rld as the equal, if not the
superior, of his own state. The imperial splendor of the kingdom of
David and Solomon did, in fact, eclipse for awhile the more ancient
glories of Assyria. It is a notable circumstance that, exactly at the
time when a great and powerful monarchy grew up in the tract between
Egypt and the Euphrates, Assyria passed under a cloud. The history of
the country is almost a blank for two centuries between the reigns of
Shamas-Vul and the second Tiglathi-Nin, whose accession is fixed by the
Assyrian Canon to B.C. 889. During more than three-fourths of this time,
from about B.C. 1070 to B.C. 930, the very names of the monarchs are
almost wholly unknown to us. It seems as if there was not room in
Western Asia for two first-class monarchies to exist and flourish at the
same time; and so, although there was no contention, or even contact,
between the two empires of Judaea and Assyria, yet the rise of the one
to greatness could only take place under the condition of a coincident
weakness of the other.

It is very remarkable that exactly in this interval of darkness, when
Assyria would seem, from the failure both of buildings and records, to
have been especially and exceptionally weak, occurs the first appearance
of her having extended her influence beyond Syria into the great and
ancient monarchy of Egypt. In the twenty-second Egyptian dynasty, which
began with Sheshonk I., or Shishak, the contemporary of Solomon, about
B.C. 900, Assyrian names appear for the first time in the Egyptian
dynastic lists. It has been supposed from this circumstance that the
entire twenty-second dynasty, together with that which succeeded it, was
Assyrian; but the condition of Assyria at the time renders such a
hypothesis most improbable. The true explanation would seem to be that
the Egyptian kings of this period sometimes married. Assyrian wives, who
naturally gave Assyrian names to some of their children. These wives
were perhaps members of the Assyrian royal family; or perhaps they were
the daughters of the Assyrian nobles who from time to time were
appointed as viceroys of the towns and small states which the Ninevite
monarchs conquered on the skirts of their empire. Either of these
suppositions is more probable than the establishment in Egypt of a
dynasty really Assyrian at a time of extraordinary weakness and
depression.

When at the close of this long period of obscurity, Assyria once more
comes into sight, we have a