each adopted at the outset a different
attitude towards the conquerors. Assyria, which never laid any permanent
claims to the seaboard provinces of the Mediterranean, was not disposed
to resent their occupation by Egypt, and desired only to make sure of
their support or their neutrality. The sovereign then ruling Assyria,
but of whose name we have no record, hastened to congratulate Thutmosis
III. on his victory at Megiddo, and sent him presents of precious vases,
slaves, lapis-lazuli, chariots and horses, all of which the Egyptian
conqueror regarded as so much tribute. Babylon, on the other hand, did
not take action so promptly as Assyria; it was only towards the latter
years of Thutmosis that its king, Karaindash, being hard pressed by the
Assyrian Assurbelnishishu, at length decided to make a treaty with the
intruder.*

* We have no direct testimony in support of this hypothesis,
but several important considerations give it probability. As
no tribute from Babylon is mentioned in the _Annals of
Thutmosis III_., we must place the beginning of the
relations between Egypt and Chaldaea at a later date. On the
other hand, Burnaburiash II., in a letter written to
Amenothes III., cites Karaindash as the first of _his
fathers,_ who had established friendly relations with _the
fathers_ of the Pharaoh, a fact which obliges us to place
the interchange of presents before the time of Amenothes
III.: as the reigns of Amenothes II. and of Thutmosis IV.
were both short, it is probable that these relations began
in the latter years of Thutmosis III.

The remoteness of Egypt from the Babylonian frontier no doubt relieved
Karaindash from any apprehension of an actual invasion by the Pharaohs;
but there was the possibility of their subsidising some nearer enemy,
and also of forbidding Babylonish caravans to enter Egyptian provinces,
and thus crippling Chaldaean commerce. Friendly relations, when once
established, soon necessitated a constant interchange of embassies and
letters between the Nile and the Euphrates. As a matter of fact, the
Babylonian king could never reconcile himself to the idea that Syria had
passed out of his hands. While pretending to warn the Pharaoh of Syrian
plots against him,* the Babylonians were employing at the same time
secret agents, to go from city to city and stir up discontent at
Egyptian rule, praising the while the great Cosssean king and