his
armies, and inciting to revolt by promises of help never meant to be
fulfilled. Assyria, whose very existence would have been endangered by
the re-establishment of a Babylonian empire, never missed an opportunity
of denouncing these intrigues at head-quarters: they warned the royal
messengers and governors of them, and were constantly contrasting the
frankness and honesty of their own dealings with the duplicity of their
rival.

* This was done by Kurigalzu I., according to a letter
addressed by his son Burnaburiash to Amenothes IV.

This state of affairs lasted for more than half a century, during which
time both courts strove to ingratiate themselves in the favour of the
Pharaoh, each intriguing for the exclusion of the other, by exchanging
presents with him, by congratulations on his accession, by imploring
gifts of wrought or unwrought gold, and by offering him the most
beautiful women of their family for his harem. The son of Karaindash,
whose name still remains to be discovered, bestowed one of his daughters
on the young Amenothes III.: Kallimasin, the sovereign who succeeded
him, also sent successively two princesses to the same Pharaoh. But
the underlying bitterness and hatred would break through the veneer of
polite formula and protestations when the petitioner received, as the
result of his advances, objects of inconsiderable value such as a lord
might distribute to his vassals,'or when he was refused a princess of
solar blood, or even an Egyptian bride of some feudal house; at such
times, however, an ironical or haughty epistle from Thebes would recall
him to a sense of his own inferiority.

As a fact, the lot of the Cossaean sovereigns does not appear to have
been a happy one, in spite of the variety and pomposity of the titles
which they continued to assume. They enjoyed but short lives, and we
know that at least three or four of them--Kallimasin, Burnaburiash I.,
and Kurigalzu I. ascended the throne in succession during the forty
years that Amenothes III. ruled over Egypt and Syria.*

* The copy we possess of the Royal Canon of Babylon is
mutilated at this point, and the original documents are not
sufficiently complete to fill the gap. About two or three
names are missing after that of Agumkakrime, and the reigns
must have been very short, if indeed, as I think, Agumka-
krimi and Karaindash were both contemporaries of the earlier
Pharaohs bearing the na