CHAPTER VIII. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY.

The history of the Babylonian Empire commences with Nabopolassar,
who appears to have mounted the throne in the year B.C. 625; but to
understand the true character of the kingdom which he set up, its
traditions and its national spirit, we must begin at a far earlier date.
We must examine, in however incomplete and cursory a manner, the middle
period of Babylonian history, the time of obscurity and comparative
insignificance, when the country was as a general rule, subject to
Assyria, or at any rate played but a secondary part in the affairs of
the East. We shall thus prepare the way for our proper subject, while at
the same time we shall link on the history of the Fourth to that of
the First Monarchy, and obtain a second line of continuous narrative,
connecting the brilliant era of Cyaxares and Nebuchadnezzar with the
obscure period of the first Cushite kings.

It has been observed that the original Chaldaean monarchy lasted,
under various dynasties from about B.C. 2400 to B.C. 1300, when it was
destroyed by the Assyrians, who became masters of Babylonia under the
first Tiglathi-Nin, and governed it for a short time from their own
capital. Unable, however, to maintain this unity very long, they appear
to have set up in the country an Assyrian dynasty, over which they
claimed and sometimes exercised a kind of suzerainty, but which was
practically independent and managed both the external and internal
affairs of the kingdom at its pleasure. The first king of this dynasty
concerning whom we have any information is a Nebuchadnezzar, who was
contemporary with the Assyrian monarch Asshur-ris-ilim, and made two
attacks upon his territories. The first of these was by the way of
the Diyaleh and the outlying Zagros hills, the line taken by the great
Persian military road in later times. The second was directly across the
plain. If we are to believe the Assyrian historian who gives an account
of the campaigns, both attacks were repulsed, and after his second
failure the Babylonian monarch fled away into his own country hastily.
We may perhaps suspect that a Babylonian writer would have told a
different story. At any rate Asshur-ris-ilim was content to defend his
own territories and did not attempt to retaliate upon his assailant. It
was not till late in the reign of his son and successor, Tiglath-Pileser
I., that any attempt was made to punish the Babylonians for their
audacity. Then,