rebels: he scattered the hordes of the Akhlame and
broke up their forces; then Ninip, the champion of the gods, permitted
him to crush the Lulume and the G-uti in their valleys and on their
mountains covered with forests. He made his way up to the frontiers of
Elam,** and his encroachments on territories claimed by Babylon stirred
up the anger of the Chaldaeans against him; Nebuchadrezzar made ready to
dispute their ownership with him.

* _Annals of Tiglath-pileser I_. Mutakkilnusku himself has
only left us one inscription, in which he declares that he
had built a palace in the city of Assyria.

** Smith discovered certain fragments of Annals, which he
attributed to Assurishishi. The longest of these tell of a
campaign against Elam. Lotz attributed them to Tiglath-
pileser I., and is supported in this by most Assyriologists
of the day.

The earlier engagements went against the Assyrians; they were driven
back in disorder, but the victor lost time before one of their
strongholds, and, winter coming on before he could take it, he burnt his
engines of war, set fire to his camp, and returned home. Next year,
a rapid march carried him right under the walls of Assur; then
Assurishishi came to the rescue, totally routed his opponent, captured
forty of his chariots, and drove him flying across the frontier. The war
died out of itself, its end being marked by no treaty: each side kept
its traditional position and supremacy over the tribes inhabiting the
basins of the Turnat and Eadanu. The same names reappear in line after
line of these mutilated Annals, and the same definite enumerations of
rebellious tribes who have been humbled or punished. These kings of
the plain, both Ninevite and Babylonian, were continually raiding the
country up and down for centuries without ever arriving at any decisive
result, and a detailed account of their various campaigns would be as
tedious reading as that of the ceaseless struggle between the Latins and
Sabines which fills the opening pages of Roman history. Posterity soon
grew weary of them, and, misled by the splendid position which Assyria
attained when at the zenith of its glory, set itself to fabricate
splendid antecedents for the majestic empire established by the latter
dynasties. The legend ran that, at the dawn of time, a chief named
Ninos had reduced to subjection one after the other--Babylonia, Media,
Armenia, and all the provinces between t