ast number of peoples, nations, and tribes, whereof the most powerful
is only able to bring into the field a force of 20,000 men. The peoples
and nations possess but little unity. Each consists of various separate
communities, ruled by their own kings, who in war unite their troops
against the common enemy; but are so jealous of each other, that they do
not seem even to appoint a generalissimo. On the Euphrates, between Hit
and Carchemish, are, first, the Tsukhi or Shuhites, of whom no
particulars are given; and, next, the Aramaeans or Syrians, who occupy
both banks of the river, and possess a number of cities, no one of which
is of much strength. Above the Aramaeans are the Khatti or Hittites,
whose chief city, Carchemish, is an important place; they are divided
into tribes, and, like the Aramaeans, occupy both banks of the great
stream. North and north-west of their country, probably beyond the
mountain-range of Amanus, are the Muskai (Moschi), an aggressive people,
who were seeking to extend their territory eastward into the land of the
Qummukh or people of Commagene. These Qummukh hold the mountain country
on both sides of the Upper Tigris, and have a number of strongholds,
chiefly on the right bank. To the east they adjoin on the Kirkhi, who
must have inhabited the skirts of Niphates, while to the south they
touch the Nairi, who stretch from Lake Van, along the line of the
Tigris, to the tract known as Commagene to the Romans. The Nairi have,
at the least, twenty-three kings, each of whom governs his own tribe
or city. South of the more eastern Nairi is the country of Muzra
mountain tract well peopled and full of castles, probably the region
about Amadiyeh and Rowandiz. Adjoining Muzr to the east or north-east,
are the __Quwanu or Comani, who are among the most powerful of Assyria's
neighbors, being able, like the Moschi, to bring into the field an army
of 20,000 men. At this time they are close allies of the people of
Muzr--finally, across the lower Zab, on the skirts of Zagros, are
various petty tribes of small account, who offer but little resistance
to the arms of the invader.

Such was the position of Assyria among her neighbors in the latter part
of the twelfth century before Christ. She was a compact and powerful
kingdom, centralized under a single monarch, and with a single great
capital, in the midst of wild tribes which clung to a separate
independence, each in its own valley or village. At the approach of