t first only a dim and indistinct view of her
through the mists which still enfold and shroud her form. We observe
that her capital is still fixed at Kileh-Sherghat, where a new series of
kings, bearing names which, for the most part, resemble those of the
earlier period, are found employing themselves in the repair and
enlargement of public buildings, in connection with which they obtain
honorable mention in an inscription of a later monarch. Asshur-dayan,
the first monarch of this group, probably ascended the throne about B.C.
930, shortly after the separation of the two kingdoms of Israel and
Judah. He appears to have reigned from about B.C. 930 to B.C. 911. He
was succeeded in B.C. 911 by his son Vul-lush II., who held the throne
from B.C. 911 to B.C. 889. Nothing is known at present of the history of
these two monarchs. No historical inscriptions belonging to their reigns
have been recovered; no exploits are recorded of them in the
inscriptions of later sovereigns. They stand up before us the mere
"shadows of mighty names"--proofs of the, uncertainty of posthumous
fame, which is almost as often the award of chance as the deserved
recompense of superior merit.

Of Tiglathi-Nin, the second monarch of the name, and the third king of
the group which we are considering, one important historical notice,
contained in an inscription of his son, has come down to us. In the
annals of the great Asshur-izirpal inscribed on the Nimrud monolith,
that prince, while commemorating his war-like exploits, informs us that
he set up his sculptures at the sources of the Tsupnat river alongside
of sculptures previously set up by his ancestors Tiglath-Pileser and
Tiglathi-Nin. That Tiglathi-Nin should have made so distant an
expedition is the more remarkable from the brevity of his reign, which
only lasted for six years. According to the Canon, he ascended the
throne in the year B.C. 889; he was succeeded in B.C. 883 by his son
Asshur-izir-pal.

With Asshur-izir-pal commences one of the most flourishing periods of
the Empire. During the twenty-five years of his active and laborious
reign. Assyria enlarged her bounds and increased her influence in almost
every direction, while, at the same time, she advanced rapidly in wealth
and in the arts; in the latter respect leaping suddenly to an eminence
which (so far as we know) had not previously been reached by human
genius. The size and magnificence of Asshur-izir-pal's buildings, the
artisti