s:--"By the
grace of Asshur, Shamas, and Vul, the Great Gods, I., Tiglath-Pileser,
king of Assyria, son of Asshurris-ilim, king of Assyria, who was the son
of Mutaggil-Nebo, king of Assyria, marching from the great sea of
Akhiri' (the Mediterranean) to the sea of Nairi" (Lake of Van) "for the
third time have invaded the country of Nairi." [PLATE CXLIV Fig. 3.]

The fact of his having warred in Lower Mesopotamia is almost the whole
that is known of Tiglath-Pileser's son and successor, Asshur-bil-kala. A
contest in which he was engaged with the Babylonian prince,
Merodach-shapik-ziri (who seems to have been the successor of
Merodach-iddin-akhi), is recorded on the famous synchronistic tablet, in
conjunction with the Babylonian wars of his father and grandfather; but
the tablet is so injured in this place that no particulars can be
gathered from it. From a monument of Asshur-bil-kala's own time--one of
the earliest Assyrian sculptures that has cone down to us--we may
perhaps further conclude that he inherited something of the religious
spirit of his father, and gave a portion of his attention to the
adornment of temples, and the setting up of images.

The probable date of the reign of Asshur-bil-kala is about B.C.
1110-1090. He appears to have been succeeded on the throne by his
younger brother, Shamas-Vul, of whom nothing is known, but that he
built, or repaired, a temple at Nineveh. His reign probably occupied the
interval between B.. 1090 and 1070. He would thus seem to have been
contemporary with _Smendes_ in Egypt and with Samuel or Saul in Israel.
So apparently insignificant an event as the establishment of a kingdom
in Palestine was not likely to disturb the thoughts, even if it came to
the knowledge, of an Assyrian monarch. Shamas-Vul would no doubt have
regarded with utter contempt the petty sovereign of so small a territory
as Palestine, and would have looked upon the new kingdom as scarcely
more worthy of his notice than any other of the ten thousand little
principalities which lay on or near his borders. Could he, however, have
possessed for a few moments the prophetic foresight vouchsafed some
centuries earlier to one who may almost be called his countryman, he
would have been astonished to recognize in the humble kingdom just
lifting its head in the far West, and struggling to hold its own against
Philistine cruelty and oppression, a power which in little more than
fifty years would stand forth before the wo