r being appointed in his place. Ukinzir, who
was, as we know, hereditary prince of the Bit-Amuk-kani, came up in
haste to defend his appanage, and threw himself into his fortress at
Shapia: Tiglath-pileser cut down the gardens and groves of palms which
lent it beauty, burnt the surrounding farms and villages, and tried,
without success, to make a breach in the walls; he still, however,
maintained the siege, but when winter came on and the place still held
out, he broke up his camp and retreated in good order, leaving the
districts which he had laid waste occupied by an Assyrian force. Before
his departure, he received homage and tribute from most of the Aramaean
chiefs, including those of Balasu and the Bit-Dakkuri, of Nadinu, and
even of the Bit-Yakin and Merodach-baladan, whose ancestors had never
before "kissed the foot" of an Assyrian conqueror. In this campaign he
had acquired nearly three-fourths of the whole Babylonian kingdom; but
Babylon itself still refused to yield, and it was no easy task to
compel it to do so. Tiglath-pileser spent the whole of the year 730 in
preparing for another attack, and in 729 he again appeared in front of
Shapia, this time with greater success: Ukinzir fell into his hands,
Babylon opened its gates, and he caused himself to be proclaimed King of
Sumir and Akkad within its walls.* Many centuries had passed since the
two empires had been united under the rule of a single master, or an
Assyrian king had "taken the hands of Bel." Tiglath-pileser accepted
the condition attached to this solemn investiture, which obliged him
to divide his time between Calah and Babylon, and to repeat at every
festival of the New Year the mystic ceremony by which the god of the
city confirmed him in his office.**

* Contemporary documents do not furnish us with any
information as to these events. The _Eponym Canon_ tells us
that "_the king took the hands of Bel_." Pinches'
_Chronicle_ adds that "in the third year of Ukinzir,
Tiglath-pileser marched against Akkad, laid waste the Bit-
Amukkani, and took Ukinzir prisoner; Ukinzir had reigned
three years in Babylon. Tiglath-pileser followed him upon
the throne of Babylon."

** The _Eponym Canon_ proves that in 728 B.C., the year of
his death, he once more took the hands of Bel.

His Babylonian subjects seem to have taken a liking to him, and perhaps
in order to hide from themselves their dependent condition, t