hur-natsir-pal, who had boys and girls burned on pyres and the
heroes of small nations flayed alive. An ethical tendency becomes
apparent in the exaltation of the Babylonian Shamash as an abstract
deity who loved law and order, inspired the king with wisdom and
ordained the destinies of mankind. He is invoked on equal terms with
Ashur.

The prominence given to Nebo, the god of Borsippa, during the reign of
Adad-nirari IV is highly significant. He appears in his later
character as a god of culture and wisdom, the patron of scribes and
artists, and the wise counsellor of the deities. He symbolized the
intellectual life of the southern kingdom, which was more closely
associated with religious ethics than that of war-loving Assyria.

A great temple was erected to Nebo at Kalkhi, and four statues of him
were placed within it, two of which are now in the British Museum. On
one of these was cut the inscription, from which we have quoted,
lauding the exalted and wise deity and invoking him to protect
Adad-nirari and the lady of the palace, Sammu-rammat, and closing with
the exhortation, "Whoso cometh in after time, let him trust in Nebo
and trust in no other god".

The priests of Ashur in the city of Asshur must have been as deeply
stirred by this religious revolt at Kalkhi as were the priests of Amon
when Akhenaton turned his back on Thebes and the national god to
worship Aton in his new capital at Tell-el-Amarna.

It would appear that this sudden stream of Babylonian culture had
begun to flow into Assyria as early as the reign of Shalmaneser III,
and it may be that it was on account of that monarch's pro-Babylonian
tendencies that his nobles and priests revolted against him.
Shalmaneser established at Kalkhi a royal library which was stocked
with the literature of the southern kingdom. During the reign of
Adad-nirari IV this collection was greatly increased, and subsequent
additions were made to it by his successors, and especially
Ashur-nirari IV, the last monarch of the Middle Empire. The
inscriptions of Shamshi-Adad, son of Shalmaneser III, have literary
qualities which distinguish them from those of his predecessors, and
may be accounted for by the influence exercised by Babylonian scholars
who migrated northward.

To the reign of Adad-nirari belongs also that important compilation
the "Synchronistic History of Assyria and Babylonia", which deals with
the relations of the two kingdoms and refers to contemporary even