foiled Tiglath-pileser. He failed to capture the impregnable fortress of
Dhuspas, in which Sharduris had taken refuge. This capital of Urartu
held out against a long siege, and at length the Assyrian army withdrew.
Sharduris remained king as before, but he was utterly spent, and his
power had received a blow from which it never recovered. Since then,
Armenia has more than once challenged fortune, but always with the same
result; it fared no better under Tigranes in the Roman epoch than under
Sharduris in the time of the Assyrians.

As for Egypt at this period, it was ruled over by what is known as the
Bubastite dynasty, so called from the city of Bubastis, in the Delta,
where the Pharaohs of the time, Osorkon I., his son Takeloti I., and his
grandson, Osorkon II., for an interval of fifty years chiefly resided,
abstaining from politics, so that the country enjoyed an interval of
profound peace. But the old cause brought about the fall of this dynasty
also. Military feudalism again developed and Egypt split up into many
petty states. The sceptre at length passed to another dynasty, this time
of Tanite origin. Petubastis was the first of the line, but the power
was really in the hands of the priests, one of whom, Auiti, actually
declared himself king, together with Pharaoh.

Sensational events followed. The weakness of Egypt tempted an uprising
of the Ethiopians, who overran a great part of the country. And it was
at this period that Tiglath-pileser crushed the kingdom of Israel, King
Pekah being compelled to flee from Samaria into the mountains, while the
inhabitants of Naphtali and Gilead were carried into captivity.

Nabonazir, King of Babylon, who had never swerved from the fidelity he
had sworn to his mighty ally after the events of 745, died in 734 B.C.,
and was succeeded by his son Nabunadinziri, who at the end of two years
was assassinated in a popular rising, and one of his sons, Nabushumukin,
who was concerned in the rising, usurped the crown. He wore it for two
months and twelve days, and then abdicated in favour of a certain
Ukinzir, an Aramean chief.

But Tiglath-pileser gave the new dynasty no time to settle itself firmly
on the throne. The year after his return from Syria he marched against
it. After two years of fighting Ukinzir was overcome and captured.
Tiglath-pileser entered Babylon as conqueror, and caused himself to be
proclaimed King of Sumir and Akkad within its walls. Many centuries had
passed