.***

* We read of the appointment of a governor in Bit-Khalupi,
at Tush-khan, in Nairi, and in the country of the Patina.

** The territory of the Bit-Adini was converted into a
province by Shalmaneser III.

*** We find the formation of an Aramaean province, with Kar-
Assur as its capital, mentioned in the _Annals of Tiglatli-
pileser III_. Provinces were also established in Media, in
Unki, in the basin of the Orontes, and in Lebanon, from
nineteen districts formerly belonging to Hamath, six
maritime provinces in Northern Phoenicia and in Coele-Syria,
in Galilee, at Gaza.

In his case, however, certain elements came into play which forced him
to modify several of their methods, and to have recourse to others
which they had seldom or never employed. The majority of the countries
hitherto incorporated had been near enough to the capital--whether it
were Assur, Calah, or Nineveh--to permit of strict watch being kept for
any sign of disaffection, and they could be promptly recalled to order
if they attempted to throw off the yoke. These provinces were, moreover,
of moderate area and sparsely populated: once drawn within the orbit of
Assyria's attraction, they were unable to escape from its influence by
their own unaided efforts; on the contrary, they gradually lost their
individuality, and ended by becoming merged in the body of the nation.
The Aramaean tribes of the Khabur and the Balikh, the Cossaeans of the
Turnat, the marauding shepherds of the Gordyaean hills and the slopes
of the Masios, gradually became assimilated to their conquerors after
a more or less protracted resistance, till at length--in spite of
differences of origin, creed, and speech--they became the best of
Assyrians, every whit as devoted to the person of their king and as
jealous of his honour as the aboriginal Assyrians themselves. A similar
result could not be looked for in the case of the cities recently
subdued. It was not to be expected that Babylon and Damascus--to name
but two of the most important--would allow themselves to be influenced
and to become reconciled to their lot by artifices which had been
successful enough with the Medes and in the country of Tul-Abni.

To take the case of Babylon first. It was no mere conglomeration of
tribes, nor a state of minor importance, but an actual empire, nearly as
large as that of Assyria itself, and almost as solidly welded together.
It exte