syria continued to the
very end of the dynasty, and that this region, whose capital was at
Kileh-Sherghat, was administered by viceroys deriving their authority
from Chaldaean monarchs. These monarchs, as has been observed, gradually
removed their capital more and more northwards; by which it would appear
as if their empire tended to progress in that direction.

The different dynasties which ruled in Chaldaea prior to the
establishment of Assyrian influence, whether Chaldaean, Susianian, or
Arabian, seem to have been of kindred race; and, whether they established
themselves by conquest, or in a more peaceful manner, to have made
little, if any, change in the language, religion, or customs of the
Empire. The so-called Arab kings, if they are really (as we have
supposed), Khammurabi and his successors, show themselves by their names
and their inscriptions to be as thoroughly proto-Chaldaaan as Urukh or
Ilgi. But with the commencement of the Assyrian period the case is
altered. From the time of Tiglathi-Nin (about B.C. 1300), the Assyrian
conqueror who effected the subjugation of Babylon, a strong Semitizing
influence made itself felt in the lower country--the monarchs cease to
have Turanian or Cushite and bear instead thoroughly Assyrian names;
inscriptions, when they occur, are in the Assyrian language and
character. The entire people seems by degrees to have been Assyrianized,
or at any rate Semitized-assimilated, that is, to the stock of nations to
which the Jews, the northern Arabs, the Aramaeans or Syrians, the
Phoenicians, and the Assyrians belong. Their language fell into disuse,
and grew to be a learned tongue studied by the priests and the literati;
their Cushite character was lost, and they became, as a people, scarcely
distinguishable from the Assyrians. After six centuries and a half of
submission and insignificance, the Chaldaeans, however, began to revive
and recover themselves--they renewed the struggle for national
independence, and in the year B.C. 625 succeeded in establishing a second
kingdom, which will be treated of in a later volume as the fourth or
Babylonian Monarchy. Even when this monarchy met its death at the hands
of Cyrus the Great, the nationality of the Chaldaeans was not swept away.
We find them recognized under the Persians, and even under the Parthians,
as a distinct people. When at last they cease to have a separate
national existence, their name remains; and it is in memory of the