurJid- nishe-shn, who was contemporaneous with the liab. Kara-indixsh, and I'uznr-Assur, the contemporary of Burnaburias I., ruled over Assyria. The Syn- chronistic History relates that they settled the boundaries between Habylonia and Assyria. We do not know whether Pnzur-Assur ('security of tlie god Assur') was the direct succes.sor, or, as is possible, the grandson of Asur-bel -nish6 - shu (' Assur is lord of his people'). It mast have been one of these kings, however, who sent presents to the powerful Plniraoh Talmtmes III. (B.C. 1504- 1450) in token of his allegiance, as was also done by
ASSYRIA
ASSYRIA
181
the kings of Mitanni and Haityar (West and East Mesopotamia) and the king of Arrapach (east of Assyria, in the mountainous district, at the source of tlie lower Zab). The presents of the king of Assyria and tliose of liis nearest neighbours stand out pre-eminently on the Bab. Blue Stone (lapis- lazuli, Assyr. nkntt) which has been brought from Jit. Bikni in .Media.
From Asnr-nadiii-akhi (f. n.r. 1430) to the year K.C. 1050 we posse.ss an absolutely complete series of the kings — the son as a rule succeeding his father. Almost all these rulers are to be found mentioned on the inscriptions, and the ' Synchron- istic History ' gives us further information about most of them. We can with perfect certainty, therefore, draw out the following list: —
Babylon.
KnrigriJzu I. (?) linrnahurins II. Knrakhardas. Kadash ma n-kharbi. Kurigalzu II.
Nazi-maraddash.
Kadashman-turgu.
Kadashman-bitrias. Sh'trinrakti-shuriash. ( Bih'iiaah i to
( liammayt-shum-uzur. liamman-shum-tiznr.
Z(tm(lma-shum-idina, li.c. 1180.
Nahxi-kudur-uzur H.C. 1140-1122. Marduk-nadin-akh i.
I., c.
Assyria.
A.'>i'ur-it<)din-akhi. A.ittr-ttballit, son of above (c. B.C. 1400).
Bel-nirUri, son of above. Pudu-iln, son of above. Samman-nirtlri /., son
of above. Shalmaneser I., son of
above.
(probably also)
Tuklati-Nindar, son of above.
Assur-nazir-pal I., son
of above. Bel-kudur-uz/iir. Nindnr-pftl-isharra{\>rci\y-
ably son of above). Assur-diut, son of above
(<1. r. li.c. 1170). Jlntakkil-Xuaku, son of