which his ability had won for him; he kept them
separate, and was content to be monarch of both on similar terms. He
divided himself, as it were, into two persons, one of whom reigned in
Calah, while the other reigned in Karduniash, and his Chaldaean subjects
took care to invest this dual _role_ --based on a fiction so soothing
to their pride--with every appearance of reality; he received from them,
together with all the titles of the Babylonian kings, that name of Pulu,
which later on found its way into their chronicles, and which was so
long a puzzle to historians, both ancient and modern. Experience amply
proved that this was the only means by which it was possible to yoke
temporarily together the two great powers of the Euphrates and the
Tigris. Among the successors of Tiglath-pileser, the only sovereigns
to rule over Babylon without considerable difficulty were those who
followed the precedent set by him and were satisfied to divide their
functions and reign as dual kings over a dual kingdom.*

* This was so in the case of Tiglath-pileser III.'s
immediate successor, Shalmaneser V., of Esarhaddon, and of
Assur-bani-pal; Shalmaneser was known at Babylon by the name
of Ululai, Assur-bani-pal by that of Kanda-lanu.

This combination, while gratifying to the ambition of its rulers, was,
perhaps, more a source of loss than of gain to Assyria itself. It is
true that the power of Karduniash had decreased under the previous
dynasty, but it had still been strong enough to hold back the Aramaeans
of the Persian Gulf on one side, and the Elamite hordes on the other. It
lay like a broad barrier between these barbarians and the cities of the
Middle Tigris; when an unusually vigorous attack compelled it to give
way at some point, it appealed to Nineveh for help, and an Assyrian
army, entering the country at the fords of the Zab, hastened to drive
back the aggressors to the place from which they had set out. When,
however, the kings of Assyria had become kings of Babylon as well, the
situation was altered. Several branches of the Kalda had hitherto held
possession of the city, and still possessed representatives and allies
among the other tribes, especially among the Bit-Yakin, who believed
themselves entitled to reassert their supremacy within in. The Elamite
princes, on their part, accustomed to descend at will into the plains
that lay between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and to enrich themselves
by freque