archs that they probably thought twice before attacking any of the
outposts scattered along the Assyrian frontier: nothing occurred
to disturb their tranquillity during the early years of the seventh
century, and this peaceful interval probably enabled Deiokes to
consolidate, if not to extend, his growing authority. But if matters
were quiet, at all events on the surface, in this direction, the nations
on the north and north-west had for some time past begun to adopt a more
threatening attitude. That migration of races between Europe and Asia,
which had been in such active progress about the middle of the second
millennium before our era, had increased twofold in intensity after the
rise of the XXth Egyptian dynasty, and from thenceforward a wave of new
races had gradually spread over the whole of Asia Minor, and had either
driven the older peoples into the less fertile or more inaccessible
districts, or else had overrun and absorbed them.

[Illustration: 090.jpg ASIA MINOR IN THE 7TH CENTURY]

Many of the nations that had fought against Ramses II. and Ramses III.,
such as the Uashasha, the Shagalasha, the Zakkali, the Danauna, and
the Tursha, had disappeared, but the Thracians, whose appearance on the
scene caused such consternation in days gone by, had taken root in the
very heart of the peninsula, and had, in the course of three or four
generations, succeeded in establishing a thriving state. The legend
which traced the descent of the royal line back to the fabulous hero
Ascanius proves that at the outset the haughty tribe of the Ascanians
must have taken precedence over their fellows;* it soon degenerated,
however, and before long the Phrygian tribe gained the upper hand and
gave its name to the whole nation.

* The name of this tribe was retained by a district
afterwards included in the province of Bithynia, viz.
Ascania, on the shores of the Ascanian lake: the
distribution of place and personal names over the face of
the country makes it seem extremely probable that Ascania
and the early Ascanians occupied the whole of the region
bounded on the north by the Propontis; in other words, the
very country in which, according to Xanthus of Lydia, the
Phry gians first established themselves after their arrival
in Asia.

Phrygia proper, the country first colonised by them, lay between Mount
Dindymus and the river Halys, in the valley of the Upper Sangarios and
its aff