looming into sight.  We are, in this third instalment of Maspero’s monumental work, brought to understand how the decline of one mighty Asiatic empire after another, culminating in the overthrow of the Persian dominion by Alexander, prepared at length for the entry of Western nations on the stage, and how Europe became the heir of the culture and civilisation of the Orient.

I.—­The Assyrian Revival

Since the extinction of the race of Nebuchadrezzar I. Babylon had been a prey to civil discord and foreign invasion.  It was a period of calamity and distress, during which the Arabs or the Arameans ravaged the country, and an Elamite usurper overthrew the native dynasty and held authority for seven years.  This intruder having died about the year 1030 B.C., a Babylonian of noble extraction expelled the Elamites and succeeded in bringing the larger part of the dominion under his rule.  Five or six of his descendants passed away and another was feebly reigning when war broke out afresh with Assyria, and the two armies encountered each other again on their former battlefield between the Lower Zab and the Turnat.  The Assyrians were victorious under their king, Tukulti-ninip II., who did not live long to enjoy his triumph.  His son, Assur-nazir-pal, inherited a kingdom which embraced scarcely any of the countries that had paid tribute to former sovereign, for most of these had gradually regained their liberty.

Nearly the whole empire had to be re-conquered under much the same conditions as in the first instance, but Assyria had recovered the vitality and elasticity of its earlier days.  Its army now possessed a new element.  This was the cavalry, properly so called, as an adjunct to the chariotry.  But it must be remembered that the strength and discipline which the Assyrian troops possessed in such high degree were common to the military forces of all the great states—­Elam, Damascus, Nairi, the Hittites and Chaldea.  Thus, the armies of all these states being, as a rule, both in strength and numbers much on a par, no single power was able to inflict on any of the rest such a defeat as would be its destruction.  Twice at least in three centuries a king of Assyria had entered Babylon, and twice the Babylonians had forced the intruder back.

Profiting by the past, Assur-nazir-pal resolutely avoided those conflicts in which so many of his predecessors had wasted their lives.  He was content to devote his attention to less dangerous enemies than the people of Babylonia.  Invading Nummi, he quickly captured its chief cities, then subdued the Kirruri, attacked the fortress of Nishtu, and pillaged many of the cities around.  Bubu, the Chief of Nishtu, was flayed alive.  After a reign of twenty-five years he died in 860 B.C.